Archbishop of Canterbury
Which position did Thomas Secker hold from 1758 to 1768?
Thomas Secker Thomas Secker ( 21 September 16933 August 1768 ) was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England . Early life and studies . Secker was born in Sibthorpe , Nottinghamshire . In 1699 , he went to Richard Browns free school in Chesterfield , Derbyshire , staying with his half-sister and her husband , Elizabeth and Richard Milnes . According to a story in the Gentlemans Magazine for 1768 , Brown congratulated Secker for his successful studies by remarking , If thou wouldst but come over to the Church , I am sure thou wouldst be a bishop . Under Browns teaching , Secker believed that he had attained a competency in Greek and Latin . He attended Timothy Jollies dissenting academy at Attercliffe from 1708 , but was frustrated by Jollies poor teaching , famously remarking that he lost his knowledge of languages and that only the old Philosophy of the Schools was taught there : and that neither ably nor diligently . The morals also of many of the young Men were bad . I spent my time there idly & ill . He left after one and a half years . In 1710 , he moved to London , staying in the house of the father of John Bowes , who had been one of Jollies students and would one day become Lord Chancellor of Ireland . Whilst here , he studied geometry , conic sections , algebra , French , and John Lockes Essay Concerning Human Understanding . Tewkesbury Academy and Samuel Jones . Also boarding at Bowess house was Isaac Watts , who encouraged Secker to attend the dissenting academy in Gloucester set up by Samuel Jones . There Secker recovered his ability at languages , supplementing his understanding of Greek and Latin with studies in Hebrew , Chaldee and Syriac . Joness course was also famous for his systems of Jewish antiquities and logic ; maths was similarly studied to a higher than usual level . Also at Joness academy contemporaneously with Secker were the later Church of England bishops Joseph Butler and Isaac Maddox and also John Bowes ; other members included the future dissenting leaders Samuel Chandler , Jeremiah Jones and Vavasour Griffiths . In 1713 , Jones moved his academy to larger premises in Tewkesbury , partly financed by £200 from Secker . But Secker soon became involved with the clandestine correspondence between Butler and a Church of England cleric , Samuel Clarke , concerning Clarkes A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God ( 1705 ) . Seckers role was to deliver Butlers letters personally to Gloucester post office and to pick up Clarkes replies . Meanwhile , Jones had acquired a reputation as a heavy drinker and the standard of his teaching may have decreased . Both Butler and Secker left his academy shortly afterwards , Butler in February 1714 and Secker in June of the same year . He studied medicine in London and Paris before receiving the degree of MD from Leiden University in 1721 . Upon his return to England , he entered Exeter College , Oxford and was ordained , by special letters , in 1722 from the Chancellor of Oxford University . Career . In 1724 he became rector of Houghton-le-Spring , Durham , resigning in 1727 on his appointment to the rectory of Holy Cross Church , Ryton , County Durham , and to a canonry of Durham . He became rector of St Jamess Westminster in 1733 and Bishop of Bristol in 1735 . About this time George II commissioned him to arrange a reconciliation between the Prince of Wales and himself , but the attempt was unsuccessful . In 1737 he became the Bishop of Oxford and then the Dean of St Pauls Cathedral , London , in 1750 . On 21 April 1758 , a month after the death of his predecessor , he became Archbishop of Canterbury . His advocacy of an American episcopate , in connection with which he wrote the Answer to Jonathan Mayhews Observations on the Charter and Conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ( London 1764 ) , raised considerable opposition in England and America . Death , burial and legacy . Secker died at the age of 74 at 3 August 1768 in Lambeth Palace . Church records of the medieval parish church of St Mary-at-Lambeth have revealed that Secker had his viscera buried in a canister in the churchyard . Secker left a substantial bequest to Ann and Thomas Frost of Nottingham . After Secker died his will was disputed by Thomas Frost and he managed to persuade the court that £11,000 intended by Secker for charity should be redirected to his family . Works . His principal work was Lectures on the Catechism of the Church of England ( London , 1769 ) . A sermon preachd before the University of Oxford , at St . Marys , on Act Sunday in the afternoon , 1733 , 1734 A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor , the Court of Aldermen , the sheriffs , and the governors of the several hospitals of the city of London [ ... ] , 1738 A sermon preached before the House of Lords , 1739 A sermon preached at Kings Street chapel , in the parish of St James , 1741 A sermon preached before the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts , 1741 , 1752 A sermon preached in the parish-church of Christ-Church , London , 1743 A sermon preached on occasion of the present rebellion in Scotland , 1745 A sermon preached before the governors of the London Hospital , 1754 A sermon preached before the Society corresponding withe Incorporated Society in Dublin , 1757 Nine sermons preached in the parish of St . James , Westminster , 1758 , 1771 The recommendation of William Smith , A.M. , 1759 An answer to Dr . Mayhews Observations on the charter and conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts , 1764 Fourteen sermons preached on several occasions , 1766 A sermon preached in the parish-church of Christ-church , London , 1766 Eight charges delivered to the clergy of the dioceses of Oxford and Canterbury , 1769 Lectures on the catechism of the Church of England , 1769 , 1770 , 1771 , 1774 , 1777 , 1778 , 1786 , 1789 , 1790 , 1791 , 1794 [ Dublin ] , 1799 A letter to the Right Honourable Horatio Walpole , Esq ; [ ... ] concerning bishops in America , 1769 Sermons on several subjects , 1770 Eight charges delivered to the clergy of the dioceses of Oxford and Canterbury , 1770 , 1771 , 1780 , 1790 , 1799 Sermons on several subjects , 1771 , 1772 , 1790 , 1795 Five sermons against popery , 1772 Dublin , 1773 Cork and Dublin Six sermons on the liturgy of the Church of England , 1773 , 1784 Cork The works of Thomas Secker , 1775 Dublin , 1792 Edinburgh Four discourses on self-examination , on lying , on patience , and on contentment , 1777 Nine sermons preached in the parish of St . James , Westminster , 1780 , 1795 A brief confutation of the errors of the Church of Rome , 1781 , 1785 , 1796 On the relative duties between parents and children , and between masters and servants , 1787 , 1790 Against evil-speaker , lying , rash vows , swearing , cursing , and perjury , 1787 A sermon on confirmation , 1788 , 1790 Of the Lords supper , 1788 Catechism of the Church of England , 1789 Questions extracted from Archbishop Seckers Lectures on the church catechism : for the use of schools and young persons in private families , 1790 Instructions given to candidates for orders , after their subscribing the articles , 1791 Familiar explanation of the service of confirmation , used by the Church of England , abridged from Archbishop Seckers sermon on confirmation , 1795 A sermon on confirmation , 1795 See also John Sharp , [ ... ] Archbishop Sharps and Archbishop Seckers sermons against perjury and common swearing , with some alterations , Dublin , 1771 External links . - Secker papers at Lambeth Palace Library