Life

He was born on 7 March 1694 at Great Salkeld

Great Salkeld

Great Salkeld is a small village and civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England, a few miles to the north east of Penrith.The village is believed to have been connected at one time by a bridge over the River Eden to Little Salkeld...

, Cumberland

Cumberland

Cumberland is a historic county of North West England, on the border with Scotland, from the 12th century until 1974. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....

. He was educated at the grammar school of Great Blencow, Cumberland, under Anthony Ireland, and prepared for the Presbyterian ministry in the academy of Thomas Dixon

Thomas Dixon (nonconformist)

Thomas Dixon, M.D. was an English nonconformist minister and tutor.-Life:Dixon was probably the son of Thomas Dixon, ‘Anglus e Northumbria,’ who graduated M.A. at Edinburgh on 19 July 1660, and was ejected from the vicarage of Kelloe, County Durham, as a nonconformist. Dixon studied at Manchester...

 at Whitehaven

Whitehaven

Whitehaven is a small town and port on the coast of Cumbria, England, which lies equidistant between the county's two largest settlements, Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness, and is served by the Cumbrian Coast Line and the A595 road...

. In 1716 he became minister of the dissenting congregation at Kendal

Kendal

Kendal, anciently known as Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish within the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England...

, Westmorland

Westmorland

Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the entirety of the county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.-Early history:...

.

After Dixon's death (1729) he took up from 1733 the work of a dissenting academy at Kendal, where he educated about 120 laymen, including Jeremiah Dyson

Jeremiah Dyson

Jeremiah Dyson was a British civil servant and politician.He studied at Edinburgh University and matriculated at Leiden University in 1742. He settled a pension on his friend Mark Akenside, the poet and physician, and later defended Akenside's The Pleasures of the Imagination against William...

, and fifty-six divinity students, among whom was George Walker

George Walker (Presbyterian)

George Walker was a versatile English dissenter, known as a mathematician, theologian, Fellow of the Royal Society, and activist.-Life:...

. In 1743 he visited Edinburgh, where he was admitted M.A., and gained the degree of D.D. by public disputation on 27 May.

His theology, and that of most of his divinity pupils, was Arian

Arian

Arian may refer to:* Arius, a Christian presbyter in the 3rd and 4th century* a given name in different cultures: Aria, Aryan or Arian...

. In 1751 his health failed; leaving his congregation and academy in charge of Richard Simpson, he went to Hexham

Hexham

Hexham is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, located south of the River Tyne, and was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district from 1974 to 2009. The three major towns in Tynedale were Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, although in terms of population, Prudhoe was...

, Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

, to stay with his eldest son, a physician. He died at Hexham on 8 June 1752, and was buried in the south aisle of the abbey church, where was a mural monument to his memory.

Works

Rotheram published ‘Dissertatio … de Religionis Christianæ Evidentia,’ &c., Edinburgh, 1743.

Family

His second son was in the army. His third son, Caleb (1738–1796), educated at Kendal (the academy ceased in 1753) and Daventry Academy

Daventry Academy

Daventry Academy was a dissenting academy, that is, a school or college set up by English Dissenters. It moved to many locations, but was most associated with Daventry, where its most famous pupil was Joseph Priestley...

, was ordained minister of Kendal on 21 April 1756; he was a friend and correspondent of Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...

, and was apparently the first unitarian minister who officiated (1781) in Scotland.