Samuel Hallifax
Encyclopedia
Samuel Hallifax or Halifax (1733–1790) was an English churchman and academic, holder of several chairs at Cambridge and bishop of two sees.
on 8 January 1733, eldest son of Robert Hallifax, apothecary, and by Hannah, daughter of Samuel Jebb of the same town. Robert Hallifax, M.D. (1735–1810), who was physician to the future George IV, was a younger brother. Sir Richard Jebb and John Jebb
were his first cousins. After attending the grammar school of Mansfield,. Hallifax was admitted to Jesus College, Cambridge
, as an ordinary sizar 21 October 1749, and was elected to a closed scholarship. In January 1754 he graduated B.A., when he was third wrangler in mathematics, and won the chancellor's gold medal for classics, and in 1755 and 1756 he carried off one of the members' prizes. He was elected foundation scholar on 16 February 1754, and admitted to a fellowship on 22 June 1756. Next year he proceeded M.A., and before resigning his fellowship at Jesus College, early in 1760, held the college offices of praelector, dean, tutor, steward, and rental bursar.
On migrating to Trinity Hall
Hallifax was elected to a fellowship (3 April 1760), became its tutor; he was noted for his harshness towards Samuel Heywood
, a Unitarian. He took the degree of LL.D. in 1764. He was presented to the rectory of Cheddington
, Buckinghamshire
, 30 November 1765, and held it until 1777, but continued to reside at Cambridge, and retained his fellowship until 1 November 1775. When the chair of Arabic became vacant in January 1768, Hallifax, then deputy of William Ridlington, professor of civil law, defeated his cousin, John Jebb, who had studied Arabic for some time, in the contest for the Arabic chair. He held as sinecures for two years the positions of Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic
and Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic (1768–70); and fell out with John Jebb. Their differences were aggravated in 1772 on the attempt to abolish subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles
by clergymen and members of the universities, when some letters signed 'Erasmus' in the newspapers, in favour of subscription, were generally ascribed to Hallifax. He was attacked by Ann Jebb
with such wit and sarcasm that he is said to have called on Wilkie, her publisher, to request him not to print any more of her writings. They were again at odds in 1774, when Jebb carried his grace for a syndicate to promote annual examinations.
From 1770 to 1782 Hallifax held the regius professorship of civil law at Cambridge. He was created chaplain in ordinary to the king in February 1774, and D.D. by royal mandate in 1775. When Francis Topham vacated his position as master of faculties at Doctors' Commons
, Hallifax succeeded to the post (1770). In 1778 Mrs. Gally, for his services to religion, rewarded him with the rectory of Warsop
, Nottinghamshire, where he made the parish choir famous for miles round. His candidature in 1779 for the mastership of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
, was unsuccessful.
On 27 October 1781 he was consecrated bishop of Gloucester
, and on 4 April 1789 he was confirmed as bishop of St Asaph
, apparently the first English bishop who had been translated to a Welsh see. He died of kidney stones at Dartmouth Street, Westminster, on 4 March 1790. His wife, whom he married in October 1775, was Catherine, second daughter of William Cooke, dean of Ely
. Their surviving issue was one son and six daughters; the widow is said to have received a pension from George III. John Milner
suggested in his End of Religious Controversy that Hallifax died a Catholic; he was contradicted in the British Critic April 1825, and Samuel Parr
discussed the matter and Hallifax in detail.
He contributed to the university collections of poems printed in 1760 and 1763. He published fourteen single sermons, and that preached in 1788 on the anniversary of the martyrdom of King Charles provoked 'A Letter to the Bishops on the Test Acts, including Strictures on Hallifax's Sermon 1789.' An apology for the clergy and liturgy of the established church was attributed to him by Michael Lort
.
Life
He was born at MansfieldMansfield
Mansfield is a town in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the main town in the Mansfield local government district. Mansfield is a part of the Mansfield Urban Area....
on 8 January 1733, eldest son of Robert Hallifax, apothecary, and by Hannah, daughter of Samuel Jebb of the same town. Robert Hallifax, M.D. (1735–1810), who was physician to the future George IV, was a younger brother. Sir Richard Jebb and John Jebb
John Jebb
John Jebb may refer to:*John Jebb , English clergyman and doctor*John Jebb , bishop of Limerick*John Jebb , chancellor of Hereford Cathedral...
were his first cousins. After attending the grammar school of Mansfield,. Hallifax was admitted to Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
, as an ordinary sizar 21 October 1749, and was elected to a closed scholarship. In January 1754 he graduated B.A., when he was third wrangler in mathematics, and won the chancellor's gold medal for classics, and in 1755 and 1756 he carried off one of the members' prizes. He was elected foundation scholar on 16 February 1754, and admitted to a fellowship on 22 June 1756. Next year he proceeded M.A., and before resigning his fellowship at Jesus College, early in 1760, held the college offices of praelector, dean, tutor, steward, and rental bursar.
On migrating to Trinity Hall
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
Hallifax was elected to a fellowship (3 April 1760), became its tutor; he was noted for his harshness towards Samuel Heywood
Samuel Heywood (chief justice)
Samuel Heywood was a Serjeant-at-law and a Chief Justice of the Carmarthen Circuit of Wales.Heywood was born in Liverpool, Lancashire to Benjamin and Phoebe Heywood, née Ogden...
, a Unitarian. He took the degree of LL.D. in 1764. He was presented to the rectory of Cheddington
Cheddington
Cheddington is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire. The parish has an area of . The village is about 5 miles north-east of Aylesbury and three miles north of Tring in Hertfordshire...
, Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, 30 November 1765, and held it until 1777, but continued to reside at Cambridge, and retained his fellowship until 1 November 1775. When the chair of Arabic became vacant in January 1768, Hallifax, then deputy of William Ridlington, professor of civil law, defeated his cousin, John Jebb, who had studied Arabic for some time, in the contest for the Arabic chair. He held as sinecures for two years the positions of Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic
Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic
Sir Thomas Adams’ Professor of Arabic – the title is used at Cambridge University because Sir Thomas Adams, 1st Baronet , Lord Mayor of London in 1645, gave to Cambridge University the money needed to create the first Professorship of Arabic....
and Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic (1768–70); and fell out with John Jebb. Their differences were aggravated in 1772 on the attempt to abolish subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles
Thirty-Nine Articles
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines of the Anglican church with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. First established in 1563, the articles served to define the doctrine of the nascent Church of England as it related to...
by clergymen and members of the universities, when some letters signed 'Erasmus' in the newspapers, in favour of subscription, were generally ascribed to Hallifax. He was attacked by Ann Jebb
Ann Jebb
Ann Jebb , political reformer and radical writer, was born at Ripton-Kings, Huntingdonshire, to Lady Dorothy Sherard and the Revd James Torkington. She grew up in Huntingdonshire and was probably educated at home. She married religious and political reformer John Jebb in 1764 and fully shared his...
with such wit and sarcasm that he is said to have called on Wilkie, her publisher, to request him not to print any more of her writings. They were again at odds in 1774, when Jebb carried his grace for a syndicate to promote annual examinations.
From 1770 to 1782 Hallifax held the regius professorship of civil law at Cambridge. He was created chaplain in ordinary to the king in February 1774, and D.D. by royal mandate in 1775. When Francis Topham vacated his position as master of faculties at Doctors' Commons
Doctors' Commons
Doctors' Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil law in London. Like the Inns of Court of the common lawyers, the society had buildings with rooms where its members lived and worked, and a large library...
, Hallifax succeeded to the post (1770). In 1778 Mrs. Gally, for his services to religion, rewarded him with the rectory of Warsop
Warsop
Warsop is a civil parish in the District of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, England, located on the outskirts of Sherwood Forest. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 12,365....
, Nottinghamshire, where he made the parish choir famous for miles round. His candidature in 1779 for the mastership of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...
, was unsuccessful.
On 27 October 1781 he was consecrated bishop of Gloucester
Bishop of Gloucester
The Bishop of Gloucester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Gloucester in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the County of Gloucestershire and part of the County of Worcestershire and has its see in the City of Gloucester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church...
, and on 4 April 1789 he was confirmed as bishop of St Asaph
Bishop of St Asaph
The Bishop of St Asaph heads the Church in Wales diocese of St Asaph.The diocese covers the counties of Conwy and Flintshire, Wrexham county borough, the eastern part of Merioneth in Gwynedd and part of northern Powys. The Episcopal seat is located in the Cathedral Church of St Asaph in the town of...
, apparently the first English bishop who had been translated to a Welsh see. He died of kidney stones at Dartmouth Street, Westminster, on 4 March 1790. His wife, whom he married in October 1775, was Catherine, second daughter of William Cooke, dean of Ely
Dean of Ely
The position of Dean of Ely Cathedral, in East Anglia, England, was created at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The first Dean of Ely had been the last Benedictine prior of Ely.-List of Deans:*1541-1557 Robert Steward or Welles...
. Their surviving issue was one son and six daughters; the widow is said to have received a pension from George III. John Milner
John Milner (bishop)
John Milner was an English Roman Catholic bishop and writer who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District from 1803 to 1826.-Early life:...
suggested in his End of Religious Controversy that Hallifax died a Catholic; he was contradicted in the British Critic April 1825, and Samuel Parr
Samuel Parr
Samuel Parr , was an English schoolmaster, writer, minister and Doctor of Law. He was known in his time for political writing, and as "the Whig Johnson", though his reputation has lasted less well that Samuel Johnson's, and the resemblances were at a superficial level, Parr being no prose stylist,...
discussed the matter and Hallifax in detail.
Works
His publications comprised:- Saint Paul's Doctrine of Justification by Faith explained in three Discourses before the University of Cambridge, 1760; 2nd edit. 1762, in which he replied to some previous sermons by John BerridgeJohn BerridgeJohn Berridge was an English evangelical revivalist and hymnist.He was born in Kingston, Nottinghamshire and educated at Clare College, Cambridge. He was the son of a wealthy grazier in Nottinghamshire. In 1749, he was ordained to the parish of Stapleford, near Cambridge. In 1755 he became Vicar...
on Justification by Faith alone, without Works. - Two Sermons preached before the University, 1768, in praise of Benefactors.
- Three Sermons preached before the University on the Attempt to abolish Subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, 1772, two editions; this produced an anonymous Letter to Dr. Hallifax upon the Subject of his three Discourses, 1772, by Samuel Blackall.
- An Analysis of the Roman Civil Law, in which a Comparison is occasionally made between the Roman Laws and those of England: being the heads of a course of Lectures publickly read in the University of Cambridge, 1774; 2nd edit. 1775; 4th edit. 1795; new edition, with alterations and additions by John William Geldart, 1836.
- Twelve Sermons on the Prophecies concerning the Christian Church, and in particular the Church of Papal Rome. Warburtonian Lectures at Lincoln's InnLincoln's InnThe Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
, 1776. - Sermons in Two Volumes by Samuel Ogden. To which is prefixed an Account of the Author's Life, with a vindication of his writings by Hallifax, 1780, 1786, 1788, and 1805. Hallifax followed Samuel Ogden at the Round Church, Cambridge.
- Preface by Hallifax to a Charge delivered by Bishop Butler at his Primary Visitation of Durham Diocese, 1786. The preface was added to editions of Joseph ButlerJoseph ButlerJoseph Butler was an English bishop, theologian, apologist, and philosopher. He was born in Wantage in the English county of Berkshire . He is known, among other things, for his critique of Thomas Hobbes's egoism and John Locke's theory of personal identity...
's Analogy from 1788.
He contributed to the university collections of poems printed in 1760 and 1763. He published fourteen single sermons, and that preached in 1788 on the anniversary of the martyrdom of King Charles provoked 'A Letter to the Bishops on the Test Acts, including Strictures on Hallifax's Sermon 1789.' An apology for the clergy and liturgy of the established church was attributed to him by Michael Lort
Michael Lort
-Life:The descendant of a Pembrokeshire family living at Prickeston, he was eldest son of Roger Lort, major of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who married Anne, only child of Edward Jenkins, vicar of Fareham, Hampshire...
.