Life

He was born at Hornby

Hornby

- Australia :* Hornby Lighthouse, third oldest lighthouse in Australia on south head of Sydney Harbour,- Canada :* Hornby, Ontario, community in Halton Hills* Hornby Island, Canadian island in the Strait of Georgia near Vancouver Island- England :...

 in Westmoreland

Westmoreland

Westmoreland is a historic county in England. It may also refer to:-Places:Australia*Westmoreland County, New South WalesCanada*Westmorland County, New BrunswickJamaica*Westmoreland, Jamaica, a parishNew Zealand...

. At the age of sixteen he became a student at The Queen's College, Oxford

The Queen's College, Oxford

The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...

, where from a tabarder he became a Fellow. He proceeded B.A. in 1604, and B.D. in 1616. Entering holy orders about 1607, he became noted as a preacher and disputant, as well as for his knowledge of the Church Fathers

Church Fathers

The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...

 and scholastics.

In 1616 he was admitted to the reading of the sentences, and the year after was made vicar of the church of Gilling

Gilling

In Norse mythology, Gilling was the frost giant, father of Suttungr and Baugi and grandfather of Gunnlöð. He and his wife were murdered by Fjalar and Galar. Gilling is also a surname, although not very common.- Mythology :...

 in Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, and also of the chapel of Forcet, near Richmond in the same county. He received these preferments through a relative, Humphrey Wharton. During the Civil War he submitted to the authorities and kept his benefices. He died 14 September 1656, and was buried in Forcet Chapel.

Works

His major work is The Protestant's Evidence, showing that for 1,500 years after Christ divers Guides of God's Church have in sundry Points of Religion taught as the Church of England now doth, London, 1635. The book is in the form of a dialogue between a papist

Papist

Papist is a term or an anti-Catholic slur, referring to the Roman Catholic Church, its teachings, practices, or adherents. The term was coined during the English Reformation to denote a person whose loyalties were to the Pope, rather than to the Church of England...

 and a protestant, and was valued by John Selden

John Selden

John Selden was an English jurist and a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law...

. A friend having forwarded to Birckbek a copy of his book covered with marginal glosses, which the annotator entitled An Antidote necessary for the reader thereof, an Answer to the Antidotist was appended to a second edition of the Evidence in 1657. The 1657 edition, with this appendix, was published again in 1849 in the supplement to Edmund Gibson

Edmund Gibson

Edmund Gibson was a British divine and jurist.-Early life and career:He was born in Bampton, Westmorland. In 1686 he was entered a scholar at Queen's College, Oxford...

's Preservative from Popery’ by the Reformation Society, with John Cumming as editor. Birckbek also wrote a Treatise of the Last Four Things, London, 1655.