Theophilus Lindsey
Encyclopedia
Theophilus Lindsey was an English
theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian
congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel
.
, Cheshire
, and was educated at the Leeds Free School and at St John's College
, University of Cambridge
, where in 1747 he became a fellow. For some time he held a curacy
in Spitalfields
, London
, and from 1754 to 1756 he travelled on the continent of Europe
as tutor to the young Duke of Northumberland
.
He was then presented to the living of Kirkby-Wiske in Yorkshire
, and after exchanging it for that of Piddletown
in Dorset
shire, he moved in 1763 to Catterick
in Yorkshire. Here about 1764 he founded one of the first Sunday school
s in England.
Meanwhile he had begun to entertain anti-Trinitarian
views, and to be troubled in conscience about their inconsistency with the Anglican belief; since 1769 the intimate friendship of Joseph Priestley
had served to foster his scruples, and in 1771 he united with Francis Blackburne
, archdeacon of Cleveland (his father-in-law), John Jebb (1736-1786), Christopher Wyvill
(1740-1822) and Edmund Law
1703-1787), bishop of Carlisle
, in preparing a petition to Parliament
with the prayer that clergymen of the church and graduates of the universities might be relieved from the burden of subscribing to the thirty-nine articles
, and "restored to their undoubted rights as Protestants of interpreting Scripture for themselves". Two hundred and fifty signatures were obtained, but in February 1772 the House of Commons
declined even to receive the petition by a majority of 217 to 71; the adverse vote was repeated in the following year, and in the end of 1773, seeing no prospect of obtaining within the church the relief which his conscience demanded, Lindsey resigned as vicar
.
In April 1774 he began to conduct Unitarian
services in a room in Essex Street, the Strand
, London, where first a church (Essex Street Chapel
), and afterwards the Unitarian offices (first the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
and then the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
), were established. Here he remained till 1793 when he resigned his charge in favour of John Disney
, who like himself had left the established church and had become his colleague. He died on 3 November 1808. He was succeeded as minister in Essex Street from 1805 by Thomas Belsham
, who wrote Lindsey's biography.
(1774); Dissertations on the Preface to St John's Gospel and on praying to Jesus Christ (1779); Vindiciae Priestleianae (1788); Conversations upon Christian Idolatry (1792); and Conversations on the Divine Government, showing that everything is from God, and for good to all (1802). Two volumes of sermons, with appropriate prayers annexed, were published posthumously in 1810; and a volume of memoirs, by Thomas Belsham, appeared in 1812.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel
Essex Street Chapel
Essex Street Chapel, also known as Essex Church, is a Unitarian place of worship in London. It was the first church in England set up with this doctrine, and was established at a time when Dissenters still faced legal threat...
.
Life
He was born in MiddlewichMiddlewich
Middlewich is a market town in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is east of the city of Chester, east of Winsford, southeast of Northwich and northwest of Sandbach....
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, and was educated at the Leeds Free School and at St John's College
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
, University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, where in 1747 he became a fellow. For some time he held a curacy
Curate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
in Spitalfields
Spitalfields
Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The area straddles Commercial Street and is home to many markets, including the historic Old Spitalfields Market, founded in the 17th century, Sunday...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and from 1754 to 1756 he travelled on the continent of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
as tutor to the young Duke of Northumberland
Duke of Northumberland
The Duke of Northumberland is a title in the peerage of Great Britain that has been created several times. Since the third creation in 1766, the title has belonged to the House of Percy , which held the title of Earl of Northumberland from 1377....
.
He was then presented to the living of Kirkby-Wiske 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 after exchanging it for that of Piddletown
Puddletown
Puddletown is a village in Dorset, England, 5 miles east of Dorchester in the River Piddle valley. The village has a population of 1,177 , of which 30.3% are retired....
in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
shire, he moved in 1763 to Catterick
Catterick, North Yorkshire
Catterick , sometimes Catterick Village, to distinguish it from the nearby Catterick Garrison, is a village and civil parish in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England...
in Yorkshire. Here about 1764 he founded one of the first Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
s in England.
Meanwhile he had begun to entertain anti-Trinitarian
Nontrinitarianism
Nontrinitarianism includes all Christian belief systems that disagree with the doctrine of the Trinity, namely, the teaching that God is three distinct hypostases and yet co-eternal, co-equal, and indivisibly united in one essence or ousia...
views, and to be troubled in conscience about their inconsistency with the Anglican belief; since 1769 the intimate friendship 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...
had served to foster his scruples, and in 1771 he united with Francis Blackburne
Francis Blackburne (archdeacon)
Francis Blackburne was an English Anglican churchman, archdeacon of Cleveland and an activist against the requirement of subscription to the Thirty Nine Articles.-Life:...
, archdeacon of Cleveland (his father-in-law), John Jebb (1736-1786), Christopher Wyvill
Christopher Wyvill
Christopher Wyvill was an English political reformer who inspired the formation of the Yorkshire Association movement in 1779.The American Revolutionary War had forced the government of Lord North to increase taxation...
(1740-1822) and Edmund Law
Edmund Law
Edmund Law was a priest in the Church of England. He served as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, as Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy in the University of Cambridge from 1764 to 1769, and as bishop of Carlisle from 1768 to 1787....
1703-1787), bishop of Carlisle
Bishop of Carlisle
The Bishop of Carlisle is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Carlisle in the Province of York.The diocese covers the County of Cumbria except for Alston Moor and the former Sedbergh Rural District...
, in preparing a petition to Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
with the prayer that clergymen of the church and graduates of the universities might be relieved from the burden of subscribing 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...
, and "restored to their undoubted rights as Protestants of interpreting Scripture for themselves". Two hundred and fifty signatures were obtained, but in February 1772 the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
declined even to receive the petition by a majority of 217 to 71; the adverse vote was repeated in the following year, and in the end of 1773, seeing no prospect of obtaining within the church the relief which his conscience demanded, Lindsey resigned as vicar
Vicar
In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...
.
In April 1774 he began to conduct Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
services in a room in Essex Street, the Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
, London, where first a church (Essex Street Chapel
Essex Street Chapel
Essex Street Chapel, also known as Essex Church, is a Unitarian place of worship in London. It was the first church in England set up with this doctrine, and was established at a time when Dissenters still faced legal threat...
), and afterwards the Unitarian offices (first the British and Foreign Unitarian Association
British and Foreign Unitarian Association
The British and Foreign Unitarian Association was the major Unitarian body in Britain from 1825. The BFUA was founded as an amalgamation of three older societies: the Unitarian Book Society for literature , The Unitarian Fund for mission work , and the Unitarian Association for civil rights...
and then the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662...
), were established. Here he remained till 1793 when he resigned his charge in favour of John Disney
John Disney (Unitarian)
John Disney was an English Unitarian minister and biographical writer, initially an Anglican clergyman active against subscription to the Thirty Nine Articles.-Life:...
, who like himself had left the established church and had become his colleague. He died on 3 November 1808. He was succeeded as minister in Essex Street from 1805 by Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham was an English Unitarian minister- Life :Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, where for seven years he acted as assistant tutor...
, who wrote Lindsey's biography.
Works
Lindsey's chief work is An Historical View of the State of the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship from the Reformation to our own Times (1783); His other publications include Apology on Resigning the Vicarage of Catterick (1774), and Sequel to the Apology (1776); The Book of Common Prayer reformed according to the plan of the late Dr Samuel ClarkeSamuel Clarke
thumb|right|200px|Samuel ClarkeSamuel Clarke was an English philosopher and Anglican clergyman.-Early life and studies:...
(1774); Dissertations on the Preface to St John's Gospel and on praying to Jesus Christ (1779); Vindiciae Priestleianae (1788); Conversations upon Christian Idolatry (1792); and Conversations on the Divine Government, showing that everything is from God, and for good to all (1802). Two volumes of sermons, with appropriate prayers annexed, were published posthumously in 1810; and a volume of memoirs, by Thomas Belsham, appeared in 1812.