Thomas Belsham

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Thomas Belsham (26 April 1750 - 1829) was an English Unitarian minister born in Bedford. He was educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, where for seven years he acted as assistant tutor. After three years spent in a charge at Worcester, he returned as head of the Daventry academy, a post which he continued to hold till 1789, when, having adopted Unitarian principles, he resigned. With Joseph Priestley for colleague, he superintended during its brief existence a new college at Hackney, and was, on Priestley's departure in 1794, also called to the charge of the Gravel Pit congregation. In 1805 he accepted a call to the Essex Street chapel, where in gradually failing health he remained till his death.

Belsham's first work of importance, Review of Mr Wilberforces Treatise entitled Practical View (1798), was written after his conversion to Unitarianism. His most popular work was the Evidences of Christianity; the most important was his translation and exposition of the Epistles of St Paul (1822). He was also the author of a work on philosophy, Elements oft/ic Philosophy of the Human Mind (1801), which is entirely based on Hartleys psychology.

Belsham's Life of Theophilus Lindsey (1812) contained a chapter titled "American Unitarianism" that argued many American clergy entertained Unitarian views. The Calvinist Rev. Jedidiah Morse published the chapter separately as part of his campaign against New England's liberal ministers -- contributing to "the Unitarian Controversy" that eventually produced permanent schism among New England's Congregationalist churches.

Belsham was one of the most vigorous and able writers of his church, and the Quarterly Review and Gentlemans Magazine of the early years of the 19th century abound in evidences that his abilities were recognized by his opponents.

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.