William Clagett (controversialist)

William Clagett D.D. (1646–1688) was an English clergyman, known as a controversialist.

Contents

Life

He was the eldest son of Nicholas Clagett the elder, preacher at St. Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. He was born in the parish on 24 September 1646, and educated at Bury grammar school under Dr. Thomas Stephens, author of notes on Statius. Before he was thirteen years of age he was admitted a pensioner of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 5 September 1659, under the tuition of Thomas Jackson; and he graduated B.A. in 1663, M.A. in 1667, D.D. in 1683.[1]

He was elected preacher at St. Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds, on 12 December 1672, and resigned on 17 June 1680, on being appointed preacher at Gray's Inn, London. He was made chaplain in ordinary to the king (Charles II) 1677. He was presented also by the Lord Keeper Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford, who was his wife's kinsman, to the rectory of Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire (instituted on 14 May 1683). With his preacher's place at Gray's Inn, he held the lectureship of St Michael Bassishaw, to which he was elected about two years before his death; he was also chaplain in ordinary to James II.

On Sunday evening, 16 March 1688, after having preached at St Martin's-in-the-Fields, in his Lent course there, he was succumbed to smallpox, and died of it on 28 March 1688. He was buried in a vault under the church of St Michael Bassishaw, and his wife, Thomasin North, who died eighteen days after him, was buried in the same grave. John Sharp preached his funeral sermon.

Works

Clagett took a leading part in the controversy carried on during the reign of James II respecting the points in dispute between Protestants and Catholics.

His works are:

The present State of the Controversie between the Church of England and the Church of Rome; or an account of the books written on both sides (London 1687) was by William Wake. Clagett saw it through the press, while Wake was in hiding in Dorchester, and it has been attributed to him.[13]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Clagett, William in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
  2. ^ Reprinted in Edmund Gibson's Preservative against Popery, fol. ed. vol. iii., 8vo ed. vol. xiv.; and in Edward Cardwell's Enchiridion Theologicum, vol. iii.
  3. ^ Reprinted in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, fol. ed. vol. ii., 8vo ed. vol. vii.
  4. ^ Reprinted in 1689 at the end of the second vol. of his Sermons; also in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, fol. ed. vol. ii., 8vo ed. vol. ix.
  5. ^ Reprinted in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, fol. ed. vol. iii., 8vo ed. vol. xiii.
  6. ^ Reprinted in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, 8vo ed. vol. v.
  7. ^ http://words.fromoldbooks.org/Chalmers-Biography/c/clagett-william.html
  8. ^ http://www.archive.org/stream/lesimprimeurslil00houduoft#page/250/mode/2up
  9. ^ Reprinted in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, fol. ed. vol. ii., 8vo ed. vol. iii.
  10. ^ Reprinted in Gibson's 'Preservative against Popery,' fol. ed. vol. ii., 8vo ed. vol. viii.
  11. ^ Reprinted in Gibson's Preservative against Popery, 8vo ed. vol. i.
  12. ^ The first and second volumes appeared respectively in 1689 and 1693; 3rd edition, 1699–1704. The 'Life' prefixed to the first volume was written by Dr. John Sharp. The third and fourth volumes did not come out till 1720, and were also called vols. i. and ii., but notice was given that they were never before published.
  13. ^ Burns, William E., "Clagett", on the website of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Subscription or UK public library membership required), http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/5426 
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Clagett, William". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.