William Sturch

William Sturch (1753?–1838) was an English Unitarian theological writer.

Nonconformist background

His great-grandfather, William Sturch (died 1728), was a general Baptist minister in London. His grandfather, John Sturch, General Baptist minister at Crediton, Devon, published A Compendium of Truths, Exeter, 1731, and a sermon on persecution, 1736. His father, John Sturch, ordained (21 June 1753) minister of the General Baptist congregation, Pyle Street, Newport, wrote A View of the Isle of Wight, 1778, which passed through severaleditions, and was translated into German by C. A. Wichman, Leipzig, 1781. He died in 1794. One of his daughters married John Potticary (1763–1820), the first schoolmaster of Benjamin Disraeli.

Life and family

William Sturch was born at Newport, Isle of Wight, about 1753. He became an ironmonger in London, and an original member in 1774 of the Unitarian Essex Street Chapel opened by Theophilus Lindsey. He took the chair at a dinner given in London (5 January 1829) to Henry Montgomery, LL.D., when Charles Butler was one of the speakers.

He died at York Terrace, Regent's Park, on 8 September 1838, aged 85, leaving a widow Elizabeth (died 23 Feb. 1841, aged 81) and family. He was buried in the graveyard of the New Gravel-Pit chapel, Hackney. His second daughter, Elizabeth Jesser, married John Reid and founded Bedford College, London, in October 1849.

Works

In 1799 he published anonymously a thin book entitled ‘Apeleutherus; or an Effort to attain Intellectual Freedom.’ It consists of three essays; the third, ‘On Christianity as a Supernatural Communication,’ exhibiting scepticsim side of a devout mind. A sonnet is prefixed to the work. In 1819 it was reprinted (anonymously), with a dedication to Thomas Belsham, a fourth essay ‘On a Future State,’ and three additional sonnets. Sturch wrote opamphlets in controversy with conservative Unitarians, and was a frequent contributor to the Monthly Repository. He published also a pamphlet on Catholic emancipation, The Grievances of Ireland: their Causes and their Remedies, 1826.

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Sturch, William". Dictionary of National Biography 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co.