Samuel Horsley

Samuel Horsley
Bishop of St Asaph
Church	Church of England
Diocese	Diocese of St Asaph
Elected	1802
Reign ended	1806 (death)
Predecessor	Lewis Bagot
Successor	William Cleaver
Other posts	Bishop of Rochester 1793–1802 Dean of Westminster 1793–1802 Bishop of St David's 1788–1793
Personal details
Born	15 September 1733(1733-09-15) London
Died	4 October 1806(1806-10-04) (aged 73) Brighton
Nationality	British
Denomination	Anglican
Profession	Scholar
Alma mater	Trinity Hall, Cambridge

Samuel Horsley (15 September 1733 – 4 October 1806) was a British churchman, bishop of Rochester from 1792.

Entering Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1751, he became LL.B. in 1758 without graduating in arts.^[1] In the following year he succeeded his father in the living of Newington Butts in Surrey. Horsley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767; and secretary in 1773, but, in consequence of a difference with the president (Sir Joseph Banks) he withdrew in 1784. In 1768 he attended the son and heir of the 3rd Earl of Aylesford to Oxford as private tutor; and, after receiving through the earl and Bishop of London various minor preferments, which by dispensations he combined with his first living, he was installed in 1781 as archdeacon of St Albans.

Horsley now entered on his controversy with Joseph Priestley, who denied that the early Christians held the doctrine of the Trinity. In this fierce debate, Horsley's aim was to lessen the influence which Priestley's name gave to his views, by pointing to (what he claimed were) inaccuracies in his scholarship. Horsley was rewarded by Lord Chancellor Thurlow with a prebendal stall at Gloucester; and in 1788 Thurlow procured his promotion to the see of St David's.

As a bishop, Horsley was active both in his diocese, and in parliament. The effective support which he afforded the government was acknowledged by his successive translations to Rochester in 1793, and to St Asaph in 1802. With the see of Rochester he held the deanery of Westminster.

Works

Besides the controversial Tracts, which appeared in 1783-1785, 1786, and were republished in 1789 and 1812, Horsley's more important works are:

• Apollonii Pergaei inclinationum libri duo (1770)
• Remarks on the Observations ... for determining the acceleration of the Pendulum in Lat. 7o 51' (1774)
• Isaaci Newtoni Opera quae extant Omnia, with a commentary (5 vols 4to, 1779–1785)
• On the Prosodies of tke Greek and Latin Languages (1796)
• Disquisitions on Isaiah xviii. (1796)
• Hosea, translated ... with Notes (1801)
• Elementary Treatises on ... Mathematics (1801)
• Euclidis elernentorum libri priores XII. (1802)
• Euclidis datorum liber (1803)
• Virgil's Two Seasons of Honey, &c. (1805)
• papers in the Philosophical Transactions from 1767 to 1776

After his death there appeared:

• Sermons (1810–1812)
• Speeches in Parliament (1813)
• Book of Psalms, translated with Notes (1815)
• Biblical Criticism (1820)
• Collected Theological Works (6 vols 8vo, 1845).

References

1. ^ Samuel Horsley in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Works by or about Samuel Horsley in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Archival material relating to Samuel Horsley listed at the UK National Register of Archives

Church of England titles
Preceded by Edward Smallwell	Bishop of St David's 1788–1793	Succeeded by William Stuart
Preceded by John Thomas	Bishop of Rochester 1793–1802	Succeeded by Thomas Dampier
	Dean of Westminster 1793–1802	Succeeded by William Vincent
Preceded by Lewis Bagot	Bishop of St Asaph 1802–1806	Succeeded by William Cleaver

Persondata
Name	Horsley, Samuel
Alternative names
Short description	Bishop of St David's; Bishop of Rochester; Dean of Westminster; Bishop of St Asaph
Date of birth	15 September 1733
Place of birth	London
Date of death	4 October 1806
Place of death	Brighton