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146
The Autobiography of Archbishop Thomas Seeker
Dr Addington: Anthony Addington (1713-1790) of Fringford, Oxfordshire,
who received his M.D. at Oxford in 1744. There is no
reference this time to Mrs. Stephens's pills, which had included soap to
offset the costive effects of burnt egg shells, but Addington's doses seem
to have worked much the same way. He was physician to the earl of
Chatham, and the father of the first Lord Sidmouth.
Peter Annett or Annet (1693-1769), the deistical writer, published in
1761 a number of issues of the paper, the Free Enquirer, for which he was
tried and convicted for blasphemous libel in 1767. He disliked St. Paul
and the Jewish element in Christianity, and attacked miracles in general
and the Resurrection in particular. Even Francis Blackburne recognized
that the archbishop had relieved Annet's rigors while confined in prison
[Memoirs of Thomas Hollis (London, 1780), I, p. 228] and in 1784
"Misopseudos" (i.e. Thomas Winde) defended Seeker's part in the
proceedings [GM., LIV (1784), pp. 326-27].
Mr Justice Wilmot: Sir John Eardley Wilmot (1709-1792) who was
made a judge of King's Bench in 1755. He was also a privy councillor
and chief justice of Common Pleas 1767-71, who was later better known
for his part in the libel proceedings against John Wilkes (Valentine,
British Establishment 1760-84, II and D.N.B.).
Dr Hay: Sir George Hay (1715-1778), a civilian lawyer who had been
awarded his D.C.L. from Oxford in 1742. His major appointments
included chancellor of the diocese of Worcester 1751-64, vicar general of
Canterbury 1755-64, and dean of Arches 1764-78. He resigned as
chancellor of Worcester and vicar general on becoming dean of Arches,
judge of the prerogative court of Canterbury and chancellor of the
diocese of London in 1764, retaining those posts until his death. Hay
was also an active and able politician: M.P. for Stockbridge 1754-56,
Calne 1757-61, Sandwich 1761-68, and Newcastle-under-Lyme 1768-78
(Namier and Brooke, H. C, II, p. 599). He was regarded by Archbishop
Herring as "by nature a Whig" (Nottingham University, Newcastle
Papers, Herring to Newcastle: 8 October, 1753) but Newcastle found
him disloyal, complaining "after I had singly made him Vicar General,
he left me for Pitt" (B.L. Add. MS 32,959, fols. 28-29: Newcastle to
Charles Yorke, 22 May, 1764). He was knighted in November 1773.
Founder's Kindred disputes in both the universities about the claims of
men who could establish their kinship with founders of colleges to
preferential treatment in elections to places on their foundation were
especially acute from the middle of the century and particularly at All
Souls'. There, Blackstone maintained, since the founder had provided