Archbishop of Canterbury - KU ScholarWorks - The University of ...

176 The Autobiography of Archbishop Thomas Seeker
Mr Yorke: Charles Yorke.
Bp of Chester: Edmund Keene (1714-1781), former master of Peterhouse
(1748-54) and vice-chancellor of Cambridge, who also held the
rich living of Stanhope, County Durham 1740-70. He was successively
bishop of Chester 1752-71 and of Ely 1771-81, who left behind him a
reputation as "a builder of palaces." One of the duke of Newcastle's
Cambridge friends, he was another who was to disappoint him
(D.N.B.).
Mr Pugh: Lewis Pugh, a Welshman and graduate of Shrewsbury school
and Magdalene college, Cambridge. He was collated to Godmersham
on 18 March, 1767 (L.P.L. Seeker Register II, p. 332).
FOLIO 72 (1767)
The Confessional by Francis Blackburne (1705-1787), archdeacon of
Cleveland, "as we have been credibly informed, owed its public
appearance to Mr. Hollis [see fol. 42]. The subject of it, being an
inquiry into the propriety of subscription to human formularies of faith
and doctrine in Protestant churches, occasioned much controversy, as all
questions do that tend to disparage antient ecclesiastical customs ..."
[Francis Blackburne, Memoirs of Thomas Hollis Esq. (London, 1780), p.
302]. This notorious book, which practically advocated the abolition of
subscription not only to the Thirty-Nine Articles and liturgy but also to
the creeds, elicited a number of answers.
Mr Jones of Pluckley: William Jones (1726-1800). He did in fact
publish a reply in 1770 Remarks on the Principles and Spirit of a Work, entitled
The Confessional. . . .
Mr Ridley: the chancellor's letter recommending to the Oxford convocation
that Ridley be made D.D. by diploma emphasized "his great
Learning and Zeal ... in the Defence of Christianity in general and of
the Church of England in particular," as well as his undertaking, in the
decline of life and health, arduous Syriac researches (MS Acts of
Convocation Bl, 1766-76, p. 11: 15 February, 1767). His three Letters to
the Author of the Confessional, published separately in London in 1768,
were recognized to incorporate much of their material from Seeker.
Mr Beauvoirs Father: William Beauvoir (1669?-1723), who was rector
of Booking in Essex (1719-23), a presentation in the archbishop's gift
(Venn, Alumni Cantab.).