Horsley, SAMUEL

Horsley, SAMUEL, an English prelate, was the son of a clergyman, and was born at London in 1733. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge; and in 1759 succeeded his father as rector of Newington, in Surrey—a living which he held for thirty-four years, though he also enjoyed in the interval many other preferments, including the archdeaconry of St Albans (1781). In 1767 Horsley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; in 1774 he published his Remarks on the Observations made in the late Voyage towards the North Pole, for determining the Acceleration of the Pendulum; and two years afterwards he issued proposals for a complete edition of the works of Sir Isaac Newton, which, however, did not make its appearance till 1785. But the grand event in his career was the controversy with Priestley, in which he displayed remarkable learning and acuteness, somewhat marred by intolerance and contemptuous bitterness. The work that excited the controversy was Dr Priestley's History of the Corruptions of Christianity, among which corruptions was included the orthodox doctrine of Christ's uncreated divinity. Horsley reviewed the work with great severity in his charge delivered to the clergy of his archdeaconry, May 22, 1783. Priestley replied the same year; and in 1784 Horsley retorted in seventeen Letters. These were, in return, met by a new series from Priestley. After a silence of eighteen months Horsley again replied, and in 1789 collected and published the whole that he had written on the subject. His services were rewarded with the bishopric of St Davids in 1788, with that of Rochester in 1793, and with that of St Asaph in 1802. He died at Brighton, October 4, 1806. Other works besides sermons, were on Hosea, the Psalms, biblical criticism, and classical subjects.