Romaine, WILLIAM

Romaine, WILLIAM, evangelical divine, was born at Hartlepool, Durham, September 25, 1714, and was educated at Hertford College and Christ Church, Oxford. He held curacies at Lew Trenchard, Devon; Banstead and Horton, Middlesex; was lecturer of St George's, Botolph Lane, and St Botolph's, Billingsgate, and of St Dunstan's-in-the-West from 1749 till his death. He was also assistant morning preacher at St George's, Hanover Square, 1750-55; curate and morning preacher at St Olave's, Southwark, 1756-59; and morning preacher at St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, 1759. In 1764 he was chosen rector of St Andrew Wardrobe and St Ann's, Blackfriars, and though the election was disputed it was confirmed by the Court of Chancery in 1766, and he held the living till his death, July 26, 1795. Romaine was a bulwark of Evangelicalism in his day, though himself infected with the taint of Hutchinsonianism. He assailed, not without credit, Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses; published commentaries, many sermons, and three books of edification that enjoyed for three generations a remarkable popularity: The Life of Faith (1763), The Walk of Faith (1771), and The Triumph of Faith (1794). There is a complete edition of his works, with a Life by the Hon. and Rev. W. B. Cadogan (8 vols. 1796).