Sherlock, WILLIAM, was born in Southwark in 1641, had his education at Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge, and became Rector of St George's, Botolph Lane, London, in 1669. Later he was preferred to be prebendary of St Paul's, Master of the Temple, Rector of Therfield in Herts, and Dean of St Paul's (1691). At the Revolution he refused at first to take the oath, but soon complied. He died at Hampstead in 1707. He wrote about sixty books or pamphlets, mostly controversial. His Practical Discourse Concerning Death (1689) was long famous, and was styled by Addison 'one of the strongest Persuasions to a Religious Life that ever was written in any language.' The Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity and of the Incarnation (1690) opened up a fierce and unseemly controversy with Sonth (q.v.) and others, which is said to have been closed only by the express desire of the king. Sherlock attempted to explain the relations of the three Persons by 'a mutual self-consciousness,' but his metaphysical powers were not subtle enough for his task, and he cannot be said to be altogether undeserving of South's charge of Tritheism. His Case of Allegiance to Sovereign Powers Stated (1691) was published to justify his own swallowing of the oath, and at once excited a raging controversy. Other works discussed Future Judgment (1692) and Future Punishment (1704-5), but these have long lost their importance.
His son, THOMAS SHERLOCK, was born in London in 1678, educated at Eton and Catharine Hall, Cambridge, and in 1704 succeeded his father as Master of the Temple. In 1715 he became Dean of Chichester, in 1728 Bishop of Bangor, in 1734 of Salisbury, and in 1748 of London. He died in 1761. Sherlock was a strenuous Tory, yet so much of an observer of the times as to earn Bentley's nickname of Cardinal Alberoni. His volumes of Temple Sermons were highly praised in their day, and the Rev. T. S. Hughes edited his complete writings, including treatises against Hoadley, on prophecy, the Trial of the Witnesses for the resurrection, &c. (5 vols. 1830).