Samuel Clapham

Samuel Clapham
Born 1755
Leeds
Died 1 June 1830
Sidmouth
Pen name Theophilus St. John
Occupation clergyman
Nationality British
Period Georgian
Genre sermon
Notable works Practical Sermons on Several Important Subjects
Children James Murray Clapham (died 1809)

Samuel Clapham (1755–1830) was a clergyman of the Church of England, a justice of the peace, and a writer. His best known work, the collection Practical Sermons on Several Important Subjects, published under the pseudonym Theophilus St. John, went through four editions (1803, 1804, 1808, 1812).

Life

Samuel Clapham was born in Leeds on 27 February 1755 to parents John and Elizabeth Clapham (Nee Rook). He was the 3rd of 4 children (John, Betty, Samuel and William). He graduated B.A. from Clare Hall, Cambridge in 1778, taking the M.A. in 1784.[1] During the course of his studies he was ordained deacon at London on 21 September 1777, and ordained priest at York on 6 October 1782.

He became curate of Yarm, Yorkshire, in 1790, vicar of Great Ouseburn, Yorkshire, in 1797, and of Christchurch, then in Hampshire, in 1802, and rector of Gussage St Michael, Dorsetshire, in 1806. In the course of his clerical career, Clapham published several sermons. One of these, How far Methodism conduces to the interests of Christianity, and the welfare of society: impartially considered (1794), elicited the response Methodism vindicated from the charge of ignorance and enthusiasm, a reply to a sermon preached by S. Clapham, published at Margate in 1795.

Clapham also served as a county magistrate in Hampshire for twenty-five years. One of his works, Collection of the Several Points of Sessions' Law (1818), was a digest of material relating to the powers and responsibilities of a justice of quarter sessions. The work drew particularly critical notice as an amateur compendium which, among other mistakes, stated that no case could be brought for verbal slander against a woman.[2]

In later life, Clapham retired to Sidmouth for his health, and he died there on 1 June 1830. He was survived by his three daughters. His only son, James Murray Clapham, had died on HMS Pandora on 28 April 1809, aged 18.

Works

Sermons

Individual sermons

Collected sermons

Compilations

References

  1. "Clapham, Samuel (CLFN774S)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. The Monthly Review 88 (1819), pp. 332-333.
  3. The British Critic. F & C Rivington, London. 5: 543. 1795. Missing or empty |title= (help)

Sources

Reprinted in Richard Vickerman Taylor, Biographia Leodiensis; or, Biographical Sketches of the Worthies of Leeds and Neighbourhood, London and Leeds, 1865, pp. 324-327. (available on google books)
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