Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/365

 1715) from 4 Jan. to 28 June 1717 (the final meeting). Robert Cannon [q. v.] introduced him to Samuel Clarke (1675–1729) [q. v.], with whom he became intimate. In 1731 he wrote some ‘Memoirs’ of Clarke, chiefly dealing with his opinions as brought out in conversation.

Emlyn's ‘Meditations’ and his manuscript remains convey the impression of strong domestic affections and unaffected piety. He lived at Islington, and was admitted to the communion at the parish church until Stonehouse, the rector, excluded him. Emlyn wrote to the Bishop of London (Gibson) desiring readmission, but without effect. After 1739 he removed to Hackney. A curious story is told by Archbishop Secker of Emlyn's paying a visit to Matthew Henry at Hackney, and taking up his hat and gloves on hearing what he considered cant.

Gradually disabled by annual returns of gout, Emlyn succumbed to a feverish attack on 30 July 1741. He was buried on 8 Aug. in Bunhill Fields; the inscribed tombstone has disappeared; the epitaph is given in the ‘Memoirs’ by his son, and (with slight variations) in the commonplace book mentioned below. James Foster preached the funeral sermon on 16 Aug.

Emlyn's will, dated 5 Sept. 1739, contains few legacies, and the residue of his small property he left to his sole surviving son, Sollom [q. v.], who had already, on his mother's death, come in for her estate. His eldest son had died very young in August or September 1701.

The portrait of Emlyn by Highmore came into the possession of the Streatfeild family (to whom Emlyn's grandson left property), and for nearly fifty years lay in a loft over offices at Limpsfield, Surrey. When it came to light again (1843) it was in a very bad state, and nothing is now known of it. It was engraved by Van der Gucht; the original plate is in the possession of Mrs. H. Linwood Strong.

Emlyn's ‘Works’ were collected by his son in 1746, 3 vols. 8vo, called the ‘fourth edition,’ but this refers only to the included ‘Collection of Tracts’ (1719, 8vo; 1731, 2 vols. 8vo; 1742, 2 vols. 8vo). His first publication was 1. ‘The Suppression of Public Vice,’ Dublin, 1698, 8vo (sermon on 1 Sam. ii. 30; see above). Among his other pieces are: 2. ‘The Case of Mr. E—— in relation to the Difference between him and some Dissenting Ministers of the City of Dublin,’ &c., London [August] 1702, 4to, Dublin, 1703. 3. ‘An Humble Inquiry into the Scripture Account of Jesus Christ,’ &c., 4to, Dublin, 1702 (anon.; the printer, Laurence, swore ‘he knew not whose writing it was’). 4. ‘A Vindication of the Worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, on Unitarian Principles,’ &c., 4to, 1706 (anon.; written 1704). 5. ‘General Remarks on Mr. Boyse's Vindication of the True Deity of our Blessed Saviour,’ &c. (written 1704; sent to England and mislaid; first printed in ‘Works’). 6. ‘Remarks on Mr. Charles Leslie's First Dialogue,’ &c., 4to, 1708 (anon.; in this, anticipating Clarke, he calls himself ‘a true scriptural trinitarian;’ he wrote two other tracts against Leslie in the same year). 7. ‘The Previous Question to the Several Questions about … Baptism,’ &c., 4to, 1710 (anon.; answered by Grantham Killingworth [q. v.] and Caleb Fleming [q. v.]). 8. ‘A Full Inquiry into the Original Authority of that Text, 1 John v. 7,’ &c., 8vo, 1715 (the controversy with Martin lasted till 1722; each wrote three pieces). 9. ‘A True Narrative of the Proceedings … against Mr. Thomas Emlyn; and of his Prosecution,’ &c., 8vo, 1719 (dated September 1718); latest edition 12mo, 1829. 10. ‘Sermons,’ 8vo, 1742 (with new title-page, forms vol. iii. of ‘Works’). 11. ‘Memoirs of the Life and Sentiments of the Reverend Dr. Samuel Clarke’ (written 1731; first printed in ‘Works’). Also controversial tracts against Willis (1705), Sherlock (1707), Bennet (1718), Tong and others (1719), Trosse (1719), and Waterland (1731). In 1823 Jared Sparks published at Boston, U.S., a selection from Emlyn's works, with memoir. Answers to Emlyn's positions were furnished by Stephen Nye (1715), J. Abbadie [q. v.] (1719), C. Alexander (1791), and Aaron Burr, president of the college in New Jersey (1791), on occasion of an American edition (1790) of extracts from the ‘Humble Inquiry.’

In Dr. Williams's library, Grafton Street, Gower Street, London, is a small manuscript volume, originally the note-book of some unknown pupil of Doolittle's academy, and used by Emlyn and his son Sollom as a kind of commonplace book; it had been in the possession of Colonel Clement W. Strong (d. 1869). Portions of Emlyn's correspondence with Manning (1703–10) were preserved by the great-grandson of the latter, William Manning (d. 1825) of Ormesby, Norfolk, and were printed in the ‘Monthly Repository,’ 1817, p. 387 sq., 1825, p. 705 sq., 1826, pp. 33 sq., 87 sq., 203 sq., 333 sq.; the originals, which passed into the hands of the Rev. H. R. Bowles of Great Yarmouth (d. 1 Jan. 1830), have since disappeared.

[Emlyn's works, letters, and commonplace book, above; Foster's funeral sermon, 1741; Memoirs by Sollom Emlyn, prefixed to Works, also separately, 1746; Biog. Brit. (Kippis), 1793,