Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/54

 Firmin to set up their own trades. Most of the moneys devoted to their relief passed through his hands, he himself collecting some 4,000l. His pet project of a linen manufacture he started for them at Ipswich in 1682.

In politics Firmin does not seem to have taken any part till 1685. His opposition to James II's unconstitutional proceedings cost him for a time his governorship at Christ's Hospital. Not won by James's declaration for liberty of conscience he largely aided the circulation of pamphlets which sounded the alarm against it. His principles seem to have been republican, but he was a devoted adherent to William of Orange. To Robert Frampton [q. v.], the nonjuring bishop of Gloucester, Firmin remarked, ‘I hope you will not be a nonconformist in your old age.’ Frampton retorted that Firmin himself was ‘a nonconformist to all Christendom besides a few lowsy sectarys in Poland.’ On the protestant exodus from Ireland in 1688–9 Firmin was the principal commissioner for the relief of the refugees; more than 56,000l. went through his hands, and eight of the protestant hierarchy of Ireland addressed to him a joint letter of thanks. He was rendering a similar service for the nonjurors in 1695, when he was stopped by the interference of the government.

In conjunction with his friend, Sir Robert Clayton [q. v.], Firmin was an indefatigable governor of Christ's Hospital, carrying out many improvements, both of structure and arrangement. On Sunday evenings it was his custom to attend the scholars' service, and see that their ‘pudding-pies’ for supper were of proper ‘bigness.’ In April 1693 he was elected a governor of St. Thomas's Hospital, of which Clayton had been made president in the previous year. Firmin carried through the work of rebuilding the hospital and church. Among his admirable qualities was the faculty for interesting others in benevolent designs and calling forth their liberality. He was a kind of almoner-general to the metropolis, keeping a register of the poor he visited, recommending their cases, and apprenticing their children.

Luke Milbourn [q. v.] in 1692 speaks of Firmin as a ‘hawker’ for the Socinians, ‘to disperse their new-fangled divinity.’ Only four books of this class are known with certainty to have been promoted by him. In 1687 was printed at his expense ‘A Brief History of the Unitarians, called also Socinians.’ It is in the shape of four letters, written for his information, probably by Stephen Nye, and is noteworthy as marking the first appearance in English literature of the term ‘unitarian,’ a name unknown to Biddle. In 1689 he printed ‘Brief Notes on the Creed of St. Athanasius,’ a sheet by an unknown author. Tillotson, who had lectured on the Socinian controversy at St. Lawrence, Jewry, in 1679–80, felt himself compelled by ‘calumnies’ to publish the lectures in 1693. He sent a copy to Firmin, who printed a letter (29 Sept. 1694) in reply, probably by Nye, under the title ‘Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity’ (sometimes confounded with a tract of 1693 with similar title, and by the same hand). This he laid before Tillotson, who remarked that Burnet's forthcoming exposition of the articles ‘shall humble your writers.’ In 1697, at Firmin's instance, appeared ‘The Agreement of the Unitarians with the Catholick Church,’ a work which more closely expresses his own views than any of the foregoing. He never departed from the communion of the church of England, but put a Sabellian sense on the public forms. At the time of his death he was meditating a plan of ‘unitarian congregations’ to meet for devotional purposes as fraternities within the church.

Firmin was an original member of the ‘Society for the Reformation of Manners’ (1691), and was very active in the enforcement of fines for the repression of profane swearing. Kettlewell's biographer speaks of his disinterested charity, and Wesley, who abridged his life for the ‘Arminian Magazine,’ calls him ‘truly pious.’

Firmin had injured his health by overexertion and neglecting his meals, and had become consumptive. He was carried off in a couple of days by a typhoid fever, dying on 20 Dec. 1697. Bishop Fowler [q. v.] attended him on his deathbed. He was buried in the cloisters at Christ's Hospital, where a marble slab is placed to his memory. A memorial pillar stands in the grounds of Marden Park, Surrey, the seat of his friend Clayton, where ‘Firmin's Walk’ perpetuates his name. There is no portrait of Firmin; he is described as a little, active man, of frank address and engaging manner. His autograph will (dated 7 Feb. 1694) shows illiteracy.

Firmin died worth about 3,000l. He was twice married: first, in 1660, to a citizen's daughter with a portion of 500l.; she died while Firmin was at Cambridge on business, leaving a son (d. about 1690) and a daughter (d. in infancy); secondly, in 1664, to Margaret (d. 14 Jan. 1719, aged 77), daughter of Giles Dentt, J.P., of Newport, Essex, alderman of London; by her he had several children, who all died in infancy, except the eldest,, born 22 May 1665 (Tillotson was his godfather). Giles received his mother's