Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/164

 too weak, and he gave all preferments in his gifts to Welshmen. In 1755 the duke persuaded him with less trouble to exchange Bangor for the bishopric of Rochester (installed 9 July 1756) and the deanery of Westminster (15 April 1756).

In 1761 he was more obstinate. Lord Bath offered to procure his appointment to the bishopric of London, but he stated his resolution to decline. He was growing old, and told Lord Bath that he meant to resign both bishopric and deanery. After some difficulty the king consented. The ministry, however, objected, because, as Pearce says, Bath had asked the king to appoint Thomas Newton [q. v.] to the vacant preferment. They thought that the king would thus be encouraged to interfere personally in the appointment of bishops, and objected successfully to the acceptance of Pearce's resignation. Pearce, however, resigned the deanery of Westminster in 1768. Although Pearce had obtained patronage in the manner common to the clergy of the day, this desire to resign at the age of seventy seems to have struck his contemporaries as a proof of singular disinterestedness.

He celebrated the fiftieth year of his marriage (1772) as ‘a year of jubilee’ (verses written on the occasion are given in the ‘Annual Register’ for 1776, p. 233). His wife died on 23 Oct. 1773, their children having all died very young. A fortnight after her funeral he lamented his loss ‘in proper expressions of sorrow and respect,’ and spoke of her in the evening, but never mentioned her again. He was declining, and died at Little Ealing on 29 June 1774. He divided his time between Ealing and the palace belonging to the bishops of Rochester at Bromley, Kent. He was buried by the side of his wife at Bromley. He left his library to the dean and chapter of Westminster; his manuscripts to his chaplain, John Derby; and 5,000l. to the college founded for clergymen's widows at Bromley by Bishop Warner. He built a registry at Rochester, and left legacies amounting to 15,000l. to various other charities. There is a portrait in Bromley College, and a marble bust, said to be a striking likeness, on his monument in Westminster Abbey. A portrait painted by Thomas Hudson, belonging to the archbishop of Canterbury, was engraved in 1754 and prefixed to his works.

Pearce was known as a good scholar. His editions of Cicero, ‘De Oratore’ (1716) and ‘De Officiis’ (1745), went through several editions, and the first brought him a complimentary letter from his rival editor, Olivet. His edition of Longinus (1724) reached a ninth edition in 1806, though eclipsed by Toup's in 1778.

His other works are: 1. ‘An Account of Trinity College,’ 1720 (mentioned in the list appended to the ‘Life,’ but not in the British Museum or elsewhere; it is probably one of the pamphlets about Bentley, possibly to be identified with ‘A Full and Impartial Account of the Proceedings … against Dr. Bentley,’ 1719). 2. ‘Epistolæ duæ ad … F. V. professorem Amstelodamensem scriptæ …’ by ‘Phileleutherus Londinensis,’ 1721 (an examination of Bentley's proposals for an edition of the Greek Testament). 3. ‘A Letter to the Clergy of the Church of England on Occasion of the Bishop of Rochester's Commitment to the Tower,’ 1722 (and a French translation). 4. ‘The Miracles of Jesus defended,’ 1729 (against Thomas Woolston's ‘Discourses’). 5. ‘Reply to a “Letter to Dr. Waterland,” setting forth many Falsehoods … by which the Letter-writer [Conyers Middleton, q. v.] endeavours to weaken the Authority of Moses,’ 1731 (Middleton published a ‘Defence,’ and Pearce a ‘Reply’ to the defence). 6. ‘Review of the Text of Milton's “Paradise Lost,” in which the chief of Dr. Bentley's Emendations are considered,’ 1732. 7. A ‘Concio ad Clerum,’ preached before the convocation in 1741, was published with a translation; and, in reply to some criticisms, he published in 1742 ‘Character of the Clergy Defended.’ 8. ‘A Commentary, with Notes on the Four Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles, together with a new Translation of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, with a Paraphrase and Notes,’ 2 vols. 4to, was published in 1777, with his life, by his chaplain, John Derby, who in 1778 published also four volumes of his sermons.

Ten sermons were also published separately during his life.

[The Life (see above) prefixed to the Commentary published also in ‘Lives’ edited by A. Chalmers in 1816. It consists of autobiographical notes connected by Dr. Johnson, who also wrote the dedication to the king (Boswell's Johnson, ed. Hill, ii. 446, iii. 112). Republished [by A. Chalmers] in ‘Lives,’ 1816. A letter upon the publication of Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology is appended. Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, iii. 107–11; Monk's Bentley, i. 411, ii. 79, 80, 144, 323; Lyttelton's Memoirs and Correspondence, i. 161–2; Welch's Alumni West. pp. 248, 252–3; Le Neve's Fasti, i. 108, ii. 575, iii. 22, 349; Cole's Athenæ Cantabr.; Gent. Mag. 1775 p. 421, 1776 pp. 62, 103, 116, 183, 208.] 

PEARD, GEORGE (1594?–1644), parliamentarian, born about 1594, was the son of John Peard of Barnstaple, Devonshire. Peard