Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/92

 in his ‘Reply;’ to his third in ‘The Challenge of R. F. Lewis Sabran of the Society of Jesus, made out against the Historical Discourse [by Gee] concerning Invocation of Saints. The First Part,’ London, 1688, 4to. A manuscript copy of the last pamphlet is among the printed books in the British Museum (T. 1883/12). Gee replied to this in 1688; and another reply by Titus Oates appeared in 1689. Sabran answered Gee's attack in ‘A Letter to Dr. William Needham,’ 1688, 4to, which elicited from Gee an anonymous ‘Letter to the Superiours (whether Bishops or Priests) … concerning Lewis Sabran, a Jesuit,’ London, 1688, 4to.

Sabran is also credited with ‘Dr. Sherlock sifted from his Bran and Chaff’ (London, 1687, 4to) and ‘An Answer to Dr. Sherlock's Preservative against Popery’ (anon.), London, 1688, 4to. When William Giles, ‘a Protestant footman,’ published a reply to the latter, Sabran retorted in ‘Dr. Sherlock's Preservative considered,’ 1688, 4to. Sherlock published ‘A Vindication … in answer to the cavils of Lewis Sabran,’ 1688.



SACHEVERELL, HENRY (1674?–1724), political preacher, son of Joshua Sacheverell, rector of St. Peter's Church, Marlborough, Wiltshire, was born in or about 1674, for he was fifteen when he matriculated at Oxford in 1689. He claimed to be connected with the Sacheverells of New Hall, Warwickshire, and of Morley, Derbyshire, and his claim was admitted by some of them, but the connection has not been made out. It is fairly certain that he was descended from a family formerly called Cheverell that held the manor of East Stoke, Dorset, from the reign of Edward IV until the manor was sold by Christopher Cheverell in or about 1596. John Sacheverell, rector of East Stoke and Langton-Matravers in the same county, who died in 1651, left three sons, John, Timothy, and Philologus, all of whom were nonconformist ministers and were ejected in 1662. At the time of his ejection John ministered at Wincanton, Somerset. He had an estate of 60l. a year, which came to him by his third wife, but it went to her two daughters by a former husband, and this probably accounts for the fact that his eldest son Joshua, of St. John's College, Oxford, who graduated B.A. in 1667, and was the father of Henry, was in poor circumstances. The story that he was disinherited by his father for attachment to the church must be regarded with suspicion, especially as it is also said that his father left him his books (, History of Dorsetshire, i. 413, 423–4, 3rd ed.;, Memorials, iii. 222–4, ed. Palmer; , History of Derbyshire, I. ii. 220).

As his father was poor and had other children, of whom two sons besides Henry and two daughters are mentioned, and Thomas and Susannah known by name, Sacheverell was adopted by his godfather, Edward Hearst, an apothecary, who sent him to Marlborough grammar school. After Hearst's death his widow Katherine, who resided at Wanborough, Wiltshire, provided for the lad, and sent him to Magdalen College, Oxford (28 Aug. 1689), where he was chosen demy. It is believed that he was the ‘H.S.’ to whom, as his friend and chamber-fellow, Addison dedicated a poem in 1694. He himself wrote some verses, translations from the Georgics, and Latin verses in ‘Musæ Anglicanæ’ (vol. ii.) on the death of Queen Mary. On 31 Jan. 1693 he was reproved by the college authorities for contemptuous behaviour towards the dean of arts, but it is evident that his conduct was generally good. He graduated B.A. on 30 June, proceeded M.A. on 16 May 1695, was elected fellow in 1701, was pro-proctor in 1703, was admitted B.D. on 27 Jan. 1707, and created D.D. on 1 July 1708, in which year he was senior dean of arts in his college; he was bursar in 1709. He was incorporated at Cambridge in 1714. He took several pupils, and seems to have held the living of Cannock, Staffordshire. Both in pamphlets and sermons he advocated the high-church and tory cause, and violently abused dissenters, low churchmen, latitudinarians, and whigs. He aired his predilections in ‘Character of a Low Churchman,’ 4to, 1701, and another pamphlet ‘On the Association of … Moderate Churchmen with Whigs and Fanatics,’ 4to, 3rd ed. 1702, and he joined Edmund Perkes, of Corpus Christi College, in writing ‘The Rights of the Church of England,’ 4to, 1705. Not less violent than his pamphlets, his sermons on political and ecclesiastical matters attracted special attention owing to his striking appearance and energetic delivery. Some of them, preached before the university of Oxford, were published, and one of these, preached on 2 June 1702, was among the publications that called forth Defoe's ‘Shortest Way with the Dissenters,’ and is referred to in his ‘Hymn to the Pillory.’ He was elected chaplain of St. Saviour's, Southwark, in 1705. 