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 their tool’ (Account of her Conduct, p. 247), and by Hearne, who, though approving his sermons, had private reasons for disliking him, as ‘conceited, ignorant, impudent, a rascal, and a knave’ (Collections, iii. 65). He had a fine presence and dressed well. He was an indifferent scholar and had no care for learning (for a proof see ib. p. 376), was bold, insolent, passionate, and inordinately vain. His failings stand in a strong light, because the whigs, instead of treating him and his utterances with the contempt they deserved, forced him to appear as the champion of the church's cause, a part which, both by mind and character, he was utterly unfitted to play even respectably, yet the eager scrutiny of his enemies could find little of importance to allege against his conduct, though the charge that he used profane language when irritated seems to have been true.

A portrait is in the hall of Magdalen College; it was bequeathed to the college in 1799 by William Clements, demy, son of Sacheverell's printer. Bromley gives a long list of engraved portraits of Sacheverell; three are dated 1710, one of which, engraved by John Faber, the elder [q. v.], represents him with Francis Higgins (1669–1728) [q. v.], and Philip Stubbs, afterwards archdeacon of St. Albans [q. v.], as ‘three pillars of the church’ (Cat. of Engraved Portraits, p. 227). A medal was struck to commemorate Sacheverell's trial, bearing the doctor's portrait on the obverse, with inscription, H. Sach: D:D:,’ which was accompanied by two different reverses, both alike inscribed ‘is : firm : to : thee :’; but one bears a mitre for the church of England, the other the head of a pope.

[Bloxam's Presidents, &c. of St. M. Magd. Coll. Oxf. vi. 98 sq.; Hearne's Collect. i.–iii., ed. Doble (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), contains frequent notices; others from Hearne's Diary extracted by Bloxam, u.s.; Swift's Works, passim, ed. Scott, 3rd ed.; Account of family of Sacheverell; Sacheverell's Sermons; Howell's State Trials, xv. 1 sq.; Bisset's Modern Fanatick, 3 pts.; King's Vindication of Dr. S. ap. Orig. Works, ii. 179 sq.; Dr. S.'s Progress, by ‘K. J.’ (1710); Spectator, No. lvii.; White Kennett's Wisdom of Looking Backwards; Whiston's Account of Dr. S.'s Proceedings; Burnet's Own Time, v. 539 sq., vi. 9, ed. 1823; Tindal's Cont. of Rapin's Hist. iv. 149 sq.; Lecky's Hist. of England, i. 51 sq.; Stanhope's Hist. of Queen Anne's Reign, ii. 130 sq., ed. 1872; Gent. Mag. (1735) v. 275, (1747) xvii. 446, (1779) xlix. 291, 338; Halkett and Laing's Dict. of Anon. and Pseudon. Lit. An excellent bibliography of the works published by and concerning him has been compiled by Mr. Falconer Madan of Brasenose College, Oxford (8vo, 1887, privately printed at Oxford); Notes and Queries, 8th ser. v. passim, xii. 223. Besides the British Museum and Bodleian libraries, the library of Magdalen College, Oxford, contains a large collection of Sacheverell literature.]

 SACHEVERELL, WILLIAM (1638–1691), the ‘ablest parliament man,’ according to Speaker Onslow, of Charles II's reign, was the representative of an ancient family which had fought against Henry VII, and had enjoyed the favour and confidence of Henry VIII. He was born in 1638, and in September 1662 succeeded his father, Henry Sacheverell, at Barton in Nottinghamshire and Morley, Derbyshire. His mother was Joyce, daughter and heir of Francis Mansfield of Hugglescote Grange, Leicestershire. In June 1667 he was present ‘as an eye-witness’ of the Dutch attack upon Chatham, and on 30 Dec. he was admitted at Gray's Inn. Three years later, in November 1670, he came forward at a by-election in Derbyshire, ‘when Esquire Varnon stood against him, besides all the dukes, earles, and lords in the county’ (Derbyshire Arch. Journal, vol. xviii.). He was triumphantly returned to parliament as an opponent of the court policy. On 28 Feb. 1672–3 he opened a debate in supply with a proposal to remove all popish recusants from military office or command; his motion, the origin of the Test Act which overturned the cabal, was enlarged so as to apply to civil employments, and accepted without a division. On the same day he was placed upon the committee of nine members appointed to prepare and bring in a test bill. From this time Sacheverell took part in almost every debate. He constantly expressed himself as opposed to the ‘increase of popery and arbitrary government;’ he was of opinion that the security of the crown ought to rest upon the love of the people and not upon a standing army; and, in foreign policy, he advocated an alliance with the Dutch against the growing power of France. His strength and readiness as a debater, his legal knowledge and acquaintance with parliamentary history and constitutional precedents, brought him rapidly to the front; and in the same year he was the first named of the three members to whom the care of the second and more stringent test bill was recommended by the house. His attacks upon Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale, had already gained him a dangerous notoriety, and, upon the unexpected news of the prorogation of February 1673–4, he was one of those members who fled for security into the city.

Sacheverell's hostility to the court policy was not lessened by the overthrow of the Cabal and by Danby's accession to power. In the session of 1675 he moved or seconded