Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/170

Seally school, with a view to ordination. He may possibly be identical with 'John Sealy,' son of John Sealy of Bridgwater, Somerset, who matriculated from Hertford College, Oxford, on 22 May 1760, aged 18, and graduated B.A. in 1764 (, Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886, s. v.) The death of his uncle and patron obliged him to enter a solicitor's office, which he soon quitted to learn the business of a merchant under Malachy Postlethwayt [q. v.] His master's strictness was so little relished by Seally that, with some assistance from his mother, he betook himself to authorship and journalism as a means of livelihood. During a visit to Manchester he persuaded a wealthy heiress to elope with him, but was overtaken by the father at Worcester, The lady is said to have died broken-hearted, and Seally consoled himself by marrying, in 1766, a reputed rich widow of double his age, only to find, some years later, that she had no money and a husband (the Rev. William Lewis) still living. In the meantime Seally sought occupation as a writing-master and accountant. About 1767 he established a school in Bridgwater Square, Westminster and after some years successful tuition took holy orders. In 1790 he was presented to the vicarage of East Meon with Froxfield and Steep, Hampshire. He died in Queen Square, Westminster, in March 1795. After his separation from Mrs. Lewis he married Mary, eldest daughter of Joseph Humphreys, rector of Ellisfield, Hampshire, and of North Stoke, Somerset, who survived him (notes from Seally's will, proved in P. C. C. on 22 April 1795).

Seally was elected fellow of the Royal Society on 30 June 1791 (, Hist. Royal Soc. Appendix iv. p. lxii). During a sojourn in Rome in 1774 he obtained admission to the Roman Academy (Arcadia] by a eulogy on Maria Maddelana Fernandez Corilla, poet-laureate of Italy. He was also M.A. and LL.D. A portrait engraved by Thorowgood is mentioned by Bromley.

Seally contributed occasional verses to various magazines, projected a short-lived political paper signed 'Britannicus,' conducted for some time the 'Universal Museum' and the 'Freeholder's Magazine,' and was concerned in the 'St. James's Magazine, edited by Robert Lloyd [q. v.] He likewise published several novels, poems, and school books, including: 1. 'The Loves of Calisto and Emira, or the Fatal Legacy' 12mo, London, 1776; a French translation was published at Paris in 1778. 2. 'Moral Tales after the Eastern manner,' 12mo, London (1780?). 3. 'The Marriage of Sir Gawaine,' an opera, 1782. 4. 'A complete Geographical Dictionary,' 2 vols. 4to, London, 1787. 6, 'The Lady's Encyclopaedia,' 3 vols, 12mo, London, 1788. [ Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xi. 287, 395, Baker's Biogr. Dram. (1812), vol. i. pt. ii. p. 637; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; information from the vicar of East Moon.]

 SEAMAN, LAZARUS (d. 1675), puritan divine, was a native of Leicester, where he was born of poor parents early in the seventeenth century. On 4 July 1623 he was entered as a sizar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1627, M.A, in 1631. Straitened means led him to leave Cambridge and teach a school, apparently in London. He was chosen lecturer at St. Martin's, Ludgate, and became chaplain to Algernon Percy, tenth earl of Northumberland [q. v.] In 1642 he was presented by Laud to the rectory of Allhallows, Bread Street; Laud had promised this presentation out of 'courtesie' to Northumberland, and complains that, though aware of this, Sir Henry Montagu, first earl of Manchester [q. v,], had written, commanding him in the name of the House of Lords to give the benefice to Seaman (Hist. of the Troubles, 1095, p, 199). In 1643 he was nominated a member of the Westminster Assembly of divines, and he was a regular attendant; the best thing he said was on 18 Feb. 1645, 'In no institution did God go against nature.' By a private discussion on transubstantiation, held about this time against two Romish priests, he was the means, according to William Jenkyn [q. v.], of preventing the conversion of a noble family to the Roman catholic church.

On 11 April 1044 Seaman was admitted master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, by Edward Montagu, second earl of Manchester [q. v.], in the room of John Cosin [q. v.], ejected on 18 March. Calamy reports that he discharged the duties of the mastership with 'abundant honour;' Walker relates that at the Restoration the fellows, in a petition to the crown, complained of his 'unstatutable government.'

On 6 Nov. 1645 Seaman was placed on the committee of accommodation designed by parliament to arrange terms for the comprehension of the independents; the project fell through, as the independents rejected, comprehension and insisted on toleration. He was one of the remonstrants (26 May, 1646) against the toleration of 'separate congregations,' and maintained in the Westminster Assembly the divine right of the presbyterian discipline. At the second meeting (8 Nov. 1647) of the provincial 