Page:Men of Kent and Kentishmen.djvu/91

 College, Cambridge. He practised physic in his native place, and became a collector of Roman coins, vessels and utensils, particularly of those about Reculver and Richborough, all of which, together with his books and manuscripts, he bequeathed to the Library of Canterbury Cathedral.

[See "Masters' Corpus Christi College."]

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON

CALVINISTIC PREACHER,

William Huntington, or Hunt, as he was originally called, was the son of a farm labourer, and born in a house between Cranbrook and Goudhurst, in 1744. He was first an errand boy, then a day labourer, then a cobbler. He was for several years given to dissipation; but, according to his own account, being converted, he took to the study of the Bible, and became a preacher. He lived for some time at Thames Ditton, but removed to London, where his followers built for him a chapel in Titch-field, and afterwards a larger one in Grays-Inn Road. Here, though, as he confesses, an ignorant man, he attracted large congregations by a colloquial and homely style of eloquence popular with the vulgar. He died at Tunbridge Wells in 1813. He was a singular personage, "singular in his outset and career, singular in his opinions, singular in his appearance, singular in his chapel and style of preaching," and to this singularity he doubtless owed such success as attended him. He signed himself W. Huntington, S.S. (Sinner Saved), and caused the same letters