LORD KING; THE SCLATERS; DR. KELLET, ETC.
(Vol. v., p. 457.)
If Balliolensis wishes for a more particular account of the Sclater family than that which follows, I shall be happy to correspond with him upon the subject.
Anthony Sclater, D.D., was vicar of Leighton Buzzard for fifty years, and died, aged 100, about 1620. His son—
William Sclater, D.D., Fellow of King's, and vicar of Pitminster in Somersetshire, is the person mentioned by Dr. Kellet. He was an exceedingly learned man, and the author of many theological works (for a list, see Bib. Bod. Cat.), some of which were published after his death, which occurred in 1627. There is a curious and interesting account of him in Fuller's Worthies, vol. i. p. 119. (see also Athenæ Oxonienses). His son—
William Sclater, also D.D. and Fellow of King's, was vicar of Collumpton, Devon, and prebend of Exeter, and appears to have kept up by several works and sermons the reputation of the family for doctrinal theology.[[2]] His son—
Francis Sclater, B.D. (Fellow of C. C. C. Oxon. May 17, 1667, æt. 17), was likewise a person of extraordinary learning and abilities, as appears from several notices, and more particularly from the inscription on a silver-gilt cup presented to C. C. C. in memory of him by his father; and from an elegant Latin epitaph which was placed on the south wall of St. James's, Clerkenwell.[[3]] He died in 1685, æt. 35, leaving a son—
Christopher Sclater, M.A., born 1679, rector of Loughton in Essex, and afterwards of Chingford in the same county. His eldest son—
William Sclater, D.D., seems (from MSS. still existing) to have inherited the theological talent of his ancestors, but o. s. p. Richard Sclater, Esq., the second son of Christopher, was grandfather to William Lutley Sclater, Esq., of Hoddington House, Hants, the present representative of the family. By a third son, Christopher Sclater was grandfather to Eliza Sclater, wife of —— Draper, Esq., and celebrated for her Platonic attachment to Lawrence Sterne. From MSS. preserved in the family, it is clear that she must have been a woman of considerable talent.
I had always supposed William Sclater, the Nonjuror, and author of An Original Draught, &c., to have been a brother of Francis Sclater; but, if it be true that his work was a posthumous publication (as I learn for the first time from the Note by the Editor of "N. & Q."), I think it most probable that it was his father (the vicar of Collumpton above mentioned), who would have been about sixty years of age in 1688, and who was certainly a man of learning and scholarship.
I have no doubt that Edward Sclater, the pervert of Putney, belonged to the same family, though I know not in how near relationship.
The name of Sclater, which is curious, seems to have originated in a place called Slaughter (olim Sclostre or Sclaughtre, temp. King John) in Gloucestershire, where a family of Sclaughters flourished as lords of the manor for upwards of 300 years. The arms of both families are: arg. a saltier az.; crest, an eagle sa. rising out of a ducal coronet. The motto of the Sclater family (which they owe, no doubt to one of their learned ancestors) is a Greek quotation from Gal. vi. 14.: "εἴ μὴ ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ."
About the commencement of the seventeenth century, another branch of the same family (whose patronymic was Thomas) was settled in Cambridgeshire. The last male representative of these, Sir Thomas Sclater, Bart., died without issue in 1684 (see Burke's Ext. Baronetages).
I should be glad of any information respecting the connexion of these two branches with each other, or of either with the parent stem in Gloucestershire. I should also be glad of information respecting one Will. Slatyer, D.D. (whose name is sometimes, I believe erroneously, spelt Sclater) a very learned person, chaplain to James I., the
author of some curious historical and genealogical works, and a celebrated Hebraist in those times. He was a cotemporary of Sclater of Pitminster, and died at Ottenden in Kent about the same time; but it is doubtful whether they were relations.
S. L. P.
Oxford and Cambridge Club.
Footnote 2:[(return)]
This Dr. Sclater appears to have been at one time minister of St. James, Clerkenwell, from the following work in the Bodleian Catalogue. "The Royal Pay, and Pay-master, or the Indigent Officer's Comfort; a Sermon before the Military Company, on Rev. ii. 10. By William Sclater, D.D., Minister of St. James, Clerkenwell, 4to. Lond. 1671."—Ed.
F. Sclater, S. T. B. C. C. C., Oxon. olim socius, Eccl. Anglicanæ Spes, academiæ gloria, Eruditorum desiderium, Sanæ doctrinæ contrà omnes regnantes errores, etiam inter iniquissima tempora propugnator acerrimus. Vir fuit ingenio acri ac vivido judicio sagaci candore animi egregio. Quibus accessit eloquentia singularis atque doctrina omnibus numeris absoluta. Ideoque sive dissererit, sive concionaretur, ab illius ore non populus magis quam clerus et literati avidè pendebant.... Obit. Maii. 12. d. A.D. 1685. æt 35. Deflendus quidem multum, sed magis imitandus Gulielmus SS. T.P. mœstissimus Pater P.
The following Notes are very much at the service of your correspondent Balliolensis. It is true that they do not afford a precise answer to his immediate Query, but they comprise particulars which may very probably lead to it, and will at least be interesting in compliance with his request for any notices respecting the family of Sclater.
Anthony Sclater was minister of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire for about fifty years, and died at the age of nearly one hundred. His son, William Sclater, was born there in 1577; educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, B.D. and D.D., preacher at Walsall, co. Staffordshire; presented to the vicarage of Pitminster, near Taunton, co. Somerset, by John Coles, Esq.; and to a rectory in the same county by John, afterwards Lord Powlett. Died at Pitminster, 1627. He was the author of the following works, and of others unpublished:—
"A Key to the Key of Scripture, or an Exposition, with Notes, on the Epistle to the Romans, &c. 4to, London, 1611. Dedicated to Sir Henry Hawley, Knt., and four other Gentlemen."
"The Minister's Portion, a Sermon on 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14. 4to. Oxford, 1612. Dedicated to Thomas Southcote, Esq., of Mohun's Ottery in Devonshire."
"The Sick Soul's Salve, a Sermon on Prov. xviii. 14. 4to. Oxford, 1612. Dedicated to John Horner, Esq., and to the devout Anna his wife, at Melles in Somerset."
"The Christian's Strength, a Sermon at Oxford on Philip. iv. 13. 4to. Oxford, 1612. Dedicated to William Hill, Esq., of Pitminster."
"An Exposition upon the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. 4to. London, 1619. Dedicated to the Lord Stanhope, Baron of Haringdon."
"The Question of Tythes revised, &c. 4to. London, 1623. Dedicated to Lake, Bishop of Bath and Wells."
"A Briefe Exposition upon the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. 4to. London, 1629. Dedicated to 'John Pawlet, Esq., his very honourable good Patron, and Elisabeth his Wife, his much honoured Patronesse.'"
"Utriusque Epistolæ ad Corinthios Explicatio, &c. Edited by his Son. 4to. Oxon. 1633. Dedicated to 'Edvardo Keletto, S. T. D. Sancti Petri apud Exoniensis residentiario, nec non M. Georgio Goadio coll. Regalis in Academia Cantabrig. Socio, suo non ita pridem tutori dilectissimo.'"
"A Brief and Plain Commentary on the Prophecy of Malachy, &c. Published by his Son. 4to. London, 1650. Dedicated to Mr. Henry Walrond of Bradfield, Devon."
"An Exposition on the Fourth Chapter of the Romans, &c. Published by his Son. 4to. London, 1650. Dedicated to 'John Bampfield of Poltimore in Devon, Esq., a most eximious and exemplary Worthy of the West.'"
William Sclater, son of the above, was born at Pitminster; admitted member of King's College, Cambridge, in 1626; Fellow of that College; Chaplain to the Bishop of Exeter's Barony of St. Stephen's in Exeter, and preacher at St. Martin's in that city, 1639; Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral; admitted Vicar of Collumpton, co. Devon, 4th Feb. 1644, on the presentation of Roger Mallack of Exeter, Esq. Living there in 1650, then styled B.D., and late Fellow of King's College; D.D.; minister of St. Peter's-le-Poor, Broad Street, London, in 1654. Died before 1660.
The following were his published works:
"The Worthy Communicant rewarded, &c.; a Sermon in Exeter Cathedral, 21st April, 1639. 4to. London, 1639. Dedicated to Dr. Peterson, Dean of Exeter."
"Papisto-Mastix: or Deborah's Prayer against God's Enemies, a Sermon on Judges, v. 31. 4to. London, 1642."
"The Crowne of Righteousness, &c.; a Funeral Sermon at St. Botolph's Aldersgate, Sept. 25, 1653, for Mr. Abraham Wheelock, B.D., &c. 4to. London, 1654."
The registers of Pitminster and Collumpton would perhaps assist in tracing the descendants of these worthies, whose name still exists near Exeter. Fuller, under "Bedfordshire," gives some further particulars. The works above-mentioned may almost all, I think, be found in the Bodleian.
J. D. S.
Balliolensis will find an account of "William Sclater," whom he rightly supposes to have been at Eton and King's, in Harwood's Alumni Etonensis, p. 200., under the year 1593, 35 Eliz. He will there see that he died 1627, in the fifty-first year of his age, and was the author of Comment on the Romans and Thessalonians; Sermons at St. Paul's Cross; and the Treatise on Tithes, styled The Minister's Portion.
Under 1598 occurs "John Sclater." From a MS. account it is stated, "John Sclater, B.D., 1613, Rector of Holford, Somerset; then of Church Lawford, Warwick. (See Dugdale.) Query, If ejected 1662? if so, his farewell sermon in Collection A." (See too Harwood, p. 203.)
Under 1626 occurs "William Sclater," at p. 227. of Harwood, probably a mistake for 1625. In MS. under 1625 appears "William Sclater, son of W. S. of 1593, of Pitminster, Somerset, where his father was V.; R. of St. Steph., Exon.; D.D. 1651; Minister of St. Peter le Poor, Broad Street. (See Engl. Worth., 8vo., p. 21.) Pr. of Exon., Sept. 18, 1641. (See Walker, ob. 1656. See Wood.)"
Edward Kellet occurs in Harwood under 1598,
p. 204. The account of his works given there agrees with the extract from the Gentleman's Magazine. It is also stated that he was the author of a sermon entitled A Return from Argier, preached at Minehead, March 16, 1627, on the Re-admission of a relapsed Christian into our Church, on Gal. v. 2.: London, 1628, 4to, and that he was a sufferer from the rebellion. In Harwood he is described as Rector of Bagborough and Crocombe, and Canon of Exeter. The MS. account is very short. He is there described as "R. of Rowbarrow, Som.; Can. of Exon.—See his works in Wood."
J. H. L.