Richard Fairclough (divine)
Richard Fairclough (1621–1682) was an English nonconformist divine.
Life
Fairclough was the eldest son of Samuel Fairclough (1594–1677). Samuel was a preacher in Suffolk until he lost his post during the Great Ejection of 1622.[1]
Richard graduated M.A. as a member of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[2] He served at Somerset with Benjamin Whichcot and then moved to the rectory at Frome; however, after the Act of Uniformity 1662, he lost his post.[3] While a resident in Thames Street, London, he was licensed in 1672 to be a general Presbyterian teacher.
He died in London 4 July 1682 and was buried in Bunhill Fields. John Howe preached at his funeral.[4] According to Howe, Fairclough was "a man of a clear, distinct understanding, of a very quick, discerning, and penetrating judgment, that would on a sudden … strike through knotty difficulties into the inward center of truth with such a felicity that things seem'd to offer themselves to him which are wont to cost others a troublesome search."
Publications
He was author of "The nature, possibility, and duty of a true believer attaining to a certain knowledge of his effectual vocation, eternal election, and final perseverance to glory", a sermon printed in Nathaniel Vincent's The Morning-Exercise against Popery, 1675, and in vol. vi. of Samuel Annesley's The Morning Exercises, 1844, &c. Edmund Calamy also mentions 'An Abridgment of some of his latter Sermons to his beloved people at Mells'.
References
- ↑ Goodwin, Gordon (1889). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. pp. 128–129.
- ↑ "Fairclough, Richard (FRCH637R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ↑ Goodwin, Gordon (1889). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. pp. 127–128.
- ↑ "A funeral sermon for that faithful and laborious servant of Christ Mr. Richard Fairclough (who deceased July 4, 1682 in the sixty first year of his age) by John Howe". University of Michigan Library. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Goodwin, Gordon (1889). "Fairclough, Richard". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 127–128.