Edmund Calamy

Edmund Calamy (5 April 1671 – 3 June 1732) was an English Nonconformist churchman and historian. Life A grandson of Edmund Calamy the Elder, he was born in the City of London, in the parish of St Mary Aldermanbury. He was sent to various schools, including Merchant Taylors', and in 1688 proceeded to Utrecht University. While there, he declined an offer of a professor's chair in the University of Edinburgh made to him by the principal, William Carstares, who had gone over on purpose to find suitable men for such posts. After his return to England in 1691 he began to study divinity, and on Richard Baxter's advice went to Oxford, where he was much influenced by William Chillingworth. He declined invitations from Andover and Bristol, and accepted one as assistant to Matthew Sylvester at Blackfriars, London (1692). In June 1694 he was publicly ordained at Samuel Annesley's meeting-house in Little St Helen's, Bishopsgate, and soon afterwards was invited to become assistant to Daniel Williams in Hand Alley, Bishopsgate. In 1702 he was chosen one of the lecturers in Salters' Hall, and in 1703 he succeeded Vincent Alsop as pastor of a large congregation in Tothill Street, Westminster. Calamy was a moderate Presbyterian, following the theology of Baxter. In 1709 Calamy made a tour through Scotland, and had the degree of Doctor of Divinity conferred on him by the universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow. His friendship with Williams was important for his development as a historian. He was appointed one of the original trustees of the Presbyterian Fund in 1703, and, on the foundation of Dr Williams Charity, was his legacy trustee. This enabled the construction of the Dr Williams's Library in Red Cross Street. He died on 3 June 1732 and was buried on 9 June at St Mary Aldermanbury. He married twice, leaving six of his thirteen children to survive him. His eldest son was Edmund Calamy IV (1698-1755), Presbyterian minister in London. His son (Edmund, the fifth) was a barrister who died in 1816; and this one's son (Edmund, the sixth) died in 1850, his younger brother Michael, the last of the direct Calamy line, surviving till 1876.