FULLER, RICHARD: American Baptist preacher; b. at Beaufort, S. C., Apr. 22, 1804; d. in Baltimore Oct. 20, 1876. He was the son of a prosperous South Caroilna cotton-planter, and was brought up as an Episcopalian. In 1820 he entered Harvard, where he took high rank as scholar and debater. Though he was obliged on account of ill health to abandon his studies before the completion of his course, he received his degree in 1824. Returning to South Carojina he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and by 1831 had gained a high reputation in his chosen profession. In Oct., 1831, he was converted under the ministry of Daniel Baker, a Baptist evangelist, and soon after began to preach with remarkable eloquence. As pastor in Beaufort, his home town, he was eminently successful and soon gained a national reputation as preacher and denominational leader. He was one of the most eminent of the Southern representatiies in the Triennial Convention at the time of the rupture of the Northern and Southern Baptists on the slavery question, and with Francis Wayland as his chief opponent ably defended, in a literary way, the Southern view of slavery. As pastor of the Eutaw Place Church, Baltimore (1846-76), he came to be recognized as the foremost pulpit orator of the American Baptists, and as a denominational leader he was prominent in the great denominational gatherings. In figure and feature he was impressive and attractive.
His Sermons, in three volumes, were published posthumously (Baltimore, 1877).
Bibliography: J. H. Cuthbert, Life of Richard Fuller, New York, 1878.
FULLER, THOMAS: English theologian and church historian; b. at Aldwincle (3 m. n.e. of Thrapston), Northamptonshire, June, 1608; d. in London Aug. 16, 1661. He was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1625; M.A., 1628), afterward entering Sidney Sussex College as a fellow commoner. In 1630 he was ordained and appointed to the living of St. Benet's, Cambridge. The next year he published his first book, in the fantastic poetical style of the period, .David's Hainous Sinne, Heartie Repentance, Heatie Punishment, and obtained the prebend of Netherbury in Salisbury Cathedral. From 1634 to 1641 he held the rectory of Broadwindsor in Dorsetshire, but did not wholly break off his connection with Cambridge. His first important book, the His tory of the Holy Warre, i.e., the Crusades, appeared in 1639. A year later he was elected proctor in convocation, and presently removed to London, where his wit in the pulpit was widely celebrated; ultimately he became lecturer at the Savoy Chapel. In 1642 he published his most characteristic work, The Holy State and the Profane State. His loyalty caused him to be driven out of London and to take
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Bibliography: A very full list of Fuller's works is given at the end of the sketch in DNB, xx. 315-320. The Church History, History of University o,' Cambridge, and History of Waltham Abbey were edited by James Nichols, London, 1868, and for the Oxford University Press by J. S. Brewer, 1845. The Worthies of England was reprinted London, 1840. The original authority on the life is the anonymous biography printed in Brewer's ed. of the Church History. The best life is by J. E. Bailey, Life of Thomas Fuller, with Notices of his Books, his Kinsmen and his Friends, London, 1874. Consult also M. Fuller, Thomas Fuller, his Life, Times and Writings, 2 vols., ib. 1886.
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