HORSLEY, SAMUEL: Bishop of St. Asaph; b. at St. Martin's Place, London, Sept. 15, 1733; d. at Brighton Oct. 4, 1806. He received his early training from his father, and in 1751 entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge (LL.B., 1758). On leaving the university he became curate to his father, rector of Newington Butts, Surrey, and succeeded to the rectory in 1759. In 1768 he went to Oxford as tutor to Lord Guernsey, who secured for him the rectory of Albury, Surrey, in 1774. In 1777 he became domestic chaplain to Robert Lowth, bishop of London, who gave him a prebend at St. Paul's. Later in the year he succeeded his father as lecturer at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. Lowth presented him to Thorley in 1780, made him archdeacon of St. Albans in 1781, and presented him to the vicarage of South Weald, Essex, in 1782. Horsley was a scientist as well as a theologian, and won his first laurels by his scientific publications. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1767 and was one of the secretaries of the Society from 1773 till 1784. In this period falls his edition of Newton's works (5 vols., London, 1779-55). He is now remembered chiefly for his famous controversy with Joseph Priestley. In his History of the CorruPbona of Christianity (2 vols., Birmingham, 1782) Priestley had attacked the doctrine of the Trinity. Horsley took up the gauntlet in A Charge . . . to the Clergy of the Archdraeonnf of St. Albans (London, 1783). During the course of the controversy, which lasted till 1790, he published Letters . . . in Reply to Dr. Priestley (1784) and Remarks upon Dr. Priestley's Second Letter (1786). These, with other writings, were included in Tracts in Controversy with Dr. Priestley (Gloucester, 1789). In this dispute Horsley proved more than a match for the eminent scientist and Socinian. For thus stemming the tide of Unitarianism he was rewarded by Lord Chancellor Thurlow with a prebend in Gloucester in 1787, and the see of St. David's in 1788. For his efficient support of the government in the House of Lords he was translated to the see of Rochester in 1793, with which he held the deanery of Westminster. He was translated to St. Asaph in 1802. Horsley was a man of overbearing temper, but a keen reasoner and a remarkable preacher. Other works are Sermons (3 vols., Dundee, 1810-12); and the posthumous Psalms translated from the Hebrew (2 vols., 1815) and Biblical Criticism on . . . the Old Testament (4 vols., 1820). All of these are included in his Theological Works (6 vols., London, 1845).

Bibliography: Walter Wilson, History of Dissenting Churches in London, 1. 380, London, 1808; J. B. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, iv. 673 sqq., viii. 509, ib. 1812-14; H. P. Stanley, Hiztorieal Memorials of Westminster Abbey, P. 474, ib. 1868; J. Stoughton, Religion in England, ib. 1878; J. H. Overton and F. Relton, The English Church 171.¢-1800, pp. 254-257 et passim, ib. 1906; DNB, avii. 383--386 (where further references to sources are given).