Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cawdry, Daniel
CAWDRY, DANIEL (1588–1664), nonconformist divine, was the youngest son of Robert Cawdry, not of Zachary Cawdry, vicar of Melton Mowbray, as Mr. Nichols supposes (History of Leicestershire). He was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and was instituted to the living of Great Billing, Northamptonshire, in 1625, 'in the presentation of the king by wardship of Christopher Hatton, esq.' He became one of the leading members of the assembly of divines appointed by parliament in 1643 for the regulation of religion. He was one of the presbyterian ministers who signed the address to the Lord General Fairfax remonstrating against all personal violence against the king. At the Restoration he was recommended to Lord Clarendon for a bishopric. Instead, however, of coveting further promotion, he refused to submit to the Act of Uniformity in 1662, and was ejected from his benefice, upon which he retired to Wellingborough, where he died in October 1664 in his seventy-sixth year. He was an able and voluminous writer of controversial divinity, both against the Anglicans on the one side and the independents on the other; and he measured swords with two of the ablest advocates of both, Henry Hammond and John Owen. The titles of his works tell their own tales. The principal of them are: 1. 'Sabbatum Redivivum; or, the Christian Sabbath vindicated,' 1641. 2. 'The Inconsistency of the Independent Way with Scripture and itself,' 1651. 3. 'An Answer to Mr. Giles Firmin's Questions concerning Baptism.' 1652. 4. 'A Diatribe concerning Superstition, Will-worship, and the Christmas Festival,' 1654. 5. 'Independence, a Great Schism, proved against Dr. (John) Owen's Apology,' 1657. 6. 'Survey of Dr. Owen's Review of his Treatise on Schism,' 1658. 7. 'A Vindication of the Diatribe against Dr. Hammond; or, the Account audited and discounted,' 1658, 8. 'Bowing towards the Altar Superstitious; being an answer to Dr. Duncan's "Determination," ' 1661. He also published several devotional works, and a great number of single sermons.
[Baker's History of Northamptonshire, p. 23; Daniel Cawdry's Works; Palmer's Memorial, iii, 27.]