Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cruden, William

by Thompson Cooper

CRUDEN, WILLIAM (1725–1785), Scotch divine, was the son of Alexander Cruden, beadle at Pitsligo. He graduated M.A. at Aberdeen in 1743; became minister of Logie-Pert, near Montrose, in 1753; and was elected minister of the Scotch presbyterian church in Crown Court, Covent Garden, London, in 1773, in succession to Thomas Oswald. He died on 5 Nov. 1785, aged 60, and was buried in the Bunhill Fields cemetery. His works are:

1. ‘Hymns on a variety of Divine Subjects,’ Aberdeen, 1761, 12mo.
2. ‘Nature Spiritualised, in a variety of Poems, containing pious and practical observations on the works of nature, and the ordinary occurrences in life,’ London, 1766, 8vo.
3. ‘Sermons on Evangelical and Practical Subjects,’ London, 1787, 8vo, with his portrait prefixed, engraved by T. Trotter from a painting by D. Allen.

[Wilson's Dissenting Churches, iv. 9; Addit. MS. 28518 a, Nos. 1710, 1711; Notes and Queries, 2nd series, iii. 447, 516; Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 838; Jones's Bunhill Memorials, 36.]

T. C.