Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Disney, John (1677-1730)
DISNEY, JOHN (1677–1730), divine, was born at Lincoln on 26 Dec. 1677, and received his early education at the grammar school in that city. His parents, being dissenters, removed him thence to a private academy for dissenters at Lincoln. As soon, however, as he reached manhood, he became a churchman and communicant. In May 1698 he married Mary, daughter and heiress of William Woodhouse. He was entered at the Middle Temple, with no view to his practising at the bar, but in order to make him sufficiently acquainted with the laws to be able to act as a competent magistrate. As a magistrate he was so efficient and impartial, that he was more than once publicly complimented by the judges of circuit for the services which he rendered to his country. He was removed from the commission of the peace in 1710, but restored next year. He was a warm supporter of the societies for the reformation of manners which were formed at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and which met with much opposition on various grounds. He supported them, not only in his magisterial capacity, and by his personal influence, but also with his pen, his writings on this subject being the best known and most effective part of his literary work. After having lived to the age of forty-two as a pious and active lay churchman, many bright examples of which character were to be found in the early part of the eighteenth century, he formed a desire of entering holy orders, and was warmly encouraged to do so by the archbishop of Canterbury, William Wake, who had been bishop of Lincoln in Mr. Disney's early days, and had probably then learned to know his worth. He was accordingly ordained deacon and priest in 1719 by the bishop of Lincoln (Edmund Gibson), and was immediately afterwards presented to the livings of Croft and Kirkby-on-Bain, both in his native county. In 1722 he resigned his country benefices, and was appointed to the important living of St. Mary's, Nottingham. There he lived until his death on 3 Feb. 1729–30. He left behind him a widow and eight children, five sons and three daughters.
Disney was a somewhat voluminous writer, though most of his works, with the exception, at least, of those relating to the societies for the reformation of manners, have now passed into oblivion. The list of his works is as follows: 1. ‘Primitiæ Sacræ, or the Reflections of a Devout Solitude,’ in prose and verse, London, 1701 and 1703. 2. ‘Flora,’ a poem in admiration of the ‘Gardens’ of Rapin, annexed to Sub-dean Gardiner's translation of that work. 3. ‘An Essay upon the Execution of the Laws against Immorality and Profaneness, with a Preface addressed to Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace,’ London, 1708 and 1710. 4. ‘A Second Essay’ upon the same subject, ‘wherein the case of giving information to magistrates is considered, and objections against it answered,’ London, 1710. These essays are written in the form of a dialogue, and ably meet the different objections urged against the writer's favourite societies. 5. ‘Remarks on a Sermon preached by Dr. Henry Sacheverell at the Derby Assizes, 15 Aug. 1709. In a Letter addressed to himself, containing a just and modest Defence of the Societies for the Reformation of Manners against aspersions cast upon them in that Sermon,’ London, 1711. 6. ‘A View of Ancient Laws against Immorality and Profaneness,’ an elaborate work, dedicated to Lord King, afterwards lord chancellor. Cambridge, 1729. 7. Several occasional sermons. 8. ‘The Genealogy of the most Serene and Illustrious House of Brunswick-Lunenburgh, the present Royal Family of Great Britain,’ 1714. 9. Proposals for the publication of a great work which he designed, under the title of ‘Corpus Legum de Moribus Reformandis.’ He collected the materials for this work, but died before it was finished. He also published several sermons.
[Works; Life by grandson, John Disney, 1746–1816 [q. v.], in Biog. Brit. An elaborate pedigree of the Disney family is in Hutchins's Dorsetshire, ii. 99–102.]