Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gauntlett, Henry (1762-1833)
GAUNTLETT, HENRY (1762–1833), divine, was born at Market Lavington, Wiltshire, on 15 March 1762, and educated at the grammar school of West Lavington, under the care of the Rev. Mr. Marks. After leaving school he was idle for some years, till, by the advice of the Rev. Sir James Stonehouse, he decided to enter the established church, and after three years' preparation was ordained in 1786, and became curate of Tilshead and Imber, villages about four miles distant from Lavington. He remained in this neighbourhood, adding to his income by taking pupils, till 1800, when he married Arabella, the daughter of Edward Davies, rector of Coychurch, Glamorganshire, and removed to the curacy of Botley, near Southampton. He left Botley in 1804 for the curacy of Wellington, Shropshire, which he occupied for a year, and then took charge of a chapel at Reading, Berkshire, not under episcopal jurisdiction. In two years' time he removed to the curacy of Nettlebed and Pishill, Oxfordshire, and thence in 1811 to Olney, Buckinghamshire. In 1815 the vicar of Olney died, and Gauntlett obtained the living, which he held till his death in 1833. Gauntlett was a close friend of Rowland Hill, and an important supporter of the evangelical revival in the English church, in company with his predecessors at Olney, John Newton and Thomas Scott. He published several sermons during his lifetime, and in 1821 ‘An Exposition of the Book of Revelation,’ 8vo, which rapidly passed through three editions, and brought its author the sum of 700l. The second edition contained a letter in refutation of the opinion of ‘Basilicus,’ published in the ‘Jewish Expositor,’ that during the millennium Christ would personally reign. In 1836 the Rev. Thomas Jones published an abridgment of this entitled ‘The Interpreter; a Summary View of the Revelation of St. John … founded on … H. Gauntlett's Exposition,’ &c., 12mo. After Gauntlett's death a collection of his sermons, in two volumes 8vo, (1835), was published, to which a lengthy memoir by his daughter Catherine is prefixed. The appendix reprints portions of a rare work upon the career of John Mason of Water Stratford, Buckinghamshire, and thirty-eight letters written by William Cowper to Teedon [see under Cowper, William, 1731–1800]. Gauntlett published several collections of hymns for his parishioners. His son Henry John, the composer, is noticed below.
[The Memoir mentioned above; Brit. Mus. Cat. under ‘Catherine T. Gauntlett’ and ‘H. Gauntlett.’]