years as second master at Brompton (1828-1831), he succeeded to a fellowship at Corpus in 1832. In 1831 he graduated M.A., was ordained and served the curacy of Wardington, near Cropredy, until 1840, when he was appointed to the college living of Fenny Compton. During this period he was also reader in Latin at Corpus (1832-5), select readier before the university (1834 and 1838), and junior dean of his college (1838). He graduated B.D. in 1838 and D.D. in 1853. He was Bampton lecturer in 1845, and was elected Margaret professor by the graduates in theology, who were also members of convocation, in 1853. This post he held for forty-two years, combining it with the rectory of Fenny Compton till 1872. He died at Oxford on 1 May 1895, and was buried beside his wife in Oseney cemetery on 3 May. He married, on 10 April 1844, Jane, daughter of the Rev. W. B. Harrison, vicar of Goudhurst, Kent; by her, who died at Christ Church on 23 Sept. 1893, he left issue one son, Charles Abel, rector of Ashington in Sussex, and three daughters, of whom the eldest, Isabella, married Sydney Linton (d. 1894), bishop of Riverina.
Learned, courteous, retiring, reading and thinking much, but writing little, Heurtley represented the older type of Oxford scholar, whose influence depended rather upon his personal relations with members of the university than upon the effect of his written works on the world at large. His appearances in public were mainly in connection with the theological questions of the day. He sat as one of the theological assessors in the court that tried Archdeacon Denison for unsound eucharistic doctrine (1856). In 1873 he entered a strong protest, on theological grounds, against the bestowal of an honorary degree upon Professor Tyndall, and in the same year he protested against the precedence accorded to Cardinal Manning at the jubilee dinner of the Oxford Union. His action in these matters was typical of his theological position. He had a profound devotion to the church of England, and conceived its position mainly on the lines of the evangelical party. But he was not a party man, as was shown in a very striking way when in advanced years (1890) he preached a sermon in the cathedral deploring hasty and unmeasured condemnation of the 'higher criticism.' His practical gifts were displayed in his parish at Fenny Compton, where he organised a small company to provide a proper water supply for the village. The scheme was successful, and the village has in consequence been spared from constant visits of epidemic disease.
Heurtley's written work is small in amount, and consists largely of sermons. Of these the most considerable volume is the Bampton lectures on 'Justification' (1845). But he also published a series of works on 'Creeds and Formularies of Faith,' the main subject of his study and of his lectures, of which 'De Fide et Symbolo' (1864) has reached a second edition, and is very largely used. His latest work was 'A History of the Earlier Formularies of the Western and Eastern Churches, to which is added an Exposition of the Athanasian Creed' (1892). Posthumously was published 'Wholesome Words; Sermons . . . preached before the University of Oxford . . . edited with a ... Memoir . . . by William Ince, D.D., Canon of Christ Church' (London, 1896, 8vo).
[Memoir by Dr. W. Ince, Reg. Prof, of Divinity at Oxford, prefixed to a volume of sermons entitled 'Wholesome Words,' 1896; private information ; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1710-1886.]
HEWETT, Sir PRESCOTT GARDNER (1812–1891), surgeon, son of William N. W. Hewett of Bilham House, near Doncaster, was born on 3 July 1812. He received a good education, which was completed in Paris, where he devoted some time to painting, though he afterwards abandoned the idea of following art as a profession and turned his attention to medicine. He learned anatomy in Paris, where he also became thoroughly grounded in the principles and practice of French surgery, and on his return to England he was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons on 15 July 1836. He then attracted the favourable notice of Sir Benjamin C. Brodie [q. v.] by the excellence of his dissections, so that when he was on the point of accepting a commission in the service of the Honourable East India Company he was offered the post of demonstrator of anatomy at St. George's Hospital, where his relative, Dr. Cornwallis Hewett, Downing professor of medicine at Cambridge, had served as physician from 1825 to 1833. Hewett became curator of the museum at St. George's Hospital about the end of 1840; the first record in his handwriting of a post-mortem examination is dated 1 Jan. 1841. He was appointed lecturer on anatomy in 1845, and on 4 Feb. 1848 he was elected assistant surgeon to the hospital, becoming full surgeon on 21 June 1861 and consulting surgeon on 12 Feb. 1875.
At the Royal College of Surgeons of England he was elected a fellow on 11 Dec. 1843. He was Arris and Gale professor of human anatomy and physiology 1854-9, a member of the council 1867-83, chairman
