Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/415

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Bagshaw
403
Bagshaw

Newgate; but it appears that he was allowed out on parole, and really died in Tothill Street, Westminster, on 28 Dec. 1671. A reference to his death by Richard Baxter, that has become classic, must find place here. 'About the day it ['The Church told '] came out, Mr. Bagshaw died, a prisoner, tho' not in prison; which made it grievous to me to think that I must seem to write against the dead. While we wrangle here in the dark, we are dying, and passing to the world that will decide all controversies; and the safest passage thither is by peaceable holiness.' He was buried in Bunhill Fields, and Dr. John Owen wrote the following inscription for his altar-tomb:—

'Here lies interred, the Body of Mr. Edward Bagshaw, minister of the Gospel, who received faith from God to embrace it, courage to defend it, and patience to suffer for it, which is by most despised and by many persecuted; esteeming the advantage of birth, education, and learning as things of worth to be accounted loss for the knowledge of Christ. From the reproaches of pretended friends, and persecutions of professed adversaries, he took sanctuary, by the will of God, in eternal rest, the 28th December 1671.'

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 944-50; Fasti, ii. 120, 166; Kennett's Parochial Antiquities, 675; Noble's Cont, of Granger, i. 98, note; Calamy's Abridgment, ix. 336; Bridge's Northamptonshire, ii. 87-8; Pope's Life of Seth Ward; Seymour's Survey of London, i. 98; Cole's MS. Athenæ, Y. Incorporations; Alumni West-monasterienses, 125-6; Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, iii. Ill; 'EλαιοΦορια, or the Peace with Holland, 1654.]

BAGSHAW, HENRY, D.D. (1632–1709), divine, the younger son of Edward Bagshaw, treasurer of the Middle Temple, was born at Broughton, Northamptonshire, in 1632. After attending Westminster School, he was, in 1651, elected student of Christ Church, Oxford, of which he became M.A. in 1657. In 1663 he was appointed chaplain to Sir Richard Fanshaw, ambassador to Spain and Portugal. After the death of Sir Richard Fanshaw in 1666, he returned to England, and became chaplain to the Archbishop of York, who made him prebendary of Southwell and rector of Castleton in Synderick. In August 1667, he was collated to the prebend of Barnaby in York Cathedral, and in 1668 to that of Fridaythorp. He became B.D. in the same year, and D.D. in 1671. In 1672 he was made chaplain to the Lord Chancellor Danby, and rector of St. Botolph's Church, Bishopsgate, London, which he exchanged for Houghton-le-Spring, Durham. In 1681 he was appointed prebendary of Durham. He died at Houghton 30 Dec. 1709. Bagshaw enjoyed a high reputation as a pulpit orator, and he also published 'Sermon preached in Madrid on the occasion of the Death of Sir R. Fanshaw,' 1667; 'The Excellency of Primitive Government, in a Sermon,' 1673; 'A Sermon preached before the King at Whitehall,' 1676: and 'Diatribe, or Discourses upon Select Texts against Papists and Socinians,' 1680.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 631; Hutchinson's History of Durham, ii, 206.]

BAGSHAW, WILLIAM (1628–1702), divine, was known as the 'Apostle of the Peak.' One of the most enduring religious chapbooks, though it is rarely to be met with now, was his 'Life and Funeral Sermon' by J. Ashe (1704, 12mo). It is the main source of information concerning him, though even today, in the dales and mountain-sides of Derbyshire, his name is known and honoured. He was born at Litton, in the parish of Tideswell, 17 Jan. 1627-8. He received his early education at 'several country schools,' and made 'greater proficiency in learning than most of his equals.' He received profound religious impressions under the old puritan ministers, Rowlandson of Bakewell and Bourn of Ashover. He was of the university of Cambridge, entering Corpus Christi College. He received holy orders, and preached his first sermon in the chapel of Warmhill, in his native parish. There he remained about three months. Though later he lamented that in his youth he had entered 'too rashly on the awful work,' his labours in and out of the pulpit proved singularly acceptable. From Tideswell he removed to Attercliffe, in Yorkshire. Here he occupied a twofold post, viz. assistant to the Rev. James Fisher of Sheffield, and chaplain in the family of Colonel (afterwards Sir) John Bright. He was ordained at Chesterfield, Derbyshire, on 1 Jan. 1650. Some time after he was presented to the living of Glossop. After the Restoration the Act of Uniformity left him no choice but to withdraw from his beloved church and congregation. He was one of the two thousand ejected in 1662.

Upon the ejection he retired to Ford, in an adjacent parish. He was well-born and possessed of a 'good estate,' and lived as a country gentleman. He stood fast to his nonconformity; but his 'moderation was known to all men.' He attended the parish church. But holding his 'orders' to be 'divine and indefeasible,' he did not hesitate to 'preach the Gospel' as opportunity offered, in his own private house and those of friends, and reguarly conducted service on Thursday evenings.