the king, but only once preached in that capacity. His grandson says he ‘soon saw whither things were tending,’ and mentions an anecdote that, having Monk as his auditor on a sacrament day, he emphasised the remark, ‘Some men will betray three kingdoms for filthy lucre's sake,’ by flinging towards the general's pew ‘his handkerchief, which he usually wav'd up and down while he was preaching.’ Nevertheless, he hesitated a considerable time before refusing the bishopric of Coventry and Lichfield, which was kept open for him. We have it on Tillotson's authority that Calamy was sensible of ‘the great inconvenience of the presbyterian parity of ministers;’ but Mrs. Calamy ‘over-ruled her husband, and so the matter went off.’ At the Savoy conference (April–July 1661) Calamy took a moderate part, and there were great hopes of his conforming; but his preface to the ‘Reply’ to the bishops' ‘Answer’ to the nonconformists' ‘Exceptions’ shows that by this time his position was such as to make his nonconformity inevitable. While the conference was sitting he had been returned with Baxter by the city ministers, on 2 May, as one of their nominees for convocation. Bishop Sheldon, however, in the exercise of his power of selection, had passed them over. There was yet one measure by which Calamy might have been induced to conform, namely, the ratification by law of the provisions of the king's declaration of 25 Oct. 1660. To gain this Calamy used all the interest at his command. He was prevented by illness from waiting upon the king with the presenters of the petition for such ratification. On the failure of this last hope, and the passing of the Uniformity Act, he suffered ejection, preaching his farewell sermon (from 2 Samuel xxiv. 14) on 17 Aug. 1662. On 27 Aug. Calamy, at the head of the London ejected ministers, presented a brief petition to the king in dignified and pathetic terms. Charles gave them hopes of an indulgence; but at the privy council next day the arguments of Sheldon prevailed. Calamy continued to attend the parish church from which he had been ejected. On 28 Dec. he was present as usual, and the appointed preacher did not appear. Prevailed upon by ‘the importunity of the people,’ he went into the desk and preached with some warmth. He was committed to Newgate under the lord mayor's warrant on 6 Jan. 1663, being the first of the nonconformists who got into trouble for disobeying the Uniformity Act. Newgate Street was blocked by the coaches of his visitors. ‘A certain popish lady’ (apparently the king's mistress), detained on her way through the city by the throng, represented to the king the disturbed state of popular feeling. Calamy was set free by the king's express order, but it was stated that the act had not provided for his longer restraint. The commons on 19 Feb. referred it to a committee to inquire into this defect, and addressed the king against toleration. With this incident, which was made the subject of verses by Robert Wilde, D.D., the presbyterian humorist and poet, Calamy's public life closes. He survived to see ‘London in ashes’ after the great fire. Driven through the ruins in a coach to Enfield, the sight broke his heart. He kept his room, rapidly sank, and died on 29 Oct. 1666. The register of St. Mary Aldermanbury records, under ‘Burials since the dreadfull fire Sep. 2. 66,’ that of ‘Mr. Edmond Calamy late pastor—Nov. 6.’ Henry Newcome's diary says he was buried in the ruins of his church, ‘as near to the place where his pulpit had stood as they could guess.’ Granger mentions five prints of Calamy; a sixth, and the best, is the engraving by Mackenzie, in the second edition of Palmer; they are all from one original painting, now in private hands.
Calamy was twice married: first to Mary, daughter of Robert Snelling, portman of Ipswich, probably of the same family to which belonged Joane Snelling, the mother of William Ames, D.D. (Browne, p. 66); secondly to Anne Leaver, of the Lancashire Leavers. By his first wife he had Edmund [q. v.], Jeremy (b. November 1638), and a daughter (Mrs. Bayly). By his second wife he had Benjamin [q. v.], James, John (who was born 2 Aug. 1658, was educated at Cambridge, was twice married, and left a son, who died without issue, and a daughter, living in 1731), and four daughters, all well married. Calamy published chiefly sermons: 1. ‘England's Looking-glasse,’ &c. 1642, 4to (fast sermon before the commons, 22 Dec. 1641). For preaching this sermon Calamy received a massive almsdish, bearing his arms and the inscription, ‘This is the Gift of the House of Commons to Edmund Calamy, B.D., 1641.’ It is now in the possession of Michael Pope, Thurlow Towers, Streatham. 2. ‘God's Free Mercy to England,’ &c. 1642, 4to (ditto, 23 Feb.). 3. ‘The Nobleman's Patterne of Thankfulnesse,’ &c. 1643, 4to (thanksgiving sermon before the lords, 15 June). 4. ‘England's Antidote against the Plague of Civil Warre,’ &c. 1644, 4to (fast sermon before the commons, 22 Oct.). 5. ‘An Indictment against England because of her Selfe-murdering Divisions,’ &c. 1645, 4to (fast sermon before the lords, 25 Dec. 1644). 6. ‘The Door of Trvth opened,’ &c. 1645, 4to (anon., issued ‘in the name and with the consent of the whole church
