CLEGG, JAMES, M.D. (1679–1755), presbyterian minister, born at Shawfield in the parish of Rochdale, Lancashire, on 26 Oct. 1679, was educated by the Rev. Richard Frankland at Rathmell in Yorkshire, and the Rev. John Chorlton at Manchester. In 1702 he settled as minister of a presbyterian congregation at Malcalf or Malcoffe in Derbyshire, in succession to the Rev. William Bagshaw [q. v.], the 'Apostle of the Peak,' and in 1711 he removed to Chinley, where a chapel had been built, partly from the old materials of the Malcalf meeting-house. At Chinley he remained until his death, on 5 Aug. 1755. He qualified himself as a medical man and obtained the degree of M.D. This step was no doubt taken in order that he might have the means of adding to the slender income he would receive as a village dissenting pastor. During his long residence in the Peak district he gained great respect for his distinguished abilities and kindly character.
In 1703 he, in conjunction with the Rev. John Ashe [q. v.], edited William Bagshaw's 'Essays on Union unto Christ,' and shortly afterwards he wrote an 'advertisement' prefixed to Mr. Ashe's 'Peaceable and Thankful Temper recommended,' the subject of which is the union of England and Scotland. In 1721 he published a discourse on the 'Covenant of Grace' (pp. 71), written in answer to the Rev. Samuel De la Rose of Stockport; and in 1731 he printed a sermon which he had preached at the ordination of John Holland, jun., entitled 'The Continuance of the Christian Church secured by its Constitution.' In 1736 he wrote a little book which is valuable for its biographical information, entitled 'A Discourse occasion'd by the sudden death of the Reverend Mr. John Ashe : to which is added a Short Account of his Life and Character, and of some others in or near the High Peak in Derbyshire, as an appendix to the Rev. Mr. William Bagshaw's Book "De Spiritualibus Pecci"'(12mo, pp. 109). He subsequently edited a collection of 'Seventeen Sermons' preached by his friend John Ashe (1741, 8vo). Clegg was married in 1703 to Ann Champion.
[History of Chesterfield, 1839, p. 130; Sir Thomas Baker's Memorials of a Dissenting Chapel, 1884, p. 101; O. Heywood's Diaries, ed. Turner, iv. 318, 321; Urwick's Nonconformity in Cheshire, 1864, p. 293; Brit. Mus. and Manchester Free Library Catalogues.]
CLEGG, JOHN (1714?–1746?), violinist, is said to have been born in Ireland, and to have studied the violin under Dubourg and Buononcini. He travelled in Italy with Lord Ferrers, and made his first appearance in London in 1723, when he played a concerto by Vivaldi. For several years he stood at the head of his profession as an executant, but over-study drove him mad, and on 21 Jan. 1743–4 he was confined in Bethlehem Hospital, where during his sane intervals he was allowed to play on the violin. Burney relates that it was long ‘a fashionable, though inhuman amusement to visit him there … in hopes of being entertained by his fiddle or his folly,’ and adds that ‘no one who ever heard him would allow that he was excelled by any performer in Europe on the violin.’ He was discharged as cured 20 July 1744, but on 15 Dec. of the same year was readmitted, and remained in the hospital until 13 Oct. 1746, when he was again discharged, his condition at this time not being stated. His death is supposed to have occurred shortly afterwards. Before his admission to the hospital Clegg lived in the parish of St. James's Westminster.
[Burney, in Rees's Cyclopædia; Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, i.; Hawkins's Hist. of Music, v. 361; Burney's Hist. of Music, iv. 609; Chrysander's G. F. Händel, ii. 256; Records of Bethlehem Hospital, communicated by Mr. G. H. Haydon.]
CLEGG, SAMUEL (1781–1861), inventor and gas engineer, born at Manchester on 2 March 1781, received a scientific education under the care of Dr. Dalton. He was then apprenticed to Boulton and Watt, and at the Soho factory witnessed many of William Murdoch's earlier experiments in the use of coal gas. He profited so well by his residence there that he was soon engaged by Mr. Henry Lodge to adapt the new lighting system to his cotton mills at Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax ; and finding the necessity for some simpler method of purifying the gas, he invented the lime purifiers. After removing to London, he lighted in 1813 with gas the establishment of Mr. Rudolph Ackermann, printseller, 101 Strand. Here his success was so pronounced that it brought him prominently forward, and in the following year he became the engineer of the Chartered Gas Company. He made many unsuccessful attempts to construct a dry meter which would register satisfactorily; but in 1816 patented a water meter which has been the basis of all the subsequent improvements in the method of measuring gas. For some years he was actively engaged in the construction of gasworks, or in advising on the formation of new gas companies ; but in an evil hour he joined an engineering establishment at Liverpool, in which he lost everything he possessed, and had to commence the world
