William Enfield, LL.D. [q. v.], was born at Nottingham on 15 May 1811. His eldest brother, William, was a leader in all philanthropic efforts at Nottingham. Edward entered Manchester College, York, as a literary student in 1826; he was contemporary with Samuel Bache [q. v.] and Sir Thomas Baker of Manchester. Through the influence of Lord Holland he was appointed one of the moneyers of the mint, and one of the most active members of this corporation, till, on the reorganisation of the mint in 1851, he retired with a pension. Henceforth he gave his time and energy to works of education and philanthropy. He was a member of the council and committee of management of University College, London (president of the senate from 1878), and of the council of University Hall, Gordon Square. From 1867 he acted as treasurer, and was the guiding spirit, of the University College Hospital; most of the sanitary and structural improvements in the hospital were due to his admirable supervision. As a unitarian dissenter he took a large share in the conduct of the unsectarian efforts for the elevation of the poor in East London, carried on by the domestic mission society of that body. In 1857 he was elected a trustee of the nonconformist endowments embraced in Dr. Williams's trust, and became a valuable member of the estates and audit committees. At the time of his death he was president of Manchester New College, London.
He died at his residence, 19 Chester Terrace, Regent's Park, on 21 April 1880, and was buried at Woking cemetery on 26 April. He was twice married: first, to a daughter of John Taylor, F.R.S., by whom he had one son; and secondly, to a daughter of Henry Roscoe of Liverpool, who survived him.
[Daily News, 23 April 1880; Inquirer, 24 April 1880; Times, 27 April 1880; these notices are reprinted in ‘In Memoriam, Edward Enfield,’ 1880; Roll of Students, Manchester New College, 1868; Jeremy's Presb. Fund, 1885, p. 217.]
ENFIELD, WILLIAM (1741–1797), divine and author, was born of poor parents at Sudbury, Suffolk, on 29 March 1741. His earliest instructor was the Rev. William Hextall, a dissenting minister, by whose advice he was prepared for the ministry, and sent, in his seventeenth year, to the Daventry Academy, then conducted by Dr. Caleb Ashworth. He was there educated as one of the alumni of the presbyterian fund. In November 1763 he was ordained minister of the congregation of protestant dissenters at Benn's Garden, Liverpool. In 1770 he succeeded the Rev. John Seddon as tutor in belles-lettres and rector of the academy at Warrington. That institution was from various causes in a declining condition, and it was dissolved in 1783. In the meantime he established a sound reputation as a divine and author, and the degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by the university of Edinburgh on 8 March 1774. His pastoral duties to the Cairo Street presbyterian congregation, which he had undertaken on first going to Warrington in 1770, were continued two years after the closing of the academy, and only relinquished on his receiving an invitation (in 1785) to the Octagon Chapel at Norwich. For some time after taking up his residence near that city he received pupils at his house, as he had done at Warrington, and among them were Denman, afterwards lord chief justice, and Maltby, subsequent bishop of Durham. Enfield was an amiable and estimable man, an influential writer and persuasive preacher, and was a leading figure in the literary society of both Warrington and Norwich.
He wrote:
- ‘Sermons for the Use of Families,’ 1768–70, 2 vols. 8vo.
- ‘Prayers for the Use of Families,’ 1770, 2nd edit. 1777.
- ‘Sermon preached at the Ordination of the Rev. Philip Taylor,’ &c., 1770.
- ‘Remarks on several late Publications relative to the Dissenters, in a letter to Dr. Priestley,’ 1770. To this Priestley replied.
- ‘The Preacher's Directory,’ 1771, 4to, 2nd edit. 1781.
- ‘Hymns for Public Worship, selected,’ 1772, 12mo, 2nd edit. 1781.
- ‘An Essay towards the History of Leverpool [i.e. Liverpool], drawn up chiefly from the papers left by the late Mr. George Perry,’ 1773, fol., 2nd edit. 1774.
- ‘The English Preacher, or Sermons on the Principal Subjects of Religion and Morality,’ 1773–79, 9 vols. 12mo.
- ‘Observations on Literary Property,’ 1774, 4to.
- ‘The Speaker, or Miscellaneous Pieces selected from the best English Writers,’ 1774. This very popular elocutionary book has often been reprinted.
- ‘A Sermon on the Death of Mr. J. Galloway,’ 1777.
- ‘Biographical Sermons on the Principal Characters in Scripture,’ 12mo.
- ‘A Sermon on the Ordination of the Rev. J. P. Estlin,’ 1778.
- ‘A Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Rev. John Aikin, D.D.,’ 1780.
- ‘Discourse on the Progress of Religion and Christian Knowledge,’ 1780.
- ‘Exercises in Elocution,’ 1780, 3rd edit. 1786. To an edition in 1794 he added ‘Counsels to Young Men.’
- A translation of Rossignol's ‘Elements of Geometry,’ 1781, 8vo.
- ‘Institutes of Natural Philosophy,’ 1785, 4to, 2nd edit. 1799.
- ‘The History of
