Bedfordshire, a large and populous parish, which he began dividing into districts. But as the task proved too great for his strength, he removed in October 1860 to the newly formed parish of St. Paul, South Hampstead. This he held till 1873, when he resigned. He resided in the district till his death on 29 Nov. 1882.
Peile was a sound scholar, and his knowledge of the classics, especially Thucydides and the Greek Testament, was remarkable. His principal works were: 1. Editions of the ‘Agamemnon of Æschylus’ 1839, ‘Choephori,’ 1840. 2. ‘Annotations on the Apostolical Epistles,’ 4 vols. 1851–2. 3. ‘Sermons, doctrinal and didactic,’ 1868. 4. ‘Three Sermons on the Holy Communion,’ 1871.
In 1831 he married Mary, daughter of James Braithwaite, esq. (who died in 1806), and by her, who survived him till 1890, he left a numerous family. A portrait of Dr. Peile is in the hall of Repton school.
[Article in the Guardian, 6 Dec. 1882; information from the Rev. T. W. Peile, rector of Ashmore, Dorset; personal acquaintance.]
PEIRCE. [See also Pearse and Pierce.]
PEIRCE, JAMES (1674?–1726), dissenting divine, son of John Peirce, was born at Wapping about 1674. His parents, who were in easy circumstances, were members of the congregational church at Stepney, under Matthew Mead [q. v.] Left an orphan about 1680, he was placed, with a brother and sister, in charge of Mead as guardian. Mead took him into his own house, and educated him with his son, Richard Mead, M.D. [q. v.], under John Nesbitt [q. v.] and Thomas Singleton, also at Utrecht (from 1689) and Leyden (from 1692). At Utrecht he formed a lasting friendship with his fellow-student, Adrian Reland, the orientalist; and he made valuable friendships among his class-mates at Leyden, then the resort of the aristocracy of English dissent. He travelled a little in Flanders and Germany before returning home in 1695.
After spending some time in Oxford, for the purpose of study at the Bodleian Library, he returned to London, was admitted (11 Feb. 1697) a member of Mead's church, and preached the evening lecture at Miles Lane congregational church, of which Matthew Clarke the younger [q. v.] was minister. He, however, ‘did not interest himself in the disputes then on foot between presbyterians and independents,’ and was ordained in 1699 by four London presbyterians, headed by Matthew Sylvester, the literary executor of Baxter. His own ideal of church government was based on Baxter's rectoral theory; he had no theoretical objection to a modified episcopacy. Early in 1701 Peirce's presbyterian friends urged his acceptance of a charge in Green Street, Cambridge, where there was a mixed congregation of independents and presbyterians. Agreeing to take it for three years, he was duly ‘dismissed’ to it by the Stepney church. He held it for six years (probably 1701–6), and received ‘a handsome allowance.’ He evidently still ranked as an independent, for he was made a trustee of the Hog Hill chapel on 23 Jan. 1702. At Cambridge he was intimate with William Whiston, who describes him as ‘the most learned of all the dissenting teachers I have known.’ He read much, especially in the topics of nonconformist controversy. John Fox (1693–1763) [q. v.] says that when he began to write in vindication of dissent, he usually sat in his study from nine at night till four or five next morning.
His removal to the presbyterian congregation at Toomer's Court, Newbury, Berkshire, was probably coincident with his first controversial publication (end of 1706) in defence of nonconformist positions against Edward Wells, D.D. [q. v.] The appearance of his ‘Vindiciæ’ (1710) in reply to the ‘Defensio’ (1707) of William Nicholls, D.D. [q. v.] brought him into prominence as a polemic; ‘he was looked upon as the first man of the party’ (Fox). Latin was employed on both sides, to gain the ear of the foreign protestants. According to Fox the latinity of the ‘Vindiciæ’ was ‘corrected very accurately by the then master of Westminster School,’ Thomas Knipe [q. v.] The work, which is dedicated to the clergy of the church of Scotland, contains a very able digest of nonconformist history and nonconformist argument, marked by acuteness and dignity. The theology of the ‘second part’ is strongly calvinistic. Peirce was sensible of the distinction which his book brought him, and this gained him enemies.
Early in 1713 he received a unanimous call to succeed George Trosse [q. v.] as one of the ministers of James's Meeting, Exeter, having to preach also in rotation at the Little Meeting. Against his removal his Newbury flock appealed to the ‘Exeter Assembly,’ a coalition of presbyterian and independent divines of Devonshire and Cornwall, on the model of the London Union of 1690 [see Howe, John, (1630–1705)]. Peirce was not sure of his health at Newbury; an opinion was asked of Dr. Mead, who said that if he ‘did study less and divert himself more, and had more help, he might have his health tolerably well.’ The Newbury people were
