Ambrose Serle (1742–1812)
was an English official, diarist and writer of Christian prose and hymns.
Life
Serle was born on 30 August 1742, and entered the
Royal Navy. In 1764, while living in or near London, Serle became a friend of
William Romaine. Other friends of his among the evangelicals were
John Thornton,
John Newton,
Augustus Toplady, and
Legh Richmond
Legh Richmond (1772–1827) was a Church of England clergyman and writer. He is noted for tracts, narratives of conversion that innovated in the relation of stories of the poor and female subjects, and which were subsequently much imitated. He wa ...
.
When
William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth became
Secretary of State for the Colonies
The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British Cabinet government minister, minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various British Empire, colonial dependencies.
Histor ...
in 1772, Serle was appointed one of his under-secretaries, and in January 1776 he was made clerk of reports. He went to America in 1774, and accompanied the British Army from 1776 to 1778.
In 1776
William Tryon gave him control of the political section of the ''New-York Gazette'', which he held from September 1776 to July 1777.
On returning from America in 1780 Serle settled at
Heckfield,
Hampshire. In 1795 he was a commissioner of the transport service and the care of prisoners of war, and was reappointed in 1803 and 1809.
Serle died on 1 August 1812, and was buried in the churchyard at
Broadwater, West Sussex
Broadwater is a neighbourhood of Worthing, in the borough of Worthing in West Sussex, England. Situated between the South Downs and the English Channel, Broadwater was once a parish in its own right and included Worthing when the latter was a sma ...
. He was married, and a daughter Jane (1780–1792) was Mrs. Romaine's goddaughter.
Works
Serle was the author of ''Americans Against Liberty'' (1775), a pamphlet published anonymously that defended the British Empire as a rightful and just government, arguing against the rebellious American colonists on religious grounds.
It also criticizes the American colonists as enemies of the British public, and opponents of the freedoms provided by Great Britain.
''The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, Secretary to Lord Howe 1776-1778'' is a primary source in the history of the
American Revolution. Serle was the private secretary to the British general
William Howe.
Serle also wrote two well-known devotional books. ''Horae Solitariae: Essays upon some remarkable Names and Titles of Jesus Christ occurring in the Old Testament'', and a second volume, were published some time after 1780, and had a second edition in 1787. The ''Christian Remembrancer'' was published in 1787.
References
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Notes
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serle, Ambrose
1742 births
1812 deaths
English diarists
English hymnwriters
People from Hart District