Francis Gastrell (10 May 1662 – 24 November 1725) was

Bishop of Chester The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York. The diocese extends across most of the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, including the Wirral Peninsula and has its see in the C ...

and a writer on

deism Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin ''deus'', meaning "god") is the Philosophy, philosophical position and Rationalism, rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that Empirical evi ...

. He was a friend of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

, mentioned several times in ''

A Journal to Stella ''A Journal to Stella'' is a work by Jonathan Swift first partly published posthumously in 1766. It consists of 65 letters to his friend, Esther Johnson, whom he called ''Stella'' and whom he may have secretly married. They were written between ...

'', and chaplain to Robert Harley, when Harley was

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: * Speaker of ...

.''Concise Dictionary of National Biography''

Life

He was born on 10 May 1662 at

Slapton, Northamptonshire Slapton is a small village in Northamptonshire, England, about from Towcester and the same from Silverstone. It is close to the A43 road which links the M40 motorway junction 10 with the M1 junction 15A at Northampton. Central London is abo ...

and educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

. He was

Boyle Lecturer The Boyle Lectures are named after Robert Boyle, a prominent natural philosopher of the 17th century and son of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. Under the terms of his Will, Robert Boyle endowed a series of lectures or sermons (originally eight e ...

in 1697. One of a group of Tory High Churchmen, he was on good terms with

Francis Atterbury Francis Atterbury (6 March 1663 – 22 February 1732) was an English man of letters, politician and bishop. A High Church Tory and Jacobite, he gained patronage under Queen Anne, but was mistrusted by the Hanoverian Whig ministries, and ban ...

George Smalridge George Smalridge (''alias'' Smallridge; 18 May 1662 – 27 September 1719) was Bishop of Bristol (1714–1719). Life Smalridge was born at Lichfield, son of the Sheriff of Lichfield Thomas Smalridge, George received his early education, this b ...

and Robert Nelson, and one of the Commission of the end of the reign of Queen Anne. In 1714, the year of her death, he became bishop of Chester through Harley's influence (consecrated on 14 April of that year in Somerset House Chapel). When Atterbury was put on trial in 1723, Gastrell spoke in his defence. He was a noted controversialist, but considered to hold moderate views. He criticised Anthony Collins, but was quite approving of

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...

. Andrew Pyle (editor), ''Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers'' (2000), article pp. 329-331. He criticised the Trinitarian theories of

William Sherlock William Sherlock (c. 1639/1641June 19, 1707) was an English church leader. Life He was born at Southwark, the son of a tradesman, and was educated at St Saviour's Grammar School and Eton, and then at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1669 he became r ...

as innovative. As a diocesan bishop, he is noted for the fine-grained survey he made of every parish, published in the nineteenth century as ''Notitia Cestriensis''. Along with it was published the so-called Gastrell Manuscript, or ''Chronicle of St. Werburg'', edited by F. R. Raines.

Works

*''The Certainty and Necessity of Religion in general; or the first Grounds and Principles of Human Duty Established'' (1697) Boyle Lecture *''Some Considerations Concerning the Trinity'' (1698) *''Principles of Deism truly represented'' (1709) attributed, dialogues *''Christian Institutes'' (1707) *''The Bishop of Chester's case, with relation to the wardenship of Manchester'' (1721) *''A Moral Proof of the Certainty of a Future State'' (1725) *''Notitia Cestriensis'' published around 1850,

Chetham Society The Chetham Society "for the publication of remains historic and literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester" is a text publication society and registered charity (No. 700047) established on 23 March 1843. History Th ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gastrell, Francis 1662 births 1725 deaths Bishops of Chester 18th-century Church of England bishops