John Kentish (26 June 1768 – 6 March 1853) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
Unitarian minister.
Life
Kentish was born at
St. Albans
St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman r ...
, Hertfordshire, on 26 June 1768. His father, at one time a
draper
Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher.
History
Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period, ...
, was the youngest son, and ultimately the heir, of Thomas Kentish, who in 1723 was high sheriff of
Hertfordshire. His mother was Hannah (d. 1793), daughter and heiress of Keaser Vanderplank.
After passing through the school of
John Worsley at Hertford, he was entered in 1784 as a divinity student at
Daventry Academy
Daventry Academy was a dissenting academy, that is, a school or college set up by English Dissenters. It moved to many locations, but was most associated with Daventry, where its most famous pupil was Joseph Priestley. It had a high reputation, a ...
, under
Thomas Belsham
Thomas Belsham (26 April 175011 November 1829) was an English Unitarian minister
Life
Belsham was born in Bedford, England, and was the elder brother of William Belsham, the English political writer and historian. He was educated at the disse ...
,
William Broadbent, and
Eliezer Cogan.
In September 1788 he moved, with two fellow-students, to the
New College at Hackney, a
dissenting college, as a result of a prohibition by the Daventry trustees of any use of written prayers at the school.
In the autumn of 1790 he left Hackney to become the first minister of a newly formed Unitarian congregation at Plymouth Dock (now Devonport), Devonshire. A chapel was built in George Street (opened 27 April 1791 by
Theophilus Lindsey
Theophilus Lindsey (20 June 1723 O.S.3 November 1808) was an English theologian and clergyman who founded the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in the country, at Essex Street Chapel.
Early life
Lindsey was born in Middlewich, Cheshire, ...
, and a prayer-book drawn up by Kentish and Thomas Porter of
Plymouth.
In 1794 he succeeded Porter as minister of the Treville Street congregation, Plymouth, after Porter emigrated to America.
["Memoir of the Late Rev. John Kentish" The Christian Reformer, Vol. IX, p. 265-285. May 1853.]
That same year, Kentish wrote a scathing letter in which he decried the refusal of a trustee of George's Meeting house in Exeter to allow the Western Unitarian Society to hold their annual meeting there, allegedly based on religious prejudice.
It was reprinted in 1800 with the name of the recipient and meetinghouse left out as a "Vindication of the Principles upon which Several Unitarians have Formed themselves into Societies," and gained wide distribution.
In 1795, he moved to London to serve as the afternoon preacher at the Gravel Pit, Hackney, adding to this office in 1802 that of morning preacher at St. Thomas's Chapel, Southwark.
On 23 January 1803, he undertook the pastorate of the
New Meeting in Birmingham, serving, from 1804-1815, alongside
Joshua Toulmin
Joshua Toulmin ( – 23 July 1815) of Taunton, England was a noted theologian and a serial Dissenting minister of Presbyterian (1761–1764), Baptist (1765–1803), and then Unitarian (1804–1815) congregations. Toulmin's sympathy for b ...
. In 1832, Kentish declined his compensation, but retained the office of pastor, and continued to preach frequently through 1844.
Kentish died 6 March 1853, after a brief illness.
Family
Kentish married, on 28 October 1805, Mary (21 March 1775 - 9 March 1864) his second cousin, the daughter of John Kettle of Birmingham, whose wife's sister was married to Mr. Kentish's uncle, Mr. Joshua Iremonger Kentish, of St. Alban's. They had no children.
Works
Kentish's sermons were published in 1848, and he was a frequent contributor to the ''
Monthly Repository
The ''Monthly Repository'' was a British monthly Unitarian periodical which ran between 1806 and 1838. In terms of editorial policy on theology, the ''Repository'' was largely concerned with rational dissent. Considered as a political journal, it ...
'', a Unitarian periodical.
* ''The moral tendency of the genuine Christian Doctrine.'' London: J. Davis, 1796.
* ''Vindication of the Principles upon which Several Unitarians have Formed themselves into Societies.'' London: J. Davis, 180
* ''The Situation and Duty of Protestant Dissenters.'' Birmingham: James Belcher and Son, 1829
* ''Sermons.'' Birmingham: James Belcher and Sons, 1848
* ''Notes and Comments on Passages of Scripture.'' London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1848.
On taking leave of his two congregations, Kentish preached and printed a sermon in both locations, "A Review of Christian Doctrine," which contained a summary of the principal topics of his preaching over his thirty-year pastorate.
William Sturch, who had attended one of the services, wrote a tract condemning Kentish's
Preterist
Preterism, a Christian eschatological view, interprets some (partial preterism) or all (full preterism) prophecies of the Bible as events which have already happened. This school of thought interprets the Book of Daniel as referring to events th ...
views, in which he was said to have "overstated" the fulfilment of
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
's prediction of the
siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and under-stated the natural evidences of the immortality of man.
References
;Attribution:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kentish, John
1768 births
1853 deaths
English Unitarian ministers