Theophilus Polwhele or Polwheile (died 1689) was an English

ejected minister The Great Ejection followed the Act of Uniformity 1662 in England. Several thousand Puritan ministers were forced out of their positions in the Church of England, following Stuart Restoration, The Restoration of Charles II of England, Charles I ...

Life

From a Cornish background, Polwhele was born in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. He entered

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

, as a

sizar At Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is an undergraduate who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined jo ...

, on 29 March 1644, and had

William Sancroft William Sancroft (30 January 161724 November 1693) was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II, over his opposition to the king's Declaration of Indulge ...

as a

tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...

, He graduated B.A. in 1648, M.A. in 1651. In 1649 Polwhele became minister at

Langton Long Blandford Langton Long Blandford is a small village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It is sited by the River Stour, approximately southeast of Blandford Forum. In 2013 the estimated population of the parish was 120. Forming ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, staying there until 1651. He then was preacher at

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

until about 1655. In 1654 he was a member of the committee for ejecting scandalous ministers in the four northern counties of Cumberland, Durham, Northumberland, and Westmorland. From that year until 1660, when he was driven from the living, he held the rectory of the portions of Clare and Tidcombe at Tiverton. Polwhele sympathised with the religious views of the Independents, and from the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

of 1660 he was often in trouble for his religious opinions. On the 1687

Declaration of Indulgence The Declaration of Indulgence, also called Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, was a pair of proclamations made by James II of England and Ireland and VII of Scotland in 1687. The Indulgence was first issued for Scotland on 12 February and t ...

, the Steps meeting-house was built at Tiverton for the members of the Independent congregyion; he was appointed its first minister, with Samuel Bartlett as assistant. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter, Tiverton, on 3 April 1689.

Works

Polwhele was the author of: *''Aὐθέντης, or a Treatise of Self-deniall'', 1658; dedicated to the mayor, recorder, and corporation of Carlisle. There was a preface by his friend

Ralph Venning Ralph Venning (c. 1621 – 10 March 1673 or 1674) was an English nonconformist Christian. Life The son of Francis and Joan Venning, he was born in Devon, perhaps at Kingsteignton, about 1621. He was the first convert of George Hughes, the purit ...

. *''Original and Evil of Apostasie'', 1664. *''Of Quencing the Spirit'', 1667. *''Choice Directions how to serve God every Working and every Lord's Day'', 1667; published by Thomas Mall as an addition to his ‘Serious Exhortation to Holy Living.’ *''Of Ejaculatory Prayer'', 1674; dedicated to Thomas Skinner, merchant in London, a supporter.

Family

Polwhele's wife was a daughter of the Rev. William Benn of Dorchester. Their daughter Elizabeth married

Stephen Lobb Stephen Lobb (c. 1647 – 1699) was an English nonconformist minister and controversialist. He was prominent in the 1680s as a court representative of the Independents to James II, and in the 1690s in polemics between the Presbyterian and Independe ...

. It has been said that she may be the playwright " E. Polewheele", a contemporary of

Aphra Behn Aphra Behn (; bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barrie ...

and

Frances Boothby Frances Boothby ( fl. 1669–1670) was an English playwright and the first woman to have a play professionally produced in London. Life Little is known of Boothby's life but the dedications of her two extant works have led to speculation that ...

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Polwhele, Theophilus Year of birth missing 1689 deaths English theologians People from Somerset Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge