SACHEVEREL, HENRY, D.D., was b. in the year 1672, at Marlborough, where his father was minister of St. Peter's church, and noted for his attachment to the high church principles, which were afterward embraced by his son. The youth was edu cated at the grammar-school of his native place, and at Magdalen college, Oxford, where he occupied chambers along with the celebrated Addison, who then and for many years tifterward seems to have entertained for him a warm regard. He obtained a fel lowship in his college, and took successively the degrees of M.A. (1696), of RD. (1707), and of D.D. (1708). In 1705, he became preacher of St. Saviour's, Southwark; and in 1709, he delivered the two sermons—one at the assizes at Derby, the other on Nov. 5, at St. Paul's—which have given him a place in the history of his country' The rancor with which he attacked in these sermons the principles of the revolution settlement, asserted the doctrine of non-resistance, and decried the act of toleration, excited the indignation of the Whig government of the hour, and led to his impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors. His trial before the house of lords took place in the spring of 1710, and resulted in his being found guilty, and suspended from preaching for three years, the obnoxious discourses being ordered to be publicly burned by the hangman. Of the rage of factions on the occasion, the fury of the popular excitement, and the excesses of the high church party, an account in detail will be found in any history of the period. Sncheverel became for the time the most popular man in the kingdom, and
the general election which followed was fatal to the government which had prosecuted him. When. in 1713, his suspension as by sentence expired, as a special mark of honor he was appointed by the new house of commons to preach before them the sermon on the anniversary of the restoration, and specially thanked on the occasion. A more sub stantial token of favor was his presentation to the rectory of St. Andrew's, Holborn.
Subsequently—except that there is sonic reason to believe he was more or less concerned in :1 plot to restore the Stuarts—he disappears from the sphere of history. He is said, in his later years, to have sought the excitement which may in some sort have become necessary to him, in it series of paltry and undignified squabbles with his parishioners. Nor in this is there anything improbable. His character was' essentially a weak, vain, and shallow one, mid he remains notable merely as one of those men, intrinsically insig nificant.. who have had a spurious notoriety and importance thrust upon them by the accidei.i• of foolish activity in a special concurrence of circumstances. Sec Burton's Itiign, of Queen Anne (1884