TIL'LOTSON, JOHN (1630-94). Archbishop of Canterbury. He was born in Sowerby, in Yorkshire. in 1630, the son of a clothier, who was a zealous Independent. He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge. He was a preacher in 1661—attached apparently to the Presbyterian party in the Church of England, for at the Sa voy Conference (q.v.) he was present as an au ditor on the Presbyterian side; but he submitted at once to the Act of Uniformity (1662), and in 1663 he was appointed to the rectory of Ked dington in Suffolk, and almost immediately after was chosen preacher at Lincoln's Inn. In 1666 he published The Rule of Faith, in reply to a work by an English clergyman named who had gone over to the Roman Catholic Church. He was made a pre bendary of Canterbury in 1670 and dean in 1672. With Burnet. lie attended Lord Russell during his imprisonment for complicity in the Bye House Plot, and on the accession of William III. rose
high into favor. In March, 1689, he was appoint ed clerk of the closet to the in November, made Dean of Saint Paul's; and in April, 1691, was raised to the see of Canterbury, vacant by the deposition of Sancroft (q.v.), after vainly imploring William to spare him an honor which he foreboded would bring him 710 peace. Nor was he mistaken in his painful presentiment. The non-juring party pursued him to the end of his life: but lie bore their animosity without com plaint or attempt at retaliation. A collected edi tion of his Sermons, in 14 volumes, was pub lished after his death by his chaplain, Dr. Bark er (London, 1694). and has been frequently re printed. The best edition of his sermons and other works is by Dr. T. Birch, who also wrote his Life (London, 1752).