Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Borlase, Henry
BORLASE, HENRY (1806–1835), separatist clergyman, born at Helstone, Cornwall, on 15 Feb. 1806, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1828. After taking orders, he became curate at St. Keyne, near Liskeard, about December 1830. At the end of 1832 he resigned his curacy and withdrew from the established church. Taking up his residence in Plymouth, he joined a society, formed in 1831–2, which had received the name of Plymouth Brethren, a movement which has since assumed larger proportions, and developed many remarkable peculiarities. He has been spoken of as its founder, but this is incorrect; he was a great friend of Benjamin Newton, one of the originators of the society. Borlase considered that the established church, as a human institution, had fallen into apostasy, and that separation from apostasy was no schism. In 1834 he began the publication at Plymouth of a quarterly organ, the 'Christian Witness,’ which continued to exist till 1840. At the beginning of 1834 he broke a blood-vessel, and was subsequently in very precarious health. He died on 13 Nov. 1835, at Plymstock, near Plymouth. He married Caroline Pridham. His contributions to the ‘Christian Witness’ were included in a small publication, without date, ‘Papers by the late Henry Borlase, connected with the Present State of the Church.' Some biographical particulars are added by the anonymous editor.
[Notes and Queries (3rd ser.), v. 203; Cooper's Biog. Dict. 1883, p. 258; Registers of St. Keyne (per Rev. T. L. Symes); information from his sister, Mrs. Charles Grylls, and from R. N. Worth, F.G.S., Plymouth.]