Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Gandy, Henry
GANDY, HENRY (1649–1734), non-juring bishop, son of John Gandy, 'doctor,' of South Brent, Devonshire, was born on 14 Oct. 1649. He entered at Merchant Taylors' School in 1663, and proceeded to Oriel College, Oxford; matriculated 15 March 1666-7; graduated B.A. 17 Oct. 1670, M.A. 1674; was elected fellow 30 Nov. 1670, and proctor 18 April 1683. He was senior fellow of Oriel when deprived for refusing the oath of allegiance in 1690. As a nonjuror he was a leading (anonymous) controversialist on that side, and a strenuous advocate for maintaining the schism, when Ken, the sole survivor of the deprived bishops, expressed (1710) his wish that the breach might be closed, and Dodwell, Nelson, and Brokesby returned to the national church. In 1716 he was consecrated bishop by Jeremy Collier [q. v.], Nathaniel Spinckes [q. v.], and Samuel Hawes (d. 1722). On the rise (1717) of the controversy about 'usages,' he deserted Collier, and followed Spinckes in adhering closely to the Anglican ritual. In 1720 he joined Spinckes and Hawes in consecrating Hilkiah Bedford [q. v.] and Ralph Taylor (who returned to the national church); on 11 June 1725 he assisted in consecrating John Blackbourne [q. v.]; in 1726, in consecrating Henry Hall; on 25 March 1728 he presided at the consecration of Richard Rawlinson [q. v.], and in the same year at that of George Smith (1693–1756) [q. v.]
He died in Scroop Court, Holborn, on 26 Feb. 1733-4, and was buried in St. Pancras churchyard on '30' Feb. His will (made 1 March 1731-2; proved 8 March 1734) leaves all to his wife Ann, except 50l. to his daughter Anne when of age. His engraved likeness represents him with mitre and two croziers. Lathbury reckons him 'one of the best divines of the period,' but thinks his answer to Dodwell 'disingenuous.' Noble, by a strange blunder, derived from Granger's manuscript, calls him a Roman catholic. Among his publications are : 1. 'A Letter in Vindication of the Answer to the Queries concerning Schism and Toleration,' 1701, 4to (anon.) 2. 'Old England ... the Government of England . . . hereditary,' 1705, 8vo (anon.) 3. ' Jure Divino : or an Answer to all ... Republicans,' 1707, 4to (anon.) 4. 'Bibliotheca Scriptorum Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ. . . . Tracts relating to the government ... of the Church of England,' 1709, 8vo (anon.) 5. 'A Conference between Gerontius and Junius. In which Mr. Dodwell's "Case in View now in Fact" is considered,' 1711, 8vo (anon.) He prefixed a preface to 'The Subject's Sorrow' [1710], 8vo, by Robert Brown.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), ii. 386; Wood's Life (Bliss), p. cxxi; Life of Kettlewell, App. p. xxxii (calls him Gerney); Noble's Continuation of Granger, 1806, iii. 173; Lathbury's Hist. of the Nonjurors, 1845; Shadwell's Registrum Orielense, 1893, i. 317; Gandy's will at Somerset House.]