Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/263

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Fawcett
257
Fawcett

rivers of the north and the trout streams of Hampshire. He remembered the paths which he had known, and loved those in which he could enjoy scenery through the eyes of his companions. He possessed great muscular power, was six feet three inches in height, and enjoyed perfect health until his illness in 1882. His most determined opponents loved and trusted him, and no one ever doubted his absolute honesty of purpose.

His works are:

  1. ‘Mr. Hare's Reform Bill, simplified and explained,’ 1860.
  2. ‘The Leading Clauses of a New Reform Bill,’ 1860.
  3. ‘Manual of Political Economy,’ 1863 (new editions to 1883, each considerably modified).
  4. ‘The Economic Position of the British Labourer,’ 1865 (lectures of 1864).
  5. ‘Pauperism: its Causes and Remedies,’ 1871 (lectures of 1870).
  6. ‘Essays and Lectures on Social and Political Subjects,’ 1872 (six by Fawcett and eight by Mrs. Fawcett).
  7. ‘Speeches on some Current Political Questions,’ 1873.
  8. ‘Free Trade and Protection,’ 1878 (lectures of 1877, six editions to 1885).
  9. ‘Indian Finance,’ 1880 (three articles from the ‘Nineteenth Century’).
  10. ‘State Socialism and the Nationalisation of the Land,’ 1883 (separate publication of a chapter from the sixth edition of the ‘Manual’).
  11. ‘Labour and Wages,’ 1884 (reprint of five chapters from the same).

Besides these Fawcett contributed various articles to ‘Macmillan's Magazine,’ the ‘Fortnightly Review,’ and other periodicals, a list of which is given in the ‘Life.’

[Life of Henry Fawcett, by Leslie Stephen, 1885.]

L. S.

FAWCETT, JAMES (1752–1831), Norrisian professor at Cambridge, son of Richard Fawcett, incumbent of St. John's Church, Leeds, Yorkshire, was born in that town in 1752. He had a weakly constitution from birth. Having passed through Leeds grammar school with credit, he was entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, 26 March 1770, under John Chevallier, and went into residence in October following. In January 1774 he graduated B.A. as fifth senior optime, winning the first members' prize when a senior bachelor in 1776. In 1777 he took his M.A. degree, and during the same year was elected fellow of his college on the foundation of Sir Marmaduke Constable. He was appointed Lady Margaret's preacher in 1782, and published his sermons in 1794. Before the last-named year the parishioners had elected him to the vicarage of St. Sepulchre's or the Round Church, Cambridge. In 1785 he proceeded B.D., and in 1795 he was chosen Norrisian professor of divinity. Although esteemed models of composition and orthodoxy, his sermons failed to draw together large congregations. ‘A certain thickness in his speech, an awkwardness of manner in a crowd, a want of energy, and an easiness of temper, little calculated to curb the sallies of a large assembly of young men constrained to sit out a lecture of an hour in length,’ contributed also to render his lectures less efficient than might have been expected from their undoubted excellence (Hughes, Memoir, pp. viii–ix). Fawcett chiefly resided in college until he was presented by the society in 1801 to the united rectories of Thursford and Great Snoring in Norfolk. He afterwards divided his time between his parsonage and the university, being permitted to retain rooms in college on account of his lectures. In 1815 he vacated the Norrisian professorship; in 1822 he also resigned his vicarage in Cambridge, and resided thenceforward solely at his rectory in Norfolk. There he died 10 April 1831.

[Memoir in T. S. Hughes's Divines of the Church of England, vol. xxi.; Gent. Mag. vol. ci. pt. i. pp. 378–9; R. V. Taylor's Biographia Leodiensis, pp. 328–33, 369; Cambridge Univ. Calendar.]

G. G.

FAWCETT, JOHN, D.D. (1740–1817), baptist theologian, was born 6 Jan. 1740, at Lidget Green, near Bradford. In early life he was powerfully impressed by the preaching of Whitefield, and after spending some years in secular life entered on the work of a baptist minister, and was settled at Wainsgate in 1764, and afterwards at Hebden Bridge, both in the parish of Halifax. To the duties of a minister he added those of a teacher, conducting an academy during a great part of his ministry. From the earnestness of his Christian spirit, his vigour as a preacher, and his force of character, he rose steadily among his brethren, and might have removed to a more conspicuous sphere, but remained in the neighbourhood of Halifax to the end. He was regarded as the first man of his denomination in that part of the country. At one time he endeavoured to add to his establishment an institution for the training of baptist ministers, but it did not prove a success. From time to time he published books on practical religion, which were well received, including a collection of hymns, an essay on ‘Anger,’ ‘The Life of Oliver Heywood,’ ‘Advice to Youth,’ ‘History of John Wise,’ and the ‘Sick Man's Employ.’ The largest of his literary undertakings, and that by which he was best known, was a ‘Devotional Commentary on the Holy Scriptures.’