Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Slater, Samuel
SLATER, SAMUEL (d. 1704), nonconformist divine, was the son of Samuel Slater, minister of St. Katherine's in the Tower of London. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1647 and M.A. in 1658. Having been ordained, he was first appointed minister at Nayland in Suffolk, and afterwards lecturer at Bury St. Edmunds, where he and Nicholas Clagett the elder [q. v.] were summoned at the first assizes after the Restoration for not reading the Book of Common Prayer. In consequence of the Act of Uniformity he was ejected in 1662, and proceeded to London. Upon the death of Stephen Charnock [q. v.] in 1680, Slater succeeded him as minister of the congregation in Crosby Square, Bishopsgate Street. There he died on 22 May 1704, leaving a widow, Hannah, daughter of Harman Sheafe of London, and formerly wife of one Hood. His portrait was engraved by R. White in 1692 (Bromley, Catalogue of Portraits, p. 228).
Besides numerous sermons, Slater was the author of: 1. ‘Poems,’ London, 1679, 8vo. 2. ‘An Earnest Call to Family Religion,’ London, 1694, 8vo. The poems are sometimes attributed to his father, but they may be confidently placed to the credit of the son. They are divided into two parts: first, ‘An Interlocutory Discourse concerning the Creation, Fall, and Recovery of Man;’ secondly, ‘A Dialogue between Truth and a doubting Soul.’ In his preface Slater says: ‘I was much taken with learned Mr. Milton's cast and fancy in his book—viz. “Paradise Lost.” Him I have followed much in his method, but I have used a more plain and familiar stile.’ Slater's estimate of his style will not be disputed.
[Funeral Sermons by William Tong and Daniel Alexander; Calamy's Nonconformist's Memorial, ed. Palmer, iii. 257; Noble's Hist. of England, i. 127; Wilson's History of Dissenting Churches in London, i. 338; Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 19166 f. 15, 19170 f. 195, 24489 f. 170; Harl. MS. 6071, f. 383.]