many disorders, enthusiasm, antinomianism, Calvinism, a neglect and contempt of God's ordinances, and almost all other duties.’ Besides occasional sermons, he published: 1. ‘An Essay towards vindicating the literal sense of the Demoniacks in the New Testament,’ 1737 (anonymous). 2. ‘A short State of the Controversy about the meaning of the Demoniacks in the New Testament,’ 1739 (anonymous). 8. ‘A Serious and Expostulatory Letter to the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, on the occasion of his late Letter to the Bishop of London and other Bishops,' 1744. 4. ‘Remarks on the Rev. Mr. John Wesley's Last Journal,’ 1745. 5. 'A Vindication of the Miraculous Powers which subsisted in the three first Centuries of the Christian Church, in answer to Dr. Middleton's Free Enquiry,’ 1750. 6. ‘An Analysis of the Philosophical Works of the late Lord Viscount Bolingbroke,’ London, 1755 Dublin; 1756 (both these editions, separately printed, were published anonymously).
[Brit. Mus. Cat.; Lysons's Environs, i. 39; Gent. Mag., December 1756; Rawlinson MSS. in Bodleian.]
CHURCHER, RICHARD (1659–1723) founder of Churcher's College, eldest son of Richard Churcher, gentleman, of Funtington, Sussex, was born there in 1659. He was apprenticed (1675–82) to John Jacob, an eminent citizen and barber-surgeon of London. Subsequently he engaged an the service of the East India Company and went to India. On his retirement from the service he settled at Petersfield, Hampshire. His death occurred on 3 July 1723, and he was buried in the parish church of his native village. He founded a mathematical college at Petersfield for the education of the sons of inhabitants of the town, in order to qualify them for the naval service of the East India. A history of this college was published at London in 1823, 8vo.
[The History mentioned above.]
CHURCHEY, WALTER (1747–1805), friend of John Wesley, was born at Brecon on 7 Nov. 1747. His father was Walter, fifth son of Walter Churchy of Brecon (d. 12 July 1646). By profession he was an attorney, but never a thriving one. He became a zealous methodist, probably through the influence of Thomas Coke (1747–1814) [q. v.], a Brecon man, and from 1771 he corresponded with Wesley. He claims to have suggested to Wesley the publication of the ‘Arminian Magazine,’ begun 1 Jan. 1778. The suggestion was not a new one, but Wesley's letter of 18 Oct. 1777 shows that he was in correspondence with Churchey on the subject. Churchey was an indefatigable writer of religious verse. Before venturing to publish he consulted Cowper (in 1786), who gave him a cautious reply. Wesley got him subscribers for his first publication, a ‘prodigious quarto’ issued at a guinea; the leading piece is called ‘Joseph.’ Though it was not generally accepted as poetry, it was followed by other efforts in the same direction. The author in his final ‘Apology’ complains that he had been ‘ostracised from Parnassus’ by the critics. After Wesley's death Churchey became an ardent millenarian, of the school of Richard Brothers [q. v.] He died at the Hay, near Brecon, on 3 Dec. 1805, and is buried with his ancestors in the Priory churchyard, Brecon. He married Mary Bevan of Clyro, Radnorshire (d. 26 Oct. 1822, aged 77), and had six children. His second son, Walter (d. 28 Feb. 1840), was town clerk of Brecon for twenty-six years.
He published: 1. ‘Poems and Imitations,’ &c., 1789, 4to. 2. ‘Lines on the Rev. J. Wesley,’ &c. [1791?], 32mo. 3. ‘An Elegy to the Memory of W. Cowper,’ Hereford, 1800, 8vo. 4. ‘An Addition to Collins's Ode on the Passions; and the second edition of an Elegy on the Death of W. Cowper,’ 1804, 8vo. 5. ‘An Essay on Man, upon principles opposed to those of Lord Bolingbroke; in four epistles,’ &c., 1804,16mo. 6. ‘A Philippic on Idleness,’ 8vo (Watt). 7. ‘An Apology by W. Churchey for his public appearance as a Poet,’ Trevecca, 1805, 8vo. The British Museum catalogue, following Watt, calls him ‘William’ Churchey.
[Cowper's Works (Bohn), iii. 370; Cottle's Reminiscences of Coleridge, Southey, &c., 1847, p. 230; Tyerman's Life and Times of Wesley, 1871, iii. 244, 282, 547, 579 sq.; monumental inscriptions at Brecon, per Rev. T. Wynne-Jones.]
CHURCHILL, ALFRED B. (1825–1870), journalist, born at Constantinople in 1825, succeeded his father in the proprietorship of the Turkish semi-official paper, the ‘Jeride Hawades,’ which he also edited. He promoted the cause of Turkish progress, in which he was a most useful coadjutor to Fuad and Ali Pashas; secured the co-operation of some able writers in the conduct of his paper; ‘much improved the character of Turkish printing, and also bestowed attention on the spread of popular literature, puhlishing several cheap works, which included romantic and poetical novels, biographies, descriptions of scientific inventions, and a cookery-book; some of these went through a large impression.’ When the late sultan visited this country in July 1867, Churchill
