1461), he was sent by the lord mayor to Barnet to excuse the delay of the citizens in sending her supplies. He was elected member for London to Edward IV's parliaments in 1461 and 1467. On 14 June 1461 he was placed on a commission for gaol delivery, and on 8 June 1463 on a commission of oyer and terminer for London. He frequently sat on similar commissions in the succeeding years (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1461–7 passim). In 1471, on Edward IV's return after Warwick's rebellion, Urswick secretly admitted him to the city of London (Warkworth, pp. 15, 21), and after the battle of Tewkesbury (4 May) vigorously opposed Fauconberg's attack on the city (Sharpe, London and the Kingdom, i. 298, 313, 316, 317). As a reward he was knighted on 14 June following, and on 22 May 1472 was appointed chief baron of the exchequer. The promotion was a recompense for political services, and Urswick's legal attainments appear to have been insignificant. His name does not occur in the year-books before his elevation to the bench, and only appears in the judgments of the exchequer in four terms during the eight years he held the chief-justiceship. He died in 1479, and was buried in the chancel of Dagenham church, Essex. By his first wife, whose maiden name was Needham, Urswick had issue one daughter, who became a nun. His second wife was Anne, daughter of Richard Rich (d. 1469), a rich merchant of London, and great-grandfather of Richard, first baron Rich [q. v.] By her Urswick had issue four sons and eight daughters, of whom all but five daughters predeceased him. His widow married in 1482 John Palmer of Otford, Kent.
[A full memoir, with references to original authorities, is given in Urwick's Records of the Family of Urswick or Urwick, 1893; see also Foss's Lives of the Judges and authorities cited.]
URWICK, THOMAS (1727–1807), independent divine, second son of Samuel Urwick of Shrewsbury, by his wife, Mary Wright, was born at Shelton, near Shrewsbury, on 8 Dec. 1727. The family were lineal descendants of the Urwicks of Furness [see under Urswick, Christopher]. Thomas was educated in the Shrewsbury grammar school. He was also under the tuition of Job Orton [q. v.], whose ministry his parents attended, and, encouraged by him, Urwick entered in 1747 the college at Northampton, under the direction of Philip Doddridge [q. v.] After the death of Doddridge in 1751 he went to the university of Glasgow, and finished his academic studies under William Leechman [q. v.] In 1754 he became assistant to Joseph Carpenter, minister of Angel Street, Worcester, and continued in that position during Dr. Allen's pastorate. In 1764 he was chosen sole pastor, and was ordained the following year. He filled the duties of the pastorate without an assistant for eleven years with much success. In 1775, to the regret of the congregation, he resigned, and undertook a small pastorate at Narborough, near Leicester. But in 1779 he was invited to succeed Dr. Philip Furneaux [q. v.] as pastor of the influential congregation at Clapham. He was chosen one of the trustees of William Coward (1657?–1725) [q. v.] for the academy in which he had been educated, and was also elected a trustee of Dr. Williams's library. When Joseph Lancaster [q. v.], the founder of the British or Lancasterian system of education, secretly ran away from home as a boy to enlist in the navy, Urwick happened to learn of the escapade from the boy's mother, discovered his whereabouts, and restored him to his family. He was assisted in later years by James Philipps, who succeeded him. He died on 26 Feb. 1807 at Balham Hill. His wife, Mary Smith, whom he married at Worcester in 1767, died on 17 June 1791. The remains of both lie in a tomb on the north side of Clapham churchyard. Besides some separately issued sermons, Urwick published ‘The proper Improvement of Divine Chastening recommended to National Attention’ (1800). There is a portrait of Urwick in pastels in the Coward trustees' room, New College, Hampstead, a photograph of which (with memoir) is given in Urwick's ‘Nonconformity in Worcester,’ pp. 100–8.
[Walter Wilson's MSS. M. 4, in Dr. Williams's Library, containing a memoir of Urwick by T. Taylor of Carter's Lane; Monthly Repository, 1807, ii. 161; Gent. Mag. 1807, i. 282, 371–3.]
URWICK, WILLIAM (1791–1868), congregational divine, son of William Urwick by his wife, Elinor Eddowes, and a grand-nephew of Thomas Urwick [q. v.], was born in Shrewsbury on 8 Dec. 1791. He was educated at Worcester under Thomas Belsher, and subsequently, in 1812, entered Hoxton Academy to study for the congregational ministry under Robert Simpson. In 1815 he was invited to the pastorate of the church at Sligo, and was ordained there on 19 June 1816. With great energy he threw himself into the work of converting the Roman catholics, took the lead in philanthropic movements, and gave his services as secretary of the famine committee in 1824–5. He more than once intervened to prevent duelling, which was rife in the district.
