English clergyman, commonly known as Orator Henley, born on the 3rd of August 1692 at Melton-Mowbray, where his father was vicar. After attending the grammar schools of Melton and Oakham, he entered St. Johns College, Cambridge, and while still an undergraduate he addressed in February 1712, under the pseudonym of Peter de Quir, a letter to the Spectator displaying no small wit and humour. After graduating B.A., he became assistant and then headmaster of the grammar school of his native town, uniting to these duties those of assistant curate. His abundant energy found still further expression in a poem entitled Esther, Queen of Persia (1714), and in the compilation of a grammar of ten languages entitled The Complete Linguist (2 vols., London, 17191721). He then decided to go to London, where he obtained the appointment of assistant preacher in the chapels of Ormond Street and Bloomsbury. In 1723 he was presented to the rectory of Chelmondiston in Suffolk; but residence being insisted on, he resigned both his appointments, and on the 3rd of July 1726 opened what he called an oratory in Newport Market, which he licensed under the Toleration Act. In 1729 he transferred the scene of his operations to Lincolns Inn Fields. Into his services he introduced many peculiar alterations: he drew up a Primitive Liturgy, in which he substituted for the Nicene and Athanasian creeds two creeds taken from the Apostolical Constitutions; for his Primitive Eucharist he made use of unleavened bread and mixed wine; he distributed at the price of one shilling medals of admission to his oratory, with the device of a sun rising to the meridian, with the motto Ad summa, and the words Inveniam viam aut faciam below. But the most original element in the services was Henley himself, who is described by Pope in the Dunciad as
Preacher at once and zany of his age. |
Henley is the subject of several of Hogarths prints. His life, professedly written by A. Welstede, but in all probability by himself, was inserted by him in his Oratory Transactions. See J. Nichols, History of Leicestershire; I. Disraeli, Calamities of Authors.