Author: Pentycross, Thomas
Biography:
PENTYCROSS, Thomas (1748-1808: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 16 Dec. 1748 and baptised on 8 Jan. 1749 at St. Sepulchre, Newgate, the son of John Pentycross and Sarah Strange who had married in the Fleet on 10 June 1740. He was an Exhibitioner at Christ’s Hospital and proceeded to Pembroke College Cambridge (BA 1771, MA 1774) where he met members of Thomas Gray’s (q.v.) circle, including Horace Walpole who printed as a broadside his topographical poem on Strawberry Hill, "Thro’ the bosom of the trees" [1768?]. While still at school he had written (c. 1765) an additional stanza to Collins’s "Ode on the Passions" (1746). Although his topographical poem Wittenham-Hill (1771) was reprinted twice, his Sermons Speculative, Practical, and Experimental (1781?) were probably better known. He was curate at Horley, Surrey, (1771-4) and then, with the support of the Countess of Huntingdon, Rector of St. Mary the More, Wallingford, Berkshire, from 1774 until his death. Despite some doctrinal disagreements, he was on good terms with Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, (1707-91), the indefatigable chapel builder, who admired his preaching and gave him some financial support. Although there was some local opposition, the parish became a well-known Methodist stronghold. In October 1787 John Wesley visited the parish and noted that “Calvinism and bitterness are fled away.” Walpole, on the other hand, thought Methodists “madmen and knaves” and discontinued the acquaintance. Pentycross married Elizabeth Allen on 1 May 1775 in his own church. There was no issue. He died at Wallingford on 11 Feb. 1808. His wife died in 1810 and left £100 to the Missionary Society. (ancestry.co.uk 15 May 2021; CCEd 15 May 2021; Spenserians; GM Mar. 1808, 271; Christian Journal and Literary Register Feb. 1823, 278; A. C. H. Seymour, The Life and Times of Selina Countess of Huntingdon [1839] 2: 59-62) AA
Other Names:
- T. Pentycross
- T. P---