John Hey (1734–1815) was an English cleric, the first Norrisian Professor of Theology at Cambridge.

Life

The son of Richard Hey of

Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it has a population of 25,393. History T ...

and his wife Mary Simpson, and elder brother of William Hey and Richard Hey, he was born in July 1734. After

Sedbergh School Sedbergh School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school, day school) in the town of Sedbergh in Cumbria, North West England. It comprise ...

, he entered Catharine Hall, Cambridge in 1751, graduating B.A. in 1755 and M.A. in 1758. He became a fellow of

Sidney Sussex College Sidney Sussex College (historically known as "Sussex College" and today referred to informally as "Sidney") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1 ...

in 1758, and was tutor from 1760 to 1779. He took his B.D. degree in 1765, and his D.D. in 1780. His lectures on morality were admired, and were attended by

William Pitt the younger William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...

. In 1779

Charles Maynard, 1st Viscount Maynard Charles Maynard, 1st Viscount Maynard (c. 1690 – 30 June 1775), styled Charles Maynard between 1699 and 1745 and known as The Lord Maynard between 1745 and 1766, was a British peer. He served as Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk between 1763 and 1769 ...

presented Hey to the rectory of Passenham, in southern

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

, and he later obtained the adjacent rectory of

Calverton, Buckinghamshire Calverton is a civil parish in the unitary authority area of the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and just outside the Milton Keynes urban area, situated roughly south of Stony Stratford, and west of Central Milton Keynes. The ...

. He was elected in 1780 to the Norrisian professorship of divinity, of which he was the first holder. He was re-elected in 1785 and in 1790. According to the regulations then in force, he might have been elected for another term if he had resigned in 1794, before reaching the age of 60, but declined to do so. He held his livings until 1814, when he resigned them and moved to London. Hey died on 17 March 1815, and was buried in St John's Chapel,

St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the Civil Parish#An ...

Works

Hey's Norrisian lectures in divinity represented the difference between the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

and

unitarians Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to: Christian and Christian-derived theologies A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism: * Unitarianism (1565–present) ...

as little more than verbal, but defended subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles. His treatment of the issues appealed later to the

Tractarians The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...

. The lectures were published in 1796 in 4 vols. A second edition appeared in 1822, and a third, edited by

Thomas Turton Thomas Turton (25 February 1780 – 7 January 1864) was an English academic and divine, the Bishop of Ely from 1845 to 1864. Life Thomas Turton was son of Thomas and Ann Turton of Hatfield, West Riding. He was admitted to Queens' College, ...

, appeared in 1841. He published also in 1801 a ''Set of Discourses on the Malevolent Passions'' (reprinted 1815); and printed, but did not publish, in 1811, ''General Observations on the Writings of St. Paul''. Winning the

Seatonian prize The Seatonian Prize is awarded by the University of Cambridge for the best English poem on a sacred subject. This prize has been awarded annually since 1750 and is open to any Master of Arts of the university. Lord Byron referred to this prize in ...

for a poem in 1763, Hey published it as ''The Redemption: a Poetical Essay''. He also published sermons.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Hey, John 1734 births 1815 deaths 19th-century English Anglican priests Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge English theologians Norrisian Professors of Divinity 18th-century English Anglican priests 18th-century Anglican theologians 19th-century Anglican theologians People educated at Sedbergh School