Drew, Samuel, Am

Drew, Samuel, A.M

an English Methodist local preacher and metaphysical writer, was born March 3, 1765, in the suburbs of St. Austle, of a poor family, and learned the shoemakers' trade. In 1785, under the preaching of Adam Clarke, he became a Methodist, and in 1788 he became a local preacher. Drew had received no early instruction, but the passion for reading was natural to him, and he early became himself an author. But his gains from literature did not suffice for his maintenance till 1809, when he finally quitted the shoe-bench. In 1819 he was invited to Liverpool to take the management of the Imperial Magazine, published by the Caxtons. He accepted it, and in his hands the enterprise was very successful. Mr. Drew continued to edit the magazine, after its removal to London, up to the year of his death. In 1824 he received the degree of A.M. from Marischal College, Aberdeen. His literary labors were very abundant apart from the journal; he took no rest till the "wheels of life stood still," at Helston, March 29, 1833. His principal work is entitled Treatise on the Existence and Aitributes of God (Lond. 1820, 2 volumes, 8vo). Among his other works are Remarks upon the first part of the "Age of Reason," by Thomas Paine (1799, 3d ed.; 1820, 12mo, and N.Y. 1831, 12mo): — Observations upon the Anecdotes of Methodism in Polwhele (1800): — Essay upon the Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul (1802; 2d ed. 1803, and N.Y. 1829, 12mo): — Essay on the Resurrection of the Body (1809, 8vo; 2d ed. 1822): — Life of Dr. Coke (1816, 8vo), and History of Count Cornouailles (1820-24, 2 volumes, 4to). See Life of Drew by his eldest son (N.Y. 1835, 12mo); Stevens, History of Methodism, 2:290; 3:491; S. Dunn, in The Methodist, N.Y., November 24, 1866.