Hulse, John

Hulse, John was born at Middlewich in 1708. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge; obtained a small curacy in the country; and, upon the death of his father in 1753, withdrew to his paternal inheritance in Cheshire, where, owing to his delicate state of health, he lived in retirement until his death, Dec. 14, 1790. He bequeathed estates in order to found two divinity scholarships in St. John's College, the Hulsean Prize Essay, and to endow the offices of "Christian Advocate" and "Christian Preacher" in the University of Cambridge. The duties of the "Christian Preacher," or Hulsean Lecturer according to this appointment, were to deliver and print twenty sermons every year, either upon the evidences of Christianity, or the difficulties of Holy Scripture. The funds being inadequate, the lectures were not commenced until 1820, and in 1830 the number of sermons to be delivered in a year was reduced to eight. In 1860 the office of "Christian Advocate" was changed to a professorship, called the Hulsean Professorship of Divinity. Bishop Ellicot was the first incumbent in the new chair. At present the office of the Hulsean Lecturer or Preacher is annual, and the duty of the lecturer to preach not less than four, nor more than six sermons in the course of the year. Among the most important of the Hulsean sermons are the following: Blunt (J.J.), Principles for the proper Understanding of the Mosaic Writings, 1832 (London 1833, 8vo); Alford, The Consistency of the Divine Conduct in revealing the Doctrines of Redemption, 1841 (Cambridge, 1842, 8vo); Trench, The Fitness of the Holy Scripture for unfolding the Spiritual Life of Man, 1845 (Cambridge, 1845, 8vo); Trench, Christ the Desire of all Nations, 1846 (Cambridge, 1846, 8vo); Wordsworth, On the Canon of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, and on the Apocrypha, 1847 (London 1848, 8vo); Wordsworth, Lectures on the Apocalypse, critical, expository, and practical, 1848 (London 1849, 8vo). — Darling, Cyclopedia Bibliographica, 1, 1573; Chambers, Cyclop. 5, 453; Farrar, Hist. of Free Thought, p. 207.