Hurd, Richard, Dd

Hurd, Richard, D.D.

an eminent English prelate, was born at Congreve, Staffordshire, in 1720. He was admitted at Emanuel College, Cambridge, in 1733. In 1750, by recommendation of his friend, bishop Warburton (q.v.), he became one of the Whitehall preachers, and in 1757 rector of Thurcaston. He afterwards became successively rector of Folkton, Yorkshire, in 1762, preacher of Lincoln's Inn in 1765, archdeacon of Gloucester in 1767, and finally bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1775, whence he was translated to Worcester in 1781. In 1783 he was offered the archbishopric of Canterbury, which he declined. He died in 1808. His Sermons (5 vols. 8vo), distinguished by elegant simplicity of style, perspicuity of method, and acuteness of elucidation, are to be found, with his other miscellaneous writings, in his Works (London, 1811, 8 vols. 8vo). His most important contribution to theology is his Introduction to the Study of the Prophecies (1772, 8vo; 1788, 2 vols. 8vo; 1839, edited by Bickersteth, 12mo). This was the first of the "Warburtonian Lectures." Notwithstanding the polemical cast of some of these sermons, the clear exposition of the general principles of prophecy and of the claims which this portion of the sacred Scriptures has on the serious and unprejudiced attention of thoughtful readers, conveyed in perspicuous and even elegant language, has secured a large amount of popularity for the work even up to recent times (Kitto, Bib. Cyclop. ii, 343). — He also edited The Works of' Warburton (1788. 7 vols.), and published a Life of Warburton (Lond. 1794, 4to). See Allibone, Dictionary of Authors, i, 925; Quarterly Review (London), 7:383; Hallam, Lit. Hist. of Europe (4th edit., Lond. 1854), 3:475; Life. and Writings of Hurd, by Francis Kilvert (Lond. 1860); Christ. Remembrancer, 1860, p. 262; North British Rev. May 1861, art. 4; Hook, Eccles. Biog. 6 225 sq.