Seaman, Lazarus, Dd

Seaman, Lazarus, D.D.

an English Presbyterian clergyman, was born at Leicester, and educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1631. By diligence and hard study he attained great eminence in literature and in the learned languages. He went to London as. chaplain to the earl of Northumberland, and was lecturer at St. Martin's, Ludgate. His ability secured for him the valuable living of Allhallow's, Bread Street, given by archbishop Laud in 1642. The next year he was chosen a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. He was an able disputant, and defeated two Romish priests in a set controversy. In 1644 he was made master of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He had interviews with king Charles I before his impeachment. Cromwell appointed Dr. Seaman visitor to the University of Cambridge, and vice-chancellor thereof. After the Restoration he lost all his preferments, was ejected from All hallows in 1662, and gathered a congregation of his former hearers, who formed a new and important church, which met in Silver Street, continued about a century, and had a fine body of ministers. He died in Warwick Court, Newgate Street, September 9, 1695. For more than thirty years his skill as a casuist procured him great fame; as an interpreter of Scripture he was one of a thousand; he was also a model pastor. He published several sermons, and a translation into Turkish, in 1660, of John Ball's Catechisn. He had a very choice and valuable library, the catalogue of which is preserved in the museum at the Baptist Academy, Bristol. See Wilson, Dissenting Churches, 3:6-12.