Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lake, Edward (1641-1704)

1433557Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 31 — Lake, Edward (1641-1704)1892Gordon Goodwin

LAKE, EDWARD (1641–1704), archdeacon of Exeter, born in Exeter on 10 Nov. 1641, was the son of a clergyman. In 1658 he entered Wadham College, Oxford, as a commoner, was elected a scholar in 1659, but removed to Cambridge before graduating. In early life he seems to have been connected with the Earl of Bath's family. About 1670 he became chaplain and tutor to the princesses Mary and Anne, daughters of James, duke of York. He was made prebendary of Exeter on 13 Dec. 1675 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 425), and archdeacon of Exeter on 24 Oct. 1676 (ib. i. 396). In 1676 he was created D.D. at Cambridge by royal mandate (Cantabr. Graduati, 1787, p. 230). On 5 Jan. 1681 he was elected a brother of St. Katharine's Hospital, of which he was also a commissary. He resigned his patent for the last-named office on 10 Nov. 1698 (Ducarel's ‘Hosp. of St. Katharine,’ in Nichols, Bibl. Top. Brit. vol. ii. Appendix, pp. 90, 93). On 30 Nov. 1682 he was instituted to the rectory of St. Mary-at-Hill, to which was annexed in 1700 that of St. Andrew Hubbard, London (Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 451). His preaching was greatly admired. He died on 1 Feb. 1703–4, and was buried in St. Katharine, Tower Hill (Bibl. Top. Brit. Appendix, p. 8). The inscription on his monument shows that his friends shared his own opinion that he had been inadequately rewarded. By his wife Margaret (1638–1712) he had a daughter, Frances, married in 1695 to William Taswell, D.D., Mary, and Anne (will reg. in P. C. C. 44, Ash).

Lake wrote primarily for the use of his royal pupils a very popular manual entitled ‘Officium Eucharisticum. A preparatory service to a devout and worthy reception of the Lord's Supper,’ 12mo, London, 1673, which reached a thirtieth edition in 1753. In 1843 it was republished at Oxford with a preface by A. J. Christie. In the later editions the text underwent some material alterations; but these in all probability were made after the author's death. The ‘Meditation for every Day in the Week’ appended to the third (1677) and subsequent editions seems to have been written by another divine. The ‘Prayers before, at, and after the Holy Communion’ were reprinted in T. Dorrington's ‘Reform'd Devotions,’ 12mo, 1700, 1704, 1727.

Lake's ‘Diary in 1677–8’ was edited in 1846 by a descendant, G. P. Elliott, from the manuscript in his possession for vol. i. of the Camden Society's ‘Miscellany.’ Sixteen of his ‘Sermons preached upon Several Occasions’ (including a ‘Concio ad Clerum Londinensem,’ 1685) were published by his son-in-law, W. Taswell, 8vo, London, 1705. Prefixed is Lake's portrait engraved by M. Vandergucht, a copy of which, by G. Vandergucht, adorns some of the editions of the ‘Officium Eucharisticum.’

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 735–6; Elliott's Introduction to Lake's Diary (Camd. Soc.); Taswell-Langmead's Introduction to Sir E. Lake's Account (Camd. Soc.), p. x; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, 2nd ed., iii. 266.]

G. G.