Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maddox, Isaac
MADDOX, ISAAC (1697–1759), bishop of Worcester, son of Edward Maddox, citizen and stationer of London, was born in the parish of St. Botolph, Aldersgate, on 27 July 1697. Early left an orphan, he was brought up by an aunt, who sent him to a charity school, and then put him to a pastrycook. He was too studious for an apprentice, and obtained further schooling from Hay, then curate (afterwards vicar) of St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, and from an uncle at Newington Green. On an exhibition (1718–21) from the presbyterian fund, he studied at Edinburgh University. The degree of M.A. was granted by the senatus on 23 Feb. 1723 (diploma followed on 9 March) to Maddox and John Horsley (father of Bishop Samuel Horsley) [q. v.], who are described as ‘Angli præcones evangelici, academiæ olim alumni.’ It is improbable that Maddox as a presbyterian held any congregational charge, though he may have acted as chaplain and tutor; ‘præco’ would naturally imply that he was licensed, but not ordained. Calamy is wrong in placing his conformity about 1727. He received deacon's orders in London on 10 March 1722–3 from Thomas Green [q. v.], bishop of Norwich, and became curate at St. Bride's, Fleet Street. He had priest's orders on 9 June 1723 from Edmund Gibson [q. v.], bishop of London, who sent him to Oxford. He entered Queen's College, Oxford, on 15 June 1724, and was incorporated a member, and admitted B.A. by decree of convocation on 9 July 1724. In the same month he was inducted into the vicarage of Whiteparish, Wiltshire. He was incorporated in 1728 at Queens' College, Cambridge, and admitted M.A. on 15 April. In October 1729 he was appointed clerk of the closet to Queen Caroline. Edward Waddington, bishop of Chichester, who had made him his domestic chaplain, collated him in January 1729–30 to the prebend of Bury in Chichester Cathedral, and on 14 Feb. he was collated to the rectory of St. Vedast, Foster Lane, London. He was admitted D.D. at Cambridge by royal mandate on 28 Oct. 1730.
In 1733 Maddox published the work by which he is best known, a ‘Vindication’ of the Elizabethan settlement of the church of England: it was undertaken at Gibson's suggestion as a reply to the first volume (1732) of the ‘History of the Puritans’ by Daniel Neal [q. v.], who replied in a ‘Review’ (1734). Maddox convicts Neal of occasional slips, but fails to shake his general credit. As a statement and defence of the anti-puritan position, Maddox's book has merit and ability. Zachary Grey [q. v.], who criticised Neal's subsequent volumes, had supplied Maddox with material, through Gibson, and was dissatisfied with Maddox's omission of all acknowledgment.
Maddox was installed dean of Wells in January 1733–4. He was elected bishop of St. Asaph in June, and consecrated on 4 July 1736. He did not reside in his Welsh diocese, living chiefly in London, with a country house at Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and visiting his diocese in summer, but not every year. In 1743 he was translated to Worcester, succeeding to ‘Hough's unsullied mitre.’ His episcopate was marked by much active philanthropy. He had always been a benefactor to London hospitals. As president of the Small-pox Hospital he preached on 5 March 1752 a sermon on inoculation, which reached a seventh edition, and occasioned some controversy. He was the main promoter of the Worcester Infirmary (opened at the end of 1745), consulting Philip Doddridge, D.D. [q. v.], who had taken a similar part (1743) in the founding of the County Infirmary at Northampton. He interested himself in the encouragement of native industries, and was a liberal supporter of a scheme (by which he lost money) for the extension of British fisheries. In parliament he strongly advocated the restriction of the traffic in spirits. For a sermon against excessive use of spirituous liquors he received on 8 Feb. 1751 the thanks of the common council of London. The lease of the property of Lloyd's school (founded by his predecessor, William Lloyd, D.D. (1627–1717) [q. v.]) he renewed without fine. As a preacher, especially of charity sermons, he was in great request. He was the first bishop who preached (1742) for the Sons of the Clergy. His relations with his ‘protestant brethren, the dissenters,’ were always amicable. When Doddridge was at Bristol (August 1751) in his last illness, Maddox called to offer the use of his carriage. A year before his death he set apart 200l. a year towards the augmentation of smaller benefices in his diocese. He was kindly and hospitable.
He died at Hartlebury on 27 Sept. 1759, and was buried in the south transept of his cathedral, where an elaborate monument is erected to his memory. He married in 1731 Elizabeth (d. 19 Feb. 1789), daughter of Richard Price of Hayes, Middlesex, and niece of Bishop Waddington, by whom he had a son, Isaac Price Maddox, who died in 1757, aged 16, and two daughters. Mary, his only surviving child, subsequently married James Yorke, afterwards bishop of Ely.
In addition to 1. ‘A Vindication of the Government, Doctrine, and Worship of the Church of England, established in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,’ &c., 1733, 8vo, he published 2. ‘An Epistle to the … Lord Mayor … concerning the … Excessive Use of Spirituous Liquors,’ &c., 2nd ed. 1751, 8vo; reprinted 1864, 12mo. Nichols gives a list of fifteen of his separate sermons between 1734 and 1753; there are others later, and a charge (1745). His name is often spelt Madox, but this seems unauthorised; his signature till 1730 is certainly Maddox.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. 1812, ii. 540, v. 170 sq., 360 sq. (an earlier account, less full, is in Nichols's Life of Bowyer, 1782, pp. 639 sq.); Chalmers's Gen. Biog. Dict. 1815, xxi. 89 sq.; Calamy's Own Life, 1830, ii. 505; Correspondence of Doddridge (Humphreys), 1830 iv. 478 sq., 1831 v. 47; Cat. of Edinb. Graduates, 1858, p. 195; Smith and Onslow's Diocesan Hist. of Worcester, 1883, p. 335; information from W. D. Jeremy, esq., treasurer of the presbyterian board; information and extract from manuscript in the Bodleian (Rawlinson, J. fol. 18, pp. 69, 77), from the provost of Queen's College, Oxford; information and facsimiles of Maddox's signatures from the president of Queens' College, Cambridge.]