Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hesketh, Roger
HESKETH, ROGER, D.D. (1643–1715), Roman catholic controversialist, born in 1643, was a younger son of Gabriel Hesketh, gentleman, of Whitehill, Goosnargh, Lancashire, by Ann, daughter of Robert Simpson of Barker in Goosnargh. He received his education in the English College at Lisbon, was ordained priest and made procurator of the college in 1667, and confessarius in 1672. He began to teach philosophy in January 1675–6, and divinity in September 1677. On 6 Dec. 1678 he was appointed vice-president, and he held that office till 1686, when he was recalled to England by Bishop Leyburne. He left Lisbon on 29 April in that year, being then a doctor of divinity. When Dr. Watkinson desired to resign the presidency of the college at Lisbon, Hesketh was nominated his successor; but Watkinson was induced to retain the presidency. In 1694 Hesketh was elected a capitular, and in 1710 he assisted at the general chapter. He served the mission in Lincolnshire, probably at Hainton, the seat of the Heneage family, and died in April 1715, aged 71.
He wrote a treatise on transubstantiation, one of the numerous anonymous tracts published in the reign of James II. Dodd says it was written in answer to John Patrick, M.A., preacher at the Charterhouse, and he adds that a reply to Hesketh's treatise was published by Edward Bernard, D.D. [q. v.]
[Information from Joseph Gillow, esq.; Kirk's MS. Biog. Collections, No. 23, quoted in Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Catholic Mag. and Review (1835), vi. 105; Dodd's Certamen Utriusque Ecclesiæ, pp. 16, 17; Fishwick's Parochial Chapelry of Goosnargh, pp. 160, 162*.]