one of the county families. About 1640 he was chosen as what was called middle-master of the free school at Derby, and afterwards head-master. The school soon won under him more than a provincial fame. He had some scruples as to subscription, but the Earl of Devonshire having presented him to the vicarage of Marston-upon-Dove (Derbyshire), he was prevailed upon to accept it. He continued in his cure until his ejection in 1662. Having an intimacy of long standing with Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury, that prelate condescended to write to him with his own hand to persuade him to conform, telling him that he lay so near his heart that he would help him to any preferment he desired.' The vicar acknowledged the personal kindness shown, but reminded the archbishop 'that they two had not been such strangers but that his grace might very well know his sentiments on the subject, and added 'that he would not offer violence to his conscience for the best preferment in the world.'
Upon the passing of the Five Mile Act (1665) Bingham retired to Bradley Hall. For three years he was occupied in teaching sons of the gentry who boarded with him. Afterwards he lived for seven years at Brailsford. Here he met with much trouble. He was excommunicated by the church incumbent, though every one knew that the ejected vicar was a man of great moderation. He and his family used to attend their parish church every Lord's-day morning, but he was wont of an afternoon to preach at his own house, but only to the number allowed by the act. Upon the Indulgence he preached at Hollington, in rotation with other ejected ministers. The excommunication of Bingham made a great sensation in Brailsford parish, and therefore to avoid further uproar lie removed, with all his household, to Upper Thurneston in the parish of Sutton.
Bingham was well acquainted not only with Latin and Greek, but with Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. He helped Walton with his great polyglot Bible. He was himself a subscriber to it, and by a wide correspondence; rallied others around the illustrious scholar. When he was about seventy he broke an arm by a fall from his horse. The next year he was taken with a quartan ague, which afflicted him seven years. He had an impression 'borne in upon him that, old and frail as he was, he should live to see a very great change.' He lived to welcome William and Mary, whose coming to the throne he regarded as the fulfilment of his impression. He died 3 Feb. 1689. His funeral sermon was preached by Crompton from Psalm xii. 1. He was interred at Upper Thurneston. He appears to have published nothing.
[Calamy's Account; Palmer's Nonconf. Mem. i. 415-17; Simpson's Hist. of Derby and Derbyshire; local researches show that so late as 1768 descendants occupied influential positions in Derby.]
BINGHAM, JOSEPH (1668–1723), author of the 'Origines Ecclesiasticæ,' or 'Antiquities of the Christian Church,' was born at Wakefield in September 1768, and educated in his native town until 1684, when he went to University College, Oxford. Even in his undergraduate days he devoted himself to the studies which afterwards made his name famous. He took his B.A. degree in 1688, and was elected fellow of University in 1689. In 1691 he was made a college tutor, and in that capacity developed the talents and directed the tastes of a fellow-townsman, John Potter, who had followed him from Wakefield to University, and afterwards became archbishop of Canterbury, and author of the well-known works on 'Church Government' and the 'Antiquities of Greece.' In 1696, when the Trinitarian controversy was at its height, Bingham preached a perfectly orthodox sermon on the subject at St. Mary's, in which he gave a most accurate sketch of the opinions of the early fathers on the terms 'person' and 'substance.' The Hebdomadal Board, however, charged him with having 'asserted doctrines false, impious, and heretical, contrary and dissonant to those of the catholic church.' This severe censure was followed by other charges in the public press, accusing him of Arianism, Tritheism, and the heresy of Valentinus Gentilis. The result was that he was obliged to resign his fellowship and withdraw from the university. The blunder does not appear to have been recorded in the books of the university, but the sad fact remains that Oxford drove from her walls one of her most distinguished sons, on charges of which he was perfectly innocent. Bingham was not left quite destitute; as soon as he resigned his fellowship he was presented by the well-known Dr. Radcliffe, without any solicitation, to the living of Headbourn-Worthy. It was worth only 100l. a year, but it had the advantage of being close to Winchester, where Bingham could make use of the excellent cathedral library founded by Bishop Morley. Soon after his appointment to Worthy, Bingham was invited to preach a visitation sermon in Winchester Cathedral, and he chose the same subjects and expressed the same sentiments which had given such deep offence at Oxford. The sermon gave so much satisfaction
