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Carkeet
84
Carkett

wish, amid the tears and lamentations of the monks.

The character of William de St. Carilef is puzzling. It is hard to reconcile the clever, selfish, unscrupulous statesman with the wise administrator and sagacious reformer of his diocese. He was probably a man whose cleverness was superficial, and did not go beyond the capacity to do what seemed obvious for the moment. At Durham his duty was tolerably clear, and he did it with sagacity and winning sympathy. He was beloved by his monks. His architectural plans were marked by the finest feeling for the capacities of the art of his time. In public matters his path was not so clear. He had no principles to guide him, and his actions were swayed by selfishness.

[The northern authority is Simeon of Durham, Hist. Dunelm. Eccles. ed. Arnold, Rolls Series, i. 119, &c.; also, with the Hist. Regum, ed. Hinde, Surtees Society; the account of the trial at Salisbury is a Durham document, ‘De injusta venatione Willelmi primi episcopi,’ in Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, i. 245, &c.; the southern authorities are William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum, bk. iv. ch. 1; and Gesta Pontificum, bk. iv.; Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, and Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, sub annis; Eadmar, Hist. Nov. bk. i.; of modern writers see Hutchinson's Durham,i. 133; Stubbs's Constitutional Hist. ch. xi.; the public life of Bishop William has been fully examined by Freeman, William Rufus, i. 119, &c., and the authorities discussed in Appendix C.]

M. C.


CARKEET, SAMUEL (d. 1746), presbyterian minister, was ordained 19 July 1710, the same day as James Strong, afterwards of Ilminster. He was settled in the larger of two presbyterian congregations at Totnes. Accused of Arianism when the Exeter controversy broke out, he preached a vigorous sermon at Exeter, 7 May 1719, at the young men's lecture, repudiating all personal taint of Arianism, but maintaining that christian worth is independent of speculative opinions. Few contributions to the non-subscription side are more blunt and trenchant in their language. Arguing against any unscriptural test, he says: 'Either the Holy Ghost spoke as plain as he could, or as plain as God thought proper for a rule to the churches. If he spake as plain as he could, they are no plausible contenders for his Divinity (which, I believe, is generally acknowledg'd among Christians) who fancy they can speak plainer. If he spake only as plain as God thought proper, they certainly invade his prerogative who pretend to make the matter plainer, and urge it upon men's consciences.' Carkeet removed to Bodmin after 1729 ), and died there on 17 June 1746. His sermon was puplished with the title, 'Gospel Worthiness stated: in a Sermon [Matt. x. 11] preached in Exon., &c., 1719, 8vo. He published also 'An Essay on the Conversion of St. Paul, as implying a change of his Moral Character,' 1741, 8vo (against Henry Grove's view that the change was simply one of opinion).

[Manuscript List of Ministers in Records of Exeter Assembly; James's Presbyterian Chapels and Charities. 1867, p. 656 (where he is called Carkat); sermon cited above.]

A. G.


CARKESSE, JAMES (fl. 1679), verse writer, was educated at Westminster School, whence in 1652 he was elected to a scholarship at Christ Church, Oxford. It seems probable that he joined the Roman catholic church before 1679, in which year he published a curious volume of doggerel rhymes, entitled 'Lucida Intervalla: containing divers miscellaneous Poems written at Finsbury and Bethlem, by the Doctor's Patient Extraordinary,' London, 4to. The doctors name was Thomas Allen. It is clear that the writer was a very fit subject for a lunatic asylum.

[Welch's Alumni Westmon. 139; Notes and Queries, 1st series, ii. 87; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn); Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]

T. C.


CARKETT, ROBERT (d. 1780), captain in the royal navy, seems to have entered the navy in 1734 as able seaman on board the Exeter. In her, and afterwards in the Grampus and Alderney sloops, he served in that capacity for upwards of four years, when he was appointed to the Plymouth as midshipman. In that ship, then belonging to the Mediterranean fleet, he remained for nearly five years, and during the latter part of the time under the command of Captain G.B. Rodney. He passed his examination on 18 July 1743, sailed for the East Indies in the Deptford in May 1744, was made lieutenant in the following February, and returned to England in September 1746. During the rest of the war he served in the Surprize frigate, and in March 1755 was appointed to the Monmouth, a small ship of 64 guns, which, after two years in the Channel, was, early in 1767, sent out to the Mediterranean under the command of Captain Arthur Gardiner. In the early part of 1758 the squadron under Vice-admiral Osborn was blockading Cartagena. On the evening of 28 Feb. the Monmouth chased the French 80-gun ship Foudroyant out of sight of the squadron, and single-handed brought her to action. About nine o'clock Gardiner fell mortally wounded, and