HOADLY, Benjamin (1676–1761), the originator of the Bangorian controversy, was the second son of the Rev. Samuel Hoadly, and was born at Westerham, Kent, November 14, 1676. After receiving his early education under the direction of his father, he entered Catherine Hall, Cam bridge, where he graduated M.A. and was for two years tutor, after which he held for ten years the lectureship of St Mildred in the Poultry, and along with it for the last eight years the rectory of St Peter-le-Poer, London. His first appearance as a controversialist was against Mr Calamy in reference to conformity, and immediately after this he engaged in a more important dispute with Bishop Atterbury against the Anglican doctrine of nonresistance. His principal treatises on this subject were the Measures of Sub mission to the Civil Magistrate and The Origin and Institution of Civil Government discussed ; and his part in the discussion was so much appreciated by the Commons that in 1709 they presented an address to the queen pray ing her to "bestow some dignity in the church on Mr Hoadly for his eminent services both to church and state." The queen returned a favourable answer, but the dignity was not conferred. In 1710 he was presented by a private patron to the rectory of Streatham in Surrey. In 1715 he was appointed chaplain to the king, and the same year he obtained the bishopric of Bangor. In 1716 he published a Preservative against the Principles and Practices of Nonjurors in Church and State, and in the following year preached before the king his famous sermon on the Kingdom of Christ, which was immediately published by royal com mand. These works were attacks on the divine authority of kings and of the clergy, but as the sermon dealt more specifically and distinctly with the power of the church, its publication caused an ecclesiastical ferment which in certain aspects has no parallel in religious history. It was at once resolved to proceed against him in convocation, but this was prevented by the king proroguing the assembly, a step which had consequences of vital bearing on the history of the church, since from that period the great Anglican council ceased to transact business of a more than formal nature. The restrained sentiments of the coun cil in regard to Hoadly found expression in a war of pamph lets known as the Bangorian controversy, which, partly from a want of clearness in the statements of Hoadly, due perhaps both to his intellectual defects and to a cautious regard to ulterior consequences, partly from the disin- genuousness of his opponents and the confusion resulting from exasperated feelings, developed into an intricate and bewildering maze of side discussions in which the main issues of the dispute were concealed almost beyond the possibility of discovery. But however vague and uncertain might be the meaning of Hoadly in regard to several of the important bearings of the questions around which he aroused discussion, he was explicit in denying the power of the church over the conscience, and its right to determine the condition of men in relation to the favour of God. To such an extent was the mind of the religious world exercised on the matters in dispute that in July 1717 as many as seventy-four pamphlets made their appearance ; and at one period the crisis became so serious that the business of London was for some days virtually at a stand still. Hoadly was translated in 1721 to the see of Here ford, in 1723 to Salisbury, and in 1734 to Winchester. He died at his palace at Chelsea, April 17, 1761. Though his writings possess no charm of style, and are not only devoid of originality, but characterized by great prolixity and dulness, they in their own day did important service to the cause of civil and religious liberty, and accidentally he was the occasion of a change in the practical authority of the church which had an influence of prime importance on its after history. He was an intimate friend of Dr Samuel Clarke, of whom he wrote a life.
The works of Hoadly were collected and published by his son in 3 vols., 1773. To the first volume was prefixed the article "Hoadly," from the supplement to the Biographia Brilannica.
HOARE, Sir Richard Cobb (1758–1838), Bart., English antiquary, eldest son of Sir Richard Hoare, the first baronet, an eminent banker, was born 9th December 1758. Having been accustomed in his youth to apply himself to business, the diligent habits which he then acquired induced him afterwards to relieve the tedium of his life by the study of topography and antiquities. In 1783 he married the eldest daughter of Lord Lyttelton, and on her death in 1785 Le made a tour on the Continent, visiting France, Italy, and Switzerland. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1787, and in the following year he left England on a second Continental tour. The record of his travels was originally published by him in four volumes, and these were afterwards condensed into two, which appeared in 1810 under the title A Classical Tour through Italy and Sicily. Travelling on the Continent having been rendered insecure on account of the war with France, he next resolved to make a tour in Wales, taking Giraldus Cambrensis (de Barri) as his guide, and in 1808 he pub lished a translation of Giraldus, with notes, illustrations, and a life of the author, in two splendid quarto volumes. In 1807 he visited Ireland ; and he also published an ac count of this excursion. His most important contribution to antiquarian science was, however, his history of his native county, Wiltshire. In 1821 he completed in two volumes folio the History of Ancient Wiltshire, after which he com menced the History of Modern Wiltshire, and confining his attention to South Wiltshire was able with the help of several coadjutors almost to finish the work before his death. The first part the history of the hundred of Mere ap peared in 1822, and the last part in 1843. Hoare died at Stourhead, May 19, 1838. For a notice of him and a list of his works, many of which were printed privately, see the Gentleman s Magazine for July 1838.
