Offspring Blackall

Lord Bishop of Exeter.

'An eminent English Divine, born in London, 1652, son of Thomas Blackall, Alderman, of a family originally from Oxfordshire. Educated at Catherine Hall, Cambridge. In 16-9? he was inducted to the living of South Okendon, Essex, and four years later to the living of St. Mary, Aldermary, London, and was chosen lecturer of St. Olaves and St. Dunstans in the west and Chaplain to King William. On the 8 January 1707 he was consercrated Bishop of Exeter. He is said to have upheld the High Church, Tory Principles. He died at the Palace, Exeter, 29 November 1716, from the effects of a fall from his horse and was buried in the Cathedral on the 2 December.

Extract from 'The History and Description of the City of Exeter', 1806, by Alexandra Jenkins.

Chapter 5. Bishops of Devon.

Page 271. 59. Offspring Blackall D.D. (born in Middlesex) was consecrated Bishop of Exeter on the 8 February 1708. to this Bishop's great zeal and charitable disposition, together with his most strenuous endevours, posterity is indebted for the foundation of the Charitable schools in this City. He was a pious Prelate, an ornament to the age he lived in and made his diocese happy under his government for about nine years; when (on the 29 November 1716) he was translated to the joys of heaven. By his last Will he desired to be buried without any funeral pomp, and left particular orders that no monument or stone should be erected to his memory but his good works will more perpetuate his name than the perishable though elegant touches of the sculptor. His remains were deposited in the Chapel at the upper end of the South aisle of his own Cathedral.

LIVES OF THE BISHOPS OF EXETER

OFFSPRING BLACKALL, born in London (of which city his father, Thomas Blackall, was an alderman), but of an Oxfordshire family originally, educated at Catharine Hall, Cambridge, Rector of St. Mary's Aldermanbury, London, and Chaplain to Queen Mary, the consort of King William III. The translation of Bishop Trelawny opened the see of Exeter (by the Queen's command, in opposition to the wishes of her ministers) to this respectable scholar and theologian, and he was consecrated by Archbishop Tenison on 8th February, 1708. By his interest at Court he succeeded in retaining for his life the deanery of S. Burian, and on 20th August, 1708, appointed Mr. William Denham his registrar there. From the conviction that society ought to promote with all the means in its power the enlightenment of the indigent classes, he warmly recommended the institution of charity schools in Exeter;' and he lived to see the schools in a flourishing condition. His death, which took place on 29th November, 1716, aged 66, in consequence of a fall from his horse, excited deep and universal regret. Had Queen Mary lived, Ely would probably have had him for her bishop, instead of Exeter.

The remains of the prelate were deposited on 2nd December on the south side of the cathedral choir. In his will, bearing date 4th July, 1715, he directed that his "burial may be decent, but very private, and without a funeral sermon, in the place where I shall happen to die; neither would I have a stone with any inscription over my grave, nor any monument erected to my memory." By his relict Ann (Dillingham), who survived him till 29th December, 1762, he left a family of seven children - John, Theophilus, Charles, Elizabeth, Ann, Mary, and Jane. In virtue of the Primate Tenison's letter of 4th June, 1709, Bishop Blackall was installed Treasurer of Exeter Church; since which period succeeding bishops have retained this dignity in commendam.

His works, collected and edited by his friend, Dr. Dawes, Archbishop of York, testify how decidedly he was opposed to the democratical principles of Dr. Hoadley, afterwards successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester!

John Blackall, Esq., M.D., great grandson of the bishop, has an excellent portrait of the prelate by Michael Dahl. This Swedish painter was much patronized by Queen Anne's court, and died in England in 1743, aged 87.

Arms: - Argent, a Greyhound courant sable, collared or; on a chief dancette of the second, three besants.

Exeter Working Papers

in British Book Trade History

12

By the eighteenth century controversies of the day could be followed by interested persons in Exeter, two or three days laborious journey from the capital. On Tuesday 8 March 1709 Offspring Blackall, Bishop of Exeter, preached a sermon before the Queen on the anniversary of her succession. In it he maintained that rulers were "ministers of God" and none on earth had the right to question or resist them. The sermon was published with the title The divine institution of magistracy (London: H.Hills, 1709) and provoked a leading low church divine, Benjamin Hoadley, rector of St Peter le Poer in London, to publish Some considerations humbly offered to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Exeter (1709) in which he claimed that "the gospel of Jesus Christ hath not utterly deprived man of the right of self-defence". The Bishop reacted with his The Lord Bishop of Exeter's answer to Mr. Hoadley's letter (1709). Hoadley offered An humble reply to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Exeter's answer (1709), an anonymous "student at Oxford" produced A submissive answer to Mr. Hoadley's humble reply (1709). A Student of the Temple joined issue with such titles as The best answer ever was made, (London, J.Morphew, 1709), A better answer than the best answer ever was made, A modest reply to the unanswerable answer and so on, to a total of at least seventeen items. In the Westcountry Studies Library in Exeter are two volumes of these tracts, which have varying London imprints, both in near contemporary bindings. Thirteen tracts are present in both volumes and four, including the sermon which started the controversy, in one volume only. At least one of these volumes was probably collected in Devon since it bears the bookplate of William Webber of Exeter, probably to be identified with a gentleman of that name admitted freeman of Exeter on 6 July 1713, and with a subscriber to John Warren's Sermons upon several subjects in 1739 (Exeter freemen, 224). The fact that those resident almost 200 miles from the place of publication could assemble a comprehensive collection of topical pamphlets reveals both a considerable awareness of current events and a good communications system.

While the controversy with Hoadley in 1709 was conducted entirely through pamphlets published in London there was at the same time another religious controversy smouldering intermittently fuelled by pamphlets from Exeter presses. The first spark had been struck by a dissenting minister, John Withers in 1707 when he produced A true and impartial account of what occurred at the late conference in Exeter. An Exeter churchman, John Agate, produced a Reply the same year and, also in 1707, Withers retorted with A defence of the true and impartial account. In 1708 Agate published The plain truth in three parts, provoking from Withers Truth try'd: or, Mr. Agate's plain-truth proved an untruth which appeared in two parts in 1708 and 1709. In 1709 Agate contributed More plain-truth and Withers An answer to Mr. Agate's expostulatory letter. Agate waited until 1713 before producing A defence of the plain truth, with a second part appearing in 1714. Withers's Reply of 1715 appears too be the final shot fired in a pamphlet war that had lasted eight years. Agate was only published in Exeter but Withers, apart from his skirmish with Agate, appears to have had most of his thirty editions published in London.