Richard Smalbroke

Richard Smallbrooke (1672 – 22 December 1749) was an English churchman,

Life

The son of Samuel Smallbrooke (buried 23 May 1701) of Rowington,^[1] Warwickshire, by his wife Elizabeth (died 5 May 1722), he was born at 19 High Street, Birmingham. He matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 15 June 1688, aged 15; and was elected demy of Magdalen College in the so-called "golden election" of 1689. He graduated B.A. 1692; M.A. 26 January 1694–5; was elected fellow 1698, and became B.D. on 27 January 1707, and D.D. 1708. In 1709 he was appointed chaplain to Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury, who gave him (1709) the rectory of Hadleigh, Suffolk; this he held till 1712. He was canon of Hereford Cathedral 1710; vicar of Lugwardine, Herefordshire, 1711; treasurer of Llandaff, 1712, the last to hold that office; and rector of Withington, Gloucestershire, 1716.

In 1723 he was elected, and in 1724 consecrated, to the see of St Davids. He was an active prelate, enforced the reading of the

A portrait, painted by T. Murray, was engraved by George Vertue in 1733.

Works

Smalbrooke printed in 1706 a university sermon against the view of

• Reflections on Mr. Whiston's Conduct, 1711, (anon.)
• The New Arian Reproved: or a Vindication of some Reflections, 1711.
• The Pretended Authority of the Clementine Constitutions confuted, 1714.
• Idolatry charged upon Arianism, 1720.
• An Enquiry into the Authority of the … Complutensian Edition of the New Testament, 1722; reprinted in
  Thomas Burgess
  's Selection of Tracts … on 1 John v. 7, 1824.
• A Vindication of the Miracles of our Blessed Saviour, 1729–1731, 2 vols.; for Quaker criticisms of the second volume, see Joseph Smith's Bibliotheca Anti-Quakeriana, 1873, pp. 398 sq.
• Some Account of … John Hough … Bishop of Worcester, 1743, (anon.)
• Some Account of … Edmund Gibson … Bishop of London,’1749, (anon.)

His politics are attacked in Remarks on Two Charges … by a Friend to Truth and Liberty, 1738, signed at the end A Revolutional Tory, and ascribed (improbably) to Josiah Owen.

Select sermons:

• The Reverence due to the House of God. A Sermon Preach'd in the Cathedral-church of Landaff, July 2d, 1721
• The doctrine of an universal judgment asserted. In a sermon preach'd before the University, at St. Mary's in Oxford, June 9th, 1706. in which the ... ... are consider'd.

Family

Smalbroke married a sister of Richard Brooks, M.D., and left three sons and four daughters. The last of his descendants was his son Richard Smalbroke, D.C.L., of

References

• "Smalbroke, Richard" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.