Note 145 — Chapter XV

This wretched enemy to all serious religion was educated at Douay, in France, for orders in the Church of Rome; but, upon his recantation, was noticed by Archbishop Potter, and by him recommended to the Vicar of Whalley, who appointed him Vicar of Colne. He was neither devoid of parts nor literature, but childishly ignorant of common life, and shamefully inattentive to his duty, which he frequently abandoned, for weeks together, to such accidental assistance as the parish could procure. On one occasion he is said to have read the funeral service more than twenty times in a single night over the dead that had been interred in his absence. With these glaring imperfections in his own character, he sought to distinguish himself by a riotous opposition to the Methodists. He was a notorious drunkard, and drank himself first into a gaol, and then into his grave. He was interred in his own church, April 29, 1751. It is reported and believed in the neighbourhood of Colne, that Mr. White, when on his dying bed, sent for Mr. Grimshaw, expressed his concern for having opposed him, being fully convinced of the impropriety of his former conduct, and begged the assistance of his instructions and prayers. See History of Whalley, part ii. 139, &c., by the Rev. T. D. Whitaker.