Life
The son of a carrier who came from Scotland, and plied between Norwich and London, he was born at Norwich late in 1740. He was sent by his father to Amsterdam for a year to complete his school education, and entered in 1760 Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1764, M.A. 1767, and D.D. 1797. In 1765 he was elected to a fellowship in his college, he acted for some time as its sub-tutor, and in 1771 he was the junior proctor of the university. Having been ordained in the English church, he served for some years as the minister of the sequestrated benefice of Hinxton, Cambridgeshire.
He was nominated by his college in 1773 to the rectory of St Mary Abchurch with St Laurence Pountney, London, but before he could be instituted he exchanged for the rectory of Snailwell, Cambridgeshire. When the headship of his college became vacant in 1778; but he declined the offer of it, and was promoted by Bishop James Yorke in 1796 to the rectory of Leverington, in the Isle of Ely.
As magistrate for Cambridgeshire and chairman for many years of the sessions at Cambridge and Ely, he studied the Poor Laws and other economic questions affecting his district. He was also for some time chaplain to John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire. After a long illness he died at Leverington on 16 October 1808, aged 67, and was buried in the church, where his widow erected a monument to his memory on the north side of the chancel. He had married in 1774 Susanna, daughter of John Salmon, rector of Shelton, Norfolk, and sister of Benjamin Salmon, fellow of his college. She died at Norwich on 11 November 1814, aged 75, bequeathing sums to charity.
Read more about this topic: James Nasmith
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Some things in life are bad
They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse
When you’re chewing on life’s gristle
Don’t grumble, give a whistle
And this’ll help turn things out for the best ...
And ... always look on the bright side of life.”
—Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Mr. Frisbee III (Eric Idle)
“I have no scheme about it,—no designs on men at all; and, if I had, my mode would be to tempt them with the fruit, and not with the manure. To what end do I lead a simple life at all, pray? That I may teach others to simplify their lives?—and so all our lives be simplified merely, like an algebraic formula? Or not, rather, that I may make use of the ground I have cleared, to live more worthily and profitably?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)