Zachary Grey: Abstracts and transcripts on religious and Cambridge University affairs

Zachary Grey (1688-1766) was a staunch Church of England Clergyman and writer. He was born in Yorkshire to George Grey (1652-1711), a Church of England clergyman, and Elizabeth Cowdray. Grey was admitted a pensioner at Jesus College, Cambridge, on 18 April 1704 but migrated to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was elected a scholar on 6 January 1707. He was ordained deacon by the bishop of Lincoln on 25 July 1711, becoming a priest on 22 September. He served as rector of Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire, from 4 April 1725, and was vicar of St Giles and St Peter's, Cambridge.

Grey published (often anonymously) a large number of outspoken pamphlets attacking other academics and writers, especially those of a Presbyterian disposition. Notable are his critiques of Sir Isaac Newton and Daniel Neal: Examination of the 14th chapter of Sir Isaac Newton's observations upon the prophecies of Daniel (1736) and A Review of Mr Daniel Neal's History of the Puritans (1744). Grey frequently argued that the Church of England was the best of churches, seeing all opponents of this view as wishing to return to 1649, this view is represented in his edited prefaces for Samuel Butler's Hudibras (1744).

Grey married twice, first to Miss Tooley, and second, in 1720, to Susanna Hatton (née Hinton) (c.1690-1771). With Hatton he had three children, his two daughters survived into adulthood. His second wife outlived Grey by five years after his death in Ampthill, Bedfordshire aged 78.

Autograph, with second hand interspersed.

Including: (fo. 2) 'The horrid Barbarity of the Spanish Inquisition': preface by Grey, followed by abstract of William Lithgow, Totall Discourse of rare Adventures, 10th ed., pp. 421 ff.; (fo. 35) 'The Jesuit in Disguise': referenced abstracts from several printed works; (fo. 59) Grey, 'A Review of Mr Neal's History of the Puritans', printed with omissions Cambridge, 1744; Grey, 'What Authority there is for the use of the present singing Psalms in Churches', unprinted, with (fo. 110) letter from C. Moss, bishop of Bath and Wells, to Grey, 2 July 1738; (fo. 139) orders to be observed by a 'friendly society of Psalm Singers' in St Giles Church, Cambridge; (fo. 203) extracts from decrees and orders of the vice-chancellor's court, 1577-86, from copies made by William Cole in BL Add. 5829.

Belonged to Richard Heber (d. 1833). Purchased at sale of his MSS by Sir Thomas Phillipps, lot 1589, and subsequently Phillipps MS 8367. Purchased at the Sotheby's Phillipps sale, 22 Mar. 1895, lot 359.

In English and Latin

Please cite as Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Zachary Grey: Abstracts and transcripts on religious and Cambridge University affairs, MS Add.3308

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