Robert Spearman

Robert Spearman (1703–1761) was an English theologian, known as a Hutchinsonian.

Life

He was the eldest son of Robert Spearman, attorney of Durham, by his wife Hannah, only daughter of William Webster, merchant, of Stockton-on-Tees.[1] He studied at Durham School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, but left without taking a degree.[2] He then lived at Old Acres, Sedgefield.[1]

A pupil of John Hutchinson, Spearman survived him, edited his works, and wrote his life.[1] He was the dedicatee of Two Dissertations concerning the Etymology and Scripture-Meaning of the Hebrew words Elohim and Berith (1751) by Thomas Sharp, with whom he was on good terms.[2]

Spearman died on 20 October 1761, leaving only female issue by his wife Anne, daughter of Robert Sharpe of Hawthorn, County Durham.[1]

Works

Spearman's own writings were:[1]

• An Enquiry after Philosophy and Theology, tending to show when and whence mankind came at the knowledge of these two important points, Edinburgh, 1755; 2nd ed. Dublin, 1757 (a polemic against Newtonian physics);
• Letters to a Friend concerning the Septuagint Translation and the Heathen Mythology, Edinburgh, 1759 (an attempt to derive all mythologies from a primeval revelation).

References

1. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Spearman, Robert" . Dictionary of National Biography. 53. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
2. Aston, Nigel. "Spearman, Robert". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26088. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Spearman, Robert". Dictionary of National Biography. 53. London: Smith, Elder & Co.