The ODNB tells us that Holy Club member Thomas Broughton (1712–1777) was a Church of England clergyman born in the parish of St Martin Carfax, Oxford and the son of Thomas Broughton, gentleman. He matriculated at University College, Oxford, 17 December 1731, aged 19. In March 1733 he joined Wesley's ‘Methodists’. He was elected Petreian fellow at Exeter College 30 June 1733 and full fellow 14 July 1734. By December 1734 he was increasingly at odds with some of the Methodists, though he remained an ally for some time, even assisting in Wesley's unsuccessful attempt at preferment to the living at Epworth April 1735.
For a time, beginning in late 1735, he was curate of Cowley, near Uxbridge. In 1736 he became curate at the Tower of London and occasionally rode in the cart with condemned criminals to Tyburn, in the manner depicted by Hogarth. He took his BA 22 March 1737. A year later he challenged, as too Moravian, Wesley's claims of instantaneous conversion and assurance of faith, and consequently became estranged from the Methodists. Having both obtained and lost a lectureship at St Helen's, Bishopsgate, through the influence of Whitefield, in 1741 he became lecturer of All Hallows, Lombard Street. In July 1741 he resigned his fellowship at Exeter; and in the following year he married a Miss Capel. They had 15 children; five died in infancy.
Broughton was appointed secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 28 June 1743, a position that occupied him on weekdays for the rest of his life. As the first ordained clergyman to hold the position, he managed the society's publications and assistance to charity schools, missions and workhouses, but seems to have gained no personal notoriety thereby. A portrait of Broughton by Robert Dunkarton still hangs in the SPCK HQ. On 7 November 1752 he was installed rector of the church of St John the Evangelist in Wotton, Surrey, a living which also included Oakwood Chapel. Broughton died in London on the morning of 21 December 1777, as he was preparing for St Thomas Day services; he was found by friends on his knees in clerical attire in the society's house in Hatton Garden. Broughton's published writings include two sermons: The Christian Soldier, or, The Duties of a Religious Life Recommended to the Army, preached 1737 at the Tower, printed 1738 (12th ed, 1818), and translated into Gaelic (An saighdear Criosduidh) 1797; and A Serious and Affectionate Warning to Servants (1746; 9th ed, 1818).
This Thomas Broughton should not be confused with another almost contemporary Thomas Broughton (1704-1774) Anglican clergyman and author.
For a time, beginning in late 1735, he was curate of Cowley, near Uxbridge. In 1736 he became curate at the Tower of London and occasionally rode in the cart with condemned criminals to Tyburn, in the manner depicted by Hogarth. He took his BA 22 March 1737. A year later he challenged, as too Moravian, Wesley's claims of instantaneous conversion and assurance of faith, and consequently became estranged from the Methodists. Having both obtained and lost a lectureship at St Helen's, Bishopsgate, through the influence of Whitefield, in 1741 he became lecturer of All Hallows, Lombard Street. In July 1741 he resigned his fellowship at Exeter; and in the following year he married a Miss Capel. They had 15 children; five died in infancy.
Broughton was appointed secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 28 June 1743, a position that occupied him on weekdays for the rest of his life. As the first ordained clergyman to hold the position, he managed the society's publications and assistance to charity schools, missions and workhouses, but seems to have gained no personal notoriety thereby. A portrait of Broughton by Robert Dunkarton still hangs in the SPCK HQ. On 7 November 1752 he was installed rector of the church of St John the Evangelist in Wotton, Surrey, a living which also included Oakwood Chapel. Broughton died in London on the morning of 21 December 1777, as he was preparing for St Thomas Day services; he was found by friends on his knees in clerical attire in the society's house in Hatton Garden. Broughton's published writings include two sermons: The Christian Soldier, or, The Duties of a Religious Life Recommended to the Army, preached 1737 at the Tower, printed 1738 (12th ed, 1818), and translated into Gaelic (An saighdear Criosduidh) 1797; and A Serious and Affectionate Warning to Servants (1746; 9th ed, 1818).
This Thomas Broughton should not be confused with another almost contemporary Thomas Broughton (1704-1774) Anglican clergyman and author.
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