Erasmus Middleton

Erasmus Middleton (1739–1805) was an English clergyman, author and editor.

He was the son of Erasmus Middleton of Horncastle, Lincolnshire. At age 22 he underwent a religion conversion among Wesleyan Methodists in Horncastle. He was then sent to Joseph Townsend in Pewsey for tuition.

Middleton entered Clare College, Cambridge as a sizar in 1765. On 4 June 1767 he matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, but was expelled from the university in May 1768, along with five other members of the Hall, for publicly praying and preaching. The group were known as the "preaching tradesmen". At the time it was said that Selina, Countess of Huntingdon had sponsored them; in the case of two of the students, at least, there was a definite connection. The Hall in the middle of the 18th century had only around a dozen students. Its tolerant Principal George Dixon had tried to raise numbers, and had no part in the expulsions, though he did not share the Calvinist tone of the beliefs of the group.

At this time the leader of the few evangelicals at Oxford was James Stillingfleet (1752–1768), a Fellow of Merton College. The group of Oxford Methodists met in a private home, led by him; there were five more students, with the six who were expelled. John Higson of St Edmund Hall complained to David Durell, who was then vice-chancellor.

The affair caused a furore, and some pamphleteering. One of the charges against Middleton individually was that he had officiated at a service in the chapel of ease at Chieveley, though a layman. The six students were defended by Sir Richard Hill, 2nd Baronet. In turn Thomas Nowell defended the university's actions, leading to further polemical exchanges. One of Nowell's claims was that Middleton's acquaintance with Thomas Haweis was supposed to be enough to get him holy orders, refused by the Bishop of Hereford (Lord James Beauclerk) on the grounds of insufficient learning, through unspecified influence. The Chieveley incident was reported to date to three years earlier. Two further prominent defenders of the students were George Whitefield and "The Shaver", the pseudonym of the Baptist minister John Macgowan, who waxed satirical against the academics.Samuel Johnson pronounced his approval of the expulsions.

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