John Disney (Unitarian)

John Disney (1746–1816) was an English Unitarian minister and biographical writer, initially an Anglican clergyman active against subscription to the Thirty Nine Articles.

He was the third son of John Disney of Lincoln, born 28 September 1746. His grandfather John Disney was rector of St. Mary's, Nottingham, his great-grandfather Daniel Disney. Disney was at Wakefield grammar school, under John Clarke, and subsequently at Lincoln grammar school. He was intended for the bar, but his health broke down under the preliminary studies, and he turned to the church. He entered Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1764 (admitted pensioner 15 June 1765), and after graduation was ordained in 1768; in 1770 he proceeded LL.B. His sympathies with the latitudinarians were early; he appeared as a writer in April 1768 in defence of the ‘Confessional,’ by Francis Blackburne. Immediately after his ordination he was appointed honorary chaplain to Edmund Law, Master of Peterhouse and Bishop of Carlisle. In 1769 he was presented to the vicarage of Swinderby, Lincolnshire, and soon afterwards to the rectory of Panton, in another part of the county; he held both livings, residing at Swinderby.

Disney became an active member of the association formed on 17 July 1771 to promote a petition to parliament for relief of the clergy from subscription. The petition was rejected by the House of Commons on 6 February 1772. Disney did not immediately follow the example of his friend Theophilus Lindsey, who resigned his benefice in the following year. On his way to London in December 1773, Lindsey stayed for more than a week at Swinderby. Like some others, Disney accommodated the public service to suit his special views. He had always ignored the Athanasian Creed; he now omitted the Nicene Creed and the Litany, and made other changes in reading the common prayer. On 5 June 1775 the University of Edinburgh made him D.D., through the influence of Bishop Law with Principal William Robertson; in 1778 he was admitted a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. For a time Disney concentrated on secular duties and political action. He was an energetic magistrate, and while staying at Flintham Hall, near Newark, the seat of his eldest brother, he joined in 1780 the Nottingham county committee for retrenchment and parliamentary reform.

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