Samuel Badcock

Samuel Badcock (1747–1788) was an English nonconformist minister, theological writer and literary critic.

He was born at South Molton, Devon on 23 February 1747. His parents were dissenters, and he was educated in a school at Ottery St. Mary, for the sons of those opposed to the Church of England. He was trained for the dissenting ministry, and in 1766 became the pastor of a congregation at Wimborne in Dorset. After three years of residence in that county he was appointed to a similar post at Barnstaple in Devon, and remained there until 1778.

He became known, through his contributions to the Theological Repository to Joseph Priestley, and sought his acquaintance in correspondence, and personally by a journey to Bowood, where Priestley was living with Lord Shelburne. Badcock adopted some of Priestley's theological views, and this led to an estrangement from his congregation at Barnstaple. Badcock returned to South Molton, where he ministered from 1778 to 1786, when he became dissatisfied with the doctrines of dissent and with the position assigned to its ministers.

He sought for ordination in the Church of England, and, having obtained a title for the curacy of Broad Clyst, was ordained by John Ross, bishop of Exeter, becoming deacon and priest within a week in June 1787. Harassed by failing health and money troubles, he assisted for the last six months of his life at the Octagon Chapel, Bath; and whilst on a visit to Sir John Chichester, one of his Devon patrons, at his town house in Queen Street, Mayfair, London, died on 19 May 1788.

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