Samuel Fairclough

Samuel Fairclough (1594–1677) was an English nonconformist divine.

Fairclough was born 29 April 1594 at Haverhill, Suffolk, the youngest of the four sons of Lawrence Fairclough, vicar of Haverhill, by his wife Mary, daughter of John Cole of that town. After some preliminary training under a Mr. Robotham, who said of him that he was the best scholar he had ever taught in the course of thirty years, he was sent to Queens' College, Cambridge, at the age of fourteen. Various stories are told of his strict life and steady attachment to moderate puritan principles. He refused on principle to take a woman's part in the comedy of ‘Ignoramus’ when about to be presented before James I.

Soon after taking his B.A. degree a Mr. Allington offered him a presentation to a living in Suffolk, but not being of age to receive priest's orders he declined it, and preferred to pursue his theological studies with Richard Blackerby, then resident at Ashen, Essex, whose eldest daughter he afterwards married. In 1619, he accepted an offer from the mayor and nine aldermen of Lynn Regis, Norfolk, of a lectureship,. from the congregation. ‘His popularity,’ relates Edmund Calamy, ‘excited the envy of the other ministers, and he was openly opposed by the publicans, whose business declined from the decrease of drunkenness.’

Samuel Harsnet, bishop of Norwich, cited him into his court for neglecting to use the sign of the cross in baptism, and the result was that Fairclough retired. He then accepted a similar but a less conspicuous position at Clare, Suffolk, where he had often preached while at Ashen. Before long Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, who was frequently one of his hearers, presented him to the adjoining rectory of Barnardiston, 27 June 1623. He there met with further opposition. One of the clergymen at Sudbury being ill, Fairclough occupied his pulpit for him, and in the evening he repeated the sermon which he had preached to the family in whose house he lodged. For this articles were exhibited against him in the Star Chamber as a factious man; he was convened before the Court of High Commission, and made to attend at different times for more than two years. Matters were only resolved by covert influence.

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