William Strong (priest)

William Strong (died 1654) was an English clergyman and then pastor of an independent congregation, and member of the Westminster Assembly.

He was born in Dorset, and was educated at Cambridge, graduating B. A. from St. Catharine Hall, of which he was elected a fellow on 30 December 1631. In 1640 he became rector of Moore Critchell in Dorset, but he was driven out in 1643, when the royalists obtained the ascendancy in the county. He fled to London, where he met a cordial reception, and frequently preached before Parliament.

On 31 December 1645 the Commons appointed him as successor to Edward Peale in the Westminster Assembly, and on 14 October 1647 he became minister of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, Fleet Street.. On 9 December 1650 he was chosen pastor to a congregation of independents, which comprised many members of parliament, and to which he preached in Westminster Abbey. On 29 July 1652 he was appointed to a committee for selecting preachers to go to Ireland. A sermon preached at Westminster in July 1653 'against the liberty of the times as introducing popery,' attracted some attention. He died in middle life in June 1654, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 4 July; but on the Restoration his remains, with those of several others, were dug up and thrown into a pit in St. Margaret's churchyard. His widow Damaris survived him.

Strong was the author of:

Strong also published several sermons, and wrote prefatory remarks to Robert Dingley's Spiritual Taste Described, London, 1649.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

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