Ogden, Samuel

Ogden, Samuel D.D., an English divine of note, was born at Manchester in 1716, and was educated at the free school there. In 1733 he was admitted to King's College, Cambridge; and removed to St. John's in 1736, where in the following year he took the degree of B.A., and in 1739 was elected fellow. He was ordained deacon at Chester in 1740. In 1741 he took his degree of M.A., and shortly after was ordained to the ministry by the bishop of Lincoln. In 1744 he was elected master of the free school at Halifax, in Yorkshire. In 1753 he resigned the position, and went to reside at Cambridge. The chancellor of the university, the duke of Newcastle, who was present at the exercise Ogden performed for the degree of D.D., was so much satisfied with it that he soon after presented him with the vicarage of Damesham, in Wiltshire, which was tenable with his fellowship. In 1764 he was appointed Woodwardian professor at Cambridge University, and in June, 1766, was presented also with the rectorship of Lawford, in Essex, and in the following month with that of Stansfield. During the latter part of his life Dr. Ogden labored under much ill health. About a year before he died he was seized with a paralytic fit as he was stepping into his coach, and was judged to be in immediate and extreme danger. The cheerfulness with which he sustained this shock, and the indifference with which he gave the necessary orders in the event of his dissolution, that seemed to be then so near, was such as could only be ascribed to a mind properly resigned to the disposals of Providence, and full of the hopes of future happiness. His death occurred March 24, 1778. He published a number of Sermons (1758- 1777) — and after his death two additional volumes of sermons, treating of

Prayer, the Christian Faith, the Ten Commandments, etc., were brought out, together with a life of the Doctor, under the editorship of bishop Halifax (1780, 2 vols. cr. 8vo; 5th ed. 1814, 8vo). Bickersteth says that these sermons are "terse and forcible, but deficient in evangelical statement" (Christian Students' Assistant, s.v.).