PHILIP AND MATTHEW HENRY, NON-CONFORMIST MINISTERS, RECORDS

Scope and Content

This collection contains autograph manuscript sermons of Philip and Matthew Henry, including a manuscript sermon preached before the Queen at Whitehall in 1688/9.

Administrative / Biographical History

Matthew Henry was born at Broad Oak, Flintshire, in 1662. His father Philip Henry (1631-1696) was ejected from his ministry in the Established Church because he refused to submit to the Act of Uniformity, which came into effect on 24th August 1662.

Philip left his ministry at Worthenbury, Shropshire, and moved to Iscoed, Flintshire. Matthew Henry grew up in a Christian community that lay under state harassment and persecution.

Matthew Henry was sent to London to study under Thomas Doolittle, who conducted an important academy at Islington. He later became the minister of a Presbyterian Chapel in Chester and then in London.

He published a number of works including 'A Communicant’s Companion' (a treatise on the frame of heart in which to receive the Lord’s Supper), 1704; and 'Directions for Daily Communion with God' 1712. Matthew Henry's most famous work was 'The Exposition of the Old and New Testaments', 1708-1710.

Matthew Henry died on 22nd June 1714 at the home of the Reverend Joseph Mottershead, near Nantwich, Cheshire.

Note

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