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Article THE LATE REV. SAMUEL OLIVER; Page 1 of 3 →
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The Late Rev. Samuel Oliver;
THE LATE REV . SAMUEL OLIVER ;
THE MASONIC PATRIARCH . THIS venerable Freemason was born , according to his own account , in the year 1756 , but there are reasons for believing that his birth occurred three or four years earlier . This however is not material . The documents respecting his youthful clays are very imperfect ; but we learn from them that he was educated bthe celebrated mathematician
y , Thomas Simpson , and the higher branches of science were so much to his taste , that he studied them with an ardour that placed him nearly on a level with his master . He appears to have been left much to his own guidance in the days of his transition from youth to manhood , for he applied his great acquirements to a very trivial purpose . He addicted himself to the study and practice of judicial astrology , and frequently astonished the natives by erecting horoscopic figures , calculating
nativities , and performing sundry experiments in natural philosophy , which were above the comprehension of men who , in those times , were considered moderately well educated , ancl gained him a reputation which , how equivocal soever it may be deemed now , was to him a matter of high gratification ; and he has been heard , at a later period of life , to relate with great glee the gaping wonders which he excited by some very simple chemical performances . These amusements , however , were soon suspended for the more serious business of life . In February , 1782 , he married Elizabeth , the daughter of George AVhitehead , ESQ ., of
Beskwood Hall , in the county of Nottingham . Although the parents of the lady were at that time in affluent circumstances , it does not appear that he received any fortune with her ; hut she bore him nine children , which , in all conscience , is fortune enough for any man of moderate wishes ancl expectations . From this point his career may be traced with greater accuracy . In the year 1788 , he was appointed to the head mastership of
Lutterworth school by Lord Denbigh , and entered on its duties with such zeal and earnestness , that he soon filled his house with boarders , sometimes having upwards of fifty at once , ancl established a reputation for learning and scientific acquirements , which was of the greatest service to him . His love of the hidden secrets of the starry heavens did not , however , forsake him , until , having calculated the nativities of his first four children , the latter happened to die at the age of four years , after he had
assigned to him a long ancl prosperous life . This event affected him so much that he abandoned the science for ever ; although , unlike Prospero , he did not cast his books into the sea , for all his papers are now in the possession of his eldest son . About the same time he had been extremely ill-used and injured in his property by a worthless disciple of John AVesley ; and this gave him such an antipathy to dissenters of all grades , as never left him throughout the remainder of his life , and formed a distinguishing feature in his character ; for he does not seem to have ever once reflected that all religious societies have tares amongst the wheat .
He was made a Freemason in the St . John ' s Lodge , at Leicester , about 1796 , ancl in the following year engaged to produce an original Masonic song every Lodge night from St . John ' s day , 1797 , to the same festival
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Late Rev. Samuel Oliver;
THE LATE REV . SAMUEL OLIVER ;
THE MASONIC PATRIARCH . THIS venerable Freemason was born , according to his own account , in the year 1756 , but there are reasons for believing that his birth occurred three or four years earlier . This however is not material . The documents respecting his youthful clays are very imperfect ; but we learn from them that he was educated bthe celebrated mathematician
y , Thomas Simpson , and the higher branches of science were so much to his taste , that he studied them with an ardour that placed him nearly on a level with his master . He appears to have been left much to his own guidance in the days of his transition from youth to manhood , for he applied his great acquirements to a very trivial purpose . He addicted himself to the study and practice of judicial astrology , and frequently astonished the natives by erecting horoscopic figures , calculating
nativities , and performing sundry experiments in natural philosophy , which were above the comprehension of men who , in those times , were considered moderately well educated , ancl gained him a reputation which , how equivocal soever it may be deemed now , was to him a matter of high gratification ; and he has been heard , at a later period of life , to relate with great glee the gaping wonders which he excited by some very simple chemical performances . These amusements , however , were soon suspended for the more serious business of life . In February , 1782 , he married Elizabeth , the daughter of George AVhitehead , ESQ ., of
Beskwood Hall , in the county of Nottingham . Although the parents of the lady were at that time in affluent circumstances , it does not appear that he received any fortune with her ; hut she bore him nine children , which , in all conscience , is fortune enough for any man of moderate wishes ancl expectations . From this point his career may be traced with greater accuracy . In the year 1788 , he was appointed to the head mastership of
Lutterworth school by Lord Denbigh , and entered on its duties with such zeal and earnestness , that he soon filled his house with boarders , sometimes having upwards of fifty at once , ancl established a reputation for learning and scientific acquirements , which was of the greatest service to him . His love of the hidden secrets of the starry heavens did not , however , forsake him , until , having calculated the nativities of his first four children , the latter happened to die at the age of four years , after he had
assigned to him a long ancl prosperous life . This event affected him so much that he abandoned the science for ever ; although , unlike Prospero , he did not cast his books into the sea , for all his papers are now in the possession of his eldest son . About the same time he had been extremely ill-used and injured in his property by a worthless disciple of John AVesley ; and this gave him such an antipathy to dissenters of all grades , as never left him throughout the remainder of his life , and formed a distinguishing feature in his character ; for he does not seem to have ever once reflected that all religious societies have tares amongst the wheat .
He was made a Freemason in the St . John ' s Lodge , at Leicester , about 1796 , ancl in the following year engaged to produce an original Masonic song every Lodge night from St . John ' s day , 1797 , to the same festival