Hollingworth, Richard (1639-10-06 - 1701-10-01)

Richard Hollingworth was born in Lincolnshire and baptized on 6 October 1639; he may have been the son of Simonde Hollingworth of Stewton, although this is not confirmed. He was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge as a sizar in February 1655 and graduated B.A. in 1659, proceeding M.A. in 1662 and D.D. in 1684. He was licensed to a London lectureship in 1663 after his ordination in Lincoln, and in 1672 became vicar of West Ham, Essex. In 1682 he resigned his living to serve as curate to James Adern, rector of St Botolph, Aldgate, London; although he succeeded Adern as rector, he was called before the ecclesiastical commission in 1686 for marrying people without licenses, and was ejected from the living in 1693. He was made vicar of Chigwell, Essex in January 1691. Hollingworth is best known for his controversial literary career. Between 1673 and 1681 he published a series of sermons against nonconformists; he achieved notoriety, however, due to his involvement in a pamphlet war on the subject of the authorship of “Eikon basilike: Pourtraicture of his Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings” (1649). While the work had popularly been attributed to Charles I, an insertion in a new edition of John Milton’s “Eikonoklastes” argued that the “Eikon basilike” was penned by John Gauden. In an exchange of pamphlets taking place between 1691 to 1693, Hollingworth defended Charles I’s person and authorship against the attacks and claims of Anthony Walker and various anonymous authors who wrote under the name of the regicide Edmund Ludlow. Hollingworth published at least five incendiary pamphlets before disengaging from the debate around the time he lost the living of St Botolph. He died in 1701 in Chigwell, survived by his wife Margaret.