Calamy , Edmund (1671-04-05 - 1732-06-03)

Edmund Calamy, son of Edmund Calamy (d.1685) and Mary and grandson of Edmund Calamy (d.1666), was born on 5 April 1671 in St Mary Aldermanbury, London. He was educated at several schools (Mr Nelson’s, Mr Yewel’s, Robert Tatnal’s, Thomas Doolittle’s, Thomas Walton’s, Merchant Taylors’, Samuel Cradock’s) before undertaking studies at Utrecht. Taking up a position in the Bodleian Library upon his return to England, Calamy began preaching around Oxford and in London. In 1702 Calamy published his “Abridgement of Mr Baxter’s Narrative,” a biography that acted as a defense of nonconformity, dissent, and toleration. HIs work went through several editions, and the ninth chapter was published in an expanded standalone work of the biographies of ejected ministers. In 1703 he became minister at Tothill Street, Westminster, a congregation that eventually moved to a new meetinghouse in Long Ditch (later Princes Street). Calamy was awarded honorary D.D. degrees from the Universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and King’s College. He was renowned as a biographer of dissenters and as a champion of nonconformity in both political and religious arenas. He married twice, first to Mary Watts (d.1713) in 1695 and then to Mary Jones in 1716. He had thirteen children, four of whom were from his first marriage. He died in London on 3 June 1732 and was buried at St Mary Aldermanbury, survived by six of his children including his son Edmund (1698-1755).