Calamy

Calamy, Edmund, Presbyterian divine, was born in 1600 in London. After being domestic chaplain to Nicholas Felton, Bishop of Ely, he was chosen lecturer at Bury St. Edmunds in 1626, a position that he resigned on the reading of the Book of Sports being made compulsory. He thereafter, in 1639, was appointed to the perpetual curacy of St. Mary Aldermanbury, London. He was an ardent controversialist in the religious disputes of his time, and was one of the principal writers of the celebrated treatise against episcopacy, Smectytmnuus. His leanings were towards the monarchy, and during the protectorate he openly avowed his attachment to the Royalist cause, for which, on the Restoration, he was offered a bishopric, which, however, on conscientious grounds he refused. He died in 1666, after being ejected from the church for nonconformity, 1662. Dr. Benjamin Calamy, one of his sons, became a prebendary of St. Paul's, and was distinguished as the author of A Discourse about a Scrupulous Conscience. Edmund Calamy, a grandson, was also a well-known figure in his day, and a prolific writer.