Horsley

Horsley, Samuel (1733-1806), prelate and man of science, was born in London and educated at Westminster and Cambridge. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1767, and became one of the secretaries in 1773, but in 1784 he resigned his membership owing to his opposition to Sir Joseph Banks (q.v.). He was for many years engaged in an acrimonious controversy with Priestley, occasioned by the latter's History of the Corruptions of Christianity (1782). He was raised to the see of St. David's in 1788, and became Bishop of Rochester in 1793 and of St. Asaph in 1802. Bishop Horsley published some scientific and other treatises, and edited the works of Newton (1785).