Richard Cecil

Who was Richard Cecil?

Richard Cecil was a leading Evangelical Anglican clergyman of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Cecil was born in London. His father and grandfather were scarlet dyers to the British East India Company. His mother was the sister of Benjamin Grosvenor. His father was an Anglican while his mother was a Dissenter, whose family had been devout Christians for generations.

He went to Queen's College, Oxford in 1773, was ordained deacon in 1776 on the title of Reverend Mr Pugh of Rauceby, Lincolnshire, and was admitted to priest's orders in 1777.

Shortly thereafter he went to serve three Leicestershire churches: Thornton, Bagworth, and Markfield. His evangelical preaching produced many conversions and flourishing congregations here.

He later became minister of two small livings in Lewes, Sussex. After the death of his parents, he moved, because of bad health, to Islington, London and preached at different churches and chapels there. For some years he preached a lecture at Lothbury at 6 o'clock on a Sabbath morning, and later an evening lecture in Orange Street, followed by the chapel in Long Acre. From 1787 he preached the evening lecture at Christ Church, Spitalfields. He alternated with a Mr Foster in these two last lectureships during the period 1784 to 1801, though he had help from Mr Pratt in the last few years there.