Jabez Earle

Who is Jabez Earle?

Jabez Earle, D.D., was an English Presbyterian minister.

Earle was probably a native of Yorkshire; the date of his birth is uncertain. He was brought up for the ministry by Thomas Brand. In December 1691 he witnessed the funeral of Richard Baxter, and long afterwards told Samuel Palmer, of the Nonconformist's Memorial, that the coaches reached from Merchant Taylors' Hall to Christ Church, Newgate, the place of burial. Next year he became tutor and chaplain in the family of Sir Thomas Roberts, at Glassenbury, near Cranbrook, Kent. In 1699 he became assistant to Thomas Reynolds at the Weighhouse presbyterian chapel, Eastcheap, and soon afterwards became one of the evening lecturers at Lime Street. In 1706 or 1707 he succeeded Glascock as pastor of the presbyterian congregation in Drury Street, Westminster. In 1708 he joined with four presbyterians and an independent in a course of Friday evening lectures at the Weighhouse on the conduct of public religious worship. He increased his congregation, partly by help of a secession from the ministry of Daniel Burgess, and removed it to a new meeting-house in Hanover Street, Long Acre. At Hanover Street he established a Thursday morning lecture, and maintained it till Christmas 1767. In the Salters' Hall conferences in 1719 Earle was one of the twenty-seven presbyterian subscribers. In 1723 he was elected one of the trustees of Dr. Williams's foundations. On 21 August 1728 the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by Edinburgh University; shortly afterwards the same degree was conferred upon him by King's College, Aberdeen. At this time he held the position of chaplain to Archibald, duke of Douglas.