Bearcroft, Philip

, D. D. master of the Charterhouse, was born May 1, 1697, and elected scholar of the Charter-house, on the nomination of lord Somers, July 19, 1710; whence, in Nov. 1712, he was elected to the university, and was matriculated of St. Mary Magdalen hall, Oxford, Dec. 17, following. In 1716 he took his bachelor’s degree, and in June 1717, was elected probationary, and two years after, actual fellow of Merton college. After taking deacon’s orders in 1718, and priest’s in 1719, and proceeding M. A. he was appointed preacher to the Charter-house in 1724. In 1730 he accumulated the degrees of B. and D. D. and in 1738 was made one of the king’s chaplains, and in March 1739, secretary to the society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts. In 1743 he was instituted to the rectory of Stormouth in Kent, which he held by dispensation, and was elected master of the Charter-house Dec. 18, 1753. He died Nov. 17,1761. Although a man of worth and learning, he had no talents for writing. The only attempt he made was in his “Historical Account of Thomas Sutton, esq. and of his Foundation in the Charter-house,” Lond. 1737, 8vo. He intended also to have published a collection of the Rules and Orders, but being prevented by the governors, some extracts only were printed in a quarto pamphlet, and dispersed among the officers of the house. ²