{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} '''Samuel Grascome''' (1641–1708) was a clergyman of the Church of England, then, after the nonjuring schism, a member of the breakaway church.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=11302|title=Grascome, Samuel|first=D. A.|last=Brunton}}</ref>
==Early life== The son of John Grascome of Coventry, he was educated at Coventry grammar school, and was admitted a sizar at Magdalene College, Cambridge, on 1 June 1661, aged 19. He graduated B.A. in 1664, and M.A. in 1674. On 10 December 1680 he was appointed rector of Stourmouth in Kent. He remained there till his deprivation in 1690, when he settled in London, and gathered a congregation at a house in Scroop's Court, in the parish of St Andrew's, Holborn.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Grascome, Samuel|volume=22}}</ref><ref>{{acad|id=GRSM661S|name=Grascombe, Samuel}}</ref> He found a patron in Sir Thomas Fanshawe of Jenkins.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Critic of the House of Commons== During the debates on the Recoinage Act, in 1695–6, Grascome was thought to have published ''An Account of the Proceedings in the House of Commons in relation to the Recoining the Clipt Money and Falling the Price of Guineas'';<ref name="DNB"/> Brunton writing in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' considers that the author may have been in fact Thomas Wagstaffe, with Grascome doing the legwork.<ref name="ODNB"/> Criticising the House of Commons of the time, which had pushed through the Great Recoinage of 1696, the author argued for a public record of the votes of Members of Parliament.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Dr David Onnekink|author2=Dr Esther Mijers|title=Redefining William III: The Impact of the King-Stadholder in International Context|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZe0NEeLBAUC&pg=PA194|date=28 June 2013|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-4094-7973-4|page=194}}</ref> Grascombe had done private research on placemen among them, listing over 100, since the 1692–3 session.<ref>{{cite book|author=Henry Horwitz|title=Parliament, Policy, and Politics in the Reign of William III|url=https://archive.org/details/parliamentpolicy0000horw_o2j8|url-access=registration|date=1 January 1977|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-0661-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/parliamentpolicy0000horw_o2j8/page/358 358]}}</ref> The pamphlet contravened parliamentary privilege by giving a division list for the Recoinage Act.<ref name="ODNB"/>
In November 1696 the House voted that the pamphlet was "false, scandalous, and seditious, and destructive of the freedom and liberties of parliament", ordered it to be burned by the common hangman, and petitioned the king to offer a reward for the discovery of the author. On 14 December a proclamation appeared for the apprehension of Grascome, but he escaped.<ref name="DNB"/> The hunt did find Francis Turner, under an alias, who was arrested.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=27849|title=Turner, Francis|first=Paul|last=Hopkins}}</ref>
In February 1699 the attorney-general was ordered to prosecute Grascome. The trial was postponed, and on 3 July it was dropped altogether, the printer, who was the only witness against him, having fled the country.<ref name="DNB"/> It is suggested that Grascome came to an arrangement with the authorities.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Later life== Grascome spent the last years of his life in theological controversy, defending the nonjurors, and denouncing dissent, occasional conformity, and the Roman Catholic church. He was a strong partisan, and Francis Lee thought that he had damaged the nonjurors' reputation with the government.<ref name="DNB"/>
==Works== Grascome, in common with George Hickes, at one point used the printer William Anderton, who produced also Jacobite literature: in 1693 Anderton was found with Grascome's ''Remarks on the Present Confederacy''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Eveline Cruickshanks|title=The Stuart Court in Exile and the Jacobites|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FW6vAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA139|date=1 July 1995|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-2645-1|page=139}}</ref> ''An Appeal of Murther'', 1693, was Grascome's anonymous comment on the death sentence for Anderton.<ref>{{cite book|author=Samuel Halkett|author-link=Samuel Halkett|title=Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EqvJftH0ggoC&pg=PA126|year=1971|publisher=Ardent Media|page=126|id=GGKEY:ZYRNHEAF7A7}}</ref>
Grascome wrote also:<ref name="DNB"/>
* ''A Letter to a Friend in answer to a Letter against Mr. Louth in Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet'', London, 1688. Edward Stillingfleet had written the tract referred to in 1684.<ref name="DNB"/> Defends Simon Lowth against alleged misrepresentation by Robert Grove.<ref name="ODNB"/> * ''A Further Account of the Baroccian Manuscript'', 1691. Against Humphrey Hody's reading of a Byzantine manuscript in the Bodleian Library (cf. Codex Baroccianus).<ref name="ODNB"/> ''Epistola ad Humfridum Hody'' may be the letter appended to the preceding work, which is dated 1 January 1691.<ref name="DNB"/> * ''A Brief Answer to a late Discourse concerning the Unreasonableness of a new Separation'', 1691; reply to Stillingfleet. Bishop Williams of Chichester issued a defence of Stillingfleet, to which Grascome responded in ''A Reply to a Vindication of a Discourse'', 1691. * ''The Separation of the Church of Rome from the Church of England, founded upon a selfish interest'', 1691. * ''An Answer to "God's Ways of disposing of Kingdoms"'', reply to a pamphlet by Bishop William Lloyd of St. Asaph, 1691. * ''Two Letters written to the Author of a Pamphlet entituled Solomon and Abiathar, or the Case of the Deprived Clergy discussed'', 1692. Against Samuel Hill.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Hill, Samuel|volume=26}}</ref> Here Grascome discusses the hard lot of ejected nonjurors.<ref name="ODNB"/> * ''An Historical Account of the Antiquity and Unity of the Britanick Churches. … By a Presbyter of the Church of England'', signed S. G., 1692. * ''Considerations upon the Second Canon in the Book entituled Constitutions'', 1693. The author, Grascome or perhaps Abednego Sellar,<ref name="ODNB"/> observed, as Hickes and Jeremy Collier did, that the Williamite argument for taking the oaths (to William and Mary), from right of conquest, had traction on doubters.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldie |first=Mark |date=1977 |title=Edmund Bohun and Jus Gentium in the Revolution Debate, 1689-1693 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638430 |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=569–586 |issn=0018-246X}}</ref> * ''An Account of the Proceedings in the House of Commons in relation to the Recoining the Clipt Money and Falling the Price of Guineas'', 1696. * ''A Brief Examination of some Passages in the Chronological Part of a Letter written to Dr. Sherlock. In a Letter to a Friend'', c.1700. The ascription of this pamphlet and the preceding to Grascome has been doubted. * ''The Scripture History of the Sabbath'', London, 1700. * ''An Answer to a Book entituled "A Short and Plain Way to the Faith and Church"'', London, 1702; second edition, 1715. Reply to Richard Huddleston. * ''England's Black Tribunal'' (fourth edition), to which is added ''An Historical Preface by a True Churchman'' (i.e. Grascome), 1703. * ''Occasional Conformity a most unjustifiable practice'', London, 1704; also ascribed to William Higden. * ''Some Remarks … upon "A Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the Civil War"'', reply to a sermon of White Kennett, London, 1704. * ''Certamen Religiosum, or a Dispute manag'd by writing between a Papist and a Protestant …; with a Preface concerning the Occasion of the Dispute, and a Letter of Mr. Chillingworth … shewing his Reasons why he deserted the Church of Rome. By S. G.'', 1704. * ''Concordia Discors, or some Animadversions upon a late Treatise entituled "An Essay for a Catholick Communion" … by a Presbyter of the Church of England'', 1705. The "Essay" has been attributed to Thomas Dean and Joshua Basset(t);<ref>{{cite book|author=William White|title=Notes and Queries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IdMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA199|year=1852|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=199}}</ref> Basset is now doubted.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=1641|title=Basset, Joshua|first= Nicholas|last=Rogers}}</ref> * ''Moderation in Fashion, or an Answer to a Treatise written by Mr. F. Tallent, entituled "Short History of Schism", &c. … By S. G., a Presbyter of the Church of England'', 1705. Francis Tallents replied, and Grascome answered him again in ''Schism Triumphant, or a Rejoinder to a Reply of Mr. Tallent's, entituled "Some Considerations"'', &c., 1707.
Lee ascribed most of these treatises to Grascome, in his ''Memoirs of John Kettlewell'', § 55, and added:<ref name="DNB"/>
* ''The History of Schism''. * ''The Mask of Moderation pulled off'', 1704. Argues for the Tory view of history since 1641.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kolbrener |first=William |date=2003 |title=Gendering the Modern: Mary Astell's Feminist Historiography |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41467913 |journal=The Eighteenth Century |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=1–24 |issn=0193-5380}}</ref> * ''The True Character of a Church of England Man'', 1702. * ''A Resolution of a Case of Conscience concerning going to Church'', 1719. Against mental reservation in oath-taking, from the period 1688–9.<ref name="ODNB"/> * ''A Letter to Dr. William Payne''. From 1688–9, against William Payne, a latitudinarian critic of the nonjurors.<ref name="ODNB"/> * ''The Present State of England''. * ''An Appeal to True Englishmen'', 1699. * ''New Court Contrivances'', 1693; with some other papers and pamphlets in dialogue or letter form.
Posthumous was ''An Answer to some Queries sent by a Roman Catholic to a Divine of the Church of England''. It was printed in ''Second Collection of Controversial Tracts'' (1710) by Hickes, who said he found it in Grascome's handwriting among his papers after his death.<ref name="DNB"/>
==Notes== {{Reflist}} '''Attribution'''<!--Please do not reformat, for the sake of those using screen-readers--> {{DNB|wstitle=Grascome, Samuel|volume=22}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grascome, Samuel}} Category:1641 births Category:1708 deaths Category:Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge Category:English nonjuror clergy