# William Erbery

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Welsh theologian (1604–1654)

**William Erbery** or **Erbury**[1] (1604 – April 1654) was a [Welsh](/source/Welsh_people) [clergyman](/source/Clergyman) and radical [Independent](/source/Independent_(religion)) [theologian](/source/Theologian). He was the father of the militant Quaker [Dorcas Erbery](/source/Dorcas_Erbery).

## Life

Erbery was born in [Roath](/source/Roath), Cardiff.[2][3] He graduated from [Brasenose College, Oxford](/source/Brasenose_College%2C_Oxford), England in 1623.[4]

He was ejected in 1638 from his [Cardiff](/source/Cardiff) parish of [St Mary's](/source/St_Mary's_Church%2C_Cardiff), under the [Bishop of Llandaff](/source/Bishop_of_Llandaff) who had branded him a [schismatic](/source/Schism_(religion)),[5] after several citations before the [Court of High Commission](/source/Court_of_High_Commission). His offence was refusing, along with fellow [Dissenters](/source/Dissenters) [Walter Craddock](/source/Walter_Craddock) and [William Wroth](/source/William_Wroth), to read the *[Book of Sports](/source/Book_of_Sports)*.[6] He became [chaplain](/source/Chaplain), when the [English Civil War](/source/English_Civil_War) broke out in 1642, to the [regiment](/source/Regiment) of [Philip Skippon](/source/Philip_Skippon) in the [Parliamentary Army](/source/Parliamentary_Army). According to [Christopher Hill](/source/John_Edward_Christopher_Hill).[7]

William Erbery, near-Ranter, used the familiar concept of Adam as a public personality representing all mankind to argue that the [New Model Army](/source/New_Model_Army) was 'the Army of God, as public persons', representing the people.

From there he retired to the [Isle of Ely](/source/Isle_of_Ely).[8] He was a [Seeker](/source/Seekers);[9] in Ely he expanded the Seekers in the 1640s.[10]

He expected that a regime of 'saints' would (in the later 1640s) carry out God's will in England.[11] He looked to the Army and [Cromwell](/source/Oliver_Cromwell) for reforms such as the abolition of tithes and the [state church](/source/Disestablishmentarianism). In 1646 he took part in a high-profile dispute with the orthodox [Presbyterian](/source/Presbyterian) and [heresy](/source/Heresy) watchdog [Francis Cheynell](/source/Francis_Cheynell).

[Anthony Wood](/source/Anthony_Wood_(antiquary)) (1632–1695), the English antiquary, records that Erbery died in London in April 1654 and was buried at either "Ch. Church" or the "[Cemiterie joyning to *Old Bedlam*](/source/New_Churchyard) near *London*".[12]

## Views

With a disillusioned attitude to the movement of the times, though accepting Cromwell's [Protectorate](/source/The_Protectorate), he was a suspected [Ranter](/source/Ranter).[13]

He favoured broad [religious tolerance](/source/Religious_tolerance), and was dismissive of [churches](/source/Catholic_church), believing that 'apostasy' had set in early in [Christian](/source/Christianity) times;[14] and criticized much even in the Independent churches of his time.[15] He attacked the assumption of the sufficiency of scripture, but doubted the Trinity had Biblical support. He believed [free grace](/source/Free_grace) had been brought forth by [John Preston](/source/John_Preston_(clergyman)) and [Richard Sibbes](/source/Richard_Sibbes),[16] preached [universal redemption](/source/Universal_redemption),[17] and denied the [divinity of Christ](/source/Divinity_of_Christ).[18] His [millennarian](/source/Millennarian) views included a [Second Coming](/source/Second_Coming), but realised by and within 'saints'.[19]

He opposed the [Baptists](/source/General_Baptist), for example in his 1653 pamphlet *A Mad Man's Plea*.[20]

## Private life

William married Mary who survived him. Their children included the Quaker preacher [Dorcas Erbery](/source/Dorcas_Erbery). After William's death, Mary and Dorcas were involved in a show in Bristol with [Martha Simmonds](/source/Martha_Simmonds) and [Hannah Stranger](/source/Hannah_Stranger) that resulted in [James Naylor](/source/James_Nayler) being tried for blasphemy.[21]

## References

### Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Also Earbury.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Reece, Richard (1815). ["Compendious Martyrology, Containing an Account of the Sufferings and Constancy of Christians in the Different Persecutions which Have Raged Against Them Under Pagan and Popish Governments"](https://books.google.com/books?id=1hBPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA459). Printed at the Conference office...by Thomas Cordeux.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Misstear, Rachael (21 January 2013). [""Heretic" Welsh priest William Erbery is exonerated 350 years on"](https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/heretic-welsh-priest-william-erbery-2497623). *Walesonline*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** *Concise Dictionary of National Biography*

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** CNDB

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Hill, *Change and Continuity in 17th-Century England*, p. 21.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** *The English Bible and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution* (1993), p. 217.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Hill, English Bible, p. 146.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** [\[1\]](https://www.exlibris.org/nonconform/engdis/seekers.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20090219193319/http://exlibris.org/nonconform/engdis/seekers.html) 19 February 2009 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine); Hill, Change and Continuity p. 229.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Hill, The World Turned Upside Down (Penguin edition) p. 47.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** Hill, *Experience of Defeat*, p. 82 names [William Sedgwick](/source/William_Sedgwick_(clergyman)), [Peter Sterry](/source/Peter_Sterry) and [Joshua Sprigge](/source/Joshua_Sprigge) as highest in Erbery’s estimation.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Wood, Anthony, 1691 *Athenae Oxoniense*, Vol.2, London, p.105.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** Hill, *A Nation of Change and Novelty*, pp. 188–9: *William Erbery, for example, had many Ranterish views, and came to visit [Clarkson](/source/Laurence_Clarkson) in jail. He was examined by Parliament as a suspect Ranter in 1652.*

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** Hill, World Upside Down, p. 194; Hill, *Milton and the English Revolution* (1977), p. 84.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Hill, *Liberty Against the Law* (1996), p. 185.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** Hill, World Upside Down, p. 186.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** Hill, Milton, p. 272-3: *[Winstanley](/source/Gerrard_Winstanley), [Walwyn](/source/William_Walwyn), [Coppin](/source/Richard_Coppin), [John Robins](/source/John_Robins_(prophet)), Erbery and the author of Tyranipocrit Discovered thought that all men shall be saved.*

1. **[^](#cite_ref-18)** Hill, World Upside Down, p. 192.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-19)** Hill, Milton, p. 309: *William Erbery, Gerrard Winstanley, [Joseph Salmon](/source/Joseph_Salmon_(writer)), [Jacob Bathumley](/source/Jacob_Bathumley), Richard Coppin, Laurence Clarkson and other Ranters held the [Familist](/source/Familia_Caritatis) view that the Fall, the Second Coming, the Lat Judgement and the end of the world were all events which take place on earth within the individual conscience.* Also p. 304.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** Hill, World Upside Down, p. 281; Alfred Cohen, *Two Roads to the Puritan Millennium: William Erbury and Vavasor Powell*, Church History, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Sep., 1963), pp. 322–338.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** ["Erbery, Dorcas (fl. 1656–1659), Quaker preacher"](https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-61979). *[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography](/source/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography)* (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1093/ref:odnb/61979](https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F61979). Retrieved 14 April 2023. (Subscription, [Wikipedia Library](https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/partners/88/) access or [UK public library membership](https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#public) required.)

### Sources

- [Hill, Christopher](/source/Christopher_Hill_(historian)) (1984). *The Experience of Defeat: Milton and Some Contemporaries* Chapter 4 I

- Hill, Christopher (1972). *The World Turned Upside Down*, Chapter 9 II

## External links

- [*The Testimony of William Erbery*, online text](https://archive.org/details/thetestimonyofwi00erbeuoft)

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States Netherlands Belgium Other Open Library Yale LUX

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