The Languishing Saint's Request

A treatise by William Pearse on Psalm 39 verse 13: 'O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence and be no more.' Entitled 'The Languishing Saint's Request'.

William Pearse (1625-1691), ejected minister, was the son of Francis Pearse of Ermington, Devonshire. He studied at Exeter College, Oxford (1649-1650), was presented to the parish church of Dunsford on 25 December 1655, and was ejected on the passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662. He preached privately at Tavistock for ten years. Upon the passing of the Indulgence Act in 1672 he received a license for himself and his house, but was afterwards much persecuted, being in January 1683 committed to the New Prison. At the Revolution of 1688 he was instrumental in erecting a meeting-house at Ashburton, where he continued till his death, on 17 March 1691, aged 65. He published A Present for Youth, and an Example for the Aged, being some Remains of his Daughter, Damaris Pearse.

The manuscript is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Purchased by Mrs Enriqueta Rylands, on behalf of the John Rylands Library, in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford.

Description compiled by Henry Sullivan, project archivist.

Catalogued in the Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1928 (English MS 42).

Formerly part of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, the Library of the Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, from Haigh Hall, Wigan, Lancashire.