(Vol. v., p. 457.)
If BALLIOLENSIS wishes for a more particular account of the Sclater family
than that which follows, I shall be happy to correspond with him upon the
subject.
_Anthony Sclater, D.D._, was vicar of Leighton Buzzard for fifty years, and
died, aged 100, about 1620. His son--
_William Sclater, D.D._, Fellow of King's, and vicar of Pitminster in
Somersetshire, is the person mentioned by Dr. Kellet. He was an exceedingly
learned man, and the author of many theological works (for a list, see
_Bib. Bod. Cat._), some of which were published after his death, _which
occurred in 1627_. There is a curious and interesting account of him in
Fuller's _Worthies_, vol. i. p. 119. (see also _Athenæ Oxonienses_). His
son--
_William Sclater, also D.D. and Fellow of King's_, was vicar of Collumpton,
Devon, and prebend of Exeter, and appears to have kept up by several works
and sermons the reputation of the family for doctrinal theology.[2] His
son--
_Francis Sclater, B.D._ (Fellow of C. C. C. Oxon. May 17, 1667, æt. 17),
was likewise a person of extraordinary learning and abilities, as appears
from several notices, and more particularly from the inscription on a
silver-gilt cup presented to C. C. C. in memory of him by his father; and
from an elegant Latin epitaph which was placed on the south wall of St.
James's, Clerkenwell.[3] He died in 1685, æt. 35, leaving a son--
_Christopher Sclater, M.A._, born 1679, rector of Loughton in Essex, and
afterwards of Chingford in the same county. His eldest son--
_William Sclater, D.D._, seems (from MSS. still existing) to have inherited
the theological talent of his ancestors, but o. s. p. Richard Sclater,
Esq., the second son of Christopher, was grandfather to William Lutley
Sclater, Esq., of Hoddington House, Hants, the present representative of
the family. By a third son, Christopher Sclater was grandfather to Eliza
Sclater, wife of ---- Draper, Esq., and celebrated for her Platonic
attachment to Lawrence Sterne. From MSS. preserved in the family, it is
clear that she must have been a woman of considerable talent.
I had always supposed _William Sclater_, the Nonjuror, and author of _An
Original Draught_, &c., to have been a brother of _Francis Sclater_; but,
if it be true that his work was a posthumous publication (as I learn for
the first time from the Note by the EDITOR of "N. & Q."), I think it most
probable that it was his father (the vicar of Collumpton above mentioned),
who would have been about sixty years of age in 1688, and who was certainly
a man of learning and scholarship.
I have no doubt that Edward Sclater, the pervert of Putney, belonged to the
same family, though I know not in how near relationship.
The name of Sclater, which is curious, seems to have originated in a place
called Slaughter (olim Sclostre or Sclaughtre, _temp._ King John) in
Gloucestershire, where a family of Sclaughters flourished as lords of the
manor for upwards of 300 years. The arms of both families are: arg. a
saltier az.; crest, an eagle sa. rising out of a ducal coronet. The motto
of the Sclater family (which they owe, no doubt to one of their learned
ancestors) is a Greek quotation from Gal. vi. 14.: "[Greek: ei mê en tôi
staurôi]."
About the commencement of the seventeenth century, another branch of the
same family (whose patronymic was Thomas) was settled in Cambridgeshire.
The last male representative of these, Sir Thomas Sclater, Bart., died
without issue in 1684 (see Burke's _Ext. Baronetages_).
I should be glad of any information respecting the connexion of these two
branches with each other, or of either with the parent stem in
Gloucestershire. I should also be glad of information respecting one Will.
Slatyer, D.D. (whose name is sometimes, I _believe_ erroneously, spelt
Sclater) a very learned person, chaplain to James I., the {519} author of
some curious historical and genealogical works, and a celebrated Hebraist
in those times. He was a cotemporary of Sclater of Pitminster, and died at
Ottenden in Kent about the same time; but it is doubtful whether they were
relations.