William Sherlock (c. 1639/1641 – June 19, 1707) was an English church leader.

Life

He was born at Southwark, the son of a tradesman, and was educated at St Saviour's Grammar School and Eton, and then at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1669 he became rector of St George's, Botolph Lane, London, and in 1681, he was appointed a prebendary of St Paul's. In 1684 he was made Master of the Temple. In 1686, he was reproved for his antipapal preaching and his controversy with the king's chaplain, Lewis Sabran; his pension was stopped. After the Glorious Revolution, he was suspended for refusing the oaths to William III and Mary II but yielded before losing his position. He became Dean of St Paul's in 1691. About this time he became involved in the Socinian controversy over Unitarian ideas. In 1690 and 1693, he published works on the doctrine of the Trinity, which ironically helped rather than injured the Socinian cause and involved him in a controversy with Robert South and others. His doctrine was even condemned as heretical at Oxford University. Sherlock defended himself in The Distinction... and Present State... (both 1696), which however practically gave up on the positions that had been impugned. He died at Hampstead in 1707. By his wife, Elizabeth (née Gardner), he was the father of Bishop Thomas Sherlock.

Works

His sermons, collected in two volumes, went through several editions.