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ROBERT HINDMARSH 1183
to the life and character of Emanuel Swedenborg, (1) by interrogating
at various times Shearsmith and his wife, at whose house Sweden
borg resided during his last stay in London (see Document 265) ;
(2) by refuting the slander that Swedenborg in his last moments
retracted his writings (see Document 269, pp. 572-579) ; and (3) by
interrogating, in company with Mr. Beatson, Brockmer, the Moravian,
on whose story J. Wesley based his charge of insanity against
Swedenborg (see Document 270, pp. 601-607).
The following biographical sketch we base chiefly on the sermons
preached to the memory of Mr. Hindmarsh by the Rev. S. Noble,
and the Rev. M. Sibly (see "Intellectual Repository" for 1835,
pp. 397-417) ; and on the autobiographical notices respect ing
himself, which occur in the "Rise and Progress," and also in a
MS. account of the "Early history of the New Church" which he
furnished in 1796 to the Society Pro Fide et Charitate in Sweden,
with which the Editor of these Documents became acquainted
during his stay in Sweden in 1869.
Mr. Hindmarsh was born November 8th, 1759, at Alnwick in
Northumberland. His father, Mr. James Hindmarsh, either was then,
or soon afterwards became, one of the travelling preachers in the
connection of the celebrated Mr. Wesley.23 At an early age young
Hindmarsh was sent to the School founded by Mr. Wesley, for the
education ofthe children of his preachers, at Kingswood, near Bristol.
Of this establishment his father, who was a man of literary attain
ments, was the master for several years. The remarkable "clear
headedness," as Mr. Noble says, the ardent love of knowledge, and the
extraordinary facility of acquiring it, by which he was ever distinguished,
there soon became conspicuous, and he was regarded by the masters
as a principal ornament of the establishment. Though he left the
school soon after he had attained the age of fourteen years, he had
acquired great proficiency in both the Latin and the Greek languages,
and in some branches of science, the Latin in particular, he could
not only read, but also write with facility. To this he afterwards
added a considerable acquaintance with the Hebrew. When he was
removed from school he was placed with a printer in London, which
business he afterwards carried on for many years on his own account.
"In the beginning of the year 1782 (being then about twenty
two years of age)," Mr. Hindmarsh writes to the Society in Sweden,
"I first had the happiness to see the works of Emanuel Swedenborg,
which I instantly perceived to be of heavenly origin, and therefore
as naturally embraced and delighted in them, as the eye embraces
and delights in objects that reflect the golden rays of the sun. From
that time I began to search out other readers of the same writings
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