Life

Sykes was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1683 or 1684 and educated at St. Paul's School. In 1701 he was admitted to Corpus Christi College

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...

 at Cambridge, where he received scholarship (1702), B.A. (1705), M.A. (1708), and D.D. (1726). He was vicar of Rayleigh

Rayleigh

Rayleigh may refer to:*Rayleigh scattering*Rayleigh–Jeans law*Rayleigh waves*Rayleigh , named after the son of Lord Rayleigh*Rayleigh criterion in angular resolution*Rayleigh distribution*Rayleigh fading...

 in Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 from 1718 till his death in 1756.

Sykes was a latitudinarian

Latitudinarian

Latitudinarian was initially a pejorative term applied to a group of 17th-century English theologians who believed in conforming to official Church of England practices but who felt that matters of doctrine, liturgical practice, and ecclesiastical organization were of relatively little importance...

 of the school of Benjamin Hoadly

Benjamin Hoadly

Benjamin Hoadly was an English clergyman, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. He is best known as the initiator of the Bangorian Controversy.-Life:...

, and a friend and student of Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...

.

Works

In 1737 Sykes published An enquiry into the meaning of demoniacks in the New Testament going further than Joseph Mede

Joseph Mede

Joseph Mede was an English scholar with a wide range of interests. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow from 1613. He is now remembered as a biblical scholar. He was also a naturalist and Egyptologist...

's exposition of the ‘Doctrine of Demons’ by rejecting any belief in the existence of demons and regarding those possessed as simply suffering from mental illness, as the later work of Dr. Richard Mead

Richard Mead

Richard Mead was an English physician. His work, A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it , was of historic importance in the understanding of transmissible diseases.-Life:The eleventh child of Matthew Mead , Independent divine, Richard was born...

. He also rejected the devil as a supernatural evil being, taking the allegory argument of John Epps

John Epps

Dr John Epps was best known as a "homoeopathic physician", although his influence was wider as he was involved in "the advancement of commercial, political or religious freedom".-Early years and education:...

. Two replies to this work were published in 1737 and 1738 by Leonard Twells.