John Platts (Unitarian)
Encyclopedia
John Platts was an English Unitarian minister and author, a compiler of reference works.
. For seven or eight years he officiated as a Calvinist minister there; but later he became a Unitarian, and acted as a Unitarian minister at Boston from 1805 to 1817. In 1817 hemoved to Doncaster
.
Platts supplemented his ministerial income by teaching and compiling educational works. He was also a Liberal activist, and humorous speaker. He died at Doncaster, after a long illness, on 19 June 1837. His widow died in 1851, leaving five daughters.
and Alexander Chalmers
, extended only to the end of the sixteenth century; the rest remained in manuscript. In 1827 appeared, Platts's New Self-interpreting Testament, containing many thousands of various Readings and Parallel Passages collected from the most approved Translators and Biblical Critics. In the preface the author claims to have combined the merits of Francis Fox
and Clement Cruttwell. Another edition, in 4 vols. appeared in 1830.
Platts also published:
Life
He was born at Boston, LincolnshireBoston, Lincolnshire
Boston is a town and small port in Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England. It is the largest town of the wider Borough of Boston local government district and had a total population of 55,750 at the 2001 census...
. For seven or eight years he officiated as a Calvinist minister there; but later he became a Unitarian, and acted as a Unitarian minister at Boston from 1805 to 1817. In 1817 hemoved to Doncaster
Doncaster
Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...
.
Platts supplemented his ministerial income by teaching and compiling educational works. He was also a Liberal activist, and humorous speaker. He died at Doncaster, after a long illness, on 19 June 1837. His widow died in 1851, leaving five daughters.
Works
In 1825 Platts published five volumes of A New Universal Biography, containing lives of eminent persons in all ages and countries, arranged in chronological order, with alphabetical index. This work, founded mainly on previous works by John AikinJohn Aikin
John Aikin was an English doctor and writer.-Life:He was born at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, England, son of Dr. John Aikin, Unitarian divine, and received his elementary education at the Nonconformist academy at Warrington, where his father was a tutor. He studied medicine at the...
and Alexander Chalmers
Alexander Chalmers
Alexander Chalmers was a Scottish writer.He was born in Aberdeen.Trained as a doctor, he gave up medicine for journalism, and was for some time editor of the Morning Herald...
, extended only to the end of the sixteenth century; the rest remained in manuscript. In 1827 appeared, Platts's New Self-interpreting Testament, containing many thousands of various Readings and Parallel Passages collected from the most approved Translators and Biblical Critics. In the preface the author claims to have combined the merits of Francis Fox
Francis Fox (divine)
Francis Fox , was an English divine.Fox, son of Francis Fox, was born at Brentford in 1675. He entered St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, as a commoner in April 1698, after having, according to Hearne, served six and a half years of his time as apprentice to a glover in London. He took the degree of B.A. in...
and Clement Cruttwell. Another edition, in 4 vols. appeared in 1830.
Platts also published:
- ‘Reflections on Materialism, Immaterialism, the Sleep of the Soul … and the Resurrection of the Body; being an Attempt to prove that the Resurrection commences at Death,’ Boston, 1813.
- ‘Letter to a Young Man, on his renouncing the Christian Religion and becoming a Deist,’ 1820.
- ‘The Literary and Scientific Class-book,’ &c., 1821; a selection was published by L. W. Leonard in 1826.
- ‘Elements of Ecclesiastical History’ [1821?]
- ‘The Book of Curiosities; … with an Appendix of entertaining and amusing Experiments and Recreations’, 1822; a seventh American edition appeared at Philadelphia in 1856.
- ‘The Female Mentor, or Ladies' Class-book; being a new Selection of 365 Reading Lessons,’ &c., Derby, 1823.
- ‘A Dictionary of English Synonymes’ (for the use of schools), 1825.
- ‘The Manners and Customs of all Nations’ (engravings), 1827.