Richard Cecil

Richard Cecil (8 November 1748 – 15 August 1810) was a leading Evangelical Anglican priest of the 18th and 19th centuries. Life Cecil was born in London. His father (died 1779) and grandfather were scarlet dyers to the British East India Company. His mother (died 1777) was the sister of Benjamin Grosvenor; his father was an Anglican while his mother was a Dissenter, whose family had been devout Christians for generations. He entered The Queen's College, Oxford, in 1773, was ordained deacon in 1776 on the title of a priest named Pugh, of Rauceby, Lincolnshire, and was admitted to priest's orders in 1777. Shortly thereafter he went to serve three Leicestershire churches: Thornton, Bagworth, and Markfield. His evangelical preaching produced many conversions and flourishing congregations here.