John Gardiner
John Gardiner [1]
an English divine, was born about 1756. He was educated at Tiverton. whence he went to the University of Glasgow, where he studied civil law. He then entered himself in the Middle Temple, with a view to qualify for the bar. An irresistible impulse induced him to exchange the law for the Church, and in consequence he repaired to Wadham College, Oxford. In 1781 he took possession of the vicarage of Shirley and rectory of Brailsford, in the county of Derby, the presentation to which had been purchased by his father, with whom he afterwards resided for some years at Wellington, performing gratuitously the duty of curate in that parish. In 1789 he undertook the same office at Taunton, and there continued till his father, in 1796, purchased for him the Octagon Chapel at Bath, where he Officiated till his death in 1838. He also served as a magistrate for the county of Somerset. Dr. Gardiner published a number of occasional Discotrses (1793-1811), and a volume of Sermons (Bath, 1802, 8vo). See The Christian Remembrancer (Lond.), September 1838, page 568; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.
