Abednego Seller


Abednego Seller was an English non-juring divine and controversial writer.

Life

The son of Richard Seller of Plymouth, he was born there about 1646, and matriculated at Lincoln College, Oxford as a servitor, 26 April 1662. He left Oxford without a degree, and took a job, On 11 March 1665 he was ordained deacon by Seth Ward at Exeter; but did not proceed to the priesthood until 22 December 1672, when he was ordained by Bishop Anthony Sparrow in Exeter Cathedral.
Seller was instituted to the rectory of Combe-in-Teignhead, near Teignmouth, Devonshire, on 29 March 1682, and vacated it on 8 September 1686 by his institution as vicar of Charles Church, Plymouth. Refusing the oaths to William III and Mary II, the new sovereigns, he was deprived of the vicarage, and his successor was admitted to it on 2 September 1690.
Seller moved to London and settled in Red Lion Square. He had a valuable library, but on 17 January 1700 a fire destroyed it. He died in London in 1705.

Legacy

Seller left books, manuscripts and coins. To the Bodleian Library he gave a manuscript of the end of the 15th century, containing William of Malmesbury's De Gestis Pontificum and the Chronicon Lichfeldense. To Lincoln College he gave works by Byzantine historians. The rest of his books were to be sold for the benefit of his grandchildren. A copy of the Thesaurus of Bonaventure Vulcanius later went to the British Museum.

Works

Seller was the author of:
Seller assisted William Cave in his Historia Literaria, with scant acknowledgement. He probably also wrote A Letter to the Author of a late paper entituled “A Vindication of the Divines of the Church of England” in defence of the “History of Passive Obedience”, 1689.

Family

Seller married Marie Persons at Abbotsham, near Bideford, on 2 December 1668.