Life

He was born in London on 19 July 1721. His grandfather, John Savage, was pastor of the seventh-day baptist church, Mill Yard, Goodman's Fields. Savage was related to Hugh Boulter

Hugh Boulter

Hugh Boulter was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, the Primate of All Ireland, from 1724 until his death. He also served as the chaplain to George I from 1719.-Background and education:...

.

He first thought of medicine, and spent a year or two with his Uncle Toulmin, an apothecary, in Old Gravel Lane, Wapping

Wapping

Wapping is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets which forms part of the Docklands to the east of the City of London. It is situated between the north bank of the River Thames and the ancient thoroughfare simply called The Highway...

. Through the influence of Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...

 he entered the Fund Academy, under John Eames

John Eames

-Life:He was a native of London. He was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School on 10 March 1696–7, and was subsequently trained for the dissenting ministry. He preached only once and seems never to have been ordained....

. In 1744, while still a pupil, he was made assistant tutor in natural science and classics by the trustees of William Coward

William Coward (merchant)

William Coward was a London merchant in the Jamaica trade, remembered for his support of Dissenters, particularly his educational philanthropy.-Life:...

, a post he retained until the reconstruction of the academy in 1762; from the time of his marriage (1752) the lectures were delivered at his house in Wellclose Square

Wellclose Square

Wellclose Square lies in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, between Cable Street to the north and The Highway to the south.The western edge, now called Ensign Street, was previously called Well Street. The southern edge was called Neptune street. On the north side is Graces Alley, home to...

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Meanwhile, in December 1747, Savage became assistant minister at Duke's Place, Bury Street, St Mary Axe

St Mary Axe

St Mary Axe was a medieval parish in London whose name survives on the street it formerly occupied, St Mary Axe. The church itself was demolished in 1561 and its parish united with that of St Andrew Undershaft, which is on the corner of St Mary Axe and Leadenhall Street...

, to the independent congregation of which Watts had been pastor. He was ordained there as co-pastor to Samuel Price in 1753, and became sole pastor on 2 January 1757. In addition he held the office of afternoon preacher (1759–1766) and Thursday lecturer (1760–7) to the presbyterian congregation in Hanover Street under Jabez Earle

Jabez Earle

Jabez Earle, D.D. , was an English Presbyterian minister.Earle was probably a native of Yorkshire; the date of his birth is uncertain. He was brought up for the ministry by Thomas Brand...

. He was Friday lecturer (1761–90) at Little St. Helen's, and afternoon preacher (1769–75) at Clapham

Clapham

Clapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...

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On the death of David Jennings

David Jennings (tutor)

David Jennings was an English Dissenting minister and tutor, known also as the author of Jewish Antiquities.-Life:He was the younger son of the ejected minister John Jennings , whose ministry to the independent congregation at Kibworth was continued by his elder brother John...

, the Coward trustees moved the academy to a house in Hoxton Square

Hoxton Square

Hoxton Square is a garden square situated in Hoxton in the London Borough of Hackney, in London's East End. Formerly home to industrial premises, since the 1990s it has become the heart of the Hoxton arts and media scene, as well as being a hub of the thriving local entertainment district...

, formerly the residence of Daniel Williams

Daniel Williams

Sir Daniel Charles Williams, GCMG was a Governor-General of Grenada, from August 8, 1996 until November 18, 2008. He was formally appointed by Queen Elizabeth II on August 9, 1996 after having been nominated by Prime Minister Keith Mitchell.In 1997, he was Knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth...

. Savage was placed in 1762 in the divinity chair, his colleagues in other branches being Andrew Kippis

Andrew Kippis

Andrew Kippis was an English nonconformist clergyman and biographer.The son of Robert Kippis, a silk-hosier, he was born at Nottingham. Having gone to school at Sleaford in Lincolnshire he passed at the age of sixteen to the Dissenting academy at Northampton, of which Dr Philip Doddridge was then...

, and Abraham Rees

Abraham Rees

Abraham Rees was a Welsh nonconformist minister, and compiler of Rees's Cyclopaedia .- Life :He was the second son of Lewis Rees, by his wife Esther, daughter of Abraham Penry, and was born at born in Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire. Lewis Rees Abraham Rees (1743 – 9 June 1825) was a Welsh...

 (Savage was a Calvinist, Rees an Arian

Arian

Arian may refer to:* Arius, a Christian presbyter in the 3rd and 4th century* a given name in different cultures: Aria, Aryan or Arian...

, Kippis a Socinian). Kippis resigned in 1784. Savage, who had been made B.D. by King's College, Aberdeen

King's College, Aberdeen

King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and an integral part of the University of Aberdeen...

, on 28 April 1764, and D.D. by Marischal College, Aberdeen, in November 1767, held on until midsummer 1785, when the Hoxton academy was dissolved.

Like Jennings, Savage, though an orthodox Presbyterian, was a non-subscriber; he was one of the originators of the appeal to parliament in 1772 which resulted in the amendment (1779) of the Toleration Act

Toleration Act

Toleration Act may refer to:* Act of Toleration 1689, in England* Maryland Toleration Act, of 1649...

, substituting a declaration of adhesion to the scriptures in place of a subscription to the doctrinal part of the Anglican articles. He resigned his congregation at Christmas 1787; his ministry, though prolonged, had not been popular. A bookish man, he avoided society, and buried himself in his ample library. He died on 21 February 1791 of a contraction of the œsophagus; unable to take food, he starved to a skeleton. He was buried in Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields is a cemetery in the London Borough of Islington, north of the City of London, and managed by the City of London Corporation. It is about 4 hectares in extent, although historically was much larger....

.

Works

He published eight single sermons (1757–82), including ordination discourses for William Ford (1757) and Samuel Wilton (1766), and funeral discourses for David Jennings (1762) and Samuel Wilton (1778). A posthumous volume of Sermons (1796) was edited, with a life, by Joshua Toulmin

Joshua Toulmin

Joshua Toulmin of Taunton, England was a noted theologian and a serial Dissenting minister of Presbyterian , Baptist , and then Unitarian congregations...

.

Family

He married first, in 1752, the only daughter (d. 1763) of George Houlme, stockbroker, of Hoxton Square; secondly, in 1770, Hannah Wilkin, who survived him. By his first marriage he left two daughters.