Life

He was educated at the dissenting academy of Ebenezer Latham, M.D., at Findern

Findern

Findern is a village in south Derbyshire. Although a railway runs through it, there is no station, the nearest stations are Willington, Pear Tree and Derby...

, Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

, from 1720. Early in life he became an assistant minister for the Presbyterians at Kidderminster, and preached there in 1726. At this time his views, in accordance with his education, were Calvinistic.

He was invited in 1733 by the Presbyterians of Evesham

Evesham

Evesham is a market town and a civil parish in the Local Authority District of Wychavon in the county of Worcestershire, England with a population of 22,000. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon...

 to succeed his fellow-student, Francis Blackmore, M.A., who had moved in 1730 to Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

. The congregation was small, but after Cardale's settlement it afforded to build a small new meeting-house, in Oat Street (licensed 11 October 1737). Cardale's first series of sermons after the opening was circulated in manuscript, and ultimately published; he had now abandoned his Calvinism.

Cardale was well known only to a few literary divines. One of these was John Rawlins, M.A., an Anglican of Catholic sympathies, who among other preferments held the perpetual curacy of Badsey

Badsey

Badsey is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom. It has two parks and a small first school located in the centre of the village.-Location:...

, two miles from Evesham. His closest friend, away from his own neighbourhood, was Caleb Fleming

Caleb Fleming

Caleb Fleming, D.D. was an English dissenting minister and polemicist.-Life:Fleming was born at Nottingham on 4 November 1698. His father was a hosier; his mother, whose maiden name was Buxton, was a daughter of the lord of the manor of Chelmerton, Derbyshire. Brought up in Calvinism, Fleming's...

, who shared his opinions, and went down from London to visit him. Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...

, to whom Cardale sent two pieces for the Theological Repository

Theological Repository

The Theological Repository was a periodical founded and edited from 1769 to 1771 by the eighteenth-century British polymath Joseph Priestley...

, did not know him personally. Though not popular as a preacher, Cardale as a writer on Socinian theology proved influential, and the manuscript of his most important publication, ‘True Doctrine,’ was revised by Nathaniel Lardner. Latterly, his sedentary habits impaired his health, but his mind was keen.

On 28 February 1775 he put the finishing touch to a work, retired to rest, and died in his sleep before dawn on Wednesday, 1 March. He was buried in the north aisle of All Saints', Evesham, with an epitaph written by his friend Rawlins. Cardale married Sarah Suffield, a lady of some property, three years his senior, who died without issue about 1767. Robert Brook Aspland

Robert Brook Aspland

Robert Brook Aspland was an English Unitarian minister and editor. To be distinguished from his father Robert Aspland .-Life:...

remarks that it was not till after her death that he began to publish his heresies.

Works

He published:

• ‘The Gospel Sanctuary,’ 1740, (seven sermons from Ex. xx. 24).
• ‘A New Office of Devotion,’ &c., 1758, 8vo (anon.).
• ‘The Distinctive Character and Honour of the Righteous Man,’ &c., 1761, (funeral sermon from Matt. xiii. 43, for Rev. Francis Blackmore).
• ‘The True Doctrine of the New Testament concerning Jesus Christ,’ &c., 1767, 2nd ed. 1771, 8vo (anon.; has prefatory essay on private judgment, and appendix on Jo. i. The main argument is in the form of a letter, and signed ‘Phileleutherus Vigorniensis’).
• ‘A Comment upon … Christ's Prayer at the close of his Public Ministry,’ 1772, (anon.)
• ‘A Treatise on the Application of certain Terms … to Jesus Christ,’ &c., 1774, (anon.)

Posthumous was

• ‘An Enquiry whether we have any Scripture-warrant for a direct Address … to the Son or to the Holy Ghost?’ &c., 1776, (edited by Caleb Fleming; prefixed is a short notice of Cardale, and appended is a letter (1762) from Lardner to Fleming on the personality of the Holy Ghost).

His contributions to the Theological Repository are ‘The Christian Creed’ in vol. i. 1769, p. 136, and ‘A Critical Inquiry’ into Phil. ii. 6, in vol. ii. 1771, pp. 141, 219. Cardale bequeathed his manuscripts to Fleming. Except the ‘Enquiry,’ which was ready for press, they were mainly devotional.