Augustus Clissold


Augustus Clissold was an English Anglican priest. He is known as a Swedenborgian, who was active in later life publishing his views.

Life

Born in or about 1797, the fifth son of Stephen Clissold of Stonehouse, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, he had Stephen Clissold the writer as an elder brother. He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford on 6 December 1814, the same day as his elder brother Henry. He took the ordinary B.A. degree on 19 November 1818, proceeding M.A. on 13 June 1821.
In 1821 Clissold was ordained deacon and in 1823 admitted to priest's orders by Thomas Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury. He held for some time the curacies of St Martin-in-the-Fields and St Mary, Stoke Newington.
Clissold became a follower of Emanuel Swedenborg and withdrew from the Anglican ministry about 1840, but remained nominally connected with the Church of England to the end of his life. He continued to reside in Stoke Newington. He died on 30 October 1882 at his country house, 4 Broadwater Down, Tunbridge Wells, in his 86th year.

Swedenborgian

The Swedenborg Association was started in 1845 for the publication of Swedenborg's scientific works, and merged after its task had been larger accomplished, with the larger Swedenborg Society. Clissold was chosen as President of the Association. In 1838 he joined the Swedenborg Society as a life member, and in the same year he was placed on the committee. In 1840 he chaired the annual meeting. In 1854 he purchased for the use of the society seventy years' lease of 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, which later became a distribution centre for "New Church" literature.
During the troubled time through which the Swedenborg Society passed in 1859–1860, Clissold supported it financially. He left it £4,000 in his will.

Works

Clissold translated and printed at his own expense Swedenborg's Principia Rerum Naturalium, 2 vols., London, 1845–1846, and Œconomia Regni Animalis, 2 vols., London, 1846, both of which he gave to the Swedenborg Association. He was the author of the following:
Clissold also published a sermon preached on the death of the Rev. George Gaskin, London, 1829. In 1870 he busied himself with promoting the publication of the Documents concerning the Life and Character of Emanuel Swedenborg 2 vols. 1875–1877, based on originals collected, translated, and annotated by Johann Friedrich Immanuel Tafel. During the last two years of his life he assisted similarly in the publication of Swedenborg's posthumous work on The Brain, 1882, part of the Regnum Animale perlustratum.

Family

Clissold married Elizabeth Crawshay, daughter of William Crawshay, some time after the latter's death in 1834. They had no children. On the marriage, the Newington Park House estate passed to Clissold. It was renamed Clissold Park and the house Clissold House.