WM apologist and pamphleteer, born in Hull. He was educated at its Grammar School but went to sea at 14. In October 1795 his ship was captured by a French squadron; he was taken to Calais but was then liberated. While he was returning to London the ship was capture in the English Channel by a French cruiser, but after a short imprisonment he was set ashore penniless in Cornwall and walked back to Hull, avoiding being press-ganged en route. In 1797 Joseph Benson was appointed to the Hull Circuit and Edward Hare seems to have become his protégé, so that his third circuit saw him preaching in the City Road, London Circuit with Benson as his superintendent.

His pamphleteering began when he moved to the Rochdale Circuit in 1806 and attacked the Unitarian views of Joseph Cooke, an expelled itinerant and founder of the Methodist Unitarians. In subsequent years he disputed with the Calvinistic Vicar of Harewood over Antinomianism , with the Rev. C.W. Ethelston over Episcopal ordination, and with the Rev.. Melville Horne. His last pamphlet was Apology for continuing the steadfast Belief of the Eternal Sonship (1818). He died at Exeter on 14 March 1818.

Of his 12 children, his eldest son was John Middleton Hare, journalist, essayist and poet; his works including The Life and Labours of Adam Clarke (1834). His youngest son was the Wesleyan minister, Robert Henry Hare (e.m. 1838; died 1873).

Entry written by: DCD
Category: Person
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