William Law

Born at King’s Cliffe near Stamford and the son of a grocer, William Law was elected a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but, declining to take the oath of allegiance to George I, lost his fellowship. Edward Gibbon made him the tutor of his son, the father of the historian Gibbon, in c.1727 and he remained as an honoured friend of the family in their Putney home until 1740, when he returned to King’s Cliffe and became the centre of a small spiritual community which included the historian’s aunt Hester.