Ofspring Blackall (26 April 1655 (baptised) – 29 November 1716), Bishop of Exeter and religious controversialist, was born in London. Early life and education Baptized on 26 April 1655 at St Gregory by Paul's, he was the son of Thomas Blackall (bapt. 1621; died 1688), freeman of the Haberdashers' Company and later alderman of the City of London, and his wife, Martha (bapt. 1625; d. 1701?), daughter of Charles Ofspring, rector of St Antholin, Budge Row, and trier of the second presbyterian classis (or eldership) of London. Blackall's father owned land in several counties as well as property in the city, and although he conformed to the established church may have retained some puritan sympathies. During Blackall's youth his parents resided in Lordshold Manor, an 'ancient brick house' in Dalston, Middlesex (VCH Middlesex, 10.89). He was educated in nearby Hackney, perhaps at the free school of which Robert Skingle was master, before being admitted as a pensioner to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, on 26 April 1671. He graduated BA in 1675, proceeded MA in 1678, and was elected in 1679 (by the interest, it was rumoured, of William Wake) to a fellowship, which he resigned in 1687. He was ordained deacon on 11 March 1677 and priest on 19 December 1680. The university awarded him the degree of DD in 1700. Cleric On 14 January 1690 Blackall was instituted to the rectory of South Ockendon, Essex; he resigned this for the rectory of St Mary Aldermary, London, to which he was presented by the dean and chapter of St Paul's on 6 November 1694. He also held the city lectureships of St Olave Jewry from 1695 to 1698, and St Dunstan-in-the-West from 1698. He was appointed chaplain to William and Mary, although it was later alleged that he had been a nonjuror and had refused to swear allegiance to the new monarchs for two years. Blackall was nominated to the bishopric of Exeter by the personal determination of Queen Anne, upon the recommendation of John Sharp, archbishop of York, but without the knowledge of her ministers, whose politically expedient recommendations the queen, mindful of the royal prerogative, deemed insufficiently orthodox. It was consequently remarked wittily that he was the 'queen's bishop'. He was consecrated at Lambeth on 8 February 1708. To supplement his episcopal revenues he was permitted to hold, in addition to his bishopric, the deanery of St Buryan,