Editing Isaac Ambrose (section)

==Biography==
Ambrose was born in 1604. He was the son of Richard Ambrose, vicar of [[Ormskirk]], and was probably descended from the Ambroses of [[Lowick, Cumbria|Lowick]] in [[Furness]], a well-known Roman Catholic family. He entered [[Brasenose College, Oxford]], in 1621, in his seventeenth year.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Having graduated B.A. in 1624 and been ordained, Ambroses received in 1627 the little cure of [[Castleton, Derbyshire|Castleton]] in [[Derbyshire]].  By the influence of [[William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford|William Russell, earl of Bedford]], he was appointed one of the king's itinerant preachers in [[Lancashire]], and after living for a time in [[Garstang]], he was selected by the Lady Margaret Hoghton as vicar of [[Preston, Lancashire|Preston]].  He associated himself with [[Presbyterianism]], and was on the celebrated committee for the ejection of "scandalous and ignorant ministers and schoolmasters" during the [[Commonwealth of England|Commonwealth]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

So long as Ambrose continued at Preston he was favoured with the warm friendship of the Hoghton family, their ancestral woods and the tower near [[Blackburn]] affording him sequestered places for those devout meditations and "experiences" that give such a charm to his [[diary]], portions of which are quoted in his ''Prima Media & Ultima'' (1650, 1659).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} The immense auditory of his sermon (''Redeeming the Time'') at the funeral of Lady Hoghton was long a living tradition all over the county. On account of the feeling engendered by the civil war Ambrose left his great church of Preston in 1654, and became minister of Garstang, whence, however, in 1662 he was ejected along two thousand ministers who refused to conform (see [[Great Ejection]]). His after years were passed among old friends and in quiet meditation at Preston. He died of [[apoplexy]] about 20 January 1664.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}