Background
Bearcroft was born in the city of Worcester in the West Midlands of England on 1 May 1697.
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Philip Bearcroft
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Education
He was educated at the Charterhouse School, of which he was elected a scholar on the nomination of Lord Somers in July 1710.
Career
The Bearcrofts of Worcester were a branch of an old family of minor landed gentry seated elsewhere in the county, at Mere Hall in the parish of Hanbury. On 17 December 1712, he matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. In 1716, he took his Bachelor of Arts degree, in 1717 he became probationary, and in 1719 actual, fellow of Merton College, taking his Master of Arts degree in the same year.
He was ordained deacon in 1718 at Bristol, and priest in 1719 at Gloucester.
He accumulated the degrees of Bachelor of Divinity and Doctor of Divinity in 1730. He was appointed preacher to the Charterhouse in 1724, Honorary Chaplain to the King in 1738, secretary to the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1739, rector of Stourmouth, Kent, in 1743, and master of the Charterhouse, on 18 December 1753.
In 1755, he was collated to a prebendal stall in Wells Cathedral. From his account of Sutton, Smythe"s historical account of the Charterhouse was largely derived.
In Nichols"s Bowyer, Bearcroft is spoken of as "a worthy man, but with no great talents for writing." Some of his sermons were published, both before and after his death.
He died on 17 October 1761.
