4 j 2 
F L E 
FLEET, adj. [ Jliotur , Iflandic.] Swift of pace ; quick ; 
nimble; aftive.—He had in his (tables one of the feetcjl 
horfes in England. Clarendon. 
His fear was greater than his hade ; 
For fear, though fleeter than the wind, 
Believes ’tis always left behind. Hudibras. 
[In the hufbandry of fome provinces.] Light; fuperfi- 
cially fruitful.—Marlcope-ground is a cold, (tiff, wet^ 
clay, unlefs where it is very fleet for pafture. Mortimer .— 
Skimming the furface. Provincial. —Thofe lands Jiiuft be 
ploughed Jleet. Mortimer. 
To FLEET, v.n. [ploran, Sax.] To fly fwiftly ; to 
vanifli : 
How all the other paflions fleet to air, 
As doubtful thoughts, and rafli embrac’d defpair ! 
Shakefpeare. 
To be in a tranfient date; the fame with Jlit .—Our under- 
danding, to make a complete notion, mud add fomething 
elfe to this fleeting and unremarkable fuperficies, that may 
bring it to our acquaintance. Digby on Bodies. 
O fleeting joys 
Of Paradife, dear bought with lading woe! Milton. 
To FLEET, v. a. To ikim the water: 
Who fwelling fails in Cafpian fea doth crofs, 
And in frail wood an Adrian gulf doth fleets 
Doth not, I ween, fo many evils meet. Spenfer. 
To live merrily, or pafs time away lightly.— Many young 
gentlemen flock to him every day, and fleet the time care- 
lefsly as they did in the golden age. Shakefpeare. —To float: 
Which did a heap of flately dones uprear, 
That feem’d amid the furges for to feet. Spenfer 
Ere my fweet Gavedon dial! part from me, 
This iile (ball feet upon the ocean, 
And wander to the unfrequented Inde. Marlow. 
[In the dairy.] To Ikim milk; to take off the cream: 
whence the word fleetingdifi. 
FLEET, a river of England, in the county of Notting. 
ham, which runs into the Trent, eight miles north of 
Newark. 
FLEET, a river of Scotland, in the county of Kircud¬ 
bright, which runs into Wigton Bay, by a wide mouth, 
called Fleet Bay , feven miles wed of Kircudbright, and 
eight eafl-fouth-eafl of Wigton. 
FLEET'ING, f. [A fea term.] The aft of changing 
the fituation of the tackle when the blocks are drawn 
together. 
FLEET'INGDISH,./. A flamming bow.L 
FLEET'LY, adv. Swiftly; nimbly; with fwift pace. 
FLEET'NESS, f. ■ Swiftnefs of courfe; nimblenefs; 
celerity ; velocity ; fpeed ; qtticknefs. 
FLEET'WOOD (William), a learned Englifli plelate, 
defeended from the Fleetwoods of Lancafliire, and born 
in 1656, in the Tower of London, as dated in the account 
of his life and writings prefixed to the colleftion of his 
fermons and trafts. His claflical education he received at 
Eton fchool, whence he was elefted to King’s-college, 
Cambridge. About the time of the revolution he enter¬ 
ed into orders, and foon became celebrated for the excel¬ 
lence of his pulpit orations. A fermon which he preached 
before the univerdty in his own college, on the anniver- 
fary of its founder, in 1689, was coniidered to poifefs fo 
much original, mftit, that he was requefled by the vice- 
chancellor, and the heads of the colleges, to print it, and 
it contributed not a little to fpread abroad the reputation 
w hich he had acquired at Cambridge. Not long after¬ 
wards he was appointed chaplain to king William and 
queen Mary ; and by the intereft of Dr. Godolphiti, at 
that time vice-provoft of Eton and refidentiury of St. 
Paul’s, was made fellow of Eton, and reftor of St. 
Auftin’s in London. Scarcely was he fettled in the me¬ 
tropolis, before his celebrity as a preacher occalioned his 
F L E 
being chofen lefturer of St. Dunflan’s in Fleet-ffreet, 
where his fermons were attended and admired by numerous 
auditories. In 1691, he publifhed an ufeful introduftion 
to the knowledge of antiquities, entitled hferiptionum 
Antiquarian Sylloge, in duas partes difributa, &c. 8vo. the 
fir ft part containing remarkable pagan inferiptions, col- 
lefted from Gruter, Reinfius, Spon, and other writers ; 
and the fecond part confiding of a learned and laborious 
enumeration of ancient Chriftian monuments. In the 
following year he publiflied A plain Method of Chriftian 
Devotion, tranflated from the French of M. Jurieu. 
During this time he was frequently called upon to preach 
before the king, the queen, the houfe of commons, the 
lord mayor and court of aldermen, &c. In confequence 
of Mr. Fleetwood’s merited reputation for learning, he 
was applied to by the truftees of Mr. Boyle’s lefture, to 
deliver a feries of fermons in conformity with the defign 
ot the pious founder. The precarious ftate of his health, 
however, at the time when this application was made, 
obliged him to decline complying with their requeft ; 
but he digefled his thoughts on the fubjeft, and publifhed 
them in 1701, under the title of An Effay upon Miracles, 
in two Difcourfes, 8vo. A little before king William’s 
deceafe, Mr. Fleetwood was nominated by his majefty to 
a canonry of Windfor ; but as the grant had not paffed the 
feals before the king’s death, the houfe of commons ad- 
dreffed queen Anne to beftow that dignity upon their 
chaplain. When the queen, however, was informed of 
the late king’s defignation of that preferment, (lie nobly 
confirmed the grant in favour of Mr. Fleetwood, andalfo 
appointed him one of her chaplains. In 1704, he pub¬ 
lifhed The Reafonable Communicant, or an Explanation 
of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, Svo. and in 
1705, befides fome Angle fermons preached before the 
queen, Sixteen Praftical Difcourfes upon the relative 
Duties of Parents and Children, Hufbands and Wives, 
Mafters and Servants, with three Sermons upon the Cafe 
of Self-murder, in.cz vols. Svo. When thus arrived at 
the height of his profeflional reputation, he came to the 
refoltition of retiring to a fmall reftory, which he pof- 
feffed in the neighbourhood of Eton. In that fecluded 
fituation he applied much of his time to the fludy of 
Britifh hiftory and antiquities. One curious fpecimen of 
his fkill in the latter branch of learning was publiflied, 
in 1707, entitled Ckronicon Preciofum ; or, an Account of 
Englifli Gold and Silver Money, the Price of Corn and 
other Commodities, and of Stipends, Salaries, Wages, 
&c. in England, for fix hundred Years lad part, &c. Svo. 
In the year laft.mentioned, the queen, of her own motive, 
called him out of his retirement, to fucceed Dr. Beve¬ 
ridge in the fee of St. Afaph. The manner in which this 
preferment was conferred upon him was fo honourable, 
that he confidered it to be his duty not to decline it, and 
was accordingly confecrated in 1708. After bifliop Fleet¬ 
wood’s elevation to the epifcopal bench, he preached fre¬ 
quently before the queen, and feveral of his fermons on 
thofe occalions were printed. He likewife conftantly at¬ 
tended the houfe of lords, where he condufted himfelf 
with dignity and fpirit, maintaining on all occafions his 
independence, and invariably governed in his votes by a 
regard to what he coniidered to be the true interefts of the 
public. In 1710 he vilited his diocefe, and publifhed the 
charge delivered to his clergy, which is generally allowed 
to be one of the moft perfeft and excellent performances 
of that kind. In 1712, he publifhed four fermons which 
he had preached with great applaufe, on the occafions of 
the deaths of queen Mary, the duke of Gloucefler, and 
king William, and of the acceflion of queen Anne to the 
throne. They were accompanied with a preface, (hewing 
the reafons for their being committed to the pref-s at that 
time, and containing fevere and pointed animadverftons 
on the tendency of the fafliionable politics of the day. 
Againft this preface the men in power direfted their ven¬ 
geance, and procured a motion to be carried in the houfe 
of'commons that it fhould be burned by the common 
2 hangman* 
