Political and deistical writer, born in Derry, of Catholic parents; abandoned the Catholic faith; studied at Leyden and Oxford; his first work, "Christianity not Mysterious," which created a great stir, and was burned in Ireland by the common hangman; it was succeeded, along with others, by "Nazarenus," which traced Christianity to conflicting elements in the early Church; he was a disciple of Locke (1669-1722).