Although esteemed models of composition and orthodoxy, his sermons failed to draw together large congregations.
‘A certain thickness in his speech, an awkwardness of manner in a crowd, a want of energy, and an easiness of temper, little calculated to curb the sallies of a large assembly of young men constrained to sit out a lecture of an hour in length,’ contributed also to render his lectures less efficient than might have been expected from their undoubted excellence.
[2] Fawcett chiefly resided in college until he was presented by the society in 1801 to the united rectories of Thursford and Great Snoring in Norfolk.
He afterwards divided his time between his parsonage and the university, being permitted to retain rooms in college on account of his lectures.
In 1815 he vacated the Norrisian professorship; in 1822 he also resigned his vicarage in Cambridge, and resided thenceforward solely at his rectory in Norfolk.