et Collegii Corporis Christi apud Cantabrigiensis custos. Vertue sc. 1727; h. sh. 1677. This very learned author was, for his singular merit, elected Installed 19 Sept. master of Corpus Christi College, in Cambridge, in 1667; and was afterward preferred to the deanery of Ely. He published a " Discourse upon Prodigies," together with another concerning Prophecies, Lond. 1665; 8vo. His "Dissertatio de Urim et Thummim," &c. was printed at Cambridge, in 8vo. 1678. But his capital work is his book "De Legibus Hebræorum," the best edition of which was published by Mr. Chappelow, in two volumes folio, 1727, to which is prefixed his head, engraved at the expense of the society of Corpus Christi College. Ob. 27 May, 1695, Æt. 63. GULIELMUS HOLDER, S. T. P. &c. Societatis Regiæ Londini socius, 1683. D. Loggan ad vivum del. h. sh. WILLIAM HOLDER; in Hawkins's " History of Music." C. Grignion. Dr. William Holder was educated at Pembroke Hall, in the university of Cambridge. About the year 1642, he was presented to the rectory of Blechingdon, in Oxfordshire. After the restoration, he became canon of Ely, canon-residentiary of St. Paul's, and subdean of the chapel royal. He was a man of a truly philosophic genius, of which he has given abundant proof in his " Elements of Speech, an Essay of Enquiry into the natural Production of Letters; with an Appendix concerning Persons that are deaf and dumb." His "Treatise on the natural Grounds and Principles of Harmony," is allowed to be as rational a discourse on that subject as was ever published. He exactly knew the powers of the organs of speech, and composed a Natural Alphabet adapted to those powers. This would be a much more eligible alphabet for the Chinese, who have not yet adopted any, than that which is now in use. It was much controverted, whether the glory of first teaching deaf and dumb persons to speak, and understand a language, was due to him or Dr. Wallis. The true theory of the art appears to have been published by the latter, in his book "De Loquela,” which came forth about six years before Mr. Popham was taught to speak by Dr. Holder.* Peter de Cestro, physician to the Duke of Mantua, is said to have been the first that hit upon this discovery.+ Ob. 24. Jan. 1697. He lies buried with his wife, who was only sister to Sir Christopher Wren, in the vault under St. Paul's cathedral. See more of him in "Athen. Oxon." II. col. 139. JOHANNES CONANT, S. T. P. black cap, &c, 8vo. Dr. John Conant was, in the time of the interregnum, rector of Exeter College, in Oxford; where he maintained a strict discipline, and caused that society to flourish more than any other in the university. In 1654, he was appointed king's professor of divinity, in the room of Dr. Sanderson; but was obliged to resign the chair to him upon the restoration. In 1662, he was ejected from his rectory of Exeter College for nonconformity; but afterward conforming, he became vicar of All-Saints, at Northampton, and was by Bishop Reynolds, whose daughter he had formerly married, made archarchdeacon, deacon of Norwich. He was a few years after preferred to a pre8 June, bend of Worcester. He was a man of a modest and amiable character; of exemplary piety; and was, in other respects, well qualified for the preferments which he enjoyed. He particularly excelled as a preacher. Several volumes of his Sermons were published by Bishop Williams. Ob. March, 1693. Installed 1676. Installed 12 Jan. 1678-9. THOMAS HYDE, archdeacon of Glocester; a bust. Cipriani del. F. Perry sc. Before the collection of his works published by Dr. Gregory Sharpe, Oxon. 1767. Doctor Thomas Hyde is a great character, but is much less known than he deserves to be, because the studies in which he was occupied are but little cultivated. Those that are acquainted with the oriental languages are astonished at the progress which was made in them by one man, though aided by the powers of genius, supported and strengthened by incessant industry. Before he was eighteen years of age, he was sent from Cambridge to London by Vide"Athen. Oxon." ii. col. 139, and Wallis's "Memoirs and Sermons," 8vo. 1791. + See the "Universal Magazine" for Jan. 1762, p. 15, et seq.—It is obvious to observe here, that the first rudiments of a newly-discovered art are generally so imperfect, that the improver of it not only receives his own share of honour, but even that which was due to the first inventor. the celebrated Abraham Wheelock, to assist Mr. Brian Walton in the great work of the Polyglot Bible; and, about that period, undertook to transcribe the Persian Pentateuch out of the Hebrew characters, which Archbishop Usher, who well knew the difficulty of the undertaking, pronounced to be an impossible task to a native Persian. After he had happily succeeded in this, he assisted in correcting several parts of Mr. Walton's work, for which he was perfectly qualified. Of all his learned writings, the very catalogue of which is a singular curiosity,* his "Religio veterum Persarum" is the most celebrated. This will ever be a valuable book. Dr. Gregory Sharpe, the learned and ingenious master of the Temple, has collected several of his pieces, formerly printed, and republished them, with some additional Dissertations and his Life prefixed, in two elegant volumes in quarto. Dr. Hyde was archdeacon of Gloucester, canon of Christ Church, head keeper of the Bodleian library, and professor both of Hebrew and Arabic in the university of Oxford. He was interpreter and secretary of the oriental languages during the reigns of Charles II. James II. and William III. He was perfectly qualified to fill this post, as he could converse in the languages which he understood. There never was an Englishman, in his situation of life, who made so great a progress in the Chinese. Bochart, Pococke, and Hyde, are allowed to have been the greatest orientalists that any nation ever produced. Ob. Feb. 18, 1702. I am informed by a good hand,† that his mind had been so much engrossed by his beloved studies, that he was but ill qualified to appear to any advantage in common conversation. EDVARDUS LAKE, S. T. P. M. Vander Gucht sc. 8vo. EDWARD LAKE, &c. G. Vander Gucht sc. Before his " Officium Eucharisticum," 12mo. copied from the former. It is uncertain when the picture was done from which his head was engraved. Edward Lake, who had been a member of both universities, but took his degrees at Cambridge, was chaplain to James, duke of York; and as we learn from the inscription on his monument, he * See it in the "Athen. Oxon." or the " Biographia." + The Reverend Mr. Merrick, of Reading, whose father knew him well. was also tutor and chaplain to his two daughters, Mary and Anne, who afterward sat upon the throne of Great Britain. Mr. Wood informs us, that he was prebendary and archdeacon of Exeter, and rector of the united parishes of St. Mary Hill and St. Andrew Hubbard, in London. He was a man of uncommon piety and charity, and a celebrated preacher. He died the 1st of February, 1703-4, and lies buried in the collegiate church of St. Catharine, near the Tower, where a monument is erected to his memory. Le Neve, by mistake, says that he was buried in the church of St. Mary Hill.* MARCUS FRANCK, S. T. P. &c. W. Dolle sc. small h. sh. Mark Franck, master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and archdeacon of St. Alban's, was author of fifty sermons, published in folio, 1672, with his print prefixed. His character and preferments, except his rectory of Barley, in Hertfordshire, to which he was admitted on the 2d of February, 1663, are mentioned in the following inscription, which was formerly on his monument, near the entrance of the north door of St. Paul's, but perished soon after its erection, together with the church, in the conflagration of the city. Hoc marmore tumulatur, Quippe monumentum illius Marci Franck, Archiepiscopo Cantuarensi a sacris, Sancti Albani archidiaconi; hujus ecclesiæ thesaurarii Virtutem, humilitatem, eloquentiam, in singulis sagacitatem, Dictis metiri non liceat; dicat posteritas. Obiit ætatis anno LI. salutis MDCLXIV. ISAAC CASAUBON. Vander Werff. P. v. Gunst. Prefixed to his and his son's" Epistolæ," fol. Isaac Casaubon, born at Geneva 1559, was invited by James I. into England upon the death of Henry IV. of France. James, justly esteeming him as a man of the first rank in the learned world, made him his librarian, and afterward promoted him to a prebend of Canterbury, and likewise granted him a pension of 300l. per annum. He died the 1st of July, 1614, in the 55th year of his age; and was buried in Westminster Abbey; where a tomb was erected to his memory, by Thomas Morton, bishop of Durham.* p. MERICUS CASAUBONUS. Is. F. (Isaaci Filius) Vr. Werff p.. Van Gunst sc. h. sh. In the large volume of his father's and his own works; Roterodami, 1709.† MERIC CASAUBON. R. Schothii; 8vo. Meric, the learned son of the most learned Isaac Casaubon, was born at Geneva in 1599, and brought into England by his father when he was about eleven years of age. He received his education at Christ Church, in Oxford, under Dr. Edward à Meetkirk, the king's Hebrew professor. Whilst he was a student of that house, he acquired a great reputation at home and abroad for a "Vindication of his Father against an Impostor of the Church of Rome," who published under his name a book on the origin of idolatry. He also published, by command of King James, another vindication of him against the Puritans of that age. These two pieces, which are in Latin, were the foundation of his fame. He intended to pursue his father's great work against Baronius's "Annals," but was prevented by the distractions of the civil war, which interrupted the course of his studies. Cromwell made him large offers on condition of his writing the history of that turbulent period, which he thought proper to decline. He also declined the advantageous overtures made him by Christina, queen of Sweden, who, with a view to the advancement of learning, was desirous of his settling in that country. He was successively rector of Bledon, in Somersetshire, and Ickham, in Kent, and is entitled to a place * See his epitaph, composed by Dr. Thomas Goad, rector of Hadley, in Suffolk, in the " Antiquities of Westminster Abbey."-See Barwick's "Life of Bishop Morton," p. 73. + See Batteley's" Cant. Sacra," p. 127. See also Wood. |