Ley, John

, a voluminous polemic in the seventeenth century, was born at Warwick, Feb. 4, 1583, and edu r cated at Christ church, Oxford. After his admission into holy orders he was presented to the vicarage of Great Budworth in Cheshire, where he continued a constant preacher for several years. He was afterwards made prebendary and subdean of Chester, and had a weekly lecture at St. Peter’s church. He was also once or twice a member of the convocation. On the commencement of the rebellion, he espoused the cause of the parliament, took the covenant, was chosen one of the assembly of divines, appointed Latin examiner of young preachers, and by his writings, encouraged all the opinions and prejudices of his party, with whom his learning gave him considerable weight. He accepted of various livings under the republican government, the last of which was that of Solihull, in Warwickshire, which he resigned on being disabled by breaking of a blood-vessel, and retired to Sutton Colfield? in the same county, where he died May 16, 1662. His works, of which Wood enumerates about thirty articles, relate mostly to the controversies of the times, except his sermons; and his share in the “Assembly’s Annotations on the Bible,” tp which he contributed the annotations on the Pentateuch and the four Evangelists. ²