, a learned professor of divinity of the university of Francfort
, a learned professor of divinity of the university of Francfort on the Oder, was born at
Dantzic, Oct.7, 1671. He was descended from the ancient and
noble family of Oisel or Loisel, which made a great figure
in Norman history; and one of his ancestors having come
to England with William the Conqueror, his descendants
were not extinct in the time of queen Elizabeth. Of this
descent, however, our learned professor seldom was heard
to boast. He had more pleasure in relating that his immediate ancestors were pious protestants, who, having escaped the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s day in France,
took refuge in Flanders; and that his great grandfather,
who had lost his all on that occasion, began trade and acquired great property, of which he was again stript during
the persecution under the duke of Alva, and obliged to
fly to Leyden with three hundred families, who established
the cloth manufactory there under his direction. One of
his uncles was James Ousel or Loisel, already mentioned
(see Oisel*), the editor of an excellent edition of the “Octavius
” of Minutius Felix, with notes, printed at Leyden
in 1652, 4to and 8vo, and reprinted in 1672. His father
Michael Ousel was a merchant, who died when this his sou
was very young, leaving him to the care of a step-mother,
who paid every possible attention to his education.