s for his skill in anatomy, and successful practice in the time of king James I. and king Charles I. was born at Exeter 1573. His lather Thomas Baskerville, an apothecary
, knight, of the ancient family of the Baskervilles in Herefordshire, an excellent scholar and eminent physician, famous for his skill in anatomy, and successful practice in the time of king James I. and king Charles I. was born at Exeter 1573. His lather Thomas Baskerville, an apothecary of that city, observing an early love of knowledge and thirst after learning in him, gave him a proper education for the university, to which he was sent when about eighteen years old, entering him of Exeter college, in Oxford, on the 10th of March 1591, putting him under the care of Mr. William Helm, a man no less famous for his piety than learning; under whose tuition he gave such early proofs of his love of virtue and knowledge, that he was on the first vacancy elected fellow of that house, before he had taken his bachelor’s degree in arts, which delayed his taking it till July 8, 1596, to which he soon after added that of M. A. and when he was admitted, had particular notice taken of him for his admirable knowledge in the languages and philosophy. After this, viz. 1606, he was chosen senior proctor of the university, when he bent his study wholly to physic, became a most eminent proficient, and was then in as great esteem at the university for his admirable knowledge in medicine, as he had been before for other parts of learning, taking at once, by accumulation (June 20, 1611), both his degrees therein, viz. that of bachelor and doctor. After many years study and industry, he came to London, where he acquired great eminence in his profession; being a member of the college of physicians, and for some time also president. His high reputation for learning and skill soon brought him into vogue at court, where he was sworn physician to James I. and afterwards to Charles I. with whom, Mr. Wood tells us, he was in such esteem for his learning and accomplishments, that he conferred the honour of knighthood upon him. By his practice he obtained a very plentiful estate, and shewed in his life a noble spirit suitable to the largeness of his fortune. What family he left besides his wife, or who became heir to all his great wealth, we cannot find. He died July 5, 1641, aged sixty-eight, and was buried in the cathedral church of St. Paul. No physician of that age could, we imagine, bave better practice than he, if what is reported of him be true, viz. that he had no less than one hundred patients a, week; nor is it strange he should amass so great wealth as to acquire the title of sir Simon Baskerville the rich.
from the ancient family of the Bodleys, or Bodleighs, of Dunscomb, near Crediton, in Devonshire. He was born at Exeter, March 2, 1544, and was about twelve years of
, that illustrious benefactor to literature, from whom the public library at Oxford takes its name, was the son of Mr. John Bodley, of Exeter, and of his wife Joan, daughter and heiress of Robert Home, esq. of Ottery St. Mary, near Exeter. By his father’s side he descended from the ancient family of the Bodleys, or Bodleighs, of Dunscomb, near Crediton, in Devonshire. He was born at Exeter, March 2, 1544, and was about twelve years of age when his father was obliged to leave England on account of his religion, and settle at Geneva, where he lived during the reign of queen Mary. The English church at Geneva consisted, as he himself informs us, of some hundred persons; and here, the university having been newly erected, he frequented the public lectures of Chevalerius on the Hebrew tongue, of Beroaldus on the Greek, and of Calvin and Beza on divinity, and had also domestic teachers in the house of Philibertus Saracenus, a physician of that city, with whom he boarded, and where Robert Constantine, author of the Greek Lexicon, read Homer to him. Under such masters, we cannot doubt his proficiency, although we have no more particular detail of his early studies upon record. Whatever else he learned, he appears to have imbibed an uncommon love of books, to have studied their history, and to have prepared himself, although unconscious of the result, for that knowledge which, it is evident from his correspondence, he was perpetually increasing, and which at length, when the political prospects which once flattered his ambition were closed, enabled, as well as incited him, to re-found the public library at Oxford.
, an English dissenting minister, was born at Exeter, Sept. 16, 1697. His grandfather was 9, clergyman
, an English dissenting minister, was born at Exeter, Sept. 16, 1697. His grandfather was 9, clergyman at Kettering in Northamptonshire; but his father, being educated by an uncle who was a dissenter, imbibed the same principles, and was afterwards by trade a tucker, or fuller, in Exeter. He was sent early to the free school in that town, where the foundation of a friendship between him and Dr. Conybeare, afterwards bishop of Bristol, is said to have been laid; and thence was removed to an academy in the same city, where he finished his studies. He there displayed pre-eminent natural abilities, a quick apprehension, a solid judgment, a happy memory, and a free commanding elocution.
ens. During his residence here he was appointed chaplain to the infant princess Henrietta Maria, who was born at Exeter in June 1643; and the king soon after gave him
After the battle at Cheriton-Down, March 29, 1644,
lord Hopton drew on his army to Basing-house, and Fuller,
being left there by him, animated the garrison to so vigorous a defence of that place, that sir William Waller was
obliged to raise the siege with considerable loss. But the,
war hastening to an end, and part of the king’s army being
driven into Cornwall, under lord Hopton, Fuller, with the
leave of that nobleman, took refuge at Exeter, where he
resumed his studies, and preached constantly to the citizens. During his residence here he was appointed chaplain to the infant princess Henrietta Maria, who was born
at Exeter in June 1643; and the king soon after gave
him a patent for his presentation to the living of Dorchester in Dorsetshire. He continued his attendance on the
princess till the surrender of Exeter to the parliament, in
April 1646; but did not accept the living, because he
determined to remove to London at the expiration of the
war. He relates, in his * Worthies,“an extraordinary
circumstance which happened during the siege of Exeter
” When the city of Exeter, he says, was besieged by the
parliament forces, so that only the south side thereof towards the sea was open to it, incredible numbers of larks
were found in that open quarter, for multitude like quailg
in the wilderness; though, blessed be God, unlike them
in the cause and effect; as not desired with man’s destruction, nor sent with God’s anger, as appeared by their safe
digestion into wholesome nourishment. Hereof I was an,
eye and mouth-witness. I will save my credit in not conjecturing any number; knowing that herein, though I
should stoop beneath the truth, I should mount above
belief. They were as fat as plentiful; so that being sold
for two-pence a dozen and under, the poor who could have
no cheaper, and the rich no better meat, used to make pottage of them, boiling them down therein. Several causes
were assigned hereof, &c. but the cause of causes was the
Divine Providence; thereby providing a feast for many
poor people, who otherwise had been pinched for provision.“While here, as every where else, he was much
courted on account of his instructive and pleasant conversation, by persons of high rank, some of whom made him
very liberal offers; but whether from a love of study, or a
spirit of independence, he was always reluctant in accepting any otters that might seem to confine him to any one
family, or patron. It was at Exeter, where he is said to
have written his
” Good Thoughts in Bad Times,“and
where the book was published in 1645, as what he calls
” the first fruits of Exeter press.“At length the garrison
being forced to surrender, he came to London, and met
but a coid reception among his former parishioners, and
found his lecturer’s place filled by another. However, it
was not Ions: before he was chosen lecturer at St. Clement’s
near Lombard-street and shortly after removed to St.
Bride’s, in Fleet-street. In 1647 he published, in 4to,
” A Sermon of Assurance, fourteen years agoe preached
at Cambridge, since in other places now, by the importunity of his friends, exposed to public view.“He dedicated it to sir John Danvers, who had been a royalist, was
then an Oliverian, and next year one of the king’s judges;
and in the dedication he says, that
” it had been the pleasure of the present authority to make him mute; forbidding him till further order the exercise of his public
preaching.“Notwithstanding his being thus silenced, he
was, about 1648, presented to the rectory of Waltham, in
Essex, by the earl of Carlisle, whose chaplain he was just
before made. He spent that and the following year betwixt
London and Waltham, employing some engravers to adorn
his copious prospect or view of the Holy Land, as from
mount Pisgah; therefore called his
” Pi*gah-sijht of Palestine and the confines thereof, with the history of the
Old and New Testament acted thereon,“which he published in 1650. It is an handsome folio, embellished with
a frontispiece and many other copper- plates, and divided
into five books. As for his
” Worthies of England,“on
which he had been labouring so long, the death of the
king for a time disheartened him from the continuance of
that work:
” For what shall I write,“says he,
” of the
Worthies of England, when this horrid act will bring such
an infamy upon the whole nation as will ever cloud an4
darken all its former, and suppress its future rising glories?“He was, therefore, busy till the year last mentioned, in preparing that book and others; and the next
year he rather employed himself in publishing some
particular lives of religious reformers, martyrs, confessors,
bishops, doctors, and other learned divines, foreign and
domestic, than in augmenting his said book of
” English
Worthies“in general. To this collection, which was executed by several hands, as he tells us in the preface, he
gave the title of
” Abel Redivivus,“and published it in 4to,
1651. In the two or three following years he printed
several sermons and tracts upon religious subjects. About
1654 he married a sister of the viscount Baltinglasse; and
the next year she brought him a son, who, as well as the
other before-mentioned, survived his father. In 1655,
notwithstanding Cromwell’s prohibition of all persons from,
preaching, or teaching school, who had been adherents to
the late king, he continued preaching, and exerting his
charitable disposition towards those ministers who were
ejected by the usurping powers, and not only relieved
such from what he could spare out of his own slender
estate, but procured many contributions for them from his
auditories. Nor was his charity confined to the clergy;
and among the laity whom he befriended, there is an
instance upon record of a captain of the army who was
quite destitute, and whom he entirely maintained until he
died. In 1656 he published in folio,
” The Church History of Britain, from the birth of Jesus Christ to the year
1648;“to which are subjoined,
” The History of the
University of Cambridge since the conquest,“and
” The
History of Waltham Abbey in Essex, founded by king
Harold.“His Church History was animadverted upon
by Dr. Hey 1 in in his
” Examen Historicum;" and this
drew from our author a reply: after which they had
no further controversy, but were very well reconciled *.
About this time he was invited, accord ing to his biographer, to another living in Essex, in which he continued
his ministerial labours until his settlement at London.
George, lord Berkeley, one of his noble patrons, having
in 1658 made him his chaplain, he took leave of Essex,
and was presented by his lordship to the rectory of Cranford in Middlesex. It is said also that lord Berkeley took
him over to the Hague, and introduced him to Charles if.
It is certain, however, that a short time hefore the restoration, Fuller was re-admitted to his lecture in the Savoy,
and on that event restored to his prebend of Salisbury.
He was chosen chaplain extraordinary to the king; created
doctor of divinity at Cambridge by a mandamus, dated
August 2, 1660; and, had he lived a twelvemonth longer,
would probably have been raised to a bishopric. But upon
his return from Salisbury in August 1661 he was attacked
by a fever, of which he died the 15th of that month. His
funeral was attended by at least two hundred of his brethren; and a sermon was preached by Dr. Hardy, dean of
Rochester, in which a great and noble character was given
of him. H was buried in his church at Cranford, on the
north wall of the chancel of which is his monument, with
the following inscription:
, a dissenting clergyman, was born at Exeter in 1692, and educated under the care of Mr. Pierce,
, a dissenting clergyman, was born
at Exeter in 1692, and educated under the care of Mr.
Pierce, who was assistant to his father Mr. Hallet, minister
of a congregation of protestant dissentars in that city. Joseph was ordained in 1713, and in 1722 he succeeded his
father as joint-minister with Mdf. Pierce. Prior to this
event he had engaged in the controversy, then warmly
carried on in the west of England, concerning the Trinity;
and in 1720, adopted the principles of Dr. Clarke, which
he demonstrated in a treatise entitled “The Unity of God
not inconsistent with the Divinity of Christ; being remarks
upon Dr. Waterland’s Vindication, relating to the Unity of
God, and the Object of Worship.
” He published other
pieces on the same subject; but his reputation is chiefly
founded on his work entitled “A free and impartial Study
of the Holy Scriptures recommended, being notes on some
peculiar texts, with discourses and observations,
” Discourse of the nature, kinds, and numbers of our Saviour’s Miracles
” his
“Immorality of the Moral Philosopher,
” and his “Consistent Christian,
” against the infidel writers, Woolston,
Morgan, and Chubb. Mr. Hallet died in 1744.
an English historian, was born at Exeter, about the year 1524. His father Hobert Hooker,
an English historian,
was born at Exeter, about the year 1524. His father Hobert Hooker, a wealthy citizen, was in 1529 mayor of that
city. Dr. Moreman, vicar of Menhinit in Cornwall, was
his tutor in grammar, after which he studied at Oxford,
but in what college Wood was not able to discover. Having
left the University, he travelled to Germany, and resided
some time at Cologn, where he studied the law; and thence
to Strasburgh, where he heard the divinity lectures of
Peter Martyr. He intended also to have visited France,
Spain, and Italy, but a war breaking out, he returned to
England, and, residing at his native city, Exeter, was
elected chamberlain in 1554, being the first person who
held that office; and in 1571 he represented Exeter in
parliament. He died in 1601, and was buried in the cathedral of Exeter. His works are, 1. “Order and usage of
keeping of Parliaments in Ireland.
” The ms. of this is
in Trinity-college-library, Dublin. He had been sent into
Ireland by sir Peter Carew to negotiate his affairs there,
and was elected burgess for Athenry in the parliament of
1568. This tract is printed with his Irish Chronicle in
Holinshed. 2. “The events of Comets, or blazing stars,
made upon the sight of the comet Pagonia, which appeared
in November and December 1577.
” Lond. An addition to the Chronicles of Ireland from 1546
to 1568,
” in the second volume of Holinshed. 4. “Catalogue of the bishops of Exeter,
” and “a Description
of Exeter,
” in the third volume of Holinshed. 5. A translation of the history of the conquest of Ireland from Giraldus Cambrensis, in the second volume of Holinshed, and
some other pieces not printed. This gentleman was uncle
to the celebrated Richard Hooker.
, son of the preceding, was born at Exeter, in 1664; but his father being taken chaplain
, son of the preceding, was born
at Exeter, in 1664; but his father being taken chaplain to
Ireland, he received the early part of his education at Trinity college, Dublin; and afterwards was a student at
Queen’s college, Cambridge, where he took the degree of
B. A. in 1688. The rebellion breaking out in Ireland in
that year, he returned thither, and exerted his early valour
in the cause of his country, religion, and liberty. When
public tranquillity was restored, he came again into
Elngland, and formed an acquaintance with gentlemen of wit,
whose age and genius were most agreeable to his own. In
1694 he published some “Epistolary Poems and Translations,
” which may be seen in Nichols’s “Select Collec-'
tion;
” and in Pyrrhus king of Egypt,
” a tragedy, to which
Congreve wrote the epilogue. He published also in that
year, “The History of Love,
” a connection of select fables
from. “Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
” Art of Love,
” which, Jacob says, “added to
his fame, and happily brought him acquainted with the
earl of Dorset, and other persons of distinction, who were
fond of his company, through the agreeableness of his
temper, and the pleasantry of his conversation. It was in
his power to have made his fortune in any scene of life;
but he was always more ready to serve others than mindful
of his own affairs; and by the excesses of hard drinking,
and too passionate an addiction to women, he died a martyr
to the cause in the thirty-sixth year of his age.
” Mr.
Nichols has preserved in his collection an admirable hymn,
“written about an hour before his death, when in great
pain.
” His “Court-Prospect,
” in which many of the principal nobility are very handsomely complimented, is called
by Jacob “an excellent piece;
” and of his other poems he
adds, “that they are all remarkable for the purity of their
diction, and the harmony of their numbers.
” Mr. Hopkins
was also the author of two other tragedies; “Boadicea
Queen of Britain,
” Friendship improved, or
the Female Warrior,
” with a humourous prologue, comparing a poet to a merchant, a comparison which will hold
in most particulars except that of accumulating wealth.
The author, who was at Londonderry when this tragedy
came out, inscribed it to Edward Coke of Norfolk, esq. in
a dedication remarkably modest and pathetic. It is dated
Nov. 1, 1699, and concludes, “I now begin to experience
how much the mind may be influenced by the body. My
Muse is confined, at present, to a weak and sickly tenement; and the winter season will go near to overbear her,
together with her household. There are storms and tempests to beat tier down, or frosts to bind her up and kill
her; and she has no friend on her side but youth to hear
her through; If that can sustain the attack, and hold out
till spring comes to relieve me, one use I shall make of
fa<ther life shall be to shew how much I am, sir, your most
devoted humble servant, C. Hopkins.
”
, a learned divine of the church of England, was born at Exeter in 1621, and became a servitor of Exeter college,
, a learned divine of the church of
England, was born at Exeter in 1621, and became a servitor of Exeter college, Oxford, in 1638. In 1642 he took
the degree of B. A. but soon after left the university, and
obtained the vicarage of St. Lawrence Clist, near Exeter.
After the restoration he was, per literas regias, created
B. D. and made prebendary of Exeter, which he held
until the revolution, when refusing to take the oaths to the
new government, he was ejected. He died in 1700. Wood
characterizes him as “well read in the fathers, Jewish and
other ancient writings,
” and he appears also to have made
himself master of all the controversies of his time in which
subjects of political or ecclesiastical government were concerned, and took a very active part against the various
classes of separatists, particularly those whose cause Mr,
Baxter pleaded.
, an eminent mechanist, was born at Exeter, September 1715. He was the second son of the
, an eminent mechanist, was born
at Exeter, September 1715. He was the second son of
the rev. Zachariah Mudge, prebendary of Exeter, and
vicar of St. Andrew’s, Plymouth, who died April 3, 1769,
and was honoured by Dr. Johnson with a very elegant
testimony of respect, which was inserted in the London
Chronicle at that time, and may be seen in Mr. Boswell’s
Life of the doctor. Mr. Z. Mudge had three other sons
besides the subject of this article. The eldest, Zachariah,
was a surgeon and apothecary at Taunton, and afterwards
surgeon on board an East Indiaman; he died in 1753 on
ship-board, in the river Canton in China. The third, the
rev. Richard Mudge, was officiating minister of a chapel
of ease at Birmingham, and had a small living presented
to him by the earl of Aylesford. He was not only greatly
distinguished by his learning, but by his genius for music.
He excelled as a composer for the harpsichord; and as a
performer on that instrument is said to have been highly
complimented by Handel himself. The fourth son, John,
was originally a surgeon and apothecary at Plymouth, but
during the latter part of his life practised as a physician
with great success. Like his brother Thomas, he had great
mechanical talents; and, until prevented by the enlargement of his practice, he found time to prosecute improvements in rectifying telescopes. In 1777 the Royal Society
adjudged to him Sir Godfrey Copley’s gold medal, for a
paper which he presented to that learned body on the best
methods of grinding the specula of reflecting telescopes.
He also considerably improved the inhaler, an ingenious
contrivance for the curing of coughs, by inhaling steam.
In 1777 he published “A Dissertation on the inoculated
Small-pox;
” which was followed, some years after, by
“A Treatise on the Catarrhous Cough and Vis Vitae.
” He
died in
, an eminent and pious divine, was born at Exeter in May 1657, and educated in school learning
, an eminent and pious divine, was born at Exeter in May 1657, and educated in school learning at his native city, whence, at the age of fourteen he was placed at a dissenting academy at Taunton, and afterwards at another at Newington-green, London. Having gone through the usual course of studies in these seminaries, and having decided in favour of nonconformity, he was encouraged by the celebrated Dr. Manton, to preach as a candidate for the ministry before he was quite twenty years of age. Two years after, in 1679, he received ordination from some dissenting ministers, but in a very private way, and his first settlement appears to have been as assistant to Mr. Vincent Alsop, at the meeting Tothill-fields, Westminster. He was also one of those who established a lecture against popery, which was carried on with good success in a large room in Exchange-alley.
, a divine and poet, the sixth son of Mr. John Yalden, of Sussex, was born at Exeter in 1671. Having been educated in the grammar-school
, a divine and poet, the sixth son
of Mr. John Yalden, of Sussex, was born at Exeter in 1671.
Having been educated in the grammar-school belonging to
Magdalen college, Oxford, he was, in 1690, at the age of
nineteen, admitted commoner of Magdalen Hall, under
the tuition of Josiah Pullen, a man whose name is still remembered in the university. He became next year one
of the scholars of Magdalen college, where he was distinguished by a declamation, which Dr. Hough, the president,
happening to attend, thought too good to be the speaker’s.
Some time after, the doctor, finding him a little irregularly busy in the library, set him an exercise, for punishment; and, that he might not be deceived by any artifice,
locked the door. Yalden, as it happened, had been latelyreading on the subject given, and produced with little difficulty a composition which so pleased the president that
he told him his former suspicions, and promised to favour
him. Among his contemporaries in the college were Addison and Sacheverell, men who were in those times friends,
and who both adopted Yalden to their intimacy. Yalden
continued throughout his life to think, as probably he
thought at first, yet did not lose the friendship of Addison.
When Namur was taken by king William, Yalden made an
ode . He wrote another poem, on the death of the duke
of Gloucester. In 1700 he became fellow of the college,
and next year entering into orders, was presented by the
society with the living of Willoughby, in Warwickshire,
consistent with his fellowship, and chosen lecturer of moral
philosophy, a very honourable office. On the accession of
queen Anne he wrote another poem; and is said, by the
author of the “Biographia,
” to have declared himself one
of the party who had the distinction of high-churchmen.
In 1706 he was received into the family of the duke of
Beaufort. Next year he became D. D. and soon after he
resigned his fellowship and lecture; and, as a token of his
gratitude, gave the college a picture of their founder. The
duke made him rector of Chalton and Cleanville, two adjoining towns and benefices in Hertfordshire; and he had
the prebends, or sinecures, of Deans, Hains, and Pendles,
in Devonshire. In 1713 he was chosen preacher of Bridewell Hospital, upon the resignation of Dr. Atterbury. From
this time he seems to have led a quiet and inoffensive life,
till the clamour was raised about Atterbury’s plot. Every
loyal eye was on the watch for abettors or partakers of the
horrid conspiracy; and Dr. Yalden, having some acquaintance with the bishop, and being familiarly conversant with
Kelly his secretary, fell under suspicion, and was taken
into custody. Upon his examination he was charged with
a dangerous correspondence with Kelly. The correspondence he acknowledged; but maintained that it had no
treasonable tendency. His papers were seized; but nothing was found that could fix a crime upon him, except
two words in his pocket-book, f< thorough- paced doctrine.“This expression the imagination of his examiners had impregnated with treason; and the doctor was enjoined to
explain them. Thus pressed, he told them that the words
had lain unheeded in his pocket-book from the time of
queen Anne, and 'that he was ashamed to give an account
of them; but the truth was, that he had gratified his curiosity one day by hearing Daniel Burgess in the pulpit,
and these words were a memorial hint of a remarkable sentence by which he warned his congregation to
” beware of
thorough-paced doctrine, that doctrine, which, coming in
at one ear, paces through the head, and goes out at the
other.“Nothing worse than this appearing in his papers,
and no evidence arising against him, he was set at liberty.
It will not be supposed that a man of this character attained high dignities in the church; but he still retained
the friendship, and frequented the conversation of a very
numerous and splendid body of acquaintance. He died
July 16, 1736, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. Of his
poems which have been admitted into Dr. Johnson’s collection, his
” Hymn to Darkness“seems to be his best
performance, and is, for the most part, imagined with great
vigour, and expressed with great propriety. His
” Hymn
to Light" is not equal to the other. On his other poems it
is sufficient to say that they deserve perusal, though they
are not always exactly polished, though the rhymes are
sometimes very ill sorted, and though his faults seem rather the omissions of idleness than the negligences of enthusiasm.