William Hicks

son of Nich. Hicks Gent. was born at Kerris in the Parish of S. Paulin near to the Mount in Cornwall, an. 1620, and baptized there on the second day of January the same year. After he had been instructed in Grammaticals in the high School at Exeter under Mr. Will. Hayter and partly at Liskerd under one Granger, he became a Commoner of Wadham Coll. in Lent Term 1637, and there ran thro the Classes of Logic and Philosophy. But being taken thence in the beginning of the Civil War, before he could be honored with a degree, he was by his Relations put in Arms against the King, and in short time became so fanatical in his opinion, that he was esteemed by some to be little better than an Anabaptist. So that being looked upon as a zealous brother for the Cause, he was made a Captain in the Trained Bands, and became very forward against those of the loyal party. He hath published,

Revelation revealed: being a practical Exposition on the Revelation of S. John. Lond. 1659. fol. Which book laying dead on the sellers hands, was a new title afterwards put, bearing date 1661. with the Authors picture before it in a clock.

Quinto-Monarchia, cum quarto 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : or, a friendly compliance between Christs Monarchy and the Magistrates, being a glass for the Quinto-Monarchians, and all others that desire to know under what dispensations of Providence we now live, &c.—printed and bound with Revelation revealed, &c. which was written (as the common report went in Exet. Coll. and Cornwall) by a Kinsman of Will. Hicks called Alexander Harrie a Ministers son in Cornwall, Bachelaur of Divinity, and sometimes Fellow of the said Coll. of Exeter; which book (Revelation rev.) coming after his death into Hicks’s hands, he published it under his own name, without any mention of A. Harrie, who was a learned man, and had in great veneration by those that knew him. This Mr. Hicks died at Kerris in the very beginning of March in sixteen hundred fifty and nine,1659/60. and was buried on the third day of the same month in the Parish Church of S. Paulin before mention’d. Besides this Will. Hicks was another of both his names, Author of Oxford Jests, and afterwards of Oxfords Drollery. Which books (several times printed in oct.) answering not the expectation of Cambridge men, because they have supposed that they were written by a scholastical Wit, I desire. therefore that they should know that the said Will. Hicks who stiles himself in the titles of his books a Native of Oxon, as having been born in S. Thomas Parish of poor and dissolute Parents, was bred a Tapster under Tho. Williams of the Star Inn Inholder, where continuing till after the Rebellion broke out, became a Retainer to the family of Lucas in Colohester, afterwards Clerk to a Woodmonger in Deptford, where training the young men, and putting them in a posture of defence, upon the restauration of K. Ch. 2, obtained the name of Captain Hicks, and was there living in 1669, when his book of Jests was. published, which gave occasion of other books of the like nature to be afterwards made extant, as Cambridge Jests, London Jests, Englands Jests, Poor. Robins Jests, Westminster Quibbles in verse, &c. This Hicks, who was a sharking and indigent Fellow while he lived in Oxon, and a great pretender to the art of Dancing, (which he forsooth would sometimes teach) was also Author of Coffee-house Jests, the third Edition of which came out in 1684, and of other little trivial matters meerly to get bread, and make the pot walk.