Ezrael Tongue

was born in the antient Mannour or Town of Tickhill near Doncaster in Yorkshire, on the eleventh of Nov. 1621, and being educated in Grammar learning in those parts, he was by the care of his Father, Hen. Tongue Minister of Holtby in that County, sent to Univ. Coll. in the beginning of the year 1639, where continuing under a severe discipline till he was Bach. of Arts, which was about the time that the grand rebellion commenc’d, he chose rather to leave the Coll. being puritanically inclin’d, than stay with other Scholars and bare arms for the King within the Garrison of Oxon. So that retiring into the Country, he taught a little School within the Parish of Churchill near to Chippingnorton in Oxfordshire: where continuing for some time, return’d to Oxon. upon the surrender of its Garrison to the Parliament forces, setled in his Coll. and soon after submitting to the authority of the Visitors appointed by the said Parl, was by them constituted Fellow thereof in the place of Mr. Hen. Watkins then ejected, an. 1648. Thence, after he had spent an year or more therein, he went into Kent and married Jane the Daughter of one Dr. Edw. Simson, who, being antient, resign’d his living (Pluckley I think) to him, and then took the degrees in Divinity in this University. But he being much vex’d with factious Parishioners and Quakers, left his Benefice, and in the year 1657 he procured himself to be made Fellow of the new erected Coll. at Durham; where being appointed one of them that should teach Grammar, he followed precisely the Jesuits method, and the boys under him did by that course profit exceedingly. But that Coll. being dissolved in the beginning of 1660, or rather a little before; he returned into the South parts, setled at Islington near London, and in a large Gallery in a house belonging to Sir Thomas Fisher, he taught boys after an easie method, too large now to tell you. He had also there a little Academy for Girls to be taught Latine and Greek, and, as I have been informed, one of them at 14 years of age could construe a Greek Gospel. Afterwards, this person, who had a restless and freakish head, went with Coll. E. Harley to Dunkirk and was there a Chaplain for some time: Which place, with the garrison, being sold by the English, he returned, and that Colonel setled him in the Vicaridge of Lentwarden in Herefordshire. But that being a poor thing, he soon after left it, and by the favour of the Bishop of London he obtained the cure of S. Mary Stayning in that City, scarce worth 20 l. per an. unless benevolence make it more. Being setled there, the grand conflagration hapned, which burnt down his Church and Parish to the ground, an. 1666. So that being for the present destitute of a subsistance, he went soon after in the quality of a Chaplain to the garrison of Tangier, where remaining till the Church of S. Michael in Woodstreet was rebuilt, and the Parish of S. Mary united with it, he was sent for home and made Rector of that Church; which, with a Lecture elsewhere, he kept to his dying day. He was a person very well vers’d in Lat. Gr. and Poetry, and always took a very great delight to instruct youth. He understood Chronology well, and spent much time and money in the art of Alchimy. He was a person cynical and hersute, shiftles in the world, yet absolutely free from covetousness, and I dare say from pride: But above all that he is to be remembred for, is, that he was the first discoverer to his Majesty of that Plot commonly called the Popish Plot, and by many Oates his Plot, about the 25. of Sept. 1678, having a little before been told of it by Titus Oates, who conferr’d together what to do in that matter. He hath written,

A short compendium of Grammar.—Printed in two sheets at most in oct.

Noun Substantives the names of things declare,

And Adjectives, what kind of things those are, &c.

And in 6 or 8 verses more are comprehended the concords, &c.

Observations, directions and enquiries concerning the motion of sap in trees—Remitted into the Philosophical Transactions, an. 1670 num. 57.

Enquiries relating particularly to the bleeding of Walnuts—Rem. into the same Trans. num. 58.

Letter about the retarding of the ascent of sap, &c. and concerning the running of sap in trees—There also numb. 68.

The Royal Martyr—Whether printed, I cannot tell, because R [•] g. L’estrange refused to licence it, an. 1678.

The Jesuits unmasked: or, political observations upon the ambitious pretences and subtile intreagues of that cunning society, presented to all high powers as a seasonable discourse at this time. Lond. 1678. qu.

The new design of the Papists detected: or, an answer to the last speeches of the five Jesuits lately executed, viz. Thom. White alias Whitebread, Will. Harcourt alias Harison, John Gavan alias Gawen, Anthony Turner and John Fenwick. Lond. 1679. in 2. sh. in fol.

An Answer to the objections against the Earl of Danby, concerning his being accessary to the murdering of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey. Lond. 1679 in one sh. in folio. There is no name to it, but the general vogue then was that Dr. Tongue was the author.

An account of Romish doctrine in case of conspiracy and religion. Lond. 1679. qu.

Jesuits Assassins: or, the Popish Plot further declared, and demonstrated in their murtherous practices and principles. Lond. 1680 in 9. sh. in fol. the first part. Whether the second was ever published I know not.

The northern Star. The British monarchy, &c. Being a collection of many choice antient and modern prophecies: wherein also the fates of the Roman, French, and Spanish monarchies are occasionally set out. Lond. 1680. fol. He also compleated and published the Chronicon, written by the aforesaid Dr. Edward Simson sometimes Fellow of Trin. Coll. in Cambridge, printed at Oxon 1652. folio. see more in Thom. Jones, an. 1682. He also translated from French into English. (1) Popish mercy and justice. Being an account, not of those massacred in France by the Papists, formerly, but of some later persecutions of the French Protestants. Lond. 1679. qu. (2) Jesuitical Aphorismes: or, a summary account of the doctrine of the Jesuits, and some other popish Doctors, &c. Lond. 1678. 79. qu. (3) The Jesuits morals: or, the principal errors which the Jesuits have introduced into Christian morality, &c. printed several times, particularly at Lond. in 1680. fol. (4) Abridgment of controversie, &c. Written by Ch. Drelincourt. (5) Combat Romaine, &c. by the same author; and other things, as I conceive, which I have not yet seen. He died in the house of that factious Dissenter, called the Protestant Joyner, alias Steph. Colledge (who kept him in his house, had much ado with him, and had been at great charge to keep him in order, for the carrying on of the cause then in hand) on the eighteenth day of December, in sixteen hundred and eighty,1680. and was on the 23 of the same month conveyed by a numerous train (most of them of the godly party) from Scotch-Hall in the Black Friers, to St. Michaels Church in Woodstreet within the City of London; where his funeral Sermon was preached by Thom. Jones sometimes of University Coll. in Oxon, and therein highly characterized. Afterwards the body was reposed in the Vault of the Churchyard of S. Mary Stayning before mentioned. He the said Dr. Tongue left behind him, at his death, two written folio’s touching Alchymy, which was the art wherein he was most excellent and took delight, besides certain MSS. of his composition concerning Divinity which he wrot at Durham and elsewhere, but whether fit for the Press, I know not. Some time before his death he invented among other things, the way of teaching Children to write a good hand in twenty days time, after the rate of 4 hours in a day, by writing over with black ink, copies printed from copper Plates in red Inke. After his death R. Moray Projector of the Penny-Post did cause to be engraven several Plates, and then to be printed off with red ink, by which means boys learn to admiration.