DOLBEN, JOHN, eldest son of William Dolben (elected Oxford 1603, qv); b. 24 Mar 1624/5; adm.; KS 1637; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1640, matr. 3 Jul 1640, Westminster Student 1640 - 7 Jul 1648, when deprived for refusing to submit to the Parliamentary Visitors; BA and MA 9 Dec 1647; BD and DD 3 Oct 1660; joined royalist army as volunteer, wounded at Marston Moor and again during siege of York; promoted for his bravery to the ranks of Capt. and Major; returned to studies at Oxford 1646; ordained deacon (Chichester) 1656; with John Fell and Richard Allestree continued to hold the services of the prescribed Church of England in the house of Dr Thomas Willis in Oxford, an act of loyalty commemorated by Sir Peter Lely in his picture of the three divines in Christ Church Hall; Canon of Christ Church, Oxford 27 Jul 1660- Nov 1666; Rector of Newington cum Britwell, Oxfordshire 1660; Chaplain in Ordinary to Charles II; Prebendary of St. Paul’s 21 Apr 1661 – Nov 1666; Archdeacon of London 11 Oct 1662- May 1664; Vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, 15 Nov 1662 - res 18 Mar 1663/4; Dean of Westminster 3 Dec 1662 - Aug 1683; he and the Westminster Scholars assisted in saving St. Dunstan in the East from the Great Fire 3 Sep 1666 (Autobiography of William Taswell, Camden Soc. Pub. lv, 12); Clerk of the Closet 1664 - Dec 1667, deprived on Clarendon’s fall; consecrated Bishop of Rochester 25 Nov 1666; Lord High Almoner 21 Oct 1675 - Mar 1684; Archbishop of York from 16 Aug 1683; FRS 29 Mar 1665; a prelate of great presence and courage, and one of the most popular preachers of the day; the subject of lines 868-9 of John Dryden (qv)’s Absalom and Achitophel; m. 14 Jan 1657/8 Catherine, dau. of Ralph Sheldon, Stanton, Derbs. [check], and niece of Most Rev. Gilbert Sheldon DD, Archbishop of Canterbury; d. 11 Apr 1686. DNB.
