BRAMSTON, JAMES, son of Francis Bramston, Chelmsford, Essex, and Sarah, dau. of Sir William Glascock, Kt; b.; adm.; BB in 1704; QS (aged 14) 1708; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1713, matr. 23 Jun 1713, Westminster Student 22 Dec 1713-22 (void); BA 1717; MA 1720; adm. Middle Temple 20 May 1718; ordained deacon (Oxford) 12 Jun 1720, priest (Winchester) 5 Mar 1720/1; chaplain to a regiment; Vicar of Lurgashall, Sussex, from 10 Mar 1723/4; Domestic Chaplain to John Ashburnham, 2nd Earl of Ashburnham (qv), 5 Nov 1739; Vicar of Harting, Sussex, from 7 Nov 1739; a poet; author, The Art of Politicks, 1729, The Man of Taste, 1733, and other poems; m. (by 1 Mar 1723/4) Elizabeth ---; d. 16 Mar 1743/4. DNB.

BRETT, ARTHUR, son of John Brett, Middlesex; b.; adm.; KS (aged 14) 1650; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1653, matr. 20 Jul 1654, Westminster Student; BA 6 Feb 1656/7; MA 1659; ordained; Rector of Templeton, Devon, 1662; Vicar of Market Lavington, Wilts., 10 May 1670, but shortly afterwards resigned his living and came up to London, where he fell into poverty and begged in the street; author, A Poem on the Restoration of King Charles II, 1660, and other poems; d. c. 1677. DNB.

BURKE, WILLIAM, eldest son of John Burke (or Bourke), Middle Temple and St. James’s, London, and his first wife Elizabeth, dau. of Thomas Burke, London, vintner; b.; adm. (aged 13) Sep 1742 (Durand's); KS 1743; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1747, matr. 26 Jun 1747, Westminster Student 24 Dec 1747 - 26 Jun 1761 (void), leave of absence on appt. as Secretary, Guadeloupe, 25 Aug 1759; BCL 1755; adm. Middle Temple 26 May 1750, called to bar 28 Nov 1755; Secretary and Registrar, Guadeloupe, 1759-63; Under-Secretary of State, Jul 1765 - Feb 1767; MP Great Bedwyn 16 Jun 1766-8, 29 May 1768-74; lost substantial sums of money in speculations on the Stock Exchange, 1769; in India 1777-8, becoming agent for Rajah of Tanjore; again in India 1780-93, initially at Madras, subsequently at Calcutta; Deputy Paymaster of the Forces, East Indies, 1782-93; present at OWW dinner at Calcutta 1783 (Hickey, Memoirs, iii, 245-6); figures in Goldsmith’s Retaliation; lived on intimate terms with his distant kinsman Edmund Burke, with whom he wrote An Account of the European Settlements in America, 1757; author of two pamphlets on the peace negotiations, 1759 and 1761; d. Mar 1798. DNB.

BURNABY, ANDREW, eldest son of Rev. Andrew Burnaby, Brampton Manor House, Hunts., Prebendary of Lincoln and Rector of Asfordby, Leics., and Hannah, dau. of George Beaumont, Darton, Yorks.; b. 16 Aug 1732 (IGI); adm. (aged 14) Jan 1746/7 (Preston's); Min. Can. 1747; KS 1748; left 1748; Queen’s Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 8 Mar 1749/50, matr. 1750; BA 1754; MA 1757; DD 1776; ordained deacon 23 Feb 1755, priest 19 Sep 1756 (both Lincoln); travelled in North America 1759-60; Chaplain at Leghorn, 1762-7; Vicar of Greenwich, Kent, from 1769; Archdeacon of Leicester from 25 Jan 1786; author, Travels through the Middle Settlements of North America, 1775, A Jounal of a Tour in Corsica in the Year 1766, 1804, and other works; m. 26 Feb 1770 Anna, dau. of John Edwyn, Baggrave Hall, Leics.; d. 9 Mar 1812. DNB.

CLIFFORD, MARTIN; b.; KS (Capt. ); elected to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1640, adm. scholar 1641, matr. 1640; a buffoon about the Court, 1660; employed by the Duke of Buckingham in producing The Rehearsal (together with Samuel Butler and Thomas Sprat); attacked John Dryden (qv) in a series of letters; Master of the Charterhouse from 1671; author, A Treatise of Human Reason, 1674; d. 10 Dec 1677. DNB.

COLBATCH, JOHN, son of John Colbatch, Ludlow, Shropshire, and Jane ---; bapt. 27 Dec 1663; adm.; KS 1680; rejected 1682, but elected to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1683, adm. pens. 19 Jun 1683, aged 18, scholar 10 Apr 1684; BA 1686/7; MA 1690; BD 1701; DD 1706; Minor Fellow, Trin. Coll., 2 Oct 1689-90, Major Fellow 1 Jul 1690-1715, Senior Fellow from 1715; ordained priest (London) 20 Dec 1691; Chaplain to British Factory, Lisbon 1688 [check]-96; a protege of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury; tutor, Trinity Coll., 1700, Senior Dean 1705-7; travelling tutor in Italy with Earl of Hertford (later 7th Duke of Somerset) 1706; Knightsbridge Professor of Moral Theology, Cambridge, 1707-44; an opponent of Richard Bentley in internal Trinity College disputes, becoming involved in several resulting lawsuits; Prebendary of Salisbury 7 Aug 1702 - res May 1720; Rector of Orwell, Cambs., from 1720; author, three pamphlets; d. 11 Feb 1747/8. DNB.

CONYBEARE, JOHN JOSIAS, elder son of William Conybeare (qv); b. 10 Jun 1779; adm.; Min. Can. 1792; KS (Capt) 1793; Capt. of the School 1796; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford 1797, matr. 19 Jun 1797, Westminster Student 23 Dec 1797 - void 17 Dec 1813 (expiry year of grace as V. Batheaston); Chancellor’s Prize for Latin Verse 1800; BA 1801; MA 1804; Select Preacher 1808-9; Bampton Lecturer 1824; ordained priest (Winchester, lit. dim. from St Asaph) 3 Jul 1803; an Usher at the School 1803-4; Prebendary of York from 13 Jul 1803; Curate, St. Thomas, Oxford, 1805, Cowley, Oxfordshire, 1806; Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford University, 1808-12, of Poetry 1812-21; Vicar of Batheaston, Somerset, from 11 Dec 1812; author, On the Geology of Devon and Cornwall, 1823, and of other geological, chemical, and theological tracts; his Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry were edited by William Daniel Conybeare (qv) in 1826; m. 21 Feb 1814 Mary, dau. of Rev. Charles Davis, Fellow of Pembroke Coll., Oxford; d. 11 Jun 1824. DNB.

COWLEY, ABRAHAM, seventh and posthumous child of Thomas Cowley, St. Michael Le Querne, London, citizen and stationer; b. 1618; adm.; Min. Can. 1630; KS; author, Poetical Blossoms, dedicated to his schoolmaster Lambert Osbaldeston (qv) and published 1633; while in College he also wrote Love’s Riddle, a pastoral comedy, not published until 1638; failed to obtain election to either university 1636; Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 21 Apr 1636, scholar (by dispensatory letter from King) 14 Jun 1637; his Latin play, Naufragium Joculare, was played before the University by members of Trinity Coll. 2 Feb 1638; BA 1639/40; MA 1643; Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll., from 30 Oct 1640; ejected by Parliamentary Visitors 1644 and went to Oxford, taking up residence in St. John’s Coll.; went abroad 1646; employed in diplomatic services by exiled Royalist court; returned to England as Royalist spy 1656; author, Miscellanies, 1656; MD Oxford 2 Dec 1657 (incorp. Cambridge 11 Jul 1664); withdrew to France, but returned at Restoration; applied for Mastership of Savoy 1661, unsuccessfully; one of original fellows of Royal Society; his works were first published in a collected form in 1668, when Several Discourses by way of Essays in Prose and Verse appeared for the first time; some hitherto unpublished Verses on the Happy Birth of the Duke of York are printed in the Elizabethan, v, 54-5, viii, 281; d. 28 Jul 1667, and buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

CRAMER, JOHN ANTHONY, son of John Anthony Cramer, Mittoden, Switzerland, and Henrietta Courtet; b.; adm.; KS (aged 14) 1807; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1811, matr. 28 May 1811, Westminster Student, Tutor; 1st cl., Classics and Mathematics, 1814; BA 1814; MA 1817; BD 1830; DD 1831; ordained; Curate, Binsey, Oxfordshire 1822-45; Vice-Principal, St. Alban Hall, Oxford 1823-5; Select Preacher 1826, 1831; Public Orator 1829-42; Principal, New Inn Hall (which he rebuilt) 1831-47; Regius Professor of Modern History from 1842; Dean of Carlisle from 21 Dec 1844; author, A Description of Ancient Italy, 1826, and other works; m. 27 May 1823 (IGI) Henrietta [or Harriet ?] Ashton; d. 24 Aug 1848. DNB.

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.