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.

DRYDEN, JOHN, son of Erasmus Dryden, Titchmarsh, Northants., and Mary, dau. of Rev. Henry Pickering, Rector of Aldwincle All Saints, Northants.; b. 19 Aug 1631; adm.; KS; wrote while a KS an elegy on the death of Lord Hastings, published by R. B. in Lachrymae Musarum, 1649; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1650, adm. pens. 18 May 1650, scholar 2 Oct 1650; “walled” for a fortnight and not allowed to go outside the college “excepting for sermons” Jul 1652, for disobedience to the Vice-Master (W. W. Rouse Ball, Cambridge Papers, 218-9); forfeited scholarship by non-residence and thus ineligible for a Fellowship; BA 1653/4; MA Lambeth 17 Jun 1668; mourned Cromwell’s death in Heroic Stanzas 1658; celebrated the Restoration in Astraea Redux 1660, and Charles II’s Coronation in a Panegyric 1661; one of original Fellows of Royal Society 20 May 1663; author, Annus Mirabilis 1667; Poet Laureate and Historiographer 18 Aug 1670 - 11 Dec 1688; Sir Martin Mar-All, one of his most successful plays, was produced in 1667, Aurungzebe, his finest rhymed tragedy, in 1675, and All for Love, his finest play, in 1678; his Absalom and Achitophel was published in 1681; defended Anglicanism in Religio Laici, 1682; Collector of Customs, Port of London 17 Dec 1683; a Roman Catholic convert 1686; author, The Hind and the Panther, 1687; translations by him of Juvenal and Persius were published in 1693, and of Livy in 1697; wrote Alexander’s Feast 1697 [check] and Fables Ancient and Modern, 1700; his complete works, with a life by Sir Walter Scott, were published in 1808; in a note to the third satire of Persius Dryden wrote “I remember I translated this satire when I was a King’s Scholar at Westminster School, for a Thurday-night exercise; and believe, that it, and many others of my exercises of the nature in English verse, are still in the hands of my learned master the Rev. Dr. Busby” (Works, xiii, 230); Dryden refers to Busby’s excessive use of the rod in a letter to Charles Montagu (ibid., xviii, 159-60) and to the curious custom of “custos” in Hall in a letter to Busby (ibid., xviii, 98); Dryden’s “form” was long preserved up School; m. 1 Dec 1663 Lady Elizabeth Howard, eldest dau. of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Effingham; d. 1 May 1700. His body lay in state at the College of Physicians for ten days, and he was buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

EGERTON, SIR (WALTER) RALEIGH GILBERT, third son of Sir Robert Eyles Egerton KCSI CIE, Bengal Civil Service, Lieut. -Gov. Punjab, and his first wife Mary Warren, dau. of William Hickey, Calcutta, and niece of Lieut. -Gen. Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert, Bart., GCB, Bengal Army (previously EICS Bengal); b. 25 Sep 1860; adm. as exhibitioner (G) 4 Jun 1874; QS 1875; left May 1877; RMC Sandhurst 1878-9; 2nd Lieut., 17th Foot 13 Aug 1879; Lieut., Leicestershire Regt. 19 Feb 1881; Bengal Staff Corps 1 Nov 1881; Capt., Indian Staff Corps 13 Aug 1890; Brevet Maj., 18 Nov 1896; Indian Army 13 Aug 1899; Lieut. -Col., Indian Army 13 Aug 1905; Col., 6 Jun 1907; temp. Brig. -Gen., 14 Nov 1911 - 13 Nov 1914; Brigade Commander, Ferozepore 14 Nov 1911 - 14 Sep 1914 and on Western Front in France 15 Sep 1914 - 16 Nov 1916; Maj. -Gen., 14 Nov 1914; Lieut. -Gen., 27 Aug 1917; retired 1 Apr 1920; ADC to Lieut. -Gov. Punjab 1897-9; Assistant Adjutant-Gen., India 1900-3; served in Hazara expedition 1888, Isazai expedition 1892, Waziristan 1894-5, Chitral 1895, Dongola expedition 1896, Waziristan 1901-2. and in Great War in France and Mesopotamia; mentioned in despatches LG 8 Aug 1902, 17 Feb 1915, 1 Jan 1916, 19 Oct 1916, 15 Aug 1917, 27 Aug 1918, 1 Feb and 5 Jun 1919; CB 14 Jun 1912; KCB 3 Jun 1916; KCIE 25 Aug 1917; Order of Karageorge (Serbia), 2nd cl. with swords 1916; Busby Trustee from May 1927; m. 1st, 22 Aug 1894 Bridget Watson, eldest dau. of Watson Askew-Robertson, Pallinsburn House, Northumberland; m. 2nd, 21 Mar 1903 Maude Helen, only dau. of Sir George Rendlesham Prescott, Bart.; d. 2 May 1931.

ELLIS, WELBORE, 1ST BARON MENDIP, younger son of Welbore Ellis (qv); b. 15 Dec 1713; adm. Jul 1727; KS (Capt. ) 1728; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1732, matr. 15 Jun 1732, Westminster Student 29 Dec 1732 - resignation 25 Apr 1739; BA 1736; DCL 7 Jul 1773; inherited fortune of his uncle John Ellis (KS 1660, qv) in 1738; Grand Tour (Italy) 1739-40; MP Cricklade 24 Dec 1741-7, Weymouth 1747-61, Aylesbury 1761-8, Petersfield 1768-74, Weymouth 1774-90, Petersfield 29 Apr 1791- 13 Aug 1794; an active and useful member of the House of Commons; a Lord of the Admiralty 1747-55; Vice-Treasurer for Ireland 1755-62; Privy Councillor 20 Mar 1760; Secretary at War 1762-5; Vice-Treasurer of Ireland (again) 1765-6, 1770-7; Treasurer of the Navy 12 Jun 1777 – Apr 1782; Secretary of State for the American Colonies 11 Feb - Mar 1782; created Baron Mendip 13 Aug 1794, with special remainder to his great-nephew Henry Welbore Agar-Ellis, 2nd Viscount Clifden (qv); member, Society of Dilettanti 1740/1; FRS 20 Jun 1745; Trustee of the British Museum 1780; Busby Trustee 25 Mar 1777; was accustomed to boast of having slept both in the Old Dormitory and in the New Dormitory; m. 1st, 18 Nov 1747 Elizabeth, only dau. of Hon. Sir William Stanhope KB MP; m. 2nd, 20 Jul 1765 Anne, eldest dau. of George Stanley, Paultons, Hampshire; d. 2 Feb 1802. Buried in North Transept, Westminster Abbery. DNB.

FINCH, DANIEL, 6TH EARL OF WINCHILSEA AND 2ND EARL OF NOTTINGHAM, eldest son of Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham (qv); b. 2 Jul 1647; adm.; a boarder of Busby’s for over three years (Busby’s Account Book); adm. Inner Temple 28 Jan 1657/8; Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 26 Jul 1662; MP Great Bedwyn Feb 1672/3 - Jan 1678/9, Lichfield Aug 1679-81 (check); a Lord of the Admiralty 14 May 1679 - Feb 1680/1; Privy Councillor 4 Feb 1679/80; First Lord of the Admiralty 19 Feb 1680/1 - May 1684; succ. father as 2nd Earl of Nottingham 18 Dec 1682; one of the last to accept the Revolution settlement of 1688-9, although he always kept aloof from the Jacobites; Secretary of State 19 Feb 1688/9 - Nov 1693; carried the Toleration Act, but failed to get his Comprehension Bill passed; again Secretary of State 15 May 1702 - May 1704, when he resigned on the Whigs becoming predominant in the ministry; an active head of the High Church party during the rest of the reign of Queen Anne; carried act forbidding the occasional conformity of dissenters, and opposed preliminaries of peace with France 1711; a leading “Hanoverian Tory” in the years before and immediately after the accession of George I; Lord President of the Council 22 Sep 1714 - Feb 1715/6, when dismissed for advocating leniency to the Jacobite peers then under sentence of death; succ. his second cousin as 6th Earl of Winchilsea 9 Sep 1729; FRS 26 Nov 1668; one of the original trustees of Busby’s will; author, The Answer of the Earl of Nottingham to Mr Whiston’s Letter to him concerning the Eternity of the Son of God, 1721; m. 1st, 16 Jun 1674 Lady Essex Rich, second dau. of Robert Rich, 3rd Earl of Warwick; m. 2nd, 29 Dec 1685 Hon. Anne Hatton, third dau. of Christopher Hatton, 1st Viscount Hatton; d. 1 Jan 1729/30. DNB.

FINCH, HENEAGE, 1ST EARL OF NOTTINGHAM, eldest son of Sir Heneage Finch, Kt, MP, Kensington, Middlesex, Recorder of London, Speaker House of Commons, and his first wife Frances, dau. of Sir Edmund Bell, Beaupré Hall, Norfolk; nephew of Francis Finch (qv); b. 23 Dec 1621; at school under Osbaldeston (Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, iv, 66); Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 18 Feb 1635/6, having Richard Busby (qv) as his tutor (HMC Finch MSS, I, 229-30); DCL 7 Nov 1665; adm. Inner Temple 25 Nov 1638, called to bar 30 Jan 1645/6, Bencher 29 Jun 1660, Treasurer 1661-73; MP Canterbury Apr-Oct 1660, Oxford University Apr 1661-Dec 1673; Solicitor-Gen. 6 Jun 1660 - May 1670; created baronet 7 Jun 1660; Attorney-Gen., 10 May 1670 - Nov 1673; Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 9 Nov 1673; Privy Councillor 12 Nov 1673; created Baron Finch 10 Jan 1673/4; Lord Chancellor from 19 Dec 1674; Lord Lieut. Somerset from 1674; presided as Lord High Steward at the trial of the Earl of Pembroke for manslaughter 1677, and at that of Lord Stafford for treason 1680; created Earl of Nottingham 12 May 1681; an able and zealous supporter of the Church of England and the Crown; never the subject of parliamentary attack or ever lost the confidence of Charles II; the Amri of Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel; m. 30 Jul 1646 Elizabeth, eldest dau. of Daniel Harvey, Folkestone, Kent, a Turkey merchant in the City of London; d. 18 Dec 1682. DNB.

FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, brother of William Froude (qv); b. 13 Apr 1818; adm. 15 Jan 1830 (Stelfox's); KS 1830; left 1833; Oriel Coll. Oxford, matr. 10 Dec 1835; Chancellor’s Prize for English Essay 1842; BA 1842; MA 1843; Devon Fellow, Exeter Coll. Oxford, 1842 - 27 Feb 1849, when his book Nemesis of Faith was burnt by Dr Sewell in Exeter College Hall; ordained deacon 1844, but availed himself of the provisions of the Clerical Disabilities Relief Act 19 Jul 1872; after his first marriage he devoted himself to historical and literary work; editor, Fraser’s Magazine, 1860-74; sent as Commissioner to Cape of Good Hope to report upon South African confederation 1874-5; Rector of St. Andrew’s Univ., 1868-71, LLD St. Andrew’s 1869; Hon. Fellow, Exeter Coll. Oxford 1882, Oriel Coll. Oxford 1892; Hon. LLD Edinburgh 1884; Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford Univ., from 18 Apr 1892; author, A History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1856-70, and other works; in his Shadows of the Clouds, 1847, Froude tells the melancholy story of Edward Fowler, a Westminster boy, which may contain reminiscences of his own far from happy school career (Paul, Life of Froude, 1905, 10-1); m. 1st, 3 Oct 1849 Charlotte Maria, fifth dau. of Pascoe Grenfell MP, Taplow Court, Bucks.; m. 2nd, 12 Sep 1861 Henrietta Elizabeth, dau. of John Ashley Warre MP, West Cliff House, Ramsgate, Kent; d. 20 Oct 1894. DNB.

GIBBON, EDWARD, only son of Edward Gibbon (qv), and his first wife; b. 27 Apr 1737; adm. Jan 1747/8 (Porten's); left Aug 1750, on account of ill-health; Magdalen Coll. Oxford, adm. fellow commoner 3 Apr 1752; received into Roman Catholic church 8 Jun 1752, but returned to Protestantism at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1753; became attached to Susanne Curchod (afterwards Mme Necker), but at his father’s wish the engagement was broken off; adm. to Academy, Lausanne 1 Dec 1756; officer in Hampshire Militia 12 Jun 1759-70; author, Essai sur l’Etude de la Litterature, 1761; met John Baker Holroyd (afterwards Lord Sheffield) at Lausanne 1764; in Italy 1764-5; the idea of writing on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire first occurred to him when in Rome on 15 Oct 1764; author, Mémoires Littéraires de la Grande Bretagne, 1767-8, jointly with his Swiss friend Deyverdun; author, Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of the Aeneid, 1770, attacking Warburton; settled in London 1772; elected to The Club 1774; MP Liskeard 1774-80, Lymington 25 Jun 1781-4; a Commissioner for Trade and Foreign Plantations 6 Jul 1779 - Jun 1782; Professor of Ancient History, Royal Academy, from 1787; FSA 20 Nov 1788, FRS 27 Nov 1788; author, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776-87, 4 vols.; defended the chapters on Christianity in a Vindication, 1779; retired to Lausanne 1783; his Miscellaneous Works, edited by his friend Lord Sheffield, and including his Memoirs of My Life and Writings, were published in 1796; d. unm. 16 Jan 1794. DNB.

GORDON-LENNOX, CHARLES, 5th DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDON, eldest son of Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond and Lennox KG PC, Lord Lieut. Ireland and Governor-General of Canada, Gen. in the Army, and Lady Charlotte Gordon, eldest dau. of Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon KT; grandson of Lord George Henry Lennox (qv); b. 3 Aug 1791; styled Earl of March 1806-19; adm. (Glover); left 1809; Trinity Coll. Dublin, adm. nob. 28 Oct 1809; BA 1813; Ensign, 8th Garrison Battalion 8 Jun 1809; Lieut., 13th Light Dragoons 21 Jun 1810; Capt., 92nd Foot 9 Jul 1812; 52nd Foot 8 Apr 1813; Brevet Maj., 15 Jun 1815; Brevet Lieut. -Col., 25 Jul 1816; half-pay 25 Jul 1816; ADC and Assistant Military Secretary to Duke of Wellington in Peninsular War 1810-4; wounded at Orthes; ADC to Prince of Orange at battle of Waterloo; MP Chichester 1812 – 28 Aug 1819; succ. father as 5th Duke of Richmond and Lennox 28 Aug 1819; as MP and peer a supporter of Tory governments to 1828, but opposed Catholic Emancipation and went into opposition after the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Bill in 1829; KG 13 May 1829; offered and accepted Cabinet office in the incoming Whig government Nov 1830; Postmaster-General Nov 1830 – May 1834; Privy Councillor 22 Nov 1830; resigned office over Whig government’s Irish Church policy May 1834, moving to cross-benches in House of Lords; inherited Scottish estates of his cousin 5th Duke of Gordon 1836, assuming additional surname of Gordon before Lennox, 9 Aug 1836; became a vocal advocate of agricultural protection in the 1840s, strongly opposing Sir Robert Peel’s repeal of the corn laws; Col., Sussex Militia, from 4 Dec 1819; Extra ADC to William IV 9 May 1832; Lord Lieut. of Sussex from 19 Jun 1835; Chancellor, Marischall College, Aberdeen, from 1836; FRS 2 Apr 1840; President, Royal Agricultural Society, from 1845; DL Banffshire 1846; Steward, Jockey Club 1831; horses of his won the Oaks 1827, 1845, and the One Thousand Guineas 1845; Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons, Sussex, from 1823; several details of his school life, including his fight with an overgrown bully, will be found in a Memoir of him published in 1862; Busby Trustee from 19 May 1827; m. 10 Apr 1817 Lady Caroline Paget, eldest dau. of Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey (qv); d. 21 Oct 1860. DNB.

GROSVENOR, RICHARD DE AQUILA, 1ST BARON STALBRIDGE, fourth son of Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquis of Westminster (qv); b. 28 Jun 1837; adm. 24 Jan 1849 (G); an intimate school friend of Francis Markham (qv); Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 21 Feb 1855, fellow commoner 15 Oct 1855, matr. Mich. 1855; MA 1858; MP (Liberal) Flintshire May 1861 – 22 Mar 1886; Vice-Chamberlain of the Household Mar 1872 - Feb 1874; Privy Councillor 19 Mar 1872; Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Liberal Whip, House of Commons 1880-5; created Baron Stalbridge 22 Mar 1886; took Liberal Unionist whip, House of Lords; Chairman, London and North Western Railway Co. 1891-1911, having been a director since 1870; a Governor of the School 1875-1880 and from 1889; Busby Trustee from 1 Jun 1875; President, Elizabethan Club 1885-91, Vice-President from 1891; an intimate friend of Francis Markham (qv), who frequently mentions him in his Recollections; m. 1st, 5 Nov 1874 Hon. Beatrix Charlotte Elizabeth Vesey, third dau. of Thomas Vesey, 3rd Viscount De Vesci (I); m. 2nd, 3 Apr 1879 Eleanor Frances Beatrice, dau. of Robert Hamilton Stubber, Moyne, Queen’s Co.; d. 18 May 1912. DNB Supp.