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ALDRICH, HENRY, son of Henry Aldrich, Westminster, and Judith Francis (IGI); b. 15 Jan 1647/8; in school lists 1656; KS (aged 10) 1658; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1662, matr. 19 Jul 1662, Westminster Student 22 Dec 1662 - void 1682 (Canon), Tutor 1670-81, Catechist 1681; BA 1666; MA 1669; BD and DD 2 Mar 1681/2; ordained; Canon of Christ Church 13 Feb 1681/2 - Jun 1689, Dean from 17 Jun 1689; Vice-Chancellor 1692-5; Prolocutor, Lower House of Convocation; a Busby Trustee from 21 Dec 1704; at his request in 1693 Charles Boyle edited the Epistles of Phalaris, which led to the famous controversy between Richard Bentley and the Christ Church wits; an amateur architect who designed Peckwater Quadrangle, Christ Church, and perhaps also All Saints Church, Oxford, and made a good collection of architectural and other books and prints, bequeathed by him to Christ Church; composed or adapted numerous anthems, services and catches; author, Artis Logicae Compendium, 1691, and one of the editors of Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion, 1702-4; d. unm. 14 Dec 1710. Buried Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. DNB.

ALSOP, ANTHONY, son of Anthony Alsop, Darley, Derbs., by Anne Lowe; bapt. 4 Jan 1668/9; adm.; KS 1686; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford 1690, matr. 12 Jul 1690, Westminster Student 22 Dec 1690 - void 12 Aug 1713 (expiry year of grace as R. Nursling), Tutor 1698-1709, Junior Censor 1701-2, Senior Censor 1703-5, Catechist 1706-7, 1711; BA 29 Jan 1694/5; MA 23 Mar 1696/7; BD 1706 (incorp. at Camb. 1707); ordained; Rector of Nursling, Hants. 31 Jul 1712-5; Rector of Alverstoke, Hants. 25 Mar 1715 (dispensation to hold with Nursling, 1715); Rector of Brightwell, Berks. 1715; Prebendary of Winchester from 21 May 1715; left England in 1718 on losing an action brought against him for breach of promise of marriage, but returned in 1720; is alluded to in the Dunciad; with Francis Atterbury (KS 1674 (qv)) and George Smalridge (qv) assisted Charles Boyle in the production of Dr. Bentley’s Dissertations on the Epistles of Phalaris, 1698; editor, Fabularum Aesopicarum Delectus, 1698, in the preface to which he attacked Bentley; his Latin Odes were published posthumously by Sir Francis Bernard (qv) in 1752; m. c. Dec. 1715 Margaret, widow of Rev. Francis Bernard, Rector of Brightwell, Berks. (and mother of Sir Francis Bernard (qv)), and dau. of Richard Winlowe, Lewknor, Oxfordshire; accidentally drowned 16 Jun 1726. DNB.

ATTERBURY, FRANCIS, brother of Lewis Atterbury (qv); b. 6 Mar 1662/3; adm.; KS 1674; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford 1680, matr. 17 Dec 1680, aged 17, Westminster Student 18 Dec 1680-94 (void, perhaps on marriage), Tutor 1687-90; BA 1684; MA 1687; BD and DD 5 May 1701; replied to Obadiah Walker’s attack upon the Reformation 1687; assisted his pupil Hon. Charles Boyle in his defence of the genuineness of the Epistles of Phalaris against Bentley; ordained; Lecturer, St. Bride’s, London 1701; Chaplain in Ordinary to William III and Queen Mary, subsequently to Queen Anne; warmly opposed Erastianism and protested against the suppression of Convocation; Archdeacon of Totnes 11 Jun 1701-13; Prebendary of Exeter 6 May 1704; Dean of Carlisle 2 Oct 1704; Prolocutor of Lower House of Convocation 1710; Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, 28 Sep 1711-3; installed Dean of Westminster 16 Jun 1713 and consecrated Bishop of Rochester 15 Jul 1713; although he took part officially in the coronation of George I, he refused to sign the declaration of confidence in the government after the rebellion of 1715, and subsequently was in direct communication with the Jacobites; arrested and imprisoned in the Tower 24 Aug 1722, for his alleged connection with an attempt to restore the Stuarts; a bill of pains and penalties was passed through the House of Commons, and carried in the House of Lords by 83 votes to 43; deprived of all his ecclesiastical preferments 1 Jun 1723, and banished from the kingdom; visited in the Tower by some of the senior King’s Scholars before his departure; resided first at Brussels and afterwards in France as general adviser to the Old Pretender; a man of marked attainments, but cursed with an imperious and aggressive temper, and possessed of “a rare talent for fomenting discord”; his old friend George Smalridge (qv), who succeeded him both at Carlisle and at Christ Church, used to say that “Atterbury comes first and sets everything on fire, and I follow with a bucket of water”; regarded as one of the leading preachers of his day, and in Addison’s opinion was “one of the greatest geniuses of his age”; much to the annoyance of Old Westminsters, Atterbury removed the Election in 1718 from the School to the Jerusalem Chamber, and put down the Election Dinner (HMC Portland MSS, v, 561, vii, 275); owing to his insistence the new Dormitory was built on its present site, the first stone being laid 24 Apr 1722; Busby Trustee from 27 Feb 1705/6; m. c. 1695 Catherine Osborne; d. in exile in Paris 22 Feb 1731/2 and buried privately in the south aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey 12 May 1732. DNB.

BAGSHAW, EDWARD, son of Edward Bagshaw MP, barrister, of Moreton Pinkney, Northants., and Prudence ---; bapt. 20 Dec 1629; adm.; KS in 1644; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1646, but was detained at school “through the exigence of warre”, matr. 1 Feb 1646/7, aged 17, Westminster Student to 1662; submitted to the Parliamentary Visitors (see Register of Visitors of the University of Oxford 1647 to 1658, Camden Society, 2nd series, vol. xxix, 74, 268, 484); BA 1649; MA 1651 (incorp. at Cambridge 1654); took a prominent part in an agitation for the abolition of caps and gowns; adm. Gray’s Inn 2 Feb 1651/2; Under Master of the School May 1656; quarrelled with Richard Busby (qv), the Head Master (Barker, Memoir of Richard Busby, 1905, 55-76); suspended by the Governors 1 Dec 1657 and resigned in May 1658; ordained (Exeter) 3 Nov 1659; Vicar of Ambrosden, Oxfordshire 25 Aug 1659 – 1662 [or 1660 ?], when ejected for nonconformity under the Bartholomew Act; also ejected from his Studentship at Christ Church Hilary term 1662; Chaplain to Arthur, Earl of Anglesey 1661; accompanied him to Ireland Jul 1662; returned to England Sep 1662; imprisoned in Tower of London for abusing the King and Government 1663-4 and in Southsea Castle 1664-7; thrown into Newgate Prison for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, but was subsequently allowed out on parole; a man of learning and intellectual accomplishments which were rendered useless by his ungovernable temper and overweening conceit; author, A true and perfect narrative of the differences between Mr Busby and Mr Bagshaw, the First and Second Masters of Westminster School, 1659, and several controversial and religious works; m. Margaret, second dau. of John Peacock, Chawley, Cumnor, Oxfordshire, “a blind gentlewoman who had fallen in love with him for his sermons”; d. 28 Dec 1671. DNB.

BARBER, JOHN, son of John Barber, St. Giles’s [check], London; b. 1696; adm.; Min. Can. (aged 15) 1711; QS 1712; Capt. of the School 1716; spoke the Latin oration in College Hall at the funeral of Robert South (qv), for the unlicensed printing of which Curll was tossed in a blanket by the boys; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1717, matr. 27 Jun 1717, Westminster Student 20 Dec 1717-25 (void); BA 1721; MA 1724; Master of the Grammar School, Ripon, 1721-30.

BENTHAM, JEREMY, son of Jeremiah Bentham, attorney-at-law, Red Lion Street, Houndsditch, London, and his first wife Alicia, widow of --- Whitehorne, and sister of George Woodward Grove (qv); b. 15 Feb 1747/8; adm. 1755; (Morel's according Bentham's memoir); elected KS 1759, but remained a Town Boy; left Aug 1760; Queen’s Coll. Oxford, matr. 28 Jun 1760; BA 1764; MA 1767; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 26 Jan 1763, called to bar 6 Nov 1769; did not practise his profession, but resident in chambers in Middle Temple 1766-9, Lincoln’s Inn from 1769; turned his mind to science and to speculations on politics and jurisprudence; his Fragment on Government, a masterly criticism of Blackstone’s Commentaries, appeared anonymously in 1776; friend and protege of Earl of Shelburne (later 1st Marquis of Lansdowne); a successful promoter of law reform and one of the ablest propagandists of the doctrine of utilitarianism; exercised great influence in the fields of ethics and jurisprudence; his published works were collected and edited by Sir John Bowring and John Hill Burton, in an eleven-volume edition published in 1843; his reminiscences of his school-days at Westminster appear in vol. x, 26-35, where it will be seen that his opinion of the instruction, discipline and usages of the School in his day was by no means flattering; two small MS volumes containing school and college exercises by him are preserved in the School Library; d. unm. 6 Jun 1832; his skeleton is preserved at University Coll., London. DNB.

BISSET, WILLIAM, son of William Bisset, London; b.; adm.; KS 1684; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1687, adm. pens. 5 Jun 1687, aged 17, scholar 27 Apr 1688; BA 1690/1; described in a letter from William Gale, who was endeavouring to procure a Fellowship for Bisset, as “an extraordinarily learned man, but without friends, was Captain of Westminster School and senior of his year at Cambridge” (HMC Report, i, 22); ordained priest (London) 23 May 1692; Perpetual Curate of Iver, Bucks.; Rector of Whiston, Northants., from 3 Sep 1697; an Elder Brother of St. Katherine’s by the Tower, 1699; a fierce opponent of Dr Sacheverell; Chaplain to Queen Caroline; Cole describes him as “almost a madman”; author, The Modern Fanatick, 1710, and other works; m. 5 Nov 1704 Hennaretta Panier; d. 7 Nov 1747. DNB.

BLACKBURNE, LANCELOT, son of Richard Blackburne, London; b. 10 Dec 1658; adm.; KS 1671; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1676, matr. 20 Oct 1676, Westminster Student 24 Dec 1676-85 (void); BA 1680; MA (in his absence) 28 Jan 1683/4; ordained 1681; went to Antigua, West Indies, soon after his ordination; a protegé of Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bart. (q. v. ), Bishop of Exeter; Prebendary of Exeter 15 Jun 1691, Sub-Dean 1695-1702, 1704-5; Rector of Calstock, Cornwall, 29 May 1696 (dispensation to hold with Bishopric of Exeter 1716/7); Vicar of Altarnun, Cornwall, 1699 (dispensation to hold with Calstock, 1699); Dean of Exeter 3 Nov 1705 - Feb 1716/7; Archdeacon of Cornwall 24 Jan 1714/5 - Feb 1716/7 (but dispensation to hold with Bishopric of Exeter, 1716/7 ?); Chaplain in Ordinary to George I (Chamberlayne 1716); DD Lambeth 28 Jan 1716; consecrated Bishop of Exeter 24 Feb 1716/7; Lord Almoner from 26 Oct 1723; Archbishop of York from 8 Nov 1724; Privy Councillor 10 Dec 1724; Busby Trustee from 18 Feb 1725/6; a gay and witty divine of remarkably free manners, which gave rise to many scandalous stories; was described by Horace Walpole as “the jolly old Archbishop of York who had all the manners of a man of quality, though he had been a buccaneer, and was a clergyman; but he retained nothing of his first profession, except his seraglio” (Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George II, 1847, i, 87); m. 2 Sep 1684 Catherine, widow of Walter Littleton, Lichfield, Staffs., and dau. of William Talbot, Stourton Castle, Staffs.; d. 23 Mar 1742/3. DNB.

BLADEN, MARTIN, son of Nathaniel Bladen, Bolton Percy, Yorks., and Isabella, dau. of Sir William Fairfax, Kt., Steeton, Yorks.; b.; adm.; KS 1695; left 1697; St. John’s Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 17 Apr 1697, aged 16, matr. 1697; adm. Inner Temple, 23 Mar 1696/7; Ensign, Col. T. Fairfax’s Regt. of Foot, 12 Dec 1697; Ensign of a company added to this Regt. in Ireland, 1 Mar 1702; Capt., Sir Charles Hotham’s new Regt. of Foot, 25 Mar 1705; served in Low Countries and Spain; ADC to Lord Galway; attained rank of Brevet Col.; Col. of a British Regt. raised in Spain, 26 Oct 1709; sold out 26 Jun 1710; Comptroller of the Mint, 23 Dec 1714-27; MP Stockbridge 1715-34, Maldon 1734-41, Portsmouth from 1741; Joint Secretary to Lord Justices of Ireland and to Lord Lieut. of Ireland Sep 1715 - Apr 1717; MP (I) Bandon Bridge 1715-27; Privy Councillor (I) 1 Nov 1715; director, Royal African Company, 1717-26; a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations from 13 Jul 1717; Joint Commissioner to Court of France for settling plantation boundaries in America, 1719-20; First Commissioner and Plenipotentiary to the Conference for settling commerce at Antwerp, Jun 1732 - Feb 1742; one of Sir Robert Walpole’s steadiest supporters in the House of Commons; author of Solon (a tragi-comedy), 1705, and of an English translation of Caesar’s Commentaries, 1712; m. 1st, Mary, dau. of Col. --- Gibbs; m. 2nd, 29 Mar 1728 Frances, widow of John Foche, Aldborough Hatch, Essex, and niece of Col. Joseph Jory, West India merchant; d. 15 Feb 1745/6. DNB.

BOUGHEN, EDWARD, of Buckinghamshire; b. 1587; adm.; QS; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1605, matr. 13 Dec 1605, Westminster Student to 1615; BA 1609; MA 1612; DD 1646; ordained; Chaplain to Right Rev. John Howson DD, Bishop of Oxford; Rector of Wargrave, Oxfordshire 1620; Vicar of Bray, Berks., 1621-40; Vicar of Stoke Talnage, Oxfordshire, 1627/8; Rector of Woodchurch, Kent, 13 Apr 1633-40; deprived of his livings for having acted as a justice of the peace in 1640; Prebendary of Chichester from 6 Dec 1638; a learned divine and a staunch defender of the Church of England; author, The Principles of Religion, 1646, and other works; m. Margaret ---; d. 9 Nov 1653. DNB.