CREIGHTON, ROBERT, son of Thomas Creighton, and Margaret Stuart; b. 1593; adm. 1607; KS; elected head to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1613, adm. scholar 1614; BA 1617/8; MA 1621 (incorp. Oxford 15 Jul 1628); DD Oxford 21 Feb 1642/3; Fellow, Trinity Coll. 1619- c. 1621; Professor of Greek, Cambridge 1625-39; Public Orator 1627-39; ordained; Prebendary of Lincoln 18 Mar 1631/2 – Jun 1670; Prebendary and Treasurer, Wells Dec. 1632 – Jun 1660, also Canon Residentiary 1 Apr 1633 – Jun 1660; Chaplain in Ordinary to Charles I; Rector of Huggate, Yorks., 1641; Dean of St. Buryan, Cornwall, 1642-5, sequestered; escaped to the Continent on the fall of Oxford, disguised as a labourer; member of exiled court of Charles II; tutor to Sir Ralph Verney’s son at The Hague 1652; Dean of Wells 29 Jun 1660 - Jun 1670; restored the cathedral; Rector of Uplowman, Devon 1665-70; Vicar of Cheddar, Somerset, 5 Sep 1665-70; consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells 19 Jun 1670; author, Vera Historia Unionis inter Graecos et Latinos sive Concilii Florentini exactissima narratio, 1660; m. Frances, dau. of William Walrond; d. 21 Nov 1672. DNB.

CROFT, SIR ARCHER DENMAN, BART., brother of Sir Thomas Elmsley Croft, Bart. (qv); b. 7 Dec 1801; adm. Mich. 1813; left 8 Aug 1816; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 21 Aug 1820, called to bar 30 Apr 1839 [check]; succ. his brother as 8th baronet 29 Oct 1835; a Master, Court of Queen’s Bench 1837-64; m. 31 Aug 1837 Julia Barbara, widow of Athelstan Corbet, Ynys-y-Maengwyn, Merionethshire, and youngest dau. of Major-Gen. John Garstin, EICS Bengal, successively Surveyor-Gen. and Chief Engineer, Bengal; d. 10 Jan 1865.

CROFT, SIR THOMAS ELMSLEY, BART., third but eldest surviving son of Sir Richard Croft, Bart., MD, and Margaret, dau. of Thomas Denman MD; b. 2 Sep 1798; adm. Lady Day 1811; left 1813; Ensign, 1st Foot Guards 28 Apr 1814, half-pay 2 Mar 1820, retd. 29 Mar 1831; severely wounded at battle of Quatre Bras 16 Jun 1815; succ. father as 7th baronet 13 Feb 1818; FSA; m. 9 Sep 1824 Sophia Jane, only child of Richard Lateward-Lateward, Grove House, Perivale, Middlesex; d. 29 Oct 1835.

CUMBERLAND, RICHARD, only son of Denison Cumberland (qv); b. 19 Feb 1732; adm. from Bury St. Edmunds Sch. Jan 1745/6 (Ludford's); Trinity Coll. Cambridge, adm. pens. 11 Jun 1747, scholar 1748, matr. 1748; 6th Wrangler 1750/1; BA 1750/1; MA 1754; Minor Fellow, Trinity Coll. 1752, Major Fellow 1753; private secretary to George, 2nd Earl of Halifax c. 1754-65; Crown Agent for Nova Scotia c. 1758 - ?; held post of Ulster Secretary Apr 1761 - Apr 1763 during Halifax’s term of office as Lord Lieut. Ireland; Solicitor and Clerk of Reports, Board of Trade 31 May 1765 - Jan 1776, Secretary to Board of Trade 23 Jan 1776 - 2 May 1782, when post abolished; on unsuccessful secret mission to Spain Jun 1780 - Apr 1781, seeking to secure a separate peace with that country; after the abolition of his government appointment he settled in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, holding a commission in local volunteers during Napoleonic Wars; author of numerous comedies, tragedies, translations and novels; his most successful play, The West Indian, was produced by Garrick in 1771 and ran for twenty-eight nights; described by Goldsmith in his Retaliation as “the Terence of England” and caricatured by Sheridan as Sir Fretful Plagiary in The Critic (see Lord Broughton, Recollections of a Long Life, i, 138); wrote with Sir John Bland Burges (qv) an epic called the Exodiad, 1808; author, The Observer, almost the last imitation of The Spectator; his Memoirs, published in 1807, contain several interesting references to the School and to his contemporaries there; m. 19 Feb 1759 Elizabeth, only dau. of George Ridge, Kilmeston, Hants.; d. 7 May 1811. Buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. DNB.

Davidson, John Colin Campbell, 1st Viscount Davidson, only son of Sir James Mackenzie Davidson, Kt., M.B., C. M., of London, by Georgiana Barbara Watt, daughter of William Henderson, of Aberdeen; b. Feb. 23, 1889; adm. Jan. 15, 1903 (A); left July 1907; Pembroke Coll. Camb., matric. Michaelmas 1907; B.A. 1910; Private Secretary to several Cabinet Ministers, including the Rt. Hon. A. Bonar Law when Prime Minister, 1910-23; called to the bar at the Middle Temple June 4, 1913; M. P. Herts (Hemel Hempstead Div.) Nov. 1920 - Nov. 1923, and from Oct. 1924; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster June 1923 - Jan. 1924; Financial Secretary to the Admiralty Nov. 1924 - Nov. 1926; Chairman of the Conservative Party organization 1926-30; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1931-7; served in Home Guard in Great War II; Controller of Production, Ministry of Information 1941; C. B. Jan. 1, 1919; C. H. March 25, 1923; P. C. 1928; G. C. V. O. 1935; created a Viscount May 28, 1937; a Governor of the School July 1927; Busby Trustee 1929; president of the Elizabethan Club 1946-49; represented Westminster on Governing Bodies' Assn. 1949-59; m. April 10, 1919, the Hon. Frances Joan, younger daughter of Willoughby, 1st Baron Dickinson; d. 11 Dec. 1970.

DAY, GEORGE, son of John Day, Norwich, Norfolk, and Catherine, dau. of Rev. George Sandby DD, Chancellor of Norwich and Rector of Denton, Norfolk; b. 15 Jun 1788; adm. 24 Jan 1801 (Clapham); KS 1802; elected to Trinity Coll. Cambridge 1806, but went to Merton Coll. Oxford, matr. 17 May 1806; BA 1810; ordained; Rector of Earsham, Norfolk, from 24 Jul 1812; m. 9 Feb 1810 Mary Jones (IGI); d. 10 Jul 1831. [perhaps George Day, MA, Minor Canon, Norwich from 1817 (still 1829)]

DE BRUYN, PETER PHILIP VAN VIRGILO, son of Philip De Bruyn, and Lucy Sisum; b. 11 Oct 1808; at Harrow School 1820; adm. 16 Apr 1823 (Singleton's); left Christmas 1825; Cadet, EICS Bengal 1826; Ensign (unattached) 13 May 1827; Bengal Native Infantry 31 Jan 1828; d. at sea 15 Jul 1832. [mother perhaps dau. of William Sisum (IGI)]

DICKSON, SIR JOHN FREDERICK, eldest son of Robert Dickson MD FRCP, Hertford Street, Mayfair, London, and Cambridge Lodge, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, and Anna Maria, dau. of John Coope, Cumberland Place, London; b. 17 Sep 1835; adm. 30 Jan 1847 (Rigaud's); readm. Mar 1850; QS 1851; Capt. of the School 1854; elected head to Christ Church, Oxford 1855, matr. 7 Jun 1855; 1st cl. Classics (Mods) 1857; BA 1859; MA 1873; Writer, Ceylon Civil Service Feb 1859; in Colonial Secretary’s Office, Ceylon 1859-62; Police Magistrate, Dambool 1862, Galle 1865; acting Government Agent, Southern Province 1879, Central Province 1882; CMG 24 May 1883; Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements, from Sep 1885; member, Legislative Council; KCMG 24 May 1888; m. 1st, 30 Jun 1859 Annie, dau. of Randle Jackson Waters (qv); m. 2nd, 31 Mar 1875 Emily Ayton, youngest dau. of George Lee, Dickleburgh, Suffolk; d. 21 Dec 1891.

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.