* and from the power of Satan unto God; though he speaks of him as using little method or premeditation, and insinuates that he did some hurt, by bringing persons to lay too much stress on some things in which they differed from their brethren. He was indefatigable in his labours, preaching perpetually about the country; so that there is scarcely a village in Cambridgeshire, but some old person can shew you the barn where Holcroft preached. His congregations extended as far as Hitchin, Herts, where Mr. Waite and Mr. Beare generally preached to the Independents, before 1669, some of whom afterwards formed the Podobaptist church in this place; and Mr. Holcroft sometimes used to come and preach to them. There is a particular memorandum of his being there May 24, 1678.*.

He had a lion-like courage, tempered with the most winning affability, in his whole deportment. His doctrines were moderate Calvinism, and he had a great zeal for Nonconformity, though a greater still for true piety, which he revered even in his enemies, During his long imprisonment in Cambridge castle, he was exceedingly chearful; and though in the latter part of his life his spirits failed, yet all his conversation was heavenly and divine. He left a small estate to the poor of his church, and a piece of ground at Oakington to bury in. There he himself was buried, where his tomb yet remains,

WILDBORE, M. A. Fellow, An unsettled man,
WHEELER, M. A. Fellow.

EMANUEL COLLEGE,

Mr. JAMES ILLINGWORTH, B. D. Fellow. Born in Lancashire. A little man, but an excellent scholar and eminent divine. He was very useful in the college as a tutor. After his ejectment he was chaplain to Phil. Foley, Esq. at Preswood-Hall, Staffordshire, several years. While he was here, a most awful providence happened at King's Swinford, in the neighbourhood, which engaged his attention. One John Duncalf, [having stolen a bible, on being charged with the theft, most solemnly denied it, and wished his hands and legs might rot off if he was guilty. They accordingly rotted off, and the poor wretch lay a long time in the most deplorable condition imaginable.] Mr. Illingworth often visited him,

*Some further account of Mr. Holcroft may be seen in Mr. James's Abstract, &c. in the memoirs of Mrs. Churchman,

and

and took great pains with him to bring him to a sense of his sins, [and there was reason to hope his labour was not in vain.*] Mr. Illingworth died domestic chaplain to Dame Eliz. Wilbraham, and was buried at Weston under Lyziard, Aug. 30, 1693

WORKS. Narrative of the Case of Duncalfe annexed to Dr. S. Ford's Disc. of God's Judgments, [preached in the parish church upon this occasion.]....An Elegy and Epitaph on Mr. Bright.—He had made large collections of the memoirs of noted men, especially in Lancashire.

Mr. JOHN REYNER, Fellow. Son to Mr. Reyner of Lincoln. A man of considerable learning, singular modesty, and eminent piety. After he was cast out of his fellowship in 1662, he left the ministry and practised physic. He was afterwards greatly pressed to educate young men in academical learning, for which service he was well qualified, and which he was prevailed upon to undertake. But, to the great loss of the public, he was soon after taken off by the smallpox at Nottingham. Whosoever reads the little he wrote will have such a specimen of his sprightliness and abilities, as will lead him to apprehend that great things might have been justly expected from him, had his life been spared.

WORKS. A Pref. to his Father's Defence of human Learning, and a Chapter in that Book on the Usefulness of the Arabic Tongue, for understanding Scripture.-A Disc. on the Nature and Counterfeits of Grace, prefixed to a Tract of his Father's on the Being and Well-being of a Christian.—An Elegy for Mr. Bright.

ROBERT BRINSLEY, M. A. After being ejected, he took his degrees in physic at Leyden, and practised at Yarmouth, where his father had been many years minister.

EDWARD HULSE, M. A. After his ejectment he became an eminent physician in London.

Mr. DAY, Student. He afterwards settled as pastor to part of Mr. Holcroft's people, near Saffron Walden, in Essex, in his time and with his consent, where he continued till his death. He was a worthy pious man.

JESUS COLLEGE.

Mr. DANIEL EVANS. Born at Monk-Moor, near Shrewsbury, and brought up in the free-school there. He was

*The editor is possessed of this remarkable and affecting narrative in print, which has all the marks of authenticity.

$4

obliged

obliged to leave the university in 1662, because he could not conformn. He was afterwards chaplain to chancellor Smith, at Norwich, three years, and then to Mr. Honeywood of Hampstead. At the latter end of Charles's Indulgence he settled with a small dissenting congregation at Woolwich, where he laboured sixteen years, and then removed to Bethnal Green, where he died, July, 1698, aged 58.

Mr. EDMUND HOUGH, afterwards conformed, and died vicar of Halifax in Yorkshire. He was a man of great moderation and piety, and behaved in a very friendly manner to the Dissenters. He was sadly persecuted by some violent party-men, so that he died heart-broken with grief, Ap. 1, 1689, aged 59.

ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE.

ANTHONY TUCKNEY, D. D. Master, and Regius Professor of Divinity, son of Mr. Tuckney, minister of Kirton, near Boston in Lincolnshire. He was born in Sept. 1599, and educated in Eman. Col. Camb. When he left the college, he became houshold chaplain to the Earl of Lincoln. But being afterwards chosen Fellow, he returned thither, and was a most diligent and conscientious tutor; having many pupils, who proved eminently useful both in church and state; among others, Henry, Marquis of Dorchester, and his brother Mr. Wm. Pierrepont, that great statesman, who retained much respect for him to his dying day. He left the university upon the invitation of the people of Boston, and became assistant to the noted Mr. John Cotton; after whose removal to New-England, he became vicar of Boston, and held on his ministry there all the time of a sore plague, with which it pleased God to visit the town; but met with some disturbance from the spiritual courts.

In 1643, he was called to London by the parliament; he and Mr. Coleman being chosen members of the Assembly at Westminster for the county of Lincoln; and he was much esteemed in that capacity. It being then a dangerous time in the country, by reason of the heat of the war, he took his whole family with him, and never returned; though, at the desire of the people, he kept the title to the vicarage till the Restoration, but received none of the profits. Having been some time at London, he was settled minister of MichaelQuern, Cheapside. In 1645 he was made master of Eman. Col, which required him to spend some months in the year at Cambridge;

Cambridge; and in 1648 he removed with his family thither, and was that year vice-chancellor.-In 1653 he was chosen, in the room of Dr. Arrowsmith, master of St. John's. Upon the Dr.'s death, he was made Regius Professor in his room. It was said that he shewed more courage in opposing orders sent by the higher powers in those times, than any of the heads of the university. He was a man of very great humility; and yet few kept up more authority than he did in the university when Vice-chancellor, or in the college he was master of; to which many gentlemen and ministers sent their sons, merely upon his account. It was his custom to have a sermon preached the morning after every public commencement, in the chapel of Emanuel and St. John's, by one who had been of the college, which was kept up many years.

After the Restoration, provision was made by the Act for confirming and restoring ministers, that Dr. Tuckney should be restored to the rectory of Somersham in Huntingdonshire; but he did not enjoy it long. He was one of the commissioners at the Savoy, but was soon out of all hope of an accommodation. Before the time for the conferences were expired, he received a royal letter*, professing great respect, signed by secretary Nicolas, dated Jan. 1, which gave him a supersedeas from his public employment, promising him a a hundred pounds per ann. during life, to be paid by his successor. The good Dr. thought it would be to no purpose to contend with the court, and that he could not long keep his places as things were then managed: he therefore resigned them both; and had the annnuity which was promised punctually paid for several years, by Dr. Gunning, who succeeded him. He retired to London, and there preached sometimes in his own house, and occasionally in the families of several friends. In the time of the plague he lived at Colwick Hall near Nottingham, in the house of Robert Pierrepoint, Esq. where he was soon troubled and confined, but was treated very civilly, and in a few months discharged. Upon the Five-mile-act, he removed to Oundle, and thence to Warmington, in Northamptonshire. After the fire of London (in which his library was burnt) he removed to Stockerston in Leicestershire, and then to Tottenham near London; from whence, in 1669, he removed to Spittle-yard, where

*This letter may be scen in Cal. Acc. p. 78; with another from the Earl of Manchester, advising him to quit, and assuring him that the king had no dislike to his person, or distrust of his ability, &.

be continued till his death, February 1670, in the 71st year of his age. He was buried in the church of St Andrew, Undershaft. He had the character of an eminently pious and learned man, a true friend, an indefatigable student, a candid disputant, and an earnest promoter of truth and godli

ness.

A remarkable proof of his candour, and at the same time of his zeal for what he thought to be the truth, may be seen in his letters to Dr. Whichcote, who had been one of his pupils, and whom he thought proper to admonish for some things exceptionable in his sentiments and strain of preaching. And it is hard to say whether Dr. Whichcote's letters to him, do Dr. Tuckney or himself the most honour.See this curious correspondence (which affords an excellent pattern for religious controversy) at the end of Whichcote's Aphorisms, published by Dr. Salter, Master of the Charter-house and a strong Anti-Calvinist; who, in his Preface, has given some account of Dr. Tuckney, (evidently taken for the most part from Dr. Calamy) which he closes as follows: "In his elec"tions at St. John's, when the President, according to the "cant of the times, would call upon him to have regard to "the Godly, he answered,-No one should have greater re"gard to the truly Godly than himself; but he was deter"mined to chuse none but Scholars: adding, They may de"ceive me in their Godliness; they cannot in their Scholar

ship.-Upon the whole, he seems to have been a very ho"nest and good man, a very industrious and learned scholar; "his imperfections and weaknesses flowed from his principles " rather than his disposition, and he was worthy to have lived in better times,"

WORKS. Death disarmed: a serm. at the funeral of Dr. Hill. -Balın of Gilead for the Wounds of England.-A good Day well improved; five sermons. After his death, 40 Sermons on several occasions. Prelectiones Theol. all his Theological Exercises while at the University. He had a considerable hand in the Assembly's Confession and Catechism. Many of the Answers in the larger Catechism, particularly on the Commandments, were his. [And yet, as he tells Dr. Whichcote, (who had given him a hint of impasng)" in the Assembly he voted against SUBSCRIBING or swearing to the Confession, &c. set out by authority."]

JONATHAN TUCKNEY, M. A. Fellow. Son to Dr. A. Tuckney. When a school-boy, he was accounted a prodigy for the pregnancy of his natural talents, and his rapid prof ciency in the several parts of school-learning. His memory

was