JOHN OGILBY, ESQ. Was borne at. * in Scotland, November 1600. He was of a gentleman's family, and bred to his Grammar. His father had spent his estate, and fell to decay, and was a prisoner in the King's bench, whom, together with his mother, his son relieved by his owne industry, being then but about the age of 12 or 13 yeares. By the advantage of his sonne's industry, he raysed a small summe of money, weh he adventured in the lottery for the advancement of the plantation in Virginia, A.... and he gott out of prison by this meanes. His motto (of his lott) was, I am a poor prisoner, God wott, I'le come out of prison, and pay all my debt. It so happened that he had a very good lott, that did pay his debts. John (the son) bound himselfe apprentice to one Mr. Draper, who kept a dancing-schoole, in Grayes-Inne-Lane, and in a short time arrived to so great excellency in that art, that he found meanes to purchase his time of his master, and * Mr. Gadbury sayes that Mr. Ogilby told him (he was very sure) that he was borne either in or neer Edinburgh. Sed tamen quære de hoc of Mr. Morgan, his grandson. ett up for himselfe. ingham's great masque was represented at court, he was chosen (among the rest) to performe some extraordinary part in it, and vaulting and cutting capers being then in fashion, he, endeavouring to doe something extraordinary, by misfortune of a false step, when he came to the ground, did spraine a veine on the inside of his leg, of wch he was lame ever after, wch gave an occasion to say, "that he was an excellent dancing master, and "never a good leg." When the Duke of Buck He taught 2 of the Ld Hopton's (then S: Ralph) sisters to dance, then at Witham, in Somersetshire, and S Ralph taught him to handle the pike and musket; sc. all the postures. In the yeare.... he went over into Ireland to Th. Earle of Strafford, Ld Lieutenant there, and was there entertained to teach in that family, and here it was that first he gave proofe of his inclination to poetry, by paraphrasing upon some of Æsop's fables. (He writt a fine hand.) He had a warrant from the Ld Lieutenant to be master of the ceremonies for that kingdome, and built a little theatre in S: Warburgh street, in Dublin: it was a short time before the rebellion broke out, by which he lost all, and ran through many hazards, and particularly being like to have been blown up at the castle of Refarnum, neer Dublin. He came into England about the yeare 1648. He printed Virgill, translated by himselfe into English verse, 8vo. 164. . dedicated to the right honble Wm. La Marquesse of Hertford, who loved him very well. After he had translated Virgill, he learned Greeke of Mr. Whitfield, a Scotch Bishop's son, and grew so great a proficient in it that he fell-to to translate Homer's Iliad, 1660. Next, as if by a prophetique spirit, foreseing the restauration of King Charles IIa, and also the want there might be of Church Bibles, he printed the fairest impression, and the most correct of English Bibles that ever was yet done, in royall and imperiall paper. He printed and published his matie's entertainments at his coronation, in fol. with cutts, 1662. The same yeare (1662) he went into Ireland again, being then, by patent, master of the revells, having disputed his right wth Sir Will. Davenant, who had got a graunt, and built a noble Theatre at Dublin, wch cost 2000lib. the former being ruined in the troubles. His Odyssey came out in 1665. People did then suspect, or would not beleeve that he was the author of the Paraphrase upon Æsop, and to convince them he published a 2a volume, which he calls his sopiques, which he did during the sicknesse, in his retirement at Kingston upon Thames, after he had published Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. His History of China, in fol. before the fire, then his History of Japan. The generall and dreadfull conflagration burnt all that he had, that he was faine to begin the world again, being then but worth 5lib. He had such an excellent and prudentiall witt, and master of so good addresse, that when he was undone he could not only shift handsomely (which is a great mastery), but he would make such rationall proposalls that would be embraced by rich and great men, that in a short time he could gaine an estate again, and never failed in any thing he ever undertook, but all-wayes went through with profit and honour. Being utterly undon again by the fire, he made his proposalls for the printing of a fair English Atlas, of which he lived to finish the History of Africa, America, and part of Asia, and then being encouraged by the King and the nobility to make an actuall survey of England and Wales, he proceeded in it so far as to an actuall survey of the roads both in England and Wales, which composed his . . . . volume of Britannia. He wrote a play at Dublin, called, The Merchant of Dublin, never printed. A:. . . Jo. Ogilby maried.... the da. of . . . Fox, of Netherhampton, neer Wilton, in com. Wilts, servant to the E. of Pembroke, a good liver, who was borne, as he was wont to say, in the first Olympiad, sc. when the first race was ran at Sarum, in H. E. of Pembroke's time. She had only one da. by him, maried to . . . . . . Morgan, who left a son, who now succeeds his gr. father as his matie's. Cosmographer. She dyed in London. MR. WILLIAM OUGHTRED, B.D. Was borne at Eaton, in Buckinghamshire, near Windsor, A: Di 1574, March the fifth, 5 h. P.M. His father taught to write at Eaton, and was a scrivener; and understood common arithmetique, and 'twas no small help and furtherance to his son to be instructed in it when a school-boy. His grandfather came from the North for killing a man. The last knight of the family was one S: Jeffery Oughtred. I thinke a Northumberland family. A: Di.... he was chosen to be one of the King's scholars at Eaton Colledge. A. D. he went to King's Colledge, in Cambridge. Anno ætatis 23, he writt then his Horologiographia Geometrica, as appears by the title. A. D. . . . he was instituted and inducted into the Rectory or Parsonage of Albury, in com. Surrey, worth a hundred pounds, per ann. he was pastor of this place fifty years. He maried. . . . Caryl (an ancient family in these parts,) by whom he had nine sonnes (most lived to be men) and four daughters. None of his sonnes he could make any great scholars. He was a |