Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nourse, Timothy
NOURSE, TIMOTHY (d. 1699), miscellaneous writer, son of Walter Nourse of Newent, Gloucestershire, by his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Edward Engeham of Gunston, Kent, was born at Newent. Matriculating at University College, Oxford, on 28 March 1655, he graduated B.A. on 19 Feb. 1657–8, was elected fellow of his college on 19 Jan. 1658–9, and proceeded M.A. on 17 Dec. 1660. He entered holy orders, and became a noted preacher. An admirer of Dr. Robert South, he imitated him so successfully in his sermons and his action in the pulpit that South was sometimes accused of taking Nourse as his model. As bursar of his college for several years Nourse showed exceptional efficiency. He associated much with Roman catholic priests, and in 1672 became a convert to the Roman catholic religion. Deprived of his fellowship (5 Jan. 1673), he retired to his estate at Newent, where he devoted himself to study and the pleasures of a country life. During an illness in London in October 1677 he sent for Dr. Simon Patrick, minister of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and, acknowledging his error in embracing the Roman catholic faith, desired to receive the sacrament in accordance with the protestant form. Patrick thereupon told him ‘that if his disease was not desperate he would do well to consider of what he would do, and he would come to him the next day.’ On Patrick's second visit he found Nourse in the same mind, and accordingly administered the sacrament to him. But, recovering from his illness, Nourse repented of what he had done, and returned to his former opinions. He suffered much on the outbreak of the popish plot, and died on 21 July 1699 at Newent, where he was buried, and where there is a monument to his memory. He married Lucy, daughter of Richard Harwood, prebendary of Gloucester.
Nourse was a man, says Hearne, ‘of excellent parts … of great probity and eminent virtues,’ but ‘conceited’ (Wood). He had a good collection of coins, consisting of 532 separate pieces, which he bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, ‘in thankful remembrance of the obligations’ he had to the university (Macray, Annals of the Bodleian, p. 168). He left to University College such of his books as were wanting in the college library, and 120l. in charitable bequests. Nourse published: 1. ‘A Discourse upon the Nature and Faculties of Man, in several Essays, with some Considerations upon the Occurrences of Humane Life,’ London, 8vo, 1686, 1689, and 1697. 2. ‘A Discourse of Natural and Reveal'd Religion, in several Essays; or the Light of Nature a Guide to Divine Truth,’ London, 8vo, 1691. 3. ‘Campania Fœlix, or a Discourse of the Benefits and Improvements of Husbandry … with some Considerations upon (1) Justices of the Peace and inferior Officers; (2) on Inns and Ale-houses; (3) on Servants and Labourers; (4) on the Poor, to which are added two Essays of a Country House, and of the Fuel of London,’ London, 8vo, 1700; 2nd edit. 1706. Republished in 1708 with ‘The Compleat Collier, by J. C.’ He is also said to have written a book, which does not appear to have been published, in answer to Daniel Whitby's ‘Discourse concerning the Idolatry of the Church of Rome,’ London, 8vo, 1674.
[Letters of Humphry Prideaux to John Ellis (Camd. Soc.), p. 31; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, pp. lxii, lxix, lxxv, lxxviii, iv. 448; Wood's History and Antiquities of the Univ. of Oxford, II. ii. 980; Works of the Learned for March 1700, pp. 179–84; Wood's Life and Times, ed. Clark, ii. 39, 143, 226, 276, 389, 390, Hearne's Collections, ed. Doble (both in Oxford Hist. Soc.), i. 3, 40, 198, 287; Fosbrooke's History of Gloucestershire, ii. 227, 228; Rudder's Gloucestershire, pp. 564, 565; Kennet's Register and Chronicle, p. 598; Donaldson's Agricultural Biography, p. 40; Loudon's Encycl. of Agriculture, p. 1207; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. iii. 228, 353, 354, 377.]