Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nye, John
NYE, JOHN (d. 1688), theological writer, was the second son of Philip Nye [q. v.] He is probably the John Nye who, on 4 Jan. 1647, was ‘approved on his former examination’ by the Westminster assembly. On 23 Feb. 1654 (being already married, and the father of two sons) he matriculated from Magdalen College, Oxford, and obtained his B.A. degree the same day. In 1654 he was a student of the Middle Temple, and was appointed (before June 1654) clerk or ‘register’ to the ‘triers,’ his father (with whom he is often confounded) being a leading commissioner. At the Restoration he conformed, and obtained the vicarage of Great Chishall, Essex, in 1661. Calamy says he was ejected from Settingham, Cambridgeshire; there seems no such place; ‘ejected’ would simply mean that he ceded some sequestered living. He was living at Cambridge in March 1662. On 27 Aug. 1662 he obtained the rectory of Quendon, Essex, vacant by the nonconformity of Abraham Clyfford, afterwards M.D. (d. 1676). In 1674 he obtained also the adjacent vicarage of Rickling, Essex. He died in 1688. He married the second daughter of Stephen Marshall [q. v.]; she seems to have died before 1655. His son, Stephen Nye, is separately noticed; another son, John (b. 1652?), was admitted pensioner of Magdalene College, Cambridge, on 27 March 1666, in his fifteenth year, and graduated B.A. in 1670.
He published: 1. ‘Mr. Anthony Sadler examined,’ &c., 1654, 4to (anon.; but assigned to Nye; it is a defence of his father in reply to Sadler's ‘Inquisitio Anglicana,’ &c., 1654, 4to). 2. ‘A Display of Divine Heraldry,’ &c., 1678, 12mo (preface dated ‘Quendon, 25 Oct. 1675;’ it is a reconciliation of the genealogies of our Lord, and a defence of the inerrancy of scripture, against Socinus).
[Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 119; Hustler's Grad. Cantabr. 1823; David's Evang. Nonconformity in Essex, 1863, pp. 285, 444 sq.; Mitchell and Smithers's Minutes of the Westminster Assembly, 1874, p. 318; Minutes of Manchester Presbyterian Classis (Chetham Soc.), 1891, iii. 391; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1891, iii. 1083; will of Stephen Marshall at Somerset House; extract from Admission Book of Magdalene College, Cambridge, per F. Pattrick, esq.]