Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Latewar, Richard
LATEWAR, RICHARD (1560–1601), scholar, was son of Thomas Latewar of London. He was born in 1560, and in 1571 was sent to Merchant Taylors' School (Robinson, Register, i. 17), whence he was elected scholar of St. John's College, Oxford, in 1580, and in due course became fellow. He was admitted B.A. 28 Nov. 1584, M.A. 23 May 1588, B.D. 2 July 1594, and D.D. 5 Feb. 1597. In 1593 he was proctor, at which time he was rector of Hopton, Suffolk. In 1596 he was recommended by the university of Oxford as one of the candidates for the first Gresham professorship of divinity (Ward, Lives of Professors at Gresham College, p. 36). On 28 June 1599 he was appointed rector of Finchley, Middlesex (Newcourt, Repert. i. 605), and was afterwards chaplain to Charles Blount, eighth lord Mountjoy [q.v.], whom he accompanied on his expedition to Ireland. He died on 17 July 1601, from a wound received at Benburb, co. Tyrone, on the previous day (Fynes Moryson, Hist. Ireland, ii. 264, ed. 1735), and was buried in the church at Armagh. A monument was erected to his memory in St. John's College chapel by his father; the date of his death is incorrectly given as 27 July. Amhurst, in his 'Terræ Filius,' p. 185, alleges that on the monument there were these lines:
A sero bello dives durusque vocatus,
A sero bello nomen et omen habet.
They are not there now. The actual inscription is given in Wood's 'History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford,' p. 566, ed. 1786.
Latewar was a famous preacher, and a Latin poet of some merit. Stow refers to his poetic gifts (Annals, ed. 1631, p. 812). Samuel Daniel [q. v.] speaks of him as his friend, and in the 'Apology' to his 'Philotas' mentions that Latewar told him that he 'himself had written the same argument and caused it to be presented in St. John's College, Oxon., where, as I afterwards heard, it was worthily and with great applause performed.' Latewar contributed verses to the Oxford 'Exequiæ' on Sir Philip Sidney, as well as to some other books. He also wrote: 1. 'Carmen ἀπομνημονευτικόν, Coll. S. Johan. Bapt.,' which was restored and augmented by Richard Andrews, a later fellow of the college. 2. 'Concio Latina ad Academicos Oxon.,' 1594, a sermon on Philippians iii. 1, preached on his admission to his B.D., and printed in 1594 with his apology in Latin. A letter from Latewar to Sir Robert Cotton, of no particular interest, is preserved in Cotton. MS. Julius C. iii. f. 231. An epitaph on him is contained in the 'Affaniæ' of Charles Fitzgeffrey [q. v.]
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. i. 709; Hunter's Chorus Vatum, Addit. MS. 24491, f. 407; information kindly supplied by the Rev. W. H. Hutton, fellow of St. John's College; authorities quoted.]