Though his published writings were but scanty, comprising only a few sermons, two of his charges (1806, 1815) and a 'Letter to the late Mr. Wilberforce on Christianity and Politics, how far they are reconcilable' (1818), Dr. Bathurst's love of literature was great, and his literary instinct just: he refused to believe in the authenticity of the Rowley poems, which, he said, had no mark of antiquity, but might pass for a modern work, if the spelling and obsolete words were taken away.
The bishop married a daughter of Charles Coote, dean of Kilfenora, and brother of Sir Eyre Coote. His eldest son, Henry Bathurst, was fellow of New College, Oxford, became chancellor of the church of Norwich in 1805; held the rectories of Oby (1806), North Creake (1809), and Hollesley (1828); and was appointed archdeacon of Norwich in 1814. His chief work was 'Memoirs of the late Dr. Henry Bathurst, Lord Bishop of Norwich.' 1837, in the appendix to which appeared a charge (1815) and a sermon (1816) by himself. He issued in 1842 a supplement, with additional letters of his father, entitled 'An Easter Offering for the Whigs . . . being a Supplement to the Memoirs of the late Bishop of Norwich,' 1842, in which he sought to expose the injustice of the whig party in constantly refusing to promote his father to a richer see. Archdeacon Bathurst died 10 Sept. 1844 (Gent. Mag. xxii. (new ser.), p. 652). The bishop's third son, Benjamin [q. v.], is believed to have been murdered; his elder daughter, Mrs. Thistlethwayte, rewrote her father's memoirs from her eldest brother's papers.
[Memoirs and Correspondence of Dr. Bathurst, by Mrs. Thistlethwayte, 1853; Gent. Mag. vol. vii., new series.]
BATHURST, JOHN, M.D. (1607–1659), physician to Oliver Cromwell, was the second son of Dr. John Bathurst, of Goudhurst in Kent, a connection of the old family of Bathursts settled in that place, and the ancestors of Lord Bathurst. He was born in Sussex, his mother being Dorothy, daughter of Captain E. Maplesden of Marsden, a naval officer. In December 1614 Bathurst entered the university of Cambridge as a sizar at Pembroke College, took the degree of B.A. in 1617-8, and that of M.A. in 1621. In 1637 he obtained the degree of M.D., and in the same year, on 22 Dec., was admitted at once candidate and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, of which he was afterwards twice censor, in 1641 and 1650. On 1 Feb. 1642-3 he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford. We hear of him in 1653 as attending the sick seamen of the fleet after Blake's prolonged engagement with the Dutch in February of that year. He represented Richmond, Yorkshire, as burgess in the parliament summoned by Cromwell in 1656, and again in Richard Cromwell's parliament in 1658. In July 1657 he was named elect of the College of Physicians in the room of the great Harvey. Bathurst was physician to Cromwell and to the family of Sir Richard Fanshawe. When the latter, after his capture at the battle of Worcester, was kept a prisoner in London, he fell 'very sick of the prevailing scorbutic,' and Bathurst interceded for him with the Protector, who, on the strength of the doctor's medical certificate, obtained at the council chamber the order for Fanshawe's liberation, overruling the strenuous objections of Sir Harry Vane. He was very charitable, and yet was said to have accumulated a fortune of 2,000l. a year. Bathurst married Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Brian Willance, Esq., of Clint, Yorkshire, and had a numerous family. He died on 26 April 1659, aged 52.
[Munk's Roll of the College of Physicians, i. 222; Lady Fanshawe's Memoirs; Calendar of State Papers, 1653; Wood's Athenae (Bliss), iii. 1000; Fasti, ii. 11.]
BATHURST, RALPH (1620–1704), dean of Wells and president of Trinity College, Oxford, was born at Hothorpe, in the parish of Thedingworth, Northamptonshire, not far from Market Harborough. He was educated at the free school in Coventry. He was one of a family of seventeen, fourteen of whom were sons, and six of them lost their lives in the service of King Charles I. One of Ralph's brothers was Sir Benjamin, father of Allen, first Earl Bathurst [q. v.] At the age of fourteen he went to Gloucester Hall (now Worcester College), Oxford; but within a few days he migrated to Trinity, of which college Dr. Kettel, his grandfather by marriage, was then president. He lived at Dr. Kettel's lodgings (which are still called Kettel Hall) for two years. In 1637 he was elected scholar of his college, and having taken his B.A. degree in 1638 gained a fellowship at Trinity in 1640. In 1644 he was ordained priest by Bishop Skinner; when he received deacon's orders is unknown. On the breaking out of the civil war he was compelled, like many of his clerical brethren, to seek lay work. He studied medicine, and in 1654 took an M.D. degree, and practised as a physician at Oxford. He became a great friend of Dr. Thomas Willis, whose fortunes and sentiments resembled his own; and the two friends used to attend regularly Abingdon market every Monday. Dr. Bathurst attained to
