Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/86

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

knight. 7. ‘Christian Œconomy, or Household Government, that is, the duties of husbands and wives, of parents and children, masters and servants,’ London, 1609, 8vo. 8. ‘A Probleme propounded, in which is plainely showed that the Holy Scriptures have met with Popish arguments and opinions,’ London [1615?], 16mo.

[Lewis's Hist. of Translations of the Bible (1818), 311; Cole's Athenæ Cantab. D 7; Musgrave's Obituary; Notes and Queries, 3rd series, iv. 380; Carter's Univ. of Camb. 231, 322; Peck's Desid. Cur. (1779), i. 333.]


DILLINGHAM, THEOPHILUS, D.D. (1613–1678), master of Clare Hall, Cambridge, son of Thomas Dillingham, was born at Over Dean, Bedfordshire, in 1613. He was admitted a pensioner of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 13 Sept. 1629, and graduated B.A. in 1633, M.A. in 1637. He was elected a fellow of Sidney College in 1638, and subsequently took the degree of D.D. In 1654 he was chosen master of Clare Hall, and he was thrice vice-chancellor of the university, in 1655, 1656, and part of 1661. At the Restoration he was ejected from the mastership, and Thomas Paske, one of his predecessors, was readmitted, but as Dillingham had married a daughter of Paske, the latter resigned in favour of his son-in-law, who was re-elected by the fellows in 1661. On 29 Jan. 1661-2 Dillingham became prebendary of Ulskelf in the church of York on Paske's resignation of that dignity, and on 3 Sept. 1667 he was installed archdeacon of Bedford. He also held the rectory of Offord Cluny, Huntingdonshire. He died at Cambridge on 22 Nov. 1678, and was buried in St. Edward's Church.

Extracts from his diaries and other papers are preserved in Baker's MSS. at Cambridge, vol. xx. no. 6, p. 72, and vol. xxxvi. no. 15.

[Addit. MSS. 5803, p. 40, 5821, p. 131, 5867, p. 7; Kennett's MSS. lii. 220 ; Kennett's Register and Chronicle, pp. 222, 615, 646; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), ii. 75, iii 220, 607, 671; Le Neve's Mon. Angl. (1650-79), p. 190; Carter's Univ. of Camb. p. 413 n.]


DILLINGHAM, WILLIAM, D.D. (1617?–1689), Latin poet and controversialist, son of Thomas Dillingham, rector of Barnwell All Saints, Northamptonshire, by Dorothy his wife, was born in that parish about 1617. He was admitted a sizar of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 22 April 1636, proceeded B.A. in 1639, was elected a fellow of his college in 1642, commenced M.A. in 1643, and subsequently graduated B.D. in 1650, and D.D. in 1655. As an undergraduate he shared chambers with William Sancroft, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, with whom he maintained throughout life an uninterrupted friendship and correspondence. Sancroft was deprived of his fellowship for refusing to subscribe the ‘engagement,’ but Dillingham, being inclined to puritanism, remained at Cambridge, and his acquiescence in the new order of things was rewarded in 1653 by his appointment to the mastership of Emmanuel College on the nomination of the Earl of Manchester, chancellor of the university. In 1659 he was chosen vice-chancellor, and he discharged the duties of that office with credit and ability at the critical period of the Restoration. The college did not flourish under his government, as it was distracted by religious dissensions among the fellows.

When the Act of Uniformity was passed he had scruples about taking the oath, not on the ground of objections to the Book of Common Prayer, but because he could not affirm that the ‘solemn league and covenant’ was an unlawful oath which imposed no obligation on those who had voluntarily subscribed it. His refusal to comply with the injunctions of the statute ipso facto deprived him of his university preferment, and on 31 Aug. 1662 his old friend Sancroft was unanimously elected master in his place. He retired to Oundle, Northamptonshire, of which parish his brother was vicar, and there he lived for ten years in literary seclusion. After the death of his first wife he was induced to conform, and he was presented by Sir Thomas Alston in May 1672 to the rectory of Woodhill, now called Odell, Bedfordshire, where he passed the remainder of his life. In 1673, being then a widower with two sons, he married a widow named Mary Toller, who had already been thrice married and had seven children. She is said to have made an excellent wife. Dillingham was buried at Odell on 28 Nov. 1689. His wife survived him little more than six months; she was buried at Horbling, Lincolnshire, on 21 June 1690.

His works are: 1. ‘The Commentaries of Sir Francis Vere; being diverse pieces of service, wherein he had command, written by himself in way of commentary,’ Camb. 1657, fol., dedicated to Sir Horace Townshend, bart. 2. ‘Poemata varii argumenti, partim e Georgio Herberto Latine (utcunque) reddita, partim conscripta a Wilh. Dillingham S. T. D.,’ Lond. 1678. Most of the pieces in this volume were corrected by Sancroft, and one (p. 155) was certainly from his pen. It is entitled ‘Hippodromus,’ and is a translation of an epigram by Thomas Bastard, first printed in 1598, and beginning,

I mett a courtier riding on the plaine

(Notes and Queries, 1st ser. iii. 323). 3. ‘Ser-