[Gent. Mag. lxxxvi. pt. i. 180-1; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 422, 641, v. 324, vi. 296, ix. 153, 808; Nicholl's Illustrations, iv. 881-4, v. 678, viii. 457, 474, 631; Clarke's Repertorium Bibliographicum, 1819, pp. 442-6; Timperley's Encyclopædia, 1842, pp. 825, 933.]
EDWARDS or EDWARDES, JOHN, M.D. (fl. 1638), Sedleian reader at Oxford (his name is written 'Edwardes' in the school register and university books), was born 27 Feb. 1600 (School Reg.), educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and in 1617 elected thence to a probationary fellowship at St. John's College, Oxford. He gained there the favour of the president, Dr. (afterwards Archbishop) Laud, who in 1632 obtained for him, by 'special recommendation and request,' the head-mastership of Merchant Taylors' School. He resigned this post at the close of 1634, and returning to Oxford served the office of proctor in the following year. In 1638 he was appointed Sedleian reader of natural philosophy, and proceeded to the degrees of B. and D.M. He appears to have resided in college during the troublous times that followed, and in 1642 was, with others, appointed by convocation to provide accommodation for the troopers sent to Oxford, and procure arms for the further safety of the university. His loyalty made him obnoxious to the parliament, and in 1647 he was summoned, as a delinquent, to appear before the committee of lords and commons for regulating the affairs of the university. His answers being unsatisfactory, he was placed by the visitors in 1648 for a time in custody of the provost marshal for 'manifold misdemeanours.' His fellowship was taken from him, and he was superseded in the office of Sedleian reader by Joshua Crosse of Magdalen. He was, however, permitted to receive the emoluments of the readership until Michaelmas 1649, after which date all record of him disappears. It is not probable that he survived to the Restoration, as in that case his spirited conduct and pecuniary losses would have met with recognition.
[Robinson's Reg. of Merchant Taylors' School; Oxford Mat. Reg.; Woods Fasti, i. 477, 508, 509. and Annals; Burrows's Reg. of the Visitors of the Univ. of Oxford, 1647-68 (Camd. Soc.)]
EDWARDS, JOHN (Sion Treredyn) (fl. 1651), was the translator of the 'Marrow of Modern Divinity' into Welsh. It is described as by E. F. (Edward Fisher) [q. v.] in English, and by J. E. in Welsh, printed in London by T. Mabb and A. Coles, for William Ballard, and sold at his shop under the sign of the Bible, in Corn Street, in the city of Bristol, 1651. The dedication, to the Herberts, Morgans, Kerneys, Williams of Gwent, is dated 20 July 1650; the introduction to the reader, apologising for many errors, is dated 10 May 1651. Edwards was ejected from Tredynock in Monmouthshire.
[Rowlands's Cambrian Bibliography; Dr. Thomas Rees's Hist, of Prot. Nonconformity in Wales, 2nd ed. p. 77 note.]
EDWARDS, JOHN (1637–1716), Calvinistic divine, second son of Thomas Edwards, author of 'Gangræna ' [q. v.], was. born at Hertford 26 Feb. 1637, and admitted into Merchant Taylors' School at the age of ten. Having spent seven years there under Mr. Dugard's care, he was appointed (10 March 1653-4) sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge (College Reg.), which at that time was under the presidency of Dr. Anthony Tuckney, a presbyterian divine, eminent alike for his learning and love of discipline. Edwards's conduct and proficiency secured him a scholarship, and before (as well as after) graduting he was appointed a moderator in the schools. In 1657 he was admitted B.A., elected fellow 23 March 1658-9, and proceeded to the degree of M.A. in 1661. Soon afterwards he was ordained deacon by Sanderson, bishop of Lincoln, who at the same time engaged him to preach a sermon at
the next ordination. In 1664 he took the charge of Trinity Church, Cambridge, where his preaching — plain, practical, and temperate — attracted much notice, and he won the good opinion of his parishioners by his sedulous ministrations among the sick during a
visitation of the plague. A few years later, having taken the degree of B.D., he was chosen lecturer of Bury St. Edmunds, but retained the office only twelve months, preferring college life. His position, however, at St. John's became untenable on account of his Calvinistic views, and as he met with no sympathy from the master he resigned his
fellowship and entered Trinity Hall as a fellow commoner, performing the regular exercises in civil law. But the parishioners of St. Sepulchre's, Cambridge, having invited him to be their minister, he resumed his clerical functions, and about the same time improved his worldly estate by marriage with the widow of Alderman Lane, who had been a successful attorney in the town. After declining other preferment he was presented (1683) to the vicarage of St. Peter's, Colchester, a benefice which he retained some three years until declining health and waning popularity induced him to seek retirement in a Cambridgeshire village, and to make the press, rather than the pulpit the means of diffusing his opinions. In 1697 he was once more in
