that borough, with a stipend of 100l. per annum. On 5 July 1647 he was settled as the sole lecturer in that church on Sunday afternoons at the same salary; but on 5 April 1648 it was raised to 140l. per annum. The parliamentary committee for regulating the university sent letters to the members of convocation lauding his abilities, and bearing witness to his service to their cause, and on 8 March 1650–1 he was created M.A. On 22 Nov. 1652 Sydenham was appointed master of St. Mary Magdalen Hospital at Newcastle. He was in delicate health, and in hope of improvement came to London, lodging in Axe Yard, adjoining King Street, Westminster, where he died about 25 March 1654. He was ‘a genteel, comly personage,’ with an ‘aquiline’ nose, and in the pulpit was ‘a very Seraph.’ He married a daughter of the Rev. Sidrach Sympson. A portrait (1654) of Sydenham, ‘æt. 31,’ and in a cloak, was painted by Gaywood, and prefixed to the editions of his ‘Hypocrisie Discovered’ (Granger, Biogr. Hist. iii. 45).
Sydenham was the author of:
- ‘An Anatomy of Lievt.-col. John Lilbvrn's Spirit and Pamphlets, or a Vindication of the two honourable Patriots, Oliver Cromwell and Sir Arthur Haslerig,’ 1649.
- ‘An English Translation of the Scottish Declaration against James Graham, alias Marquess of Montrose,’ 1650.
- ‘The False Brother, or the Mappe of Scotland, drawn by an English Pencill,’ 1650. For his ‘good services’ in writing these tracts the sum of 50l. was voted to him by the council of state on 10 Jan. 1649–50 (Cal. of State Papers, p. 476).
- ‘The false Jew, or a wonderfull Discovery of a Scot. Baptised for a Christian, circumcised to act a Jew, rebaptised for a Believer, but found to be a Cheat’ (i.e. Thomas Ramsay [q. v.]), 1653; signed by Sydenham and others.
- ‘A Christian, Sober, and Plain Exercitation on the two grand practicall Controversies of these Times; Infant Baptism and Singing of Psalms,’ 1653; he was in favour of both practices, but against organs and harps.
- ‘Greatnes of the Mystery of Godlines,’ 1654; reproduced 1657 and 1672.
- ‘Hypocrisie Discovered,’ 1654. A posthumous production, dedicated by Thomas Weld [q. v.] and others to Sir Arthur Hesilrigge [q. v.]
The views of Sydenham on infant baptism were attacked by the Rev. William Kaye of Stokesley and the Rev. John Tombes [q. v.] Addresses by him were prefixed to Roger Quatermayne's ‘Conqvest over Canterbvries Court’ (1642), and the Rev. Nicholas Lockyer's ‘Little Stone out of the Mountain’ (1652).
[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iii. 351–3, 358, 1065, Fasti, ii. 163; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. ii. 695–7, iii. 1341; Memoirs of Ambrose Barnes (Surtees Soc.), passim; Brand's Newcastle, i. 313, 430.]
SYDENHAM, FLOYER (1710–1787), translator, born in Devonshire in 1710, was son of Humphrey Sydenham of Combe in Somerset, by his second wife, Katherine, daughter of William Floyer of Berne in Dorset. He was educated at Oxford, matriculating from Wadham College on 31 May 1727, graduating B.A. on 25 June 1731, and proceeding M.A. on 30 April 1734. He was elected a probationary fellow on 30 June 1733 and became a fellow, probably in the year following. He studied law at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1735. In 1744 he was presented to the rectory of Esher, but resigned it in 1747. He was an excellent Greek scholar and devoted himself to the task of translating the works of Plato. In 1759 he published his proposals in a quarto tract, and accomplished his purpose between 1759 and 1780 in four quarto volumes. In 1787 he was arrested for a trifling debt, and died in prison on 1 April. In consequence of his unfortunate death, the Literary Club was founded, for the purpose of assisting deserving authors.
Dr. Parr ‘ranked Sydenham first among the Platonic students,’ and Thomas Taylor (1758–1836) [q. v.], the Platonist, though less fervent, held a high opinion of his merits.
Besides the works mentioned, Sydenham published ‘Onomasticum Theologicum, or an Essay on the Divine Names according to the Platonic Philosophy’ (1784, 4to).
[Chalmers's Biogr. Dict. 1816, xxix. 74–5; Gardiner's Registers of Wadham College, ii. 25; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Gent. Mag. 1787, i. 366; Collinson's Hist. of Somerset, ii. 523.]
SYDENHAM, HUMPHREY (1591–1650?), royalist divine, the son of Humphrey Sydenham of Dulverton, by his wife Jane, born Champneys, was born at Dulverton in 1591, matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, in Lent term 1606, and graduated B.A. on 24 Jan. 1610–11. He became a fellow of Wadham College in 1613, and was the first to graduate as master of arts from that foundation (3 Dec. 1613). He took priest's orders in 1621, became librarian at Wadham in 1623, and was incorporated at Cambridge in 1625. He resigned his fellowship in 1628. In the meantime he had been appointed chaplain to Lord Howard of Escrick, and on 15 Dec. 1627 he was presented by the
