Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tozer, Henry

506147Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 57 — Tozer, Henry1899Charlotte Fell Smith

TOZER, HENRY (1602–1650),puritan royalist, born in 1602 at North Tawton, Devonshire, matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford, on 3 May 1621, and graduated B.A. on 18 June 1623, and M.A. on 28 April 1626. He took holy orders, was appointed lecturer at St. Martin's Church (Carfax, Oxford) on 21 Oct. 1632, and proceeded B.D. on 28 July 1636. Of puritan views, he was elected in 1643 to the Westminster assembly, but refused to sit, nor would he accept the degree of D.D. when nominated for it on 6 June 1646. Tozer was appointed vicar of Yarnton in 1644. He probably served the parish from Oxford, as he never lived there.

As bursar and sub-rector of Exeter College, Tozer managed the college in the absence of George Hakewill [q. v.], the rector. In March 1647 he was cited before the parliamentary visitors for continuing the common prayer, and for his known disfavour to parliamentarians. In November he was summoned to Westminster before the parliamentary commission, and the following year was imprisoned for some days on refusing to give up the college books. He was expelled from his fellowship on 26 May 1648, and on 4 June turned out of St. Martin's Church by soldiers because he prayed for the king, and 'breathed out pestilent air of unsound doctrine.' The decree, however, was revoked on 2 Nov., and Tozer was allowed to travel for three years, retaining his room in Exeter College.

Tozer then went to Holland, and became minister to the English merchants at Rotterdam, where he died on 11 Sept. 1650; he was buried in the English church there.

He was author of the following works, all published at Oxford: 1. 'Directions for a Godly Life, dedicated to his pupil Lorenzo Cary, son of Viscount Falkland,' 1628, 16mo, 5th ed. 1640, 8th 1671, 10th 1680, 11th 1690, 13th 1706 12mo. 2. 'A Christian Amendment,' 1633. 3. 'Christus: sive Dicta Facta Christi,' 1634. 4. 'Christian Wisdome,' 1639, 12mo.

[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; Wood's Athenae, ed. Bliss, iii. 273, and Hist. and Antiq. Univ. Oxford, vol. ii.pt. ii, pp. 508, 531, 552-4, 574, 588, 590, 593, 594; Wood's Life and Times, i. 444, and Hist. of Kidlington, pp. 220, 222, 223, &c., both published by Oxford Hist. Soc.; Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 574; Hist. MSS. Cornm. 2nd Rep. App. p. 127; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1629-31, p. 260; Boase's Register of Exeter Coll. pp. cix, cxvii-cxx, 99; Conant's Life, p. 9; Madan's Early Oxford Press; Walker's Sufferings, ii. 115; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, iii. 112; Journals of the House of Commons, ii. 541.]

C. F. S.