John Stockwood

John Stockwood (died 1610) was an English clergyman, preacher, translator of Protestant texts and school-master.

Life

He was from Kent, and was a pensioner of St John's College, Cambridge, when Queen Elizabeth visited the university in August 1564, matriculating on 4 October in that year, and admitted a scholar on the Lady Margaret's foundation on 10 November following. He graduated B.A. in the university of Heidelberg in 1567, and was incorporated in that degree at Oxford on 19 May 1575;[1] when he stated that he was about to open a 'Indus literarius' at Cambridge. He was admitted M.A. at Oxford on 9 July 1575, and was incorporated in that degree at Cambridge in 1579.

In 1571 he occurs as minister of Battle, Sussex. He was appointed headmaster of Tonbridge School, Kent, by the Skinners' Company of London, a position he held from 1578 to 1588.[2] It is supposed that Sir Robert Heath was one of his pupils.

He was a celebrated and powerful preacher, and obtained the vicarage of Tonbridge. He was one of the select groups of Puritans (with Laurence Chaderton, George Gifford, Laurence Humphrey, John Knewstub, Thomas Sampson, and Henry Smith) who preached at Paul's Cross.[3] His style was very plain, in common with Bartimaeus Andrewes, Chaderton, Gifford, Stephen Egerton, William Fulke, William Perkins, and Hugh Roberts.[4] He had strong Sabbatarian views,[5] was one of the Puritan critics of the theatre,[6] and took particular exception to semi-nude dancing.[7] He also felt schooling paid too much attention to classical authors.[8]

At one period he was in great poverty. The records of the corporation of Gravesend show that on 30 August 1594 he received a contribution of forty shillings out of the stock of the chamber of that town, requested by Sir Robert Sidney. He had ceased to be master of Tonbridge School by 1597, when his textbook Progymnasma Scholasticum was published. In the dedication of that work to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex he acknowledges his kindness in relieving his poverty and protecting him from antagonists. It is believed that he retained the vicarage of Tonbridge till his death. He was buried there on 27 July 1610. Jonathan Stockwood of St. John's College, Cambridge (B. A. 1606, M. A. 1609), may have been his son.

Works

His principal works, mainly translations of devotional works by continental reformers, are

Notes

  1. "Stockwood, John (STKT564J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. Septimus Rivington, The history of Tonbridge school from its foundation in 1553 to the present date (1869), p. 75.
  3. Richard L. Greaves, Society and Religion in Elizabethan England (1981), p. 84.
  4. Ronald B. Jenkins, Henry Smith: England's silver-tongued preacher (1983), p. 51.
  5. http://www.wcg.org/lit/law/sabbath/sun-sab1.htm
  6. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3437/is_2_39/ai_n28733641/
  7. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.e.price/lancaster.htm
  8. Rowe, M. W. (2004) Philosophy and Literature: a book of essays; p. 104.

References

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