Audio Book Samples

Saturday, August 22, 2009


Addison, Lancelot 1632-1703

Reverend Lancelot Addison (1632 - April 20, 1703) was born at Crosby Ravensworth in Westmorland. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford.Rev. Addison worked at Tangier as a chaplain for seven years and upon his return he wrote "West Barbary, or a Short Narrative of the Revolutions of the Kingdoms of Fex and Morocco" (1671).In 1670 he was appointed royal chaplain or Chaplain in Ordinary to the King, shortly thereafter Rector of Milston, Wilts, and Prebendary in the Cathedral of Salisbury. In 1683 became Dean of Lichfield, and in 1684 Archdeacon of Coventry.Among his other works was "The Present State of the Jews" (1675), a detailed study of the Jewish population of the Barbary Coast in the seventeenth century; their customs, and their religious behavior. Scholars have pointed out that part of Addison's book simply repeats material found in the English translation of Johannes Buxtorf's work, The Jewish Synagogue, or an Historical Narration of the State of the Jewes (Synagoga Judaica, London, 1657).He died in 1703 leaving three sons: poet Joseph Addison, scholar Lancelot Addison, and Gulston Addison, who became Governor of Madras.Rev. Addison was buried in Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire.


His (Joseph Addison's) father was the Reverend Lancelot Addison, who, though eclipsed by his more celebrated son, made some figure in the world, and occupies with credit, two folio pages in the Biographia Britannica. Lancelot was sent up, as a poor scholar, from Westmoreland to Queen's College, Oxford, in the time of the Commonwealth, made some progress in learning, became, like most of his fellow-students, a violent Royalist, lampooned the heads of the University, and was forced to ask pardon on his bended knees. When he had left college, he earned a humble subsistence by reading the liturgy of the fallen Church to the families of those sturdy squires whose manor-houses were scattered over the Wild of Sussex. After the Restoration, his loyalty was rewarded with the post of chaplain to the garrison of Dunkirk. When Dunkirk was sold to France, he lost his employment. But Tangier had been ceded by Portugal to England as part of the marriage portion of the Infanta Catherine; and to Tangier Lancelot Addison was sent. A more miserable situation can hardly be conceived. It was difficult to say whether the unfortunate settlers were more tormented by the heats or by the rains, by the soldiers within the wall or by the Moors without it. One advantage the chaplain had. He enjoyed an excellent opportunity of studying the history and manners of Jews and Mahometans and of this opportunity he appears to have made excellent use. On his return to England, after some years of banishment, he published an interesting volume on the Polity and Religion of Barbary, and another on the Hebrew Customs and the State of Rabbinical Learning. He rose to eminence in his profession, and became one of the royal chaplains, a Doctor of Divinity, Archdeacon of Salisbury, and Dean of Lichfield. It is said that he would have been made a bishop after the Revolution, if he had not given offence to the Government by strenuously opposing, in the Convocation of 1689, the liberal policy of William and Tillotson.
From British Isles Geneology web site (http://www.bigenealogy.com/essays/addison.htm)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Dictionary of national biography, Volume 1 (1908)By Stephen (Sir Leslie), Sir Sidney Lee, Robert Blake, Christine Stephanie Nicholls (see page 131 for entry on Lancelot Addison)
Read Online PDF Download
By-paths in Hebraic Bookland (1920) By Israel Abrahams, Jewish Publication Society of America (see page 153 for the entry on Lancelot Addison)
Read Online PDF Download
The Life and Death of Mahumed
PDF Download

No comments:

Post a Comment