Richard Holdsworth (or Houldsworth, Oldsworth) (1590, in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

– 22 August 1649) was an English academic theologian, and Master of

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

from 1637 to 1643. Although Emmanuel was a

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

stronghold, Holdsworth, who in religion agreed, in the political sphere resisted Parliamentary interference, and showed Royalist sympathies.

Life

Richard Holdsworth was the son of Richard Holdswourth, Vicar of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and baptised at St Nicholas, Newcastle on 20 December 1590. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge as a scholar in 1607, graduated B.A. in 1610, and became a Fellow in 1613. He was chaplain to

Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet (1 January 1560 – 29 December 1625), of Blickling Hall, was an English politician who succeeded Sir Edward Coke to become Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. Background and education The son of Tho ...

. He was rector of St Peter-le-Poor, London in 1624.''Concise Dictionary of National Biography'' He was in 1629 the first

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England that does not accept students or award degrees. It was founded in 1597 under the Will (law), will of Sir Thomas Gresham, ...

divinity lecturer appointed from the Puritan camp; he held the position until 1637. A London reputation brought him the presidency of

Sion College Sion College, in London, is an institution founded by royal charter in 1630 as a college, guild of parochial clergy and almshouse, under the 1623 will of Thomas White (benefactor), Thomas White, vicar of St Dunstan's in the West. The clergy who ...

in 1639. He became Archdeacon of Huntingdon. He was a member of the

Westminster Assembly The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of Divinity (academic discipline), divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and ...

. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, for two years, and

Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity The Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity is the oldest professorship at the University of Cambridge. It was founded initially as a readership in divinity by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, in 1502. Since its re-endowment ...

, from 1643. He lost his position as Master of Emmanuel, because of expressed royalist opinions; and was briefly imprisoned by Parliament. He was appointed Dean of Worcester by the King, in 1647. It is also claimed that the King wanted to appoint him

Bishop of Bristol The Bishop of Bristol heads the Church of England Diocese of Bristol in the Province of Canterbury, in England. The present diocese covers parts of the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire together with a small area of Wiltshire. The see ...

; this is mentioned by

Thomas Fuller Thomas Fuller (baptised 19 June 1608 – 16 August 1661) was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his ''Worthies of England'', published in 1662, after his death. He was a prolific author, and ...

. Given the wartime conditions, these appointments could have been taken up only with difficulty.

Educational views

He is said to have been a moderniser in education, in the line of

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

and

Comenius John Amos Comenius (; ; ; ; Latinization (literature), Latinized: ''Ioannes Amos Comenius''; 28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) was a Czech Philosophy, philosopher, Pedagogy, pedagogue and Theology, theologian who is considered the father of ...

, and a proponent of unadorned prose. His students at St. John's included

Simonds D'Ewes Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet (18 December 1602 – 18 April 1650) was an English antiquary and politician. He was bred for the bar, was a member of the Long Parliament and left notes on its transactions. D'Ewes took the Puritan side in the Civ ...

, whom he instructed by means of a system of note-taking. He provided

John Wallis John Wallis (; ; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician, who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 Wallis served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court. ...

with an introduction to

William Oughtred William Oughtred (5 March 1574 – 30 June 1660), also Owtred, Uhtred, etc., was an English mathematician and Anglican clergyman.'Oughtred (William)', in P. Bayle, translated and revised by J.P. Bernard, T. Birch and J. Lockman, ''A General ...

, steering Wallis towards mathematics (Wallis graduated BA at Emmanuel as Holdsworth arrived). He was also a bibliophile who amassed a private collection of 10,000 books, bequeathed to the

Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of over 100 libraries Libraries of the University of Cambridge, within the university. The library is a major scholarly resource for me ...

. It arrived there in 1664, after a long legal limbo caused by testamentary conditions. It is said to have been the largest private collection of the time in England. The ''Directions for a Student in the Universite'' has been attributed to him. The attribution is questioned by Hill as not certain. This work is a scheme of a four-year classical education. Mordecai Feingold, ''The Humanities'' p. 258, in ''The History of the University of Oxford'' IV, Seventeenth-Century Oxford (1997) edited by Nicholas Tyacke.

Notes

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Holdsworth, Richard 1590 births 1649 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge English Calvinist and Reformed theologians Masters of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Westminster Divines Educators from Newcastle upon Tyne Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Vice-chancellors of the University of Cambridge 17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians Lady Margaret's Professors of Divinity

Life

Educational views

Notes

Further reading

External links