Richard Brett (1567–1637) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

clergyman and academic. During the translation of the

King James Version of the Bible The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of ...

, Brett served in the "First Oxford Company", responsible for the later books of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

Life

Quainton, Church of the Holy Cross and St Mary - geograph

From a family of Catholic recusant sympathies, Richard was the son of Robert Brett, gent., of Whitestaunton Manor in Somerset. He was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He attended

Hart Hall, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colle ...

which he entered as a commoner in 1582. He was appointed Rector of

Quainton Quainton (formerly Quainton Malet)Plea rolls of the Court of Common Pleas; National Archives; CP 40/647; 7th entry, with "North" in the margin; the defendant, Richard Longe is of Quenton Malet is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, E ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

, in 1595. That same year, he was granted a Fellowship in Lincoln College under Richard Kilby, where he pursued his study of

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, and Ge'ez (Ethiopic) tongues. In 1597 he was admitted

bachelor of divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD or BDiv; la, Baccalaureus Divinitatis) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theol ...

, and he proceeded in divinity in 1605. He died in

on 5 April 1637, aged 70, and is buried in the chancel of Quainton Church, which he served for 43 years. Over his grave a monument with his effigies and a Latin and English epitaph was erected by his widow. His will was proved in P.C.C. in June 1637. By his wife Alice, daughter of Richard Brown, sometime mayor of Oxford, he left four daughters, of whom Margaret married

Calybute Downing Dr. Calybute Downing (1606–1643) was an English clergyman, a member of the Westminster Assembly. Also a civil lawyer, he is now remembered for political views, which moved from an absolutist position in the 1630s to a justification of resistan ...

in 1627.

Works

His scholarly publications were in Latin. *Two translations from Greek into Latin: **''Vitæ sanctorum Evangelistarum Johannis et Lucæ à Simeone Metaphraste concinnatæ'', Oxford, 1597. **''Agatharchidis et Memnonis historicorum quæ supersunt omnia'', Oxford, 1597. *''Iconum sacrarum Decas in quâ è subjectis typis compluscula sanæ doctrinæ capita eruuntur'' (Joseph Barnes, Oxford 1603).Full text (page images) a
Google
(open).

References

* McClure, Alexander. (1858) ''The Translators Revived: A Biographical Memoir of the Authors of the English Version of the Holy Bible''. Mobile, Alabama: R. E. Publications (republished by the Marantha Bible Society, 1984 ASIN B0006YJPI8 ) *

Nicolson, Adam Adam Nicolson, (born 12 September 1957) is an English author who has written about history, landscape, great literature and the sea. He is also the 5th Baron Carnock, but does not use the title. He is noted for his books ''Sea Room'' (about t ...

. (2003) ''God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible.'' New York: HarperCollins

Life

Works

References

Notes

Further reading