Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/250

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

the ceremony. His remains were afterwards disinterred by royal warrant dated 9 Sept. 1661, and buried in St. Margaret's churchyard, but not, it is said, in the common pit. By his wife, who died before him, Dorislaus had issue two sons, John (born 20 Nov. 1627, and buried at Maldon 3 Jan. 1631–2) and Isaac, and two daughters, Elizabeth (who married a Mr. Gostwick) and Margaret. To the daughters parliament presented 500l. apiece, while a pension of 200l. a year was settled on the son Isaac (Commons' Journals, vi. 209). Isaac Dorislaus the younger entered Merchant Taylors' School on 18 March 1638–9 (Robinson, Register, i. 144). In December 1649 he obtained a registrar's place for the probate of wills, having the isle of Ely and county of Cambridge assigned him as his district. In February 1651 he accompanied the English ambassadors to Holland to demand justice upon his father's murderers. His knowledge of French, Spanish, and Dutch made him especially useful to Thurloe, by whom he was frequently employed as a translator and decipherer of intercepted intelligence (Thurloe State Papers, i. 303, 480, iii. 231). In January 1653 he received the appointment of solicitor to the court of admiralty, with a salary of 250l. a year; in March 1660 he appears as one of the managers of the post office, a place he was allowed to retain after the revolution (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–67, passim). In 1681 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He died in comfortable circumstances in September 1688, and was buried by his wife in St. Bartholomew's Church, near the Royal Exchange, leaving issue Isaac, James, and Anne (will reg. in P. C. C. 134, Exton; Probate Act Book, P. C. C. 1688, f. 151).

Dorislaus is known as an author by a brief historical essay of thirty-seven pages, ‘Prœlium Nuportanum,’ 4to, London, 1640, afterwards reprinted at page 179 of Sir Francis Vere's ‘Commentaries,’ 4to, London, 1657. His portrait was engraved by W. Richardson, after an original drawing in the possession of the St. Aubyn family of St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall; another engraving, by C. Passe, represents him standing, with emblems of Time and Truth. There is also a portrait by R. Vinkeles. A curious Dutch print of his assassination was published in quarto.

[Chester's Register of Westminster Abbey (Harl. Soc.), pp. 143, 521; Peacock's Army Lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers, 2nd ed. p. 21, where A. J. Van Der Aa's Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden, iv. 277–8, and J. L. Gollpried's Kronyck, iv. 454, are cited; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iii. 287, 367, 491, 585, iv. 40, 253; Clarendon's History (1849), bk. xii. par. 24, 141; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (b. liss), iii. 666–668, 1018; Thurloe State Papers, i. 174, 364; Coxe's Cat. Codd. MS. Bibl. Bodl. pars v. fasc. ii. p. 679; Caulfield's High Court of Justice, pp. 81–2; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iii. 201–2; Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, ii. 429; Evelyn's Diary (ed. 1850–2), i. 251, iii. 51, 53; Wilkins's Political Ballads, i. 90; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, 5th ed. iii. 30–1; Bate's Elenchus (ed. 1676), p. 138; Burton's Diary, iii. 489 n.; Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 387; Gent. Mag. xcix. ii. 324 n.; Cat. of MSS., University Library, Cambridge, v. 413, 414.]

G. G.

DORMAN, THOMAS, D.D. (d. 1577?), catholic divine, born at Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, first studied in the free school there under Richard Reeve, a noted protestant schoolmaster, the cost of his education being defrayed by his uncle, Thomas Dorman of Agmondesham, Buckinghamshire. In 1547, at the request of Thomas Harding, who had a great regard for him, he was removed to Winchester school (Addit. MS. 22136, f. 16 b). He was elected a probationer fellow of New College, Oxford, but in the reign of Edward VI he left that house on account of religion, and consequently never became a complete fellow. After the accession of Queen Mary he was elected in 1554 a fellow of All Souls' College, and studied with indefatigable industry. He took the degree of B.C.L. 9 July 1558 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 154), but being opposed to the religious changes introduced in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, he went to Antwerp, where he met his old friend Thomas Harding, then in exile, by whose persuasion he proceeded to Louvain and resumed his studies. He graduated B.D. in the university of Douay in June 1565 (Records of the English Catholics, i. 272). In 1569, on the invitation of William Allen, founder of the English college at Douay, he settled there ‘and for a while assisted both with his purse and learning towards that establishment.’ Afterwards he had a considerable benefice, with a pastoral charge, bestowed upon him in the city of Tournay, where he died in 1572, or, as some say, in 1577.

His works are: 1. ‘A proufe of certeyne articles in Religion denied by Mr. Jewel,’ Antwerp, 1564, 4to, dedicated to Dr. Thomas Harding. At the end of these articles are twelve ‘Reasons why the author perseveres in his old catholic religion.’ Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, published ‘A Reproufe’ of this book, London, 30 May 1565, 4to, and another edition 13 July 1565. Nowell says in his preface that Dorman had