purchased from the crown in 1543, as part of the possessions of the dissolved priory of St. Petrock there. The total was of the annual value of 10l. 13s. 1½d.
Sternhold is solely remembered as the originator of the first metrical version of the Psalms which obtained general currency alike in England and Scotland. The ‘Versification of Certain Chapters of the Proverbs of Solomon’ has only been attributed to him by error (cf. Cotton's Editions of the Bible). Sternhold and Hopkins's version has had a larger circulation than any work in the language, except the authorised version of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer (for an account of its evolution, authors, and merits see art. Hopkins, John, (d. 1570)). Sternhold's work forms its base. His first edition undated, but, as being dedicated to Edward VI, not earlier than 1547, contains nineteen psalms (i–v, xx, xxv, xxviii, xxix, xxxii, xxxiv, xli, xlix, lxxiii, lxxviii, ciii, cxx, cxxiii, cxxviii). It was printed by Edward Whitchurch, and is entitled ‘Certayne Psalmes chosē out of the Psalter of Dauid and drawē into Englishē Metre by Thomas Sternhold, grome of ye Kynges Maiesties Roobes’ (Brit. Museum). The second edition, printed after his death—apparently by John Hopkins, who adds seven psalms of his own in order to fill in a blank space, deprecating comparison with Sternhold's ‘most exquisite doynges’—added to those of the former edition eighteen new psalms (vi–xvii, xix, xxi, xliii, xliv, lxiii, lxviii). It is entitled ‘Al such Psalmes of Dauid as Thomas Sternhold, late grome of the Kinges maiesties robes, did in his lyfetime drawe into English Metre,’ and is printed by Edward Whitchurche in 1549 (Cambridge University Library). Three more psalms (xviii, xxii, xxiii) are added to these in a very rare edition of the growing Psalter printed by John Daye in 1561, and the complete number (40) appears in the full editions of 1562, 1563, and all subsequent ones. The only one of his psalms which remains current is the simple rendering of Psalm xxiii (‘My Shepherd is the Living Lord’). The text of his psalms, as found in all editions subsequent to 1556, follows the Genevan revision of that year.
[Julian's Dict. of Hymnology. See also authorities under Hopkins, John, and The Scottish Psalter, by Neil Livingstone.]
STERRY, PETER (d. 1672), Cromwell's chaplain, born in Surrey, entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 21 Oct. 1629, and graduated B.A. in 1633, and M.A. 1637. He was elected a fellow in 1636. He became a preacher in London, and was one of the fourteen divines nominated for the Westminster assembly by the House of Lords in May 1642. The omission of his name from the ordinance of June 1643 is probably accidental, as Sterry was serving on a committee of the assembly in August 1645.
Sterry had been known at Cambridge as one of the platonists, and in London he was characterised by Sir Benjamin Rudyerd [q. v.] and others as mystical and obscure. He was intimate with Sir Henry Vane, the younger [q. v.], and Baxter, who calls Vane's followers ‘Vanists,’ puns on their friendship, asking ‘whether vanity and sterility had ever been more happily conjoined.’ On 24 Jan. 1644, while he was chaplain to Lady Brooke, Sterry was examined concerning some supposed plot of Vane, which Lord Lovelace was sent by the king to investigate (Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. p. 3). Immediately after the execution of the king, Sterry was voted a preacher to the council of state (16 Feb. 1649). A salary of 100l. a year was settled upon him, and he was ordered to commence Sunday sermons at Whitehall in November of the same year. By that time he had been granted lodgings at Whitehall, and the allowance was doubled. His duties were to preach on Sundays before Cromwell either at Whitehall or Hampton Court, on every other Thursday morning at the former, and frequently before the lords and commons. He was employed to make an inventory of the state records for the Commonwealth, ‘so that they may not be embezzled,’ to certify of the fitness of ministers, and to report on some works in manuscript which the council decided to print (Cal. State Papers, 1653–4, p. 225). He was also commissioned (in 1656) to examine Archbishop Ussher's library, and advise what books should be bought by the state (ib. 1655–6, p. 370).
He may have been the ‘Mr. Sterry’ appointed on 8 Sept. 1657 to assist Milton as Latin secretary when Sir Philip Meadows [q. v.] went on a mission to Denmark; but there was a secretary to the Danish embassy in 1660 also of the name of Sterry (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1657–8, p. 89; cf. Masson, Milton, v. 71; Pepys, Diary, i. 43).
Sterry's attachment to the Protector was sincere, if at times somewhat fulsomely expressed. On the news of Cromwell's death being brought to the chaplains assembled to pray for him, he assured them it was good news, for if he had been so useful in a mortal state, how much more so would he be when translated! His prayer for Richard Cromwell that he might be made the ‘brightness of his father's glory and the express image
