Page:Men of Kent and Kentishmen.djvu/37

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AND KENTISHMEN.
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year, he made no scruple of taking the oaths of supremacy and allegiance to William III, having been brought up in Whig principles; but some years later, in 1705, he began to have doubts, and finally joined the party of the Non-jurors. Before this he held successively the livings of Betteshanger and of Ruckinge. The latter he resigned in 1715, and lived the remainder of his life in obscurity, till his death in 1743.

He was a voluminous writer of controversial pieces. His "Dissertation on the principal Liturgies of the Christian Church," published 1720, has been highly commended. In 1743 was published his "Letter to a Clergyman," showing why our English Bibles differ so much from the Septuagint, though both are translated from the Hebrew Original.

[See "Chalmer's Biographical Dictionary," "Nichols's, Literary Anecdotes," "Allibone's Dictionary of Authors."]


Bridget of Eltham,

Was the fourth daughter of Edward IV. and his queen Elizabeth. She was born at the palace at Eltham (which her father had almost rebuilt) Nov. 10th, 1480. "Observing," says Fuller, "her three eldest sisters not over happy in their husbands, she resolved to wed a monastical life, and (no whit ambitious of the place of an Abbess,) became an ordinary votary in the Nunnery at Dartford, founded by King Edward III." On this account she is commonly known as the "Nun of Dartford." She died in the year 1517.

[See "Fuller's Worthies."]