Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cramer, John Antony
CRAMER, JOHN ANTONY (1793–1848), dean of Carlisle and regius professor of modern history at Oxford, was born at Mittoden, Switzerland, in 1793. He was educated at Westminster School, entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1811, obtained first class honours in both classics and mathematics in 1814, graduated B.A. in that year and M.A. in 1817, B.D. in 1830, and D.D. in 1831; was appointed tutor and rhetoric reader of his college; was perpetual curate of Binsey, Oxfordshire, from 1822 to 1845, but did not leave Oxford; and was public examiner there in 1822–4, and again in 1831. He was also vice-principal of St. Alban Hall 1823–5, public orator 1829 to 1842, principal of New Inn Hall 1831–47, succeeded Arnold as regius professor of modern history in 1842, and became dean of Carlisle 1844. For the previous thirteen years he resided at New Inn Hall as principal, and rebuilt the place at his own expense. He died at Scarborough 24 Aug. 1848.
Cramer was a good classic, and published the following: 1. ‘Dissertation of the Passage of Hannibal over the Alps’ (with H. L. Wickham), Oxford, 1820; 2nd edit. 1828. 2. ‘Description of Ancient Italy,’ 2 vols. 1826. 3. ‘Description of Ancient Greece,’ 3 vols. 1828. 4. ‘Description of Asia Minor,’ 2 vols. 1832. 5. ‘Anecdota Græca Oxoniensia,’ 4 vols. 1834–7. 6. ‘Anecdota Græca e codicibus manuscriptis Bibliothecæ Regiæ Parisiensis,’ 4 vols. 1839–41. 7. ‘Catenæ Græcorum Patrum in Novum Testamentum,’ 8 vols. 1838–44. 8. Inaugural lecture ‘On the Study of Modern History,’ delivered 2 March 1843. He also edited for the Camden Society the ‘Travels of Nicander Nucius of Corcyra in England in the reign of Henry VIII,’ 1841. Cramer left three sons and a daughter.
[Gent. Mag. 1848, ii. 430; Welch's Alumni Westmonast. 473.]