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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hickes, Francis

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1389015Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 26 — Hickes, Francis1891Ronald Bayne ‎

HICKES, FRANCIS (1566–1631), translator, son of Richard Hickes, an arras-weaver, of Barcheston or Barston, Warwickshire, was born in 1566 at Shipston, in the parish of Tredington, Worcestershire. He matriculated at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, at the age of thirteen. He proceeded B.A. 30 April 1583. He retired into the country and engaged himself in translating from the Greek. He spent most of his life at Barston and Shipston, died at Sutton in Gloucestershire, at the house of a kinsman, on 9 Jan. 1630–1, and was buried in the chancel of the adjacent church of Brayles, Worcestershire.

His only published translation was ‘Certaine Select Dialogues of Lucian: together with his True Historie, translated from the Greeke into English,’ Oxford, 1634, 4to, with a life of Lucian by his son Thomas. It was reprinted with Jasper Mayne's ‘Part of Lucian made English,’ Oxford, 1664, folio. Hickes left in manuscript:

  1. ‘The History of the Wars of Peloponnesus, in 8 Books, written by Thucydides the Athenian.’
  2. ‘The History of Herodian, beginning from the Reign of the Emperor Marcus.’

These manuscripts were placed by Hickes's son in the library of Christ Church, Oxford.

His son, Thomas Hickes (1599–1634), graduated B.A. at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1620, and M.A. 1623; and later became chaplain of Christ Church. According to Wood he was a distinguished Greek scholar, a good poet, and an excellent limner.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 490, 584, iii. 973; Wood's Fasti, i. 223; prefatory letter by Thomas Hickes before the translations from Lucian. As to Thomas Hickes see Oxf. Univ. Reg. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. ii. 356, iii. 384; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 584–5; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 392.]

R. B.