Magdalen College, and in 1609 was made perpetual fellow of that house, being then M.A. During his residence at the university he was much consulted by noted members of the Calvinistic party, and he had many pupils entrusted to his care, including Accepted Frewen, subsequently archbishop of York, and William Pember. In the reign of James I he attended at court on the Earl of Somerset, and continued there till the death of his friend Sir Thomas Overbury. In 1613 he was instituted to the rectory of Eastington, in his native county, where he became eminent among the puritanical party. In 1633, when the 'Book of Sports' of James I was published the second time by royal authority, he declined to read it in his church, and voluntarily resigning his rectory he obtained a license to practise physic from the bishop of Gloucester. He now settled at Pitchcombe, near Stroud, where he had an estate. In 1641 he espoused the cause of the parliament and renewed his ministerial functions at Pitchcombe. 'In the exerciser of the pulpit he was sometimes a Boanerges, the son of thunder; but more commonly a Barnabas, the son of consolation' (Brook, Puritans, iii. 260). He died at Pitchcombe on 21 Sept. 1656.
He married Dorothy, daughter of William Plumstead of Plumstead, Norfolk (she died 14 Sept. 1622, aged 28). His son, Daniel Capel, M.A., was successively minister of Morton, Alderley, and Shipton Moigne in Gloucestershire; the latter living he parted with in 1662 for nonconformity, and he practised medicine at Stroud until his death.
Richard Capel was the author of: 1. 'God's Valuation of Man's Soul,' in two sermons on Mark viii. 36, London, 1632, 4to, 2. 'Tentations: their Nature, Danger, Cure, to which is added a Briefe Dispute, as touching Restitution in the Case of Usury,' London, 1633, 12mo; second edition, London, 1635, 12mo; third edition, London, 1636-7, 12mo; sixth edition, consisting of five parts, 1658-55, 8vo. The fourth part was published at London, 1633,8vo. The 'Brief Dispute' was answered by T. P., London, 1679. 3. 'Apology in Defence of Some Exceptions against some Particulars in the Book of Tentations,' London, 1659, 8vo. 4. 'Capel's Remains, being an useful Appendix to his excellent Treatise of Tentations, with a preface prefixed, wherein is contained an Abridgment of the author's life, by his friend, Valentine Marshall,' London, 1658, 8vo.
He likewise edited some of the theological treatises composed by his favourite pupil William Pember, who died in his house at Eastington in 1628.
[Life of Marshall; Bigland's Gloucestershire, i. 539-42; Clarke's Lives of Ten Eminent Divines (1862), 248; Macfarlane's Cat. Librorum Impress, Bibl Coll. Mariae Magd. Oxon. Append. 16; Wood's Athenae Oxon. (Bliss), iii 421; Fuller's Worthies (1841). i. 385; Hetherington's Hist. of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, 109; Brook's Puritans, iii. 159; Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial (1802), ii. 264; Calamy's Abridgment of Baxter (1711) ii. 317; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Lansd, MS, 285, f. 114.]
CAPEL, Sir THOMAS BLADEN (1776–1853), admiral, youngest son of William, fourth earl of Essex, by his second wife, Harriet, daughter of Colonel Thomas Bladen, was born 25 Aug. 1776, and, according to the fiction then in vogue, entered the navy on board the Phaeton frigate as captain's servant on 22 March 1782. It was ten years later before he joined in the flesh, and after serving on the Newfoundland and home stations and being present as midshipman of the Sans Pareil in the action off L'Orient, 23 July 1795, he was, on 5 April 1797, promoted to a lieutenancy and appointed to the Cambrian frigate, on the home station. In April 1798 he was appointed to the Vanguard, bearing the flag of Sir Horatio Nelson, and, during the Mediterranean cruise which culminated in the battle of the Nile, acted as Sir Horatio's signal officer. On 4 Aug. 1798 he was appointed by Nelson to the command of the Mutine brig, and sent home with duplicate despatches, which, in consequence of the capture of the Leander [see BERRY, Sir EDWARD], brought the first news of the victory to England, 2 Oct. His commander's commission was at once confirmed, and on 27 Dec. he was advanced to post rank. On 5 Jan. 1799 he was appointed to the Arab frigate, for the West India station. In July 1800 he was transferred to the Meleager, which on 9 June 1801 was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico. In August 1802 he was appointed to the Phœbe of 36 guns, in which he served in the Mediterranean for the three following years, and was present at the battle of Trafalgar. ‘The extraordinary exertion of Captain Capel,’ wrote Collingwood on 4 Nov., ‘saved the French Swiftsure; and his ship, the Phœbe, together with the Donegal, afterwards brought out the Bahama’ (Nicolas, Nelson Despatches, vii. 219).
On his return to England he sat as a member of the court-martial on Sir Robert Calder [q. v.], and on 27 Dec. was appointed to the Endymion of 40 guns, in which he again proceeded to the Mediterranean, carrying
