Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/399

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continuation of the same argument (ninth edition 1750, German translation 1732).

On the accession of George I, Derham became chaplain to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II, and on 19 Sept. 1716 was installed canon of Windsor. In 1730 the university of Oxford gave him the D.D. degree by diploma.

Derham's other original publications were ‘Christo-Theology, or Demonstration of the Divine Authority of the Christian Religion,’ 1730 (substance of a sermon at Bath, 2 Nov. 1729), and a ‘Defence of the Church's Right in Leasehold Estates,’ 1731, in answer to a book published under the name of Everard Fleetwood. Derham also edited Ray's ‘Synopsis of Birds and Fishes,’ 1713, and ‘Philosophical Letters’ of Ray and Willoughby, 1718; besides publishing new editions of Ray's ‘Physico-Theological Discourses’ in 1713, and ‘Wisdom of God’ in 1714. He left a brief life of Ray, published by G. Scott in 1760 in Ray's ‘Remains,’ and edited for the Ray Society by Dr. Lankester in 1846 in ‘Memorials of John Ray.’ He contributed notes to the histories of birds and insects (1724–31) by Eleazar Albin [q. v.] He revised an edition of ‘Miscellanea Curiosa, a Collection of some of the greatest Curiosities in Nature, accounted for by the greatest Philosophers of this age,’ in 1726 (first edition in 1705–7), and edited the ‘Philosophical Experiments of … Robert Hooke and other eminent Virtuosoes’ (1726). He is also said to have made large collections of birds and insects. He was strong, healthy, and amiable, and he served his parishioners in their bodily as well as their spiritual ailments, few of them requiring another physician during his lifetime. He died on 5 April 1735. By his wife Anne, aunt to George Scott of Chigwell, he left several children, the eldest of whom was William, who gave an account of his life to the ‘Biographia Britannica.’ He was fellow and afterwards president of St. John's College, Oxford, and died on 17 July 1757.

[Biog. Brit.; Nichols's Anecdotes, i. 143.]

L. S.

DERHAM, WILLIAM, D.D. (1702–1757), president of St. John's College, Oxford, son of William Derham [q. v.], was born at Upminster in 1702, entered Merchant Taylors' School in 1714, proceeded to St. John's College, Oxford, in 1721, was elected fellow of the college in 1724, graduated B.A. in 1725, and M.A. in 1729, was junior proctor in 1736, and elected Whyte's Professor of Moral Philosophy on 7 Feb. 1737, graduated B.D. the same year, took holy orders and the degree of D.D. in 1742, and was elected president of St. John's in 1748. His term of office was uneventful. He occupied his leisure time in making a neat transcript of the earlier records belonging to the college, which seems to indicate a certain taste for antiquarian research. He died on 17 July 1757, and was buried in the college chapel. His epitaph ascribes to him most of the virtues.

[Robinson's Merchant Taylors' Reg. ii. 40; Wood's Hist. and Ant. Oxford (Gutch), ii. pt. ii. 876; iv. 546, 558; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl.; Grad. Oxon.; information from the Rev. R. Ewing, M.A., tutor of St. John's Coll., Oxford.]

J. M. R.

'DERING. [See also Deering.]

DERING, EDWARD (1540?–1576), puritan divine, descended from an ancient and still existing Kentish family, which claims to be of Saxon origin, was the third son of John Dering, esq., of Surrenden-Dering, Kent, and Margaret, his wife, daughter of John Brent of Charing, Kent. He received his education at Christ's College, Cambridge; was admitted B.A. 1559-60, and was shortly after elected a fellow of the society. He commenced M. A. in 1563. In the following year Queen Elizabeth visited the university, and proceeded to make a tour of the colleges; on her arrival at Emmanuel, Dering presented her with a congratulatory copy of Greek verses–the earliest evidence of that scholarship which afterwards led Archbishop Parker to style him 'the greatest learned man in England' (Parker Corresp. p. 413). In 1566 he was university proctor, and the next year preacher before the university on the Lady Margaret foundation. On 28 Nov. 1568 he was collated by Parker to the rectory of Pluckley, the parish in which Surrenden-Dering is situate. He also appears about this time to have been one of the chaplains to the Duke of Norfolk, and to have held a chaplaincy in the Tower of London, where he preached, 11 Dec. 1569, a sermon of remarkable power and beauty, which he afterwards printed. Down to this time he would seem to have been well disposed towards the A glican party, and in agreement with the church discipline and ritual. He was singled out by Parker as the scholar best qualified to reply to the malignant misrepresentations of Sander in his treatise, 'De Visibili Monarchia;' and he was employed by the privy council to draw up a series of answers to a book which at the time was supposed to have been written by Cartwright (Lemon, Cal. State Papers, 1547-80, p. 470). In his 'Sparing Restraint' (a reply to Harding, the Jesuit assailant of Jewel) he writes: 'Our service is good and holy, every tittle grounded