divinity, which he studied at Oxford, where he held the dignity of Chancellor in 1304 and 1305. He was made Archdeacon of Canterbury by Bishop Winchelsea, but held the dignity only a short time.
[See "Leland de Scriptoribus Britannicis."]
Cristopher Smart,
POET,
Was born at Shipbourne in 1722, and educated at Maidstone and Cambridge. He cultivated poetry, and produced a translation into Latin of the Ode to St. Cecilia, of Pope, much praised by that poet, who caused him to undertake a similar translation of his Essay on Criticism." He also published a translation of "Horace" and of "Phædrus," a version of the Psalms and the Parables in verse, a satire entitled "The Hilliad" (against Sir John Hill), and other pieces, all of which were collected and published in 1791. Though the friend of Johnson, Garrick, and others, his literary efforts were unsuccessful, and the embarrassment of his circumstances brought on derangement and melancholy. He died in 1770.
[See Life prefixed to his Works, as above, and "Johnson's English Poets."]
William Somner,
ANTIQUARY,
Was born at Canterbury, where his father was Registrar of the Court. Being appointed by Archbishop Laud to an office in the Ecclesiastical Court, he applied himself to the study of antiquities and the Saxon language, and in 1640
