Richard Brett

Richard Brett (1567–1637) was an English clergyman and academic. During the translation of the King James Version of the Bible, Brett served in the "First Oxford Company", responsible for the later books of the Old Testament

Whitestaunton Manor, the Brett family seat in Somerset.

Life

Church of Holy Cross and St Mary, Quainton, Buckinghamshire.

From a family of Catholic recusant sympathies, Richard was the son of Robert Brett, gent., of Whitestaunton Manor in Somerset.[1] He was born in London. He attended Hart Hall, Oxford which he entered as a commoner in 1582. He was appointed Rector of Quainton, Buckinghamshire, in 1595. That same year, he was granted a Fellowship in Lincoln College under Richard Kilby, where he pursued his study of Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew, and Ge'ez (Ethiopic) tongues. In 1597 he was admitted bachelor of divinity, and he proceeded in divinity in 1605.[2]

He died in Quainton on 5 April 1637, aged 70, and is buried in the chancel of Quainton Church, which he served for 43 years. Over his grave a monument with his effigies and a Latin and English epitaph was erected by his widow.[3] His will was proved in P.C.C. in June 1637.[4] By his wife Alice, daughter of Richard Brown, sometime mayor of Oxford, he left four daughters, of whom Margaret married Calybute Downing in 1627.[5]

Works

His scholarly publications were in Latin.

• Two translations from Greek into Latin:
  • Vitæ sanctorum Evangelistarum Johannis et Lucæ à Simeone Metaphraste concinnatæ, Oxford, 1597.
  • Agatharchidis et Memnonis historicorum quæ supersunt omnia, Oxford, 1597.
• Iconum sacrarum Decas in quâ è subjectis typis compluscula sanæ doctrinæ capita eruuntur (Joseph Barnes, Oxford 1603).[6]

References

• McClure, Alexander. (1858) The Translators Revived: A Biographical Memoir of the Authors of the English Version of the Holy Bible. Mobile, Alabama: R. E. Publications (republished by the Marantha Bible Society, 1984 ASIN B0006YJPI8 )
• Nicolson, Adam. (2003) God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible. New York: HarperCollins ISBN 0-06-095975-4

Notes

1. A.P. Baggs and R.J.E. Bush, 'Parishes: Whitestaunton', in R.W. Dunning (ed.), A History of the County of Somerset Vol. 4 (V.C.H., London 1978), pp. 231-38 (British History Online, accessed 24 November 2018).
2. 'Brett, Richard', in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (Oxford, 1891), pp. 171-200 (British History Online, accessed 24 November 2018). A. à Wood, ed. P. Bliss, Athenae Oxonienses, 3 vols (F.C. & J. Rivington, &c., London 1813), II, p. 611 (Internet Archive).
3. G. Lipscomb, The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham (J. & W. Robins, London 1847), I, pp. 390-444, at pp. 433-34 (Google).
4. Will of Richard Brett, Rector of Quainton, Buckinghamshire (P.C.C. 1637, Goare quire), Discovery Catalogue.
5. "Downing, Calybute" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
6. Full text (page images) at Google (open).

Further reading

• Stanley M. Burstein, "Richard Brett," in volume 1 of Dictionary of British Classicists, ed. Robert Todd et al. (Bristol: Thoemmes, 2004), pp. 104–05.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Brett, Richard". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.