Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/251

Alcock of the college were drawn up in professed harmony with his views, it may be inferred that he recognised, in common with other discerning minds, the evils resulting from the undue prominence at that time given to the study.

[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabrigienses, vol.i.; Letters and Papers illustrative of the Reign of Richard III and Henry VII, ed. Gairdner; and Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, ed. Campbell, both in Rolls Ser.; Bentham's History of Ely; Fuller's Worthies; Biographia Brit.; Documents relating to the Univ. and Coll. of Cambridge; Mullinger's Hist. of the University of Cambridge. vol. i.]  ALCOCK, or ALLCOCK, JOHN (1715–1806), doctor of music, who himself wrote his name variously as ‘Alcock’ and ‘Allcock,’ was born near St. Paul's Cathedral on 11 April 1715. He was educated in the cathedral choir under Charles King, and at fourteen was a pupil of the blind organist, John Stanley. He was appointed organist of St. Andrew's, Plymouth, in 1737, and was married in the following year. In January 1742 he became organist of St. Lawrence's, Reading, where he remained until 1749, when he was appointed organist, vicar choral, and master of the choristers at Lichfield Cathedral. In 1755 he look the degree of Mus. Bac. at Oxford, and that of Mus. Doc. in 1761 or 1765. He resigned the posts of organist and master of the choristers at Lichfield in 1760, and in the following year became organist at Sutton Coldfield parish church, an appointment that he held until 1786. Alock was also (from 16 May 1766 to 25 March 1790) organist of the parish church of Tamworth. In 1770, 1771, and 1772, he won the Catch Club prizes for glees and canons. His wife, by whom he had a son and three daughters, died in 1793. He died at the Close, Lichfield, in February 1806, and was buried in the cathedral. Dr. Alcock's compositions include songs, solos for the flute, harpsichord, and organ; services, anthems, glees, canons, and a setting of Psalm li. in Latin. He was a thoroughly sound musician, and throughout the course of his long life preserved the traditions of the old English school of church composers, free from the inanities in which some of his contemporaries indulged. His son,, jun. (1740?–1791), born about 1740, was organist of St. Mary Magdalen's, Newark-on-Trent, from 1758 to 1768. In 1766 he took the degree of Mus. Bac. at Oxford, and was organist of the parish church of Walsall from 1773 until his death, which took place 30 March 1791. Between 1770 and 1780 he published several songs, anthems, lessons for the harpsichord, and sonatas for strings. He is often confounded with William Alcock, a contemporary organist at Newcastle.

[Grove's Dictionary, i. 51a; Gent. Mag. 1791 and 1806; Appendix to Bemrose's Choir Chant Book (1882), p. ii; Georgian Era (1834), iv. 516; Brit. Mus. Catalogue; Add. MSS. 29379, and 23624; Catalogue of Music School Collection, Oxford; information from Mr. Charles Edward Stephens.]  ALCOCK, NATHAN (1707–1779), physician, was born at Runcorn, Cheshire, September 1707. He was the second son of David and Mary Alcock, and was of the kin of the founder of Jesus College, Cambridge, Bishop Alcock. A dislike to his schoolmaster seems to have interrupted his classical education, and for a time he was idle and unsettled. He then formed a resolution to study, and promised, if his father would give him a small estate of 50l. a year, which he owned at Wirrel in Cheshire, to ask nothing further and to take to medicine. His father gave him the estate, and Alcock studied first at Edinhurgh and then under Boerhaave at Leyden, where he not only learned his profession but how to teach it, and graduated M.D. 1737. From Leyden he came to Oxford, where one professor of the medical faculty gave no lectures, and another did not reside. Alcock gave lectures on anatomy and on chemistry, and this roused a storm of opposition against him. Public readers were appointed to supply the defect of the professors and to suppress the Leyden doctor. The readers were unable to compete with a man fresh from the class rooms of Albinus and Gobius, and master of the lucid method of exposition which was the ground of the fame of Boerhaave; and while Alcock's unauthorised lectures were crowded, no one went to hear his opponents. Other methods of opposition were tried; for example, it was suggested that his residence in Holland had probably made him unsound in theological opinions, and when it was proposed to give him a degree, the heads of houses refused their consent. His friends, among whom were Sir William Blackstone and Dr. Lowth, afterwards bishop of London, were strong in his support, and in 1741 he was granted the degree of M.A., and incorporated of Jesus College. He became M.D. 1749, was elected F.R.S., and in 1754 a fellow of the College of Physicians (, College of Physicians, ii. 189). His practice was extensive, and he purchased an estate near Runcorn. His happiness was disturbed by the death of a lady to whom he was, after a long engagement, about to be married, and he retired to his native 