Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/338

Allestree , exemplar prælo destinatum post ejus obitum ad manus meas pervenit.’ Baker, in his ‘History of St. John's College,’ asserts that the life of Whitaker was written by Allenson; but this is certainly a mistake, as the author of the biography was Abdias Assheton.

[MS. Addit. 5862, f. 21; Baker's Hist. of St. John's Coll., Camb., ed. Mayor; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. ii. 287, 551; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, iii. 513; Heywood and Wright's Cambridge Univ. Transactions, ii. 15, 16, 67, 72, 78, 86.]  ALLESTREE, RICHARD, D.D. (1619–1681), royalist divine, was born, in March 1619 (according to Wood 1621), at Uppington, near the Wrekin, Shropshire. He came of an ancient stock, but owing to the lavish expenditure of his ancestors the family estate had become so impoverished that his father, Robert Allestree, had been reduced to serve as steward to Sir Richard (afterwards Lord) Newport. After being educated under Philemon Holland at the Free School, Coventry, he became in 1636 a commoner of Christ Church, Oxford, where his tutor was Richard Busby, afterwards so conspicuous as master of Westminster School. When he had been in residence six months, Dr. Samuel Fell, the dean, ‘observing his parts and industry,’ made him a student. He took his degree of B.A. on 24 Oct. 1640, and soon afterwards was chosen moderator in philosophy. In the following year Allestree took up arms for the king, serving, with many other scholars, under Sir John (afterwards Lord) Biron. When Biron was called away to join Prince Rupert, Allestree returned to his studies. Shortly afterwards the parliamentary forces, under Lord Say, entered the city, and proceeded to rifle the colleges of such of their plate as had not been put to the king's use. On breaking into Christ Church treasury the soldiers discovered nothing but a groat and a halter. Then they went to the deanery, collected everything of value, locked up their prize in a chamber, and retired. The next morning the chamber was found empty; and it appeared on inquiry that Allestree, who, in the absence of the dean and his family, had a key to the lodgings, had removed the spoils. Allestree was seized, and, if the forces had not been suddenly called away by the Earl of Essex, would probably have suffered severely. In the following October he again took arms, and was present at the battle of Kineton Field; after which he hurried back to Oxford, in order to prepare for the reception of Charles I, who was intending to hold his court at Christ Church deanery. On the way he fell into the hands of a party of parliamentarians from Broughton House, which had been garrisoned by Lord Say; but he was shortly afterwards released, as the garrison surrendered to the king's forces. On 2 June 1643 Allestree took the degree of M.A., and in the same year he was severely attacked by the pestilential disease that raged in the garrison. On his recovery he again took arms; but when (in the language of his biographer, Bishop Fell) ‘carnal weapons proved frustrate, and Divine Providence call'd his servants to the more christian exercises of praiers and tears for the defence of the king and the church,’ Allestree entered into holy orders. He was afterwards made censor of the college, and became (as Anthony à Wood says) ‘a noted tutor.’ Before the parliament visitors, on 5 May 1648, he refused submission to the authority of parliament (Register of the Visitors of the University of Oxford, 1647–1658, p. 32, ed. Prof. M. Burrows). He was therefore expelled from the university, with difficulty obtaining time to set his affairs in order. On leaving Oxford he became chaplain to the Hon. Francis Newport, on the death of whose father, Richard, Lord Newport, in France, Allestree was sent across ‘to clear accounts, and see if anything could be preserved from the inhospitable pretence of the droit d'Aubeine, which pillages those strangers who happen to die in the French dominions.’ Having satisfactorily accomplished his mission, he returned to Shropshire, where he remained until the defeat of the royalists at the battle of Worcester. He was then sent with despatches to King Charles II at Rouen. On his return he found that his two friends, Dolben and Fell, archbishop of York and bishop of Oxford respectively, were living privately at Oxford, and were venturing to perform the offices of the Church of England. Having stayed with them for a short time, he was induced to reside in the family of Sir Antony Cope, of Hanwell, near Banbury, a royalist gentleman of fortune. For the next few years he was frequently employed in carrying messages to and from the king. The winter before the Restoration, as he was returning from Flanders with the king's instructions for the filling up of the vacant bishoprics (Life of Barwick, ed. 1724, pp. 201, 250; MS. Coll. Vigorn. No. liv.), he was arrested at Dover, brought to London, and, after being examined before a committee of the Council of Safety, imprisoned at Lambeth Palace. After six or eight weeks' imprisonment, during which 