Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/336

 his grammar school and of the clergy and gentlemen of the hundred of Blackheath.

 COLFE, ISAAC (1560?–1597), divine, the fourth son of Amandus, Almantius, or Aymon Colfe and his wife, Catherine Bradfield, and uncle of [q. v.], was born at Canterbury in or before 1560. His father and mother, who were zealous protestants, had a considerable estate at Guisnes, which they lost on the reconquest of Calais by the French in 1558. They came over to England, lived in a house outside the West-gate of Canterbury, afterwards occupied by their third son Joseph, mayor of the city, and were both buried in Westgate Church. Isaac was entered as a commoner of Broadgates Hall, Oxford, in 1576, and proceeded B.A. on 17 Feb. 1580, and M.A. on 4 July 1582. Having taken orders he was presented to the vicarage of Stone in Kent on 25 Feb. 1585, and resigned it in 1587, on his appointment to the vicarage of Brookland in the same county. On 18 June 1596 he was inducted master of Kingsbridge Hospital, Canterbury. He died on 15 June 1597, and was buried in the chapter-house of the cathedral. He was a married man, but the name of his wife is not known. He had two sons: Isaac of Christ Church, and Jacob of All Souls' College, Oxford. He published:
 * 1) 'A Sermon preached on the Queene's Day, being 17 November 1587, at the Town of Lidd in Kent (on Ps. cxviii. 22-6),' printed in 1588 at London, 8vo, and dedicated to the mayor and jurats of Lidd; a copy is in the Bodleian.
 * 2) 'A Comfortable Treatise on the Temptation of Christ,' 1596, London, 8vo, wrongly attributed by Wood to Isaac Colfe, rector of Chaldwell, son of Richard Colfe, prebendary of Canterbury.

 COLGAN, JOHN (d. 1657?), hagiographer, was a native of Ulster, and a member of the Irish Minorite convent of St. Antony of Padua at Louvain. He was also professor of theology in the university of that place, but it appears that he retired from that office before 1645. He projected a colossal work on the sacred antiquities of Ireland, in six volumes. In 1645 he published at Louvain the third volume of this work, containing the lives of the Irish saints in the order of the calendar from January to March. The lives of the saints for the remaining months of the year were intended to be comprised in the three succeeding volumes. Colgan's countryman, Wadding, whose bibliography of the Minorite writers was published in 1650, says that the fourth volume, extending to June, was in the press when he wrote, but it never appeared. The portion of the work beginning with the third volume has the separate title of 'Acta Sanctorum Veteris et Majoris Scotiæ seu Hiberniæ.' The first volume, which was to consist of a general introduction to early Irish history, was not published, but the second volume, entitled 'Trias Thaumaturga,' and containing lives of the three Irish saints, Patrick, Columba, and Bridget, appeared in 1647. Colgan was an accomplished Irish scholar, and his large use of early documents in that language gives great importance to his work, which displays much critical sagacity. In 1655 he published at Antwerp a small volume on the life of John Duns Scotus, 'the subtle doctor,' in which he maintained that the great schoolman was of Irish, and not Scottish birth. He is also said to have published in 1639 a volume of his theological lectures delivered at Louvain. Colgan's enormous industry as a student and as a writer is the more remarkable as he suffered constantly from severe ill-health. In the 'Bibliotheca Franciscana' he is said to have died in 1647, but this is a mistake, as his book on Scotus contains a note signed by him and dated 30 Aug. 1655. The authors of the supplement to Wadding conjecture that the date 1647 is a misprint for 1657.

 COLISTON,. [See .]

 COLLARD, FREDERICK WILLIAM (1772–1860), pianoforte manufacturer, son of William and Thamosin Collard, was baptised at Wiveliscombe, Somersetshire, on 21 June 1772, and coming to London at the age of fourteen, obtained a situation in the house of Longman, Lukey, & Broderip, music publishers and pianoforte makers at 26 Cheapside. In 1799 Longman & Co. fell into commercial difficulties, and a new company, consisting of John Longman, Muzio Clementi, Frederick Augustus Hyde, F. W. Collard, Josiah Banger, and David Davis, took over the business, but on 28 June 1800 Longman