Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/294

 as an appendix to his ‘Discourse of Trade,’ and secondly by Culpeper's son. It was translated into French with Sir Josiah Child's book in 1754. Culpeper died in January 1661–1662, and was buried in Hollingbourn church 25 Jan. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Cheney of Guestling, Sussex, by whom he had three sons and eight daughters. The eldest son, Cheney, inherited Leeds Castle, which was entailed, but with the consent of his surviving brother he cut off the entail and sold the estate to his cousin John, lord Colepeper [q. v.] The second son, Francis, died young.

The third son, the younger (1626–1697), inherited Greenway Court. He entered as a commoner of University College, Oxford, in 1640; proceeded B.A. in 1643; travelled abroad, and was subsequently elected probationer-fellow of All Souls College. He was knighted soon after the Restoration; retired to his estate on his father's death in 1661, and died there in 1697. His will, dated March 1695, was proved 7 Dec. 1697. He was married, and left three sons (Thomas, William, and Francis) and three daughters. Besides editing and writing a preface for his father's tract on usury (1668), he published many pamphlets on the same subject, repeating his father's arguments. In 1668 appeared his ‘Discourse shewing the many Advantages which will accrue to the Kingdom by the Abatement of Usury, together with the absolute necessity of reducing interest of money to the lowest rate it bears in other countries,’ and later in the same year he issued a short appendix to this treatise. Thomas Manley controverted Culpeper's view in ‘Usury at Six per Cent. examined,’ 1669, and an anonymous writer argued against him in ‘Interest of Money mistaken,’ 1669. Culpeper replied to Manley in detail in ‘The Necessity of abating Usury reasserted,’ 1670. Culpeper also issued ‘Brief Survey of the Growth of Usury in England with the Mischiefs attending it,’ 1671; ‘Humble Proposal for the Relief of Debtors, and speedy Payment of their Creditors,’ 1671; ‘Several Objections against the Reducement of Usury … with the Answer,’ 1671. Culpeper was likewise the author of a collection of commonplace reflections entitled ‘Essayes or Moral Discourses on several Subjects. Written by a person of honour,’ 1655 and 1671, and a tract ‘Considerations touching Marriage,’ is also attributed to him.



CULVERWEL, NATHANAEL (d. 1651?), divine, was entered as a pensioner at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 5 April 1633, when he is described as of Middlesex. He became B.A. in 1636, M.A. in 1640, was elected a fellow in 1642, and died not later than 1651. Nothing else is known of his life. A Nicholas Culverwel, who was a citizen of London in the reign of Elizabeth, had two daughters married to Laurence Chaderton [q. v.], master of Emmanuel, and to William Whitaker [q. v.], master of St. John's College, Cambridge. Nicholas had two sons, Ezekiel and Samuel. Ezekiel, educated at Emmanuel, was successively rector of Stambridge and vicar of Felstead, Essex; he was suspended for nonconformity in 1583; and published a ‘Treatise on Faith,’ 1623, which reached a seventh edition, edited by his nephew, William Gough, after his death. Samuel is said by Clark to have been a ‘famous preacher.’ Nathanael Culverwel was presumably a member of this family. His works were all college sermons or exercises. In 1651 William Dillingham (who in 1642 became fellow, and in 1653 master of Emmanuel) published ‘Sacred Optics,’ a discourse by Culverwel on 1 Corinthians xiii. 12. In 1652 Dillingham published ‘An Elegant and Learned Discourse of the Light of Nature, with several other Treatises, viz. the Schism, the Act of Oblivion, the Child's Return, the Panting Soul, Mount Ebal, the White Stone, Spiritual Optics, the Worth of Souls, by Nathanael Culverwel, M.A., and lately fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.’ To this were prefixed commendatory letters by Dillingham and Richard Culverwel, the author's brother (d. 1688, aged 67, after being rector of Grundisburg, Suffolk, forty years). From some phrases in them it appears that Culverwel had suffered from ill-health, and that some people had been inclined to charge him with conceit. The ‘Light of Nature’ was republished in 1654, 1661, and 1669. It was edited by John Brown, D.D., of Edinburgh in 1857, with a critical essay by John Cairns of Berwick. In this edition the numerous classical and Hebrew citations, which are supposed to have frightened former readers, are replaced by translations.

Culverwel's ‘Light of Nature’ is a treatise of remarkable eloquence, power, and learning. Culverwel, brought up in the great puritan college, was a contemporary of Cudworth, Whichcote, and John Smith, all members of the same college. His sympathies were clearly with the puritans during the civil war (see Mount Ebal, p. 89), and he belonged theologically to the remarkable