BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY : CONTAINING AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 174 PRINTED FOR J. NICHOLS AND SON; F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON; T. PAYNE; R. LEA; W. LOWNDES ; WHITE, COCHRANE, AND CO. ; T. EGERTON; J. BOOTH; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, J. MAWMAN; GALE, CURTIS, AND FENNER; R. H. EVANS; EACHARD (JOHN), master of Catharine-hall, in the university of Cambridge, and author of several ingenious works, was descended from a good family in the county of Suffolk, and born about 1636. Having been carefully instructed in grammar and classical literature, he was sent to Catharine-hall, in the university of Cambridge, where he was admitted on the 10th of May, 1653. He took the degree of B. A. in 1656, was elected fellow of his college in 1658, and in 1660 became M. A. We meet with no farther particulars about him till 1670, when he published, but without his name, "The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion enquired into. In à letter to R. L.” This piece had a very rapid sale, and passed through many editions. It was attacked by an anonymous writer the following year, in "An Answer to a Letter of Enquiry into the Grounds," &c. and by Barnabas Oley, and several others; particularly the famous Dr. John Owen, in a preface to some sermons of W. Bridge. Eachard replied to the first of his answerers in a piece entitled "Some Observations upon the Answer to an Enquiry into the Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy with some additions. In a second letter to In 1671 he published, "Mr. Hobbes's State of Nature considered: in a dialogue between Philautus and Timothy. To which are added, five letters from the author of The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of VOL. XIII. R. L." B The University of lowa |