Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bavant, John
BAVANT, JOHN, D.D. (fl. 1552–1586), catholic divine, was a native of Cheshire, and received his education at Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1552. He was one of the original fellows of St. John's College, and the first Greek reader there. During his residence at Oxford he was tutor to the two noted writers, Edmund Campion and Gregory Martin. Leaving this country on the change of religion in 1558–9, he pursued his theological studies at Rheims and Rome, and was created D.D. In 1581 he was sent from Rheims to England, and he laboured on the mission for a considerable time, but was at last apprehended and kept a prisoner in Wisbech Castle, where it is supposed he died. He was alive on 13 June 1586, when Dr. Gray of Wisbech addressed to Secretary Walsyngham a petition praying for his release.
[First and Second Douay Diaries; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (ed. Bliss), i. 35; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 59; State Papers, Dom. Elizabeth, cxc. art. 30.]