Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gove, Richard
GOVE, RICHARD (1587–1668), puritan divine, son of a Devonshire gentleman, was born at Tavistock in 1587. He entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, as a commoner in March 1605, and studied logic and philosophy, proceeding B.A. 31 May 1608, and M.A. 4 July 1611. He was ordained on leaving the university, and became chaplain to John, lord Paulet, who in August 1618 presented him to the living of Hinton St. George in Somersetshire, where he also taught a grammar school. Gove was deprived during the Commonwealth, and was living in 1652 at East Coker in Somersetshire. Soon after this he was at Exeter, where Wood tells us ‘he closed so much with the presbyterians’ that he was made minister of St. David's Church. At the Restoration he returned to East Coker, and taught the grammar school, afterwards becoming rector of the church. He died on Christmas eve 1668, and was buried in the chancel of his church. Gove published some theological treatises between 1650 and 1654. His two principal works, written before the Restoration, are curious manuals of puritan feeling:
- ‘The Saints' Honeycomb, full of Divine Truths touching both Christian Belief and Christian Life, in two centuries,’ London, 1652, 8vo. This book was published very soon after he reached East Coker for the first time, and is a collection of religious extracts.
- ‘Pious Thoughts vented in Pithy Ejaculations,’ London, 1658, 8vo, a book of much the same description.
Besides these Gove published ‘The Communicant's Guide, directing both the elder and younger sort … how they may receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,’ 8vo, no date; and ‘A Catechism,’ 8vo, no date.
[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, iii. 822; Wood's Fasti, i. 325, 342, ii. 280; Oxf. Univ. Reg. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. ii. 280, iii. 278; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Bodl. Cat.]