Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Huish, Alexander
HUISH, ALEXANDER (1594?–1668), biblical scholar, was the son of John Hewish or Huish, and born in the parish of St. Cuthbert, Wells, Somersetshire, in 1594 or 1595, entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1609, from which he was taken in 1613 by the foundress of Wadham College, and made one of the original scholars of that house. On 10 Feb. 1613-14 he was admitted B.A., being the first of the college to obtain that degree. On 27 June 1614 he was recommended for election by the foundress, and was admitted 30 June 1615. He proceeded M.A. on 17 Dec. 1616, and B.D. on 2 June 1627 (Reg. of Univ. of Oxf., Oxf. Hist. Soc., vol. ii. pt.iii. p.325). He held various college offices, and resigned his fellowship 28 June 1629. He was appointed a prebendary of Wedmore Secunda in Wells Cathedral on 26 Oct. 1627 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 183), obtained the rectory of Beckington, Somersetshire, on 21 Dec. 1628, and that of Hornblotton in the same county on 6 Feb. 1638. He was arrested as a delinquent in 1640, the inhabitants of Beckington having petitioned parliament on account of his innovations in the services, and was at one time imprisoned at Chadfield, near Bradford, Wiltshire. He was not, however, formally dispossessed of Beckington till 1650, when John After took possession. At the Restoration he recovered both his livings, and received in addition, on 12 Sept. 1660, the prebend of Whitelackington in Wells Cathedral (ib. i. 188). Huish died in April 1668.
He was author of: 1. 'Lectures upon the Lord's Prayer,' 3 pts., 4to, London, 1626. 2. 'Musa Ruralis; in adventum … Caroli II., … vota, suspiria, gaudia, et rursum vota: quæ suo, aliorumque rectorum, non rectorum, ruralium nomine, effudit A. Huissus,' 4to, London, 1660. He also edited John Flavel's (1596-1617) [q. v.] 'Tractatus de Demonstratione,' 8vo, 1619. Brian Walton, too, owed much to Huish in the compilation of his 'Polyglott Bible,' and selected him as one of the four correctors of the work while at press. Huish's labours were devoted to the Septuagint, the Greek text of the New Testament, and the Vulgate. He collated the Alexandrian MS., according to Bentley, 'with great exactness.' In the last volume (vi.) Huish wrote, according to Wood, 'A Greek Hymn with the Latin to it,' composed on St. Hilary's day, 13 Jan. (O.S.) 1657-8, 'in the year of his grand climacteric 63.' He also has a poem in the 'Oxford Verses' on the death of Queen Anne, wife of James I, and contributed to the 'Ultima Lima Savilii,' 1622.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 811-12; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 76; Weaver's Somerset Incumbents; Rushworth's Hist. Coll. iii. i. 97; Prince's Worthies of Devon, 2nd edit. p. 751; Gardiner's Register of Wadham College; Todd's Life of Walton, i. 269-76; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660, p. 234; Hunter's Chorus Vatum, Addit. MS. 24492, p.29.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.162
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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