Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jermin, Michael
JERMIN or GERMAN, MICHAEL (1591–1659), divine, born in 1591 at Knows, Devonshire, was the son of Alexander Jermin, merchant and sheriff of Exeter, of which place his grandfather was twice mayor. He matriculated at the age of fifteen at Exeter College, Oxford, 20 June 1606, was elected a scholar of Corpus Christi College 23 Sept. 1608, and a probationer fellow 25 April 1615, graduating B.A. 12 Oct. 1611 and M.A. 24 Jan. 1615. On leaving Oxford he went abroad as chaplain to Princess Elizabeth, electress palatine, and proceeded D.D. at Leyden. He was again in England by 1624; on 27 July graduated D.D. at Oxford, and was made chaplain to Charles I in the same year. In 1628 he became rector of St. Martin's, Ludgate, suffered much for the royal cause when the civil war broke out, and was ejected from his living in favour of Thomas Jacombe [q. v.] His property was taken from him, and he was obliged to live on the charity of fellow-royalists. He retired about 1652 to his son-in-law's house at Kemsly, near Sevenoaks, and died suddenly, 14 Aug. 1659, while returning from preaching at Sevenoaks. He was buried north of the altar at Kemsly, where a marble monument was raised over his grave. Wood describes him as a pious and laborious man. He published: 1. ‘Paraphrastical Meditations by way of Commentary on Proverbs,’ dedicated to Charles I, London, 1638, fol. Bodl. and British Museum. 2. ‘Commentary on Ecclesiastes,’ &c., dedicated to the Electress Elizabeth, London, 1639, fol. Bodl. and British Museum. 3. ‘The Father's Instructions to his Child,’ London, 1658, 8vo. Wood also assigns to him the ‘Exemplary Life and Death of Mr. Jourdaine,’ 4to, probably the Ignatius Jourdain, a life of whom was also written by Ferdinand Nicolls, 1653 [see under Jourdain, Sylvester].
[Wood's Athenæ (Bliss), iii. 475; Wood's Fasti, i. 341, 357, 418; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 415; Oxf. Univ. Registers, Oxf. Hist. Soc., II. i. 272, II. ii. 289, II. iii. 305.]