Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Keltridge, John
KELTRIDGE, JOHN (fl. 1581), divine, matriculated in 1565 at Trinity College, Cambridge, and proceeded B.A. 1571–2, M.A. 1575. On 14 July 1579 he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford. He was a good preacher, and an ordination sermon by him at Fulham (16 May 1577) attracted notice; on 20 July 1577 he was presented by Queen Elizabeth to the vicarage of Dedham, Essex, but resigned the living before 20 Dec. 1578. In 1579 he was sent by Aylmer, bishop of London, to Cookham, Berkshire, to supply the place of a puritan minister who had been suspended by the ecclesiastical commission, but ‘one Welden, a person of some note in Cookham,’ seems to have prevented him from officiating. In 1581 he describes himself as ‘a preacher of the Word of God in London,’ and was residing in Holborn. His death appears to have taken place in the Norwich diocese.
Keltridge is the author of: 1. ‘The Exposition and Readynges of John Keltridge … upon the wordes of our Saviour Christe, that bee written in the xi. of Luke. Imprinted at London by William How, for Abraham Veale,’ 1578, 4to, b.l. Prefixed is a dedication to Aylmer and a long letter to the reader by the author, together with a Latin epistle and a copy of elegiacs addressed to the author by Cambridge friends. After the ‘Exposition’ follows, at p. 219, the sermon preached at the ordination in 1577, which supplied interesting details about the social condition and status of the contemporary clergy (Sketches of the Reformation, &c., J. O. W. Haweis, pp. 71, 76, 78, 80, 100–1). 2. ‘Two Godlie and learned Sermons, appointed and Preached before the Jesuites, Seminaries, and other adversaries to the Gospell of Christ in the Tower of London. In May 7 and 21 Anno 1581, Richard Jhones,’ London, 8vo, b.l. Three letters, dedicatory to Walsingham, to the readers, and to the jesuits, are prefixed, dated 10 June 1581. The sermons are referred to in Gregory Martin's ‘Discoverie of the manifold corruptions of the Holy Scriptures by the Heretikes,’ &c., Rhemes, 1582, pp. 278–80, and in W. Fulke's ‘Defence … against Martin’ (Parker Society), pp. 78, 530–1.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 449; Strype's Aylmer (Clarendon Press), pp. 22, 39; Tanner's Bibliotheca, p. 451; Newcourt's Repertorium, ii. 210; J. O. W. Haweis's Sketches of the Reformation, pp. 180–2; Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 215; Brit. Mus. Cat.]