Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leycester, John
LEYCESTER, JOHN (fl. 1639), miscellaneous writer, was born in 1598 in Cheshire, of low parentage, although probably connected with Sir Peter Leycester, bart. [q. v.], of that county. At the age of twenty-one (28 Jan. 1619–20) he was matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. on 28 Feb. 1621–2. He afterwards became a schoolmaster, in which calling he appears to have spent his life. He wrote, among other things, ‘Enchiridion seu Fasciculus Adagiorum Selectissimorum, or a Manual of the Choicest Adagies,’ London, 1623, 8vo (Latin and English); ‘An Excellent Oration of Dr. John Rainolds,’ translated from the Latin, London, 1638, 8vo; and two poems, in single sheets folio, ‘An Elegiacall Epitaph upon the deplored Death of that Religious and Valiant Gentleman, Colonell John Hampden, Esquire,’ London, 1641; and ‘England's Miraculous Preservation Emblematically Described, Erected for a perpetuall Monument to Posterity,’ London, 1646.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 636; Oxf. Univ. Reg. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. ii. 381, iii. 406; Brit. Mus. Cat.]