Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lloyd, Nicholas
LLOYD, NICHOLAS (1630–1680), historical compiler, son of George Lloyd, rector of Wonston, Hampshire, was born in the parsonage-house there on 28 May 1630, and educated at home by his father till 1643, when he was admitted a chorister of Winchester College. In the following year he became a scholar of that college, and remained there till September 1651. He entered Hart Hall, Oxford, 13 May 1652, was admitted a scholar of Wadham College on 20 Oct. 1653, proceeded B.A. 16 Jan. 1655–6, was elected to a fellowship at Wadham 30 June 1656, and commenced M.A. 6 July 1658 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 187, 214). He was appointed lecturer at St. Martin's (Carfax), Oxford, in Lent 1664, and was rector of that parish from 1665 to 1670. In July 1665 he was appointed university rhetoric reader, and he was twice elected sub-warden of Wadham College, viz. in 1666 and 1670.
In 1665, when Dr. Walter Blandford [q. v.], warden of Wadham College, was advanced to the bishopric of Oxford, he chose Lloyd as his chaplain, and on that prelate being translated to the see of Worcester, in 1671, Lloyd accompanied him. The bishop eventually presented him to the rectory of St. Mary, Newington Butts, Surrey. He was formally inducted 28 April 1673, but it appears that he did not take up his residence there till August 1677. He died at Newington Butts on 27 Nov. 1680, and was buried in the chancel of his church without any memorial. The parish register records the fact that he and Herbert Rogers, clerk of the parish, both lay dead and unburied at the same time, 1 Dec. 1680 (Burn, Hist. of Parish Registers, 2nd edit. p. 112). Wood says that Lloyd was ‘an harmless, quiet man,’ and ‘an excellent philologist.’
He published a ‘Dictionarium Historicum,’ Oxford, 1670, folio, chiefly based on the dictionaries of Charles Stephanus or Estienne, and Philip Ferrarius. Afterwards he greatly enlarged and remodelled this encyclopædic work, which was republished under the title of ‘Dictionarium Historicum, Geographicum, Poeticum … Opus admodum utile et apprime necessarium: à Carlo Stephano inchoatum: ad incudem vero revocatum, innumerisque pene locis auctum et emaculatum, per Nicolaum Lloydium. … Editio novissima,’ London, 1686, fol. Whalley says that Lloyd spent thirty years in the compilation. Aubrey (Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey, v. 140) says he had seen several manuscripts written by Lloyd, particularly: 1. ‘Parenti Parentatio, or Funeral Obsequies, by Nicholas Lloyd, in Memory of his ever honoured Father, Mr. Geo. Lloyd, together with some brief Observations upon the chief Passages of his Life and Death, Anno Dom. 1658,’ 12mo. 2. ‘Διονυσιου Οικουμενης Περιηγησις, Dionysii Situs Orbis Descriptio, una cum Commentatione Philologica, Geographica, Historica, Poetica, et Mythologica, ex 440 Auctoribus vetustis ac recentibus illustrata,’ 1656, 4to, pp. 389. 3. Latin translation of ‘Orphei Argonautica.’ 4. ‘Observations on several Parts of the Holy Scriptures.’ In the Rawlinson collection of manuscripts in the Bodleian Library is a folio volume (Misc. 32) containing several of his papers and memoranda, including autobiographical notes, printed in Wood's ‘Athenæ Oxonienses,’ ed. Bliss, iii. 1259–60. Lloyd also wrote, 5. ‘Bίος μὴ Παλίμβιος, or Life Irrecoverable,’ manuscript, a funeral discourse on the death of his brother Edward, dated Wadham College, 1656.
His commonplace book is in the possession of Mr. H. Buxton Forman.
[Gardiner's Register of Wadham College, i. 482; Universal Historical Bibliotheque, 1687, p. 149; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Williams's Eminent Welshmen, p. 285; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 1258.]