Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meetkerke, Edward
MEETKERKE, EDWARD (1590–1657), divine, born in St. Botolph, Aldersgate, and baptised in the Dutch Church, Austin Friars, London, on 29 Sept. 1590 (Registers, ed. Moens, p. 49), was only son of Sir Adolphus van Meetkerke (1528–1591) of Brussels, ambassador to England from the States-General, by his second wife, Margaret (1549–1594), daughter of John Lichtervelde of Flanders (Berry, Genealogies, ‘Hertfordshire,’ p. 190). He was educated on the foundation at Westminster School, whence he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1606, and matriculated on 16 Jan. 1606–7 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, iii. 999). He graduated B.A. in 1610, was chosen student, and became ‘a most careful tutor’ in his college. In 1613 he proceeded M.A., was incorporated M.A. at Cambridge in 1617, and received the B.D. degree at Oxford with license to preach on 19 June 1620. He became D.D. on 26 May 1625. Meetkerke was elected to the regius professorship of Hebrew at Oxford on 8 Nov. 1620 (Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 514). He resigned it in 1626 upon being presented to the well-endowed rectory of Easton, Hampshire. On 9 Jan. 1631 he was installed prebendary of Winchester (ib. iii. 36). Under the parliament he was deprived of his stall and retired to his rectory, where he died in August 1657, and was buried in the middle of the chancel of the church. Having inherited his father's estate and bought property in Hampshire, he died comparatively rich (cf. his will registered in P. C. C. 322, Ruthen). By his wife Barbara, daughter of the Rev. Dr. More, who survived him, he had a son, Adolf (1628–1664), M.A. of Christ Church, Oxford, and a daughter, Frances, married to Nathaniel Naper or Napier.
There are some poems by Meetkerke in the Oxford collections of 1619 on the death of Anne, queen of James I, and of 1625 on the death of James himself and on the marriage of Charles I. The first-mentioned poem is in Latin; the two latter are in Hebrew.
[Welch's Alumni Westmon. 1852, p. 75; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 423; Burke's Landed Gentry, 5th ed.; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, iii. 572; Cussans's Hertfordshire, ‘Odsey Hundred,’ p. 166.]