Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stokes, David
STOKES, DAVID (1591?–1669), divine, born in 1590 or 1591, was educated at Westminster school, and was elected a queen's scholar, proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1610, and graduating B.A. in 1614–15. After becoming a fellow of Peterhouse, he proceeded M.A. in 1618, and in 1624 became a fellow of Eton College. In 1625 he was appointed rector of Brinklow in Warwickshire; he was made canon of Windsor in 1628, precentor of Chichester in 1628, and in 1630 he took the degree of D.D. at Cambridge. He became rector of Binfield in Berkshire in 1631, of Everton in Northamptonshire in 1638, and vicar of Erchfont in Wiltshire in 1644. On the outbreak of the civil war he was, as a royalist, despoiled of all his preferments, and compelled to seek refuge in Oxford, where, in 1645, he was admitted ad eundem. On the Restoration he was reinstated in his livings, and died on 10 May 1669, shortly after resigning his canonry at Windsor. He was buried behind the altar in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. His will is in the Prerogative Office of Canterbury.
He was the author of: 1. ‘An Explication of the Twelve Minor Prophets,’ to which was prefixed a laudatory preface by John Pearson [q. v.], bishop of Chester, London, 1659, 8vo. 2. ‘Verus Christianus, or Directions for Private Devotions,’ Oxford, 1668, folio. 3. ‘Truth's Champion,’ 8vo, not known to be extant; besides two sermons.
[Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 81; Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 5858 f. 226, 5880 f. 33; Carter's Hist. of Cambridge, pp. 24, 326; Walker's Sufferings, ii. 93; Le Neve's Fasti, iii. 400; Welch's Alumni Westmonasterienses, p. 81; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714.]