Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Foulkes, Peter
FOULKES, PETER, D.D. (1676–1747), scholar and divine, was the third son of Robert Foulkes of Llechryd, Denbighshire, deputy baron of the court of exchequer of Chester, by Jane Ameredith of Landulph, Cornwall. He was admitted king's scholar at Westminster in 1690, and was elected thence to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church in 1694. While an undergraduate he published, in conjunction with John Freind and under Aldrich's auspices, an edition of ‘Æschines against Ctesiphon and Demosthenes on the Crown,’ with a Latin translation (Oxford, 1696). He took the degrees of B.A. in 1698, M.A. in 1701. He was chosen censor at Christ Church in 1703, in preference to Edmund Smith, the poet, and was junior proctor for 1705. His cousin, Dr. William Jane, regius professor of divinity, who died in 1707, left him residuary legatee and devisee of his property, which included land in Liskeard and Bodmin, and was supposed to be worth ten or twelve thousand pounds; consequently he was a grand compounder for the degrees of B.D. and D.D. in 1710. He was appointed canon of Exeter in 1704, and became sub-dean in 1723, chancellor in May 1724, and precentor in 1731. Of Christ Church he was made canon in November 1724, and was sub-dean from 1725 to 1733. He was instituted rector of Cheriton Bishop, Devonshire, in 1714, and vicar of Thorverton in 1716. Andrew Davy of Medland, Cheriton Bishop, who died in 1722, left him the manor of Medland and other lands in trust for his second son, William Foulkes. He married first in 1707 Elizabeth Bidgood of Rockbeare, Devonshire, who died in 1737; and secondly, on 26 Dec. 1738, Anne, widow of William Holwell, and daughter of Offspring Blackall, bishop of Exeter. He died 30 April 1747, and was buried in Exeter Cathedral.
Besides the work already mentioned he published a Latin poem in ‘Pietas Universitatis Oxoniensis in obitum augustissimæ et desideratissimæ Reginæ Mariæ,’ Oxford, 1695; another on the east window in Christ Church in ‘Musarum Anglicanarum Analecta,’ Oxford, 1699, ii. 180; another (No. 15) in ‘Pietas Universitatis Oxoniensis in obitum serenissimi Regis Georgii I et gratulatio in augustissimi Regis Georgii II inaugurationem,’ Oxford, 1727; ‘A Sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of Exeter, Jan. 30, 1723, being the day of the martyrdom of King Charles I,’ Exeter, 1723.
[Manuscript records and genealogical table in the possession of Mrs. Peter Davy Foulkes; Chester Recog. Roll, 16 Car. ii. No. 326; Register of St. Mary's, Chester; List of Queen's Scholars of Westminster; Polwhele's Devonshire, vol. ii. Dioc. of Exeter, p. 41 and p. 62; Hearne's Collections, ed. Doble, i. 68, 334, 338, 339; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. iii. 515; Gent. Mag. ix. 46; Dr. Jane's will; Johnson's Lives of the Poets, ‘Edmund Smith;’ Cat. of Oxford Grad.; Oxford Honours Register; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. (Hardy); Christ Church MS. Registers; Diocesan Reg. Exon.; Provincial Register of Canterbury; Bodl. Libr. Cat. of Printed Books.]