Men of Kent and Kentishmen/Nicholas Billingsley
Nicholas Billingsley,
POET AND DIVINE,
Was born at Faversham in 1633, his father being one of the masters of the school there. In 1650 he proceeded to Eton, and subsequently entered at Merton College, Oxford, though ill health interfered with his residence there. After ordination he received the living of Weobley in Herefordshire, of which, however, he was deprived by the Act of Uniformity in 1662. He subsequently maintained himself by teaching, but suffered much persecution, and underwent many privations in consequence of his refusal to conform. After his deprivation he resided chiefly at Blakeney in Gloucestershire, but finally removed to Bristol where he died in 1709. At the age of 15 he published some Poetry, and his writings are numerous; but his chief work is entitled "Brachy-Martyrologia," and is an account of the "greatest persecutions which have befallen the people of God from the Creation to the present times."
[See Dictionary of National Biography (published since the body of this work was prepared.)]