1606, 8vo; two editions within a month; dedicated to Mary, daughter of Thomas Sackville, first earl of Dorset, and wife of Sir Henry Neville, afterwards seventh baron Abergavenny. 2. ‘Epigrammatum Joannis Owen … Liber Singularis,’ &c., 1607, 8vo, dedicated to Lady Arbella [sic] Stuart; appended is ‘Monosticha, quædam Ethica et Politica veterum Sapientum.’ 3. ‘Epigrammatum Joannis Owen … Libri Tres,’ &c., 1612, 8vo; bks. i. and ii. dedicated to Henry, prince of Wales; bk. iii. to Charles, duke of York. 4. ‘Epigrammatum Joannis Owen … Libri Tres,’ &c., 1613? 12mo; dedicated respectively to Sir Edward Noel (afterwards second viscount Campden) [q. v.], Sir William Sidley, and Sir Roger Owen [see under Owen, Thomas, d. 1598)].
The first collected edition appears to be Amsterdam, 1624. Of numerous Elzevir editions, the best is 1647, 24mo (three slightly varying issues same year); the finest edition is Paris, 1794, 18mo, 2 vols., large paper, 12mo; largest paper, 8vo (four copies); also vellum (four copies); the latest edition is Leipzig, 1824, 8vo. Neither Lowndes nor Brunet mentions editions at Breslau, 1658, 24mo; 1705, 12mo.
Translations into English were published by John Vicars [q. v.], 1619, 8vo; R[obert] H[ayman] [q. v.], 1628, 8vo; Henry Harflete [q. v.], 1653, 8vo; Thomas Pecke [q. v.], six hundred epigrams, in ‘Parnassi Puerperium,’ 1659, 8vo; and Thomas Harvey, 1677, 12mo, 1678, 12mo (complete). Into French by Lebrun, Brussels, 1709 12mo, 1710 12mo (complete); De Pommereul, Ixelles, 1818, 8vo (anon.); and De Kérivalant, Lyons, 1819, 18mo. Into German by Valentin Löber, Hamburg, 1653, 12mo; Jena, 1661, 24mo (complete); and into Spanish by F. de la Torre, Madrid, 1674–82, 4to; 1721, 8vo.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 320 seq.; Brunet's Manuel du Libraire, 1862 ii. 1493, 1863 iv. 300 seq.; Colvile's Worthies of Warwickshire, 1870 pp. 559 seq.; Lowndes's Bibliographer's Man. (Bohn), 1864; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. viii. 64, 10th ser. ii. 146, and xi. 21; Vapereau's Dictionnaire Universel des Littérateurs, 1876.]
OWEN, JOHN (1580–1651), bishop of St. Asaph, eldest son of Owen Owens (d. 1593) and Jane, his second wife. The father graduated M.A. at Cambridge in 1564, but incorporated at Oxford on 21 Feb. 1565–6; he became rector, successively, of Burton-Latimer, Northamptonshire, Llangeinwen in Anglesey (Rowlands, Mona Antiqua Restaurata, p. 344), and archdeacon of Anglesey, being the last archdeacon who held it pleno jure, the bishops of Bangor subsequently holding it in commendam. He was buried at Burton-Latimer on 21 March 1592–1593, having married, first, Margaret Matthews, and, secondly, Jane, a daughter of Robert Griffith, esq., of Carnarvon, by whom he had five sons and three daughters.
John was baptised at Burton-Latimer on 8 Nov. 1580, and graduated B.A. from Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1596–7. He subsequently became fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and proceeded M.A. in 1600 and D.D. in 1618. He was incorporated M.A. at Oxford on 16 July 1600. He remained at Cambridge for some years, and appears as taxor there in 1608; but one of the same name was presented to the parsonage of Aberfraw, Anglesey, on 28 Feb. 1604–5 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. James I, vii. 82). In 1608 he succeeded to the rectory of Burton-Latimer and was appointed chaplain to Prince Charles. In 1625 he received the rectories of Carlton, Northamptonshire, and of Cottingham in the same county.
Owen was favourably known to Laud, and was liked by Charles I. Accordingly, on 18 Aug. 1629, he was elected bishop of St. Asaph. Lloyd says he was chosen as an expedient third party, Charles being much troubled by two competitors (Lloyd, Memoirs, p. 569; Fuller, Worthies, ii. 509; (Cal. State Papers, Dom., Car. I, cxlviii. 34). He was consecrated at Croydon on 20 Sept., instituted on 23 Sept., and had his temporalities restored on 26 Sept. 1629. In the same month, on 15 Sept. 1629, he received a grant to hold in commendam the archdeaconry of St. Asaph and other benefices within his diocese, and that of Bangor to a value not exceeding 150l. per annum (ib. ccxxxviii. 38). He was held in much esteem in his diocese, where he boasted that he was connected by descent with every family of quality. He was active in the pastoral work of his bishopric (see a return of the state of his diocese in 1633, in Lambeth MS. No. 943), and was the first to institute a series of Welsh sermons to be preached in the parish church the first Sunday of each month by such members of the parish as derived a portion of their income from its tithes. He superintended improvements in the structure of the cathedral, including the building of a new organ in 1635 (Willis, Survey of St. Asaph, App. No. 37). Owen held six rectories with his bishopric, mostly in commendam.
In the civil wars he suffered for his loyalty to Charles. Having joined in the petition of the eleven bishops on 30 Dec. 1641 (Commons' Journals, ii. 363), he was impeached of high treason and imprisoned (Lloyd says twice) in the Tower. On 6 April following,
