Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Webb, George

by Richard Bagwell

WEBB, GEORGE (1581–1642), bishop of Limerick, born in 1581, was third son of Hugh Webb, rector of Bromham, Wiltshire. He entered New College, Oxford, in April 1598, and migrated to Corpus Christi as scholar. He was admitted B.A. in February 1601–2, and M.A. in June 1605, when he was already in orders and vicar of Steeple-Aston, Oxfordshire, on Lord Pembroke's presentation. He kept a grammar school at Steeple-Aston and also at Bath, where he became rector of SS. Peter and Paul in 1621. He enjoyed the friendship of Chief-justice Sir Henry Hobart [q. v.] Webb was made D.D. 1624, and appointed chaplain to the Prince of Wales. He was a man of strict life and conversation, and a distinguished preacher. Charles himself, with Laud's approval, selected him for promotion to the bench (Strafford Letters, i. 330), and he was consecrated bishop of Limerick in St. Patrick's, Dublin, 18 Dec. 1634.

When the confederate catholics entered Limerick in June 1642, Webb had already died of gaol fever, having been imprisoned by their sympathisers within the city. He was buried in St. Munchin's churchyard, dug up twenty-four hours later by persons in hope of finding jewels, and reinterred in the same place. We learn from a casual remark in his ‘Practice of Quietness’ that Webb was happily married.

Webb published:

1. ‘A Brief Exposition of the Principles of the Christian Religion,’ London, 1612.
2. ‘The Pathway to Honour. Preached at Paul's Cross, 21 June 1612,’ London, 1612.
3. ‘The Bride-royal, or the Speculative Marriage between Christ and his Church,’ London, 1613.
4. ‘The Araignment of an Unruly Tongue,’ London, 1619.
5. ‘Agur's Prayer, or the Christian Choice,’ London, 1621.
6. ‘Catalogus Protestantium, or the Protestant's Calendar, containing a Surview of the Protestant's Religion long before Luther's Days’ (Preface by John Gee [q. v.]), London, 1624.
7. ‘Lessons and Exercises out of Cicero ad Atticum,’ London, 1624.
8. ‘Pueriles confabulatiunculæ,’ London, 1624.
9. ‘The Practice of Quietness,’ 6th edit. (amplified), London, 1633; to an edition published in 1705 an engraved portrait of Webb is prefixed. Webb also translated during 1629 the ‘Andria’ and ‘Eunuchus’ of Terence.

[Ware's Bishops and Writers, ed. Harris; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ; Lenihan's Hist. of Limerick; Fowler's Hist. of Corpus Christi College.]

R. B-l.