George Abbot

George Abbot (c. 1603? – 2 February 1648) was an English writer, known as "The Puritan".

Life

He was son or grandson (it is not clear which) of Sir Thomas Abbot, knight of Easington, East Yorkshire, having been born there in 1603-1604, his mother (or grandmother) being of the ancient house of Pickering. Of his early life and training nothing is known. He married a daughter of Colonel Purefoy of Caldecote, Warwickshire, and as his monument, which may still be seen in the church there, tells, he bravely held the manor house against Princes Rupert and Maurice during the English civil war.

Works

As a layman, and nevertheless a theologian and scholar of critical ability, he holds an almost unique place in the literature of the period. The terseness of his Whole Booke of Job Paraphrased, or made easy for any to understand (1640, quarto), contrasts favourably with the usual prolixity of the Puritan expositors and commentators. His Vindiciae Sabbathi (1641, octavo) had a profound and lasting influence in the long Sabbatarian controversy. His Brief Notes upon the Whole Book of Psalms (1651, quarto), as its date shows, was posthumous.

Mistaken identifications

He has been oddly and persistently mistaken for others. He has been described as a clergyman, which he never was, and as son of Sir Morris Abbot, and his writings accordingly entered in the bibliographical authorities as by the nephew of the archbishop of Canterbury. One of the sons of Sir Morris Abbot was, indeed, named George, and he was a man of mark, but the more famous George Abbot was of a different family altogether.

References

• MS.collections at Abbeyville for history of all of the name of Abbot, by J.T. Abbot, Esq., F.S.A., Darlington;
• William Dugdale, Antiquities of Warwickshire, 1730 p. 1099;
• Anthony à Wood, Athenae Oxonienses (Bliss), ii.141, 594;
• Cox, Literature of the Sabbath.

Notes

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Abbot, George.

• Works by or about George Abbot (author) in libraries (WorldCat catalog)