A. BYFIELD-JESSOP. 375 appointed to collect proofs of the various articles from scripture ; all of which, upon the examination of the assembly, were inserted in the' margin ; and the year fol- lowing, when it was printed, Mr. Byfield, by order of the house of commons, delivered a copy to each member of the house.. He was rector of Fulham in Middlesex ; and after the wars, he became rector of Collingborn-Ducis in Wilt- shire. Upon his removal to the latter situation, he was nominated assistant to the commissioners in that county for ejecting ignorant and scandalous ministers. In this capacity he was not likely to escape the bitter censures of Dr. Walker; who endeavours to prove, that in the exami- nation of Mr. Bushnell, he was not only too officious, but guilty of some illegal proceeding. The charges are sup- ported, however, by very slender evidence, or rather no evidence at all.t Mr. Byfield is one of those few writers, saysGranger, who have, by name, been stigmatized byButler, in his " Hudibras." This may be true, and he might be, as he was in truth, a very pious, excellent, and useful divine. He observes, that Mr. Byfield was said to have been a broken apothecary ; that he was of special note; and a very active zealot in the busy and boisterous reign of Charles I. ; and then adds, that his portrait was published, " with a windmill on his head, and the devil blowing the sails."# The best of men have, in all ages, suffered the vile reprolches of the wicked, who frequently account them t' the offscouring of all things." Mr. Byfield, with two or three others, assisted Dr. Chambers in compiling his " Apology for the Ministers of the County of Wiltshire," 1654. He died in the year 1660.1 Mr. Isaac Knight, his successor at Fulham, and Mr. Daniel Burgess, his suc- cessor at Collingborn, were both ejected nonconformists in 1662.11 CONSTANTINE JESSOP, A. M.-This person was the son of Mr. John Jessop, minister of Pembroke, born in the year 1602, and educated in Jesus college, Oxford. Having passed through a regular course of study in that university, he went into Ireland, and entered Trinity college, Dublin; Nears Puritans, vol. iii. p. 851. + Walker's, Attempt, part i. p. 182-194. t Granger's Biog. !list. vol. ii. p. 187. § Wood's Athena, vol. ii. p. 230. 11 Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. ii. p. 447. ill. 361.
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