John Lamphire facts for kids

John Lamphire (born 1614, died 1688) was an English doctor and a smart academic. He became a physician after he lost his job at his college. Later, he became a history professor at Oxford University and led a college called Hart Hall, Oxford.

John Lamphire's Life Story

John Lamphire was born in Winchester and his father was a pharmacist. He started studying at Winchester College in 1627. Later, he went to New College, Oxford in 1634 when he was 20. He became a special member, called a fellow, there in 1636. He earned his first degree in 1638 and his master's degree in 1641-42.

In 1648, he was removed from his fellowship. This happened because of political changes during the English Civil War. Even without his college job, he worked as a doctor in Oxford and was quite successful. A writer named Anthony à Wood said Lamphire was part of a group of royalists who thought of themselves as very clever. Lamphire was even Wood's personal doctor and tried to help him with his hearing.

When things settled down in 1660, Lamphire got his fellowship back. On August 16, he was chosen to be the Camden Professor of History. On October 30, 1660, he earned his M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) degree. He became the head of New Inn Hall in 1662 and then the head of Hart Hall in 1668.

Lamphire was also a justice of the peace in Oxford. This meant he helped keep law and order. He was involved in city projects, like paving streets and draining the town moat. He passed away on March 30, 1688, at the age of 76. He was buried in the chapel of Hart Hall, which is now Hertford College. People remembered him as a kind and generous person who cared about his community.

What John Lamphire Published

John Lamphire had a great collection of books and old handwritten documents. Sadly, some of them were destroyed in a fire at his house in 1650.

He owned 38 manuscripts written by Thomas Lydiat. Lamphire had these bound into 22 volumes. He even published one of Lydiat's works, called Canones Chronologici, in Oxford in 1675.

He also published two works by Dr. Hugh Lloyd, a grammarian. These were put together in one book called Phrases Elegantiores et Dictata in 1654. For the second edition of his friend John Masters's book, Monarchia Britannica, Lamphire added a speech by Henry Savile.

It is also believed that Lamphire published a book called Quaestiones in Logica, Ethica, et Metaphysica by Robert Pink in 1680. He also edited Henry Wotton's Plausus et Vota ad Regem de Scotia reducem in Monarchia in 1681.

Lamphire was also involved in managing the will of Jasper Mayne. With Robert South, he placed a stone over Mayne's grave in Christ Church Cathedral.