John Lempriere
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [1]
a distinguished English biographer, was born in Jersey about 1760. He was educated at Winchester and at Pembroke College, Oxford, and subsequently became first head master of Abingdon Grammar-school, and later of the school at Exeter. In 1810 he resigned the latter, and the following year was presented to the livings of Meeth and Newton Petrock, in Devonshire, which he retained until his death Feb. 1, 1824. Lempriere was a man of extensive learning, and thoroughly acquainted with antiquity. His Bibliotheca Classica (1788, 8vo; subsequently reprinted, with additions by himself) is still in general use in the universities. He wrote also a translation of Herodotus. with notes (1792), of which the first volume only was published, and a Universal Biography (1803, 4to and 8vo). This last work, compiled with great care, has run through several editions. The name of Lempriere was once well known to every English-speaking classical student. but the rising generation is forgetting it, and it will soon become vox et praeterea nihil. A Classical Dictionary (Bibliotheca Classica, 1788) of his was for many years the English standard work of reference on all matters of ancient mythology, biography, and geography. See Davenport, Ann. Biog. 1824; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Gener. 30:643; Chambers, Cyclopaedia, s.v.; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, vol. 2, s.v.
