John Aubrey (1626-1697)

John Aubrey was born at Easton Percy in Wiltshire, the son of a country gentlemen. He shared a tutor with Thomas Hobbes, and afterwards attended Blanford grammar school and studied at Trinity College Oxford (1642) and the Middle Temple (1646). Aubrey, who was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1663, spent much time at Oxford where he made the acquaintance of Anthony Wood, who used his biographical collections for his Athenae Oxonienses. Aubrey, who lost his fortune in unsuccessful lawsuits, lived with various acquaintances.

TEXT RECORDS:

1680 ca.Edmund Spenser.

PUBLICATIONS:

Queries in order to the description of Britannia. 1673.
Proposals for printing Monumenta Britannia. 1693.
Miscellanies. 1696.
The natural history and antiquities of the county of Surrey, ed. R. Rawlinson. 5 vols, 1718-19.
Lives of eminent men, ed. Philip Bliss. 1813.
Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark. 1898.
The natural history of Wiltshire, ed. John Britton. 1847.
Remains of gentilisme and Judaisme, ed. John Britton. 1881.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

Trinity College Oxford
Middle Temple
Inns of Court
Fellow of the Royal Society

antiquary

John Evelyn
Thomas Hobbes
Katherine Philips
Samuel Pordage
Anthony Wood

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Thomas Warton, "New Anecdotes of English Writers" London Chronicle (7 May 1761) 436; James Granger, Biographical History (1769; 1824) [portrait]; "John Aubrey" Monthly Magazine 6 (September 1798) 204-05; Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); "Aubrey's Lives" The Kaleidoscope NS 3 (1 October 1822) 98-99; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); David Masson, "John Aubrey" British Quarterly Review 24 (1856); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); B. G. Johns, "John Aubrey of Wilts" Gentleman's Magazine 271 (1891); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); A. Powell, Aubrey and his Friends (1948, 1963); O. L. Dick, "Life and Times of Aubrey" in Brief Lives (1949).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for John Aubrey:

1.	1680 ca. John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:35-43.
2.	1680 ca. John Evelyn to John Aubrey; in Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the XVIII Century (1812-15) 1:455n.
3.	1798 Anonymous, in Gentleman's Magazine 68 (April 1798) 320.
4.	1816 William Gifford, in Works of Ben Jonson (1816); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 2:452.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for John Aubrey:

1.	1769 James Granger, in Biographical History of England (1769; 1824) 5:272-73.
2.	1798 Anonymous, in Monthly Magazine 6 (September 1798) 204-05.
3.	1812 Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 3:137-40.
4.	1844 Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:527.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1680 ca. John Aubrey: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:35-43.
2.	1680 ca. William Browne of Tavistock: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:130.
3.	1680 ca. Rev. Robert Burton: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:130.
4.	1680 ca. Sir Edward Dyer: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:243.
5.	1680 ca. John Fletcher: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:254.
6.	1680 ca. Sir Walter Raleigh: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:182.
7.	1680 ca. Rev. Samuel Woodford: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:233.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(biography records)

1.	1680 ca. Samuel Butler: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:135-38.
2.	1680 ca. Rev. William Cartwright: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:148.
3.	1680 ca. Sir William Davenant: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:204-09.
4.	1680 ca. Sir John Denham: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:216-21.
5.	1680 ca. Sir Kenelm Digby: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:224-29.
6.	1680 ca. John Evelyn: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:250.
7.	1680 ca. Thomas Flatman: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:252.
8.	1680 ca. Rev. Thomas Fuller: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:257-58.
9.	1680 ca. Rev. Alexander Gill: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:262-66.
10.	1680 ca. William Habington: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:277.
11.	1680 ca. Bp. Joseph Hall: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 1:281-82.
12.	1680 ca. Gervase Markham: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:43.
13.	1680 ca. Andrew Marvell: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:53-54.
14.	1680 ca. Philip Massinger: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:54-55.
15.	1680 ca. Thomas May: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:55-57.
16.	1680 ca. John Norden: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:94-95.
17.	1680 ca. Katherine Philips: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:152-55.
18.	1680 ca. Samuel Pordage: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:160-61.
19.	1680 ca. Francis Quarles: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:176.
20.	1680 ca. Sir Walter Raleigh: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:177-94.
21.	1680 ca. Thomas Randolph: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:195-98.
22.	1680 ca. Sir Philip Sidney: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:247-52.
23.	1680 ca. Dr. Henry Stubbe: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:240.
24.	1680 ca. John Taylor the Water Poet: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:252-54.
25.	1680 ca. Rev. Thomas Vaughan: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:268-69.
26.	1680 ca. Edmund Waller: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:273-79.
27.	1680 ca. George Wither: John Aubrey, in Brief Lives, 1669-1696; ed. Clark (1898) 2:306-07.