Edmund Staunton 1600-1671

Edmund STAUNTON 1600-1671

Biographical Note

Born at Birchmore, Bedfordshire, son of Sir Francis Staunton. BA Corpus Christi College, Oxford 1620, MA 1623, DD 1634; admitted at Gray’s Inn, 1620. He was briefly lecturer at Witney, Oxfordshire before becoming rector of Bushey, Hertfordshire in 1627. He moved to be vicar of Kingston, Surrey, in 1633, where he gained a reputation for his preaching and godliness, but was suspended 1635-38 for refusing to read the Book of Sports. A parliamentary supporter as the Civil War developed, he was one of the first ministers nominated to the Westminster Assembly of Divines. In 1648 he was made President of Corpus Christi, where he remained throughout the Interregnum, “noted for his Presbyterian zeal and for his imposition of greater discipline in the college” (ODNB). Ejected in 1660, he moved to Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, where he was banned from preaching in 1662; he spent the following decade in and around St Albans, and occasionally in London, as an unlicensed Presbyterian minister. A few of his sermons were published.

Books

In his will, Staunton directed that his wife Mary should be allowed to choose 20 of his English books; he also bequeathed Jewel’s works in folio to Joshua Lomax, Perkins’s works to his wife Anne Lomax, and his commonplace books and sermon notes to the Presbyterian minister Ambrose Upton, of Highgate. All the rest of his books were left to his son Francis.

Characteristic Markings

None of Staunton’s books have been identified.

Sources

• Gurney, John. "Staunton, Edmund (1600–1671), ejected minister and college head." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Matthews, A. G. Calamy revised. Oxford, 1934.

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