Paul Micklethwaite 1588/9-1639

Paul MICKLETHWAITE 1588/9-1639

Biographical Note

Born in Kent, son of Thomas Micklethwaite, vicar of Plumstead. BA Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1610, fellow of Sidney Sussex College 1611, MA 1613, BD 1620, DD 1628. Master of the Temple (i.e. rector of the Temple Church) 1628, chaplain to Charles I 1630. He was appointed to benefices in Sussex and Bedfordshire in the late 1630s. He was noted as a preacher, which led to his appointment at the Temple, but he became much embroiled in disputes with the benchers there over issues of precedence and fees. He was instrumental in introducing Laudian-style reforms to the layout of the Temple Church, and the conduct of its services.

Books

Micklethwaite bequeathed “all my Hebrew bookes which they have not” (together with funds to found two scholarships) to Sidney Sussex. This amounted to 73 volumes, revealing an extensive knowledge of Jewish studies, covering philosophy, history and liturgy as well as biblical and rabbinical subjects. Most of these survive in the College today. The size and fate of the rest of his library is not known; it should have passed, with the residue of his estate, to his nephew Nathaniel Micklethwaite. Examples: Sidney Sussex, Cambridge T.6.56, Y.5.18, Y.3.11.

Sources

• Bruce Williamson, J. The history of the Temple, London, 1924.
• Rogers, Nicholas. "Micklethwaite, Paul (1588/9–1639), Church of England clergyman." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Rogers, N. “Early history of the Library” in D. Beales and H. Nisbet (eds), Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, 1996.