John Richardson (translator)

John Richardson

John Richardson (born Linton, Cambridgeshire, c. 1564 – 1625) was a Biblical scholar and a Master of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1615 until his death.

## Life

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He was born ‘of honest parentage’ at Linton, Cambridgeshire. John Richardson matriculated as a sizar from Clare College, Cambridge in 1578,[1] where he graduated B.A. in 1581.[2] He was afterwards elected to a fellowship at Emmanuel College.[1] He proceeded M.A. in 1585, B.D. in 1592, and D.D. in 1597.[2]

In 1607 he was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity, in succession to Dr. John Overall.[2]

In 1609 he was appointed Master of Peterhouse before accepting in 1615 the same position at Trinity.[1]

Some notes of his Lectiones de Predestinatione are preserved in manuscript in Cambridge University Library (Gg. i. 29, pt. ii.). He and Richard Thomson were among the first of the Cambridge divines who maintained the doctrine Arminianism in opposition to the Calvinists.[2] He resigned in 1617 as a results of increasing anti-Arminian pressure.[3] He then served in 1617 and 1618 as vice-chancellor of the university.[1]

Richardson was a skilled hebraist and he served in the "First Cambridge Company", charged by James I of England with the translation of the books of the Old Testament from the Books of Chronicles to Song of Songs (comprising most of the Ketuvim) for the King James Version of the Bible.[2]

At his death, Richardson left a bequest of £100 to Peterhouse.[2]

## Notes and references

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### Citations

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1. ^ a b c d "Richardson, John (RCRT578J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2. ^ a b c d e f Cooper 1885.
3. ^ Coffey 2006, p. 25\. John Overall, Regius Professor of Divinity from 1595 to 1607, denied the doctrine of the inevitable perseverance of the saints. His successor, John Richardon, appears to have held Arminian views on both perseverance and election, and resigned in 1617 as a results of increasing anti-Arminian pressure.

### Sources

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* Cooper, Thompson (1885). "Richardson, John (d.1625)". Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900. Vol. 48\. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 227–228.
* Coffey, John (2006). John Goodwin and the Puritan Revolution : Religion and Intellectual Change in Seventeenth-Century England. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press.

## Further reading

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* McClure, Alexander. (1858) The Translators Revived: A Biographical Memoir of the Authors of the English Version of the Holy Bible. Mobile, Alabama: R. E. Publications (republished by the Maranatha Bible Society, 1984 ASIN B0006YJPI8 )
* Nicolson, Adam. (2003) God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible. New York: HarperCollins ISBN 0-06-095975-4

## External links

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Academic offices

Preceded by

John Overall

|  Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge
1606–1617  | Succeeded by

Samuel Collins

Preceded by

Robert Some

|  Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge
1609–1615  | Succeeded by

Thomas Turner

Preceded by

Thomas Nevile

|  Master of Trinity College, Cambridge
1615–1625  | Succeeded by

Leonard Mawe

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States