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Article BIOGRAPHIES OF CELEBRATED MASONS. Page 1 of 4 →
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Biographies Of Celebrated Masons.
BIOGRAPHIES OE CELEBRATED MASONS .
LIFE OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN . Christopher Wreis" was born on the 20 th of October , 1632 , at East Knoyle , in Wiltshire , the rectory of his father , Dr . Christopher Wren , who was a learned divine , descended from an ancient English family of Danish origin , was educated at Merchant Taylors' School ,
became a fellow of St . John ' s , Oxford , was Chaplain m Ordinary to Charles I ., and was ultimately installed Dean of Windsor , and made Registrar of the Order of the Garter . His tastes and habits led him to associate with the learned of the age ; and he himself possessed considerable attainments , both in science and literature ; he had also turned his attention to the cultivation of that art , in the
pursuit of which his son was afterwards to become so eminent . Christopher ' s mother was the daughter and heiress of Robert Cox , of Fonthill , in Wiltshire ; and he was the nephew of Dr . Matthew Wren , successively Bishop of Hereford , Norwich , and Ely ; a person eminent in the ecclesiastical history of England , who , having devoted
himself to the royal cause , was impeached by order of the House of Commons in 1641 , shortly after the impeachment of Archbishop Laud ; but he was never brought to trial , though he suffered a protracted imprisonment of nearly twenty years ; an injustice not singular in those troublous times . Cromwell sent a message to him by his nephew Christopher ( whom he often met at his son-in-law ,
Claypole ' s ) , to the effect that he might come out of the Tower if he pleased : but he preferred remaining there , to acknowledging Cromwell ' s authority by accepting his favour . Christopher seems to have inherited from his father a taste for scientific and literary studies , and it is highly probable that he was initiated into architecture by parental example , since he was not educated professionally to the
practice of it , but applied himself to it only theoretically , and might never have distinguished himself in it , if peculiar circumstances had not Ipd to the exercise of his talents . Though he had in his childhood a weak bodily constitution , Wren was of most precocious mind , and that too as youthful genius most rarely displays itself , not in poetic fancy and feeling , but in the abstruser paths of science and
philosophy ; he was one of those whose future eminence was early foreseen , and whose riper years redeemed the promise of his youth , while his genius and acquirements laid the groundwork of his happiness through a long series of years . At the age of thirteen , we are told he invented an astronomical instrument , a pneumatic engine , and
another instrument of use in gnomonics . These inventions probably served no other end than that of causing him to be regarded as a prodigy ; and the fame thus acquired no doubt helped to procure for him at Oxford , where he was entered as Gentleman Commoner at Wadham College in his fourteenth year , the notice of the ingenious
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Biographies Of Celebrated Masons.
BIOGRAPHIES OE CELEBRATED MASONS .
LIFE OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN . Christopher Wreis" was born on the 20 th of October , 1632 , at East Knoyle , in Wiltshire , the rectory of his father , Dr . Christopher Wren , who was a learned divine , descended from an ancient English family of Danish origin , was educated at Merchant Taylors' School ,
became a fellow of St . John ' s , Oxford , was Chaplain m Ordinary to Charles I ., and was ultimately installed Dean of Windsor , and made Registrar of the Order of the Garter . His tastes and habits led him to associate with the learned of the age ; and he himself possessed considerable attainments , both in science and literature ; he had also turned his attention to the cultivation of that art , in the
pursuit of which his son was afterwards to become so eminent . Christopher ' s mother was the daughter and heiress of Robert Cox , of Fonthill , in Wiltshire ; and he was the nephew of Dr . Matthew Wren , successively Bishop of Hereford , Norwich , and Ely ; a person eminent in the ecclesiastical history of England , who , having devoted
himself to the royal cause , was impeached by order of the House of Commons in 1641 , shortly after the impeachment of Archbishop Laud ; but he was never brought to trial , though he suffered a protracted imprisonment of nearly twenty years ; an injustice not singular in those troublous times . Cromwell sent a message to him by his nephew Christopher ( whom he often met at his son-in-law ,
Claypole ' s ) , to the effect that he might come out of the Tower if he pleased : but he preferred remaining there , to acknowledging Cromwell ' s authority by accepting his favour . Christopher seems to have inherited from his father a taste for scientific and literary studies , and it is highly probable that he was initiated into architecture by parental example , since he was not educated professionally to the
practice of it , but applied himself to it only theoretically , and might never have distinguished himself in it , if peculiar circumstances had not Ipd to the exercise of his talents . Though he had in his childhood a weak bodily constitution , Wren was of most precocious mind , and that too as youthful genius most rarely displays itself , not in poetic fancy and feeling , but in the abstruser paths of science and
philosophy ; he was one of those whose future eminence was early foreseen , and whose riper years redeemed the promise of his youth , while his genius and acquirements laid the groundwork of his happiness through a long series of years . At the age of thirteen , we are told he invented an astronomical instrument , a pneumatic engine , and
another instrument of use in gnomonics . These inventions probably served no other end than that of causing him to be regarded as a prodigy ; and the fame thus acquired no doubt helped to procure for him at Oxford , where he was entered as Gentleman Commoner at Wadham College in his fourteenth year , the notice of the ingenious