George Hickes, D.D., nonjuror and philologist, born at Newsham near Thirsk, June 20, 1642, in 1664 was elected fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and in 1666 took orders. In 1676 he became chaplain to the Duke of Lauderdale, in 1682 a royal chaplain, and in 1683 Dean of Worcester. Refusing to take the oaths to William III., he was deprived of his benefices. In 1693 he was sent with a list of the nonjuring clergy to the exiled king at St. Germains, and in 1694 was consecrated Bishop of Thetford. He published works in controversial and practical divinity, a “Thesaurus Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium” (1705), and a grammar of Anglo-Saxon and Mœso-Gothic (1689). He died December 15, 1715.

General

  The book [“Institutiones”] discovers an accuracy in this language beyond the attainments of any that had gone before him in that study, and will be of most necessary use to such as shall apply themselves to the right understanding of the ancient history and laws of this kingdom. But, as all first draughts of any sort are usually imperfect, so there seem to be some defects in it that might have been supplied. For example: There wanted a chapter of the variety of dialects, which might have been had out of the northern interlineary versions of the gospel, mentioned by Dr. Marshall; one whereof is peremptorily affirmed to have belonged to St. Cuthbert, as the other, in all likelihood, did to venerable Bede.

  A few other nonjurors ought to be particularly noticed. High among them in rank was George Hickes, Dean of Worcester. Of all the Englishmen of his time he was the most versed in the old Teutonic languages; and his knowledge of the early Christian literature was extensive. As to his capacity for political discussions, it may be sufficient to say that his favourite argument for passive obedience was drawn from the story of the Theban legion.

  His learning has been commended by Ingram the Saxon scholar, by Bishops Nicolson, Horne, and Van Mildert, and even by Burnet, Kennett, and others most opposed to him on polemical grounds. Horne and Van Mildert agree in praising his skill and judgment in the controversy with Rome. His many controversial treatises have deservedly sunk into oblivion, but the most ephemeral of them abound in recondite allusions to the Fathers and the classical writers, as well as in the facts and precedents of ecclesiastical history. His fame, however, rests upon his researches into the history of the languages kindred to the mother tongue of the English race.

  In 1703–5 his best-known work appeared, in one large folio volume, from the university press at Oxford, the “Linguarum veterum septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archæologicus.” It is a stupendous monument of learning and industry, and that it should be the product of anxious years of suffering and perpetual turmoil affords wonderful testimony to the author’s mental power and energy.