George Trosse

George Trosse (1631–1713) was an English nonconformist minister. He is now best known for his autobiographical accounts of periods of mental illness he experienced in his younger years.

The younger son of Henry Trosse, counsellor-at-law, he was born at Exeter on 25 October 1631; his mother was Rebekah, daughter of Walter Burrow, a prosperous merchant, twice mayor of Exeter. His family had no Puritan leanings; his uncle Roger Trosse (1595–1674), rector (1618) of Rose Ash, Devon, was one of the sequestered clergy of the English Civil War. Trosse was intended for the law; his father, dying early, left him his law library; but on leaving Exeter grammar school Trosse went into business.

In 1646 Trosse was sent to an English merchant at Morlaix in Brittany, who placed him for a year with Ramet, a Huguenot pastor at Pontivy, to learn French. Returning to Exeter in 1648, he was sent to a brother-in-law in London for introduction to a Portugal merchant. Having been made free of the Drapers' Company, he sailed for Oporto where he remained for two and a half years. He returned to Exeter early in 1651.

Three times Trosse's friends then placed him under restraint with a physician at Glastonbury. Between his episodes he listened to Presbyterian preachers, became a communicant, and was especially drawn to Thomas Ford. After two relapses and an attempt at suicide, he enjoyed better mental health.

Supported by his mother, Trosse entered Pembroke College, Oxford as a gentleman commoner at the end of May 1657, where his tutor was Thomas Cheeseman, a blind scholar; among his contemporaries at Oxford was his kinsman Denis Grenville. He matriculated on 9 August 1658, spent seven full years at Oxford, acquired a fair amount of Greek and Hebrew, but took no degree in consequence of the required subscription to the 39 Articles.

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