Richard Allestree

Richard Allestree or Allestry (1621/2 – 28 January 1681) was an English Royalist churchman and provost of Eton College from 1665.

The son of Robert Allestree, descended from an old Derbyshire family, he was born at Uppington in Shropshire. Although John Fell gave his birth date as March 1619, this conflicts with his college records. He was educated at Coventry and later at Christ Church, Oxford, under Richard Busby. He entered as a commoner in 1636, matriculating as a student on 17 February 1637 aged fifteen, and took the degree of B.A. in 1640 and that of M.A. in 1643.

In 1642 he joined the king's army, under Sir John Biron. When the parliamentary forces arrived in Oxford, he hid the Christ Church valuables, and the soldiers found nothing in the treasury "except a single groat and a halter at the bottom of a large iron chest". Allestree escaped severe punishment only because the army hastily retreated from the town. He was present at the Battle of Edgehill in October 1642, after which, while hurrying to Oxford to prepare for the king's visit to Christ Church, he was captured by a troop of Lord Say's soldiers from Broughton House, Cambridge, and soon afterwards set free on the surrender of the place to the king's forces. In 1643 he was again on military service, performing "all duties of a common soldier" and "frequently holding his musket in one hand and his book in the other". At the close of the English Civil War, he returned to his studies, took holy orders, was made Censor and became a "noted tutor".

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