# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stubbs, Henry (1632-1676)

​STUBBS, STUBBES, or STUBBE, HENRY (1632–1676), physician and author, was born at Partney, Lincolnshire, on 28 Feb. 1631–2, being son of Henry Stubbs or Stubbe (1606?–1678) [q. v.] At the commencement of the civil war in Ireland in 1641 his mother fled with him to Liverpool, whence she proceeded to London on foot. She maintained herself by her needle, and sent her son to Westminster school. There he frequently obtained pecuniary relief from his schoolfellows as a remuneration for writing their exercises. Busby, the headmaster, was struck by his talents, and introduced him to Sir Henry Vane (1612–1662) [q. v.], who relieved his immediate wants and ever afterwards remained his steady friend.
Stubbe matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 13 March 1650–51. While at the university his reputation for learning increased daily, and he used to discourse fluently in Greek in the public schools. After proceeding B.A. 4 July 1653, he went to Scotland and served in the parliamentary army till 1655. He commenced M.A. 13 Dec. 1656, and in 1657 he was appointed second keeper of the Bodleian Library (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ii. 175, 193). About this time he was engaged in writing against the clergy and the universities. For a ‘pestilent book’ of this sort, Dr. Edward Reynolds, dean of Christ Church [q. v.], ejected him from his student's place and removed him from the library towards the end of 1659. The works which he published before the Restoration were directed against monarchy, ministers, universities, churches, and everything that was dear to the royalists; yet it is said he wrote them out of gratitude to his patron, Sir Henry Vane, rather than from principle or attachment to a party; for he gained nothing by ​the civil disturbances, and ‘was no frequenter of conventicles.’
Upon his expulsion from Christ Church he retired to Stratford-upon-Avon and practised physic, which had been his study for some years. At the Restoration he took the oath of allegiance (Addit. MS. 33589, f. 37), joined the church of England, and received the rite of confirmation from George Morley [q. v.], bishop of Worcester, who protected him from his numerous enemies. In 1661 he went to Jamaica as king's physician, but ill-health compelled him to return to England in 1665. After a short residence in and near London, he again took up his abode at Stratford, whence he removed to Warwick. There, as well as at Bath, which he frequented in the summer, he enjoyed an extensive practice. In 1673 he was arrested and suffered imprisonment for writing and publishing the ‘Paris Gazette,’ in which he denounced the Duke of York's marriage with Princess Mary of Modena. He was drowned near Bath on 12 July 1676, and was buried in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul. His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Joseph Glanvill (1636–1680) [q. v.], with whom he had been engaged in controversy by his continual attacks on the Royal Society (Birch, Life of Boyle, 1744, i. 55–60; Evelyn, Diary, 1852, iii. 204).
His friend Anthony à Wood describes him as ‘the most noted Latinist and Grecian of his age … a singular mathematician, and thoroughly read in all political matters, councils, ecclesiastical, and profane histories.’ He was also ‘accounted a very good physician.’ Wood adds: ‘Had he been endowed with common sobriety and discretion, and not have made himself and his learning mercenary and cheap to every ordinary and ignorant fellow, he would have been admired by all, and might have pick'd and chus'd his preferment. But all these things being wanting, he became a ridicule, and undervalued by sober and knowing scholars, and others too.’ Stubbe was intimately acquainted with Hobbes. His correspondence with Hobbes is preserved in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 32553).
Among Stubbe's lighter compositions are: 1. ‘Horæ Subsecivæ: seu Prophetiæ Jonæ et Historiæ Susannæ Paraphrasis Græca versibus heroicis,’ London, 1651, 8vo. To this is added his translation into Greek of ‘Miscellanea quædam Epigrammata à Th. Randolpho, W. Chrashavio,’ &c. 2. ‘Epistola Latina, cum Poematibus Lat. et Græc. ad D. Hen. Vane, Domini Hen. Vane de Raby Eq. Aur. Fil. primogen.,’ Oxford, 1656. 3. ‘Otium Literatum, sive Miscellanea quædam Poemata,’ Oxford, 1656, 8vo. Printed with the poems of Henry Birkhead [q. v.] The same volume contains Stubbe's ‘Deliciæ Poetarum Anglicanorum in Græcum translatæ,’ which was reprinted at Oxford, 1658, 8vo, with the addition of his ‘Elegiæ Romæ et Venetiarum.’
Among his other works, which are extremely numerous, may be mentioned: 4. ‘A Severe Enquiry into the late Oneirocritica; or, an exact Account of the grammatical part of the Controversy between Mr. Thomas Hobbes, and John Wallis, D.D.,’ London, 1657, 4to. 5. ‘Vindication of … Sir Henry Vane from the Lies and Calumnies of Mr. Richard Baxter,’ London, 1659, 4to. 6. ‘The Commonwealth of Oceana put in a Ballance and found too light. Or, an Account of the Republic of Sparta, with occasional Animadversions upon Mr. James Harrington and the Oceanistical Model,’ London, 1660, 4to. 7. ‘The Indian Nectar, or a Discourse concerning Chocalata,’ London, 1662, 8vo. 8. ‘The Miraculous Conformist; or an Account of several marvellous Cures performed by the Stroaking of the Hands of Mr. Valentine Greatrakes,’ Oxford, 1666, 4to. 9. ‘Philosophical Observations made in his Sailing from England to the Carribe-Islands, and in Jamaica,’ printed in ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ 1667, No. 27 and 1668, No. 36. 10. ‘Legends no Histories; or a Specimen of some Animadversions upon the History of the Royal Society,’ London, 1670, 4to: an attack on the ‘History of the Royal Society’ by Thomas Sprat [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Rochester. 11. ‘An Epistolary Discourse concerning Phlebotomy, in opposition to George Thomson, Pseudo-Chymist, a pretended Disciple to the Lord Verulam,’ London, 1671, 4to. 12. ‘Rosemary and Bays; or, Animadversions upon a Treatise call'd The Rehearsal transpros'd. In a letter to a Friend in the Country,’ London, 1672, 4to. 13. ‘A Justification [and a further Justification] of the present war against the United Netherlands,’ London, 1672–3, 4to. 14. ‘An Account of the Life of Mahomet,’ manuscript in British Museum (Harleian MS. 1876).
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