John Phillips (fl. 1570–1591)
John Phillips ("fl". 1570–1591) was an English writer and poet. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge but took no degree. He was a student of the classics, but in one place he describes himself as "student in divinitie" and in another as "preacher of the Word of God". He inclined to puritanism, and was patronised by noble ladies of known puritan proclivities. It is doubtful if he were a beneficed clergyman. To "A Sermon of Calvin … upon Heb. xiii. 13" (London, 1581), Phillips appended "An Answere to the Slanders of the Papistes against Christe's  Syllie Flock … quod J. P.", and to George Gascoigne's "Dromme of Doomes Daye", he added "A Private Letter the which doth teach Remedies against the bitternesse of Death, by I. P. to his familiar Friend, G. P.". On the "Stationers' Registers" appear entries of two books by Phillips, not otherwise known: "Precious Pearles of perfecte Godlines to be used of every faythfull Xpian, begonne by the Lady Fraunces Aburgavenny, and finished by John Phillip" (7 December 1577) (Lady Abergavenny was first wife of Henry Neville, lord of Abergavenny, and daughter of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland); and "The  Rudimentes of Reason gathered out of the Preceptes of the worthie and learned Philosopher Periander, by John Philips, Student in Divinitie" (26 April 1578). Abraham Fleming, in his "Bright Burning Beacon" (1580), mentions "John Philippes" among those who wrote on the earthquake of 6 April 1580, but no book by Phillips on this topic is accessible. Phillips was equally energetic as a writer of elegiac verse, and he is responsible for the four epitaphs, published in single folio sheets, all extant in unique exemplars, which respectively celebrated the wife (d. 7 July 1570) of Alexander Avenet, lord mayor of London  (London, by Richard Johnes), in the Huth Library; Alderman Sir William Garrat (d. 27 September 1571), London (by Richard Johnes), at Britwell; Margaret Douglas, countess of Lennox (d. 9 March 1577–8), London (for Edward White), at Britwell; Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton (d. 4 October 1571), in the Huth Library.