Christopher Wren (1589 - 1658)

Born 17 Sep 1589 in Parish of St. Peter, London, England

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Cox) Wren — married 1623 in Fonthill Bishop, Wiltshire, England

Descendants

Died 29 May 1658 at age 68 in Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire, England

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Biography

Christopher Wren is Notable.

This profile is part of the Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire One Place Study.

Christopher Wren Sr. (1589–1658) was the rector of East Knoyle and later Dean of Windsor.

"Christopher Wren was a well educated man, having graduated from St John's College Oxford before entering the Church. He became rector of Fonthill Bishop in Wiltshire in 1620 and then of East Knoyle again in Wiltshire in 1623. He married Mary Cox, the only child of the Wiltshire squire Robert Cox of Fonthill Bishop, and it was while they were living at East Knoyle that all their children were born. Mary, Catherine, and Susan were all born by 1628 but then several children were born who died within a few weeks of their birth. Their son Christopher was born in 1632 then, two years later, another daughter named Elizabeth was born. Mary must have died shortly after the birth of Elizabeth, although there does not appear to be any surviving record of the date. Through Mary, however, the family became well off financially for, as the only heir, she had inherited her father's estate."

Christopher died at Bletchingdon in Oxfordshire on 29 May 1658. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Venn Cambridge Alumni: Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor

• http://archive.org/stream/sirchristopherwr00philiala/sirchristopherwr00philiala_djvu.txt

• Wiltshire Council – Wiltshire Community History

• http://www.geni.com/people/Christopher-Wren/6000000010304152459

• The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine (Devizes, Wiltshire, England, 1856) Vol. 3, Page 115

• Venn Cambridge Alumni: Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor

Footnotes

• was steward to Mary Queen of Scots during her captivity in England. He married Susan, daughter of William Wiffinson ; they lived in the parish of

S. Peter's Cheap, and had three children: a daughter Anna, and two sons; Matthew, born 1585, and Christopher, born 1589. Both were educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, and there Matthew especially attracted the notice of Lancelot Andrews, then Dean of Westminster, who frequently came to the school where he had been bred, and examined the boys in various subjects, particularly in the Hebrew Psalter. He was struck by the proficiency of the eldest of the Wrens, and obtained for the boy a scholarship at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, of which he was himself master. From that time Dr. Andrews appears never to have lost sight of Wren, but to have guided his studies and fostered ' the most passionate affection for the ministry of the Church ' which the young man showed. Nor was Wren's university life undistinguished, for he became Greek scholar of his college, and when King James visited Cambridge, Matthew Wren, then in priest's orders, ' kept the Philosophy Act ' before him with great applause. The subject given was, 'Whether dogs were capable of syllogisms.' Old Fuller says of this extraordinary ' Act,' ' he kept it with no less praise to himself than pleasure to the king ; where if men should forget even dogs should remember his seasonable distinction what the king's hounds could perform above others by virtue of their prerogative.

Acknowledgments

• Thanks to Sheila Smail for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Sheila and others.
• Wren-728 was created by Lanny Wren through the import of lannywren.ged on Jun 2, 2015.