John Urry (literary editor)

John Urry (1666, Dublin – 18 March 1715, Oxford) was a noted literary editor and medieval scholar of Scottish family.

Life

Matriculating from Christ Church, Oxford on June 30, 1682,[1] he was elected to a studentship. He graduated B.A. in 1686. However (his father William was a major of the royal guards in Scotland at the Restoration, and his elder brother John fought on the Royalist side in the Civil War), the younger John Urry fought against Monmouth, and would not swear the oath of allegiance to William III on his accession,[1] thereby losing his studentship.

At the end of 1711, Christ Church's dean Francis Atterbury convinced a reluctant Urry to edit a proposed new edition of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Though the work was incomplete on Urry's death 4 years later (he is buried at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford) and had to be completed and revised by Timothy and William Thomas, Urry's work on it - the first edition of Chaucer to be entirely in Roman type[2] – posthumously made his name.

Notes

  1. ^ a b  "Urry, John (1666-1715)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 
  2. ^ John Urry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (requires subscription)