Jacob Allestry

Jacob Allestry (1653–1686) was an English poetical writer and contributor to Oxford period poetry anthologies.

Biography[]

He was the son of James Allestry, a bookseller who lost his property in the great fire, was born in 1653. After being educated at Westminster he proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1671; was music-reader in 1679 and terræ filius in 1682. He had the "chief hand", according to Anthony à Wood, in composing the Verses and Pastoral spoken in on 21 May 1681, before James, Duke of York, and published in , 1693.

Wood also wrote that hard living caused Allestry to move to a house in Fish Row, in St. Thomas' parish, in the suburbs of Oxford. There he was nursed incognito for about seven weeks, and died "in a poor condition and of a loathsome disease" on Friday, 15 October 1686.

References[]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Allestry, Jacob". Dictionary of National Biography. 1. London: Smith, Elder & Co.