John Mapletoft 1631-1721
John MAPLETOFT 1631-1721
Biographical Note
John Mapletoft's uncle, Robert Mapletoft, was Master of Pembroke College & Dean of Ely. John entered Trinity College, Cambridge as a pensioner and received a BA in 1652 and MA in 1655. Elected Fellow of Trinity 1653. MD from Cambridge 1667 and incorporate the degree at Oxford 1669. Physician in London. Had three children, Robert, John & Elizabeth, with his wife, Rebecca. Elected to the Royal Society in 1676. Translator of Sydenham's research into Latin. Left his practice as a physician to become a theologian. Became vicar of St Lawrence Jewry and St Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, London from 1686. Member of Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 1699; Assistant (1688/1689), senior dean (1694), and president (1707) of Sion College. "Buried under the communion table of St Lawrence Jewry in the same tomb as Benjamin Calamy on 15 November" (ODNB).
Books
The size and disposition of his library is unknown, but at least one of his books has been identified. Examples: Pembroke College, Cambridge Histoire des plus illustres favoris anciens et modernes... (Paris, 1661); Cambridge University Library Bury.12.6, Logoi kai epistolai (1593).
Characteristic Markings
No known bookplate, but in the example at Pembroke College he has written his name on the front fly leaf, along with a quotation from Juvenal's Satires (3) and the place and price the book was bought.
Sources
- Will of John Mapletoft, Doctor of Divinity Vicar of Saint Lawrence Jewry, City of London, The National Archives PROB 11/582/217.
- Venn, J. & J. A. Alumni Cantabrigienses. Cambridge, 1922.
- Wallis, Patrick. "Mapletoft, John (1631–1721), physician and Church of England clergyman." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- Information from Emerson Richards-Hoppe.