Richard Steward

Richard STEWARD 1595-1651

Biographical Note

Son of Nicholas Steward (1561-1628). Matriculated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford in 1609 and graduated BA in 1612. Elected a fellow of All Souls in 1613, proceeded MA 1615, BCL 1617, DCL 1624 and made proctor in 1622. Rector of Harrietsham, Kent in 1626 and prebendary at Worcester 1629. Vicar of Aldbourne and rector of Mildenhall and Alton Barnes in 1630. Canon of Chichester Cathedral 1634; Dean of Chichester 1643-42, Provost of Eton 1639-44. Ejected during the civil war, Steward went to the continent with the exiled English court and served as chaplain to James, duke of York. He died in Paris in 1651.

Books

More than 370 books were seized from him by the London Committee for Sequestration in 1643, when they were valued at £110. An inventory survives in the Committee records in The National Archives.

Sources

• Priced list of delinquents' books sold, The National Archives SP 20/7.
• Browell, Geoffrey. "Steward, Richard (bap. 1595, d. 1651), dean of Chichester." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Matthews, A. G. Walker revised. Oxford, 1948.
• Roy, I. The libraries of Edward, 2nd Viscount Conway, and others, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 43 (1968), 35-46.