John Worsley (30 March 1696, Hertford – 16 December 1767, Hertford, Hertfordshire, England) was an English schoolmaster and scholar of classical Greek. He made a translation of the New Testament, which was published in 1770.

Life and works

He was for fifty years a successful schoolmaster at Hertford, with a school run in Hertford Castle.[1]

Worsley made a translation of the New Testament, into contemporary English, supposed to be the first such translation since the King James Bible. It omitted the traditional division into verses.[1] After his death it was published by subscription in 1770, as The New Testament or New Covenant, edited by Matthew Bradshaw and one of the author's sons, Samuel Worsley (22 September 1740 – 7 March 1800).[2][3][4] The system of substitutions for words, such as "mote", no longer current in spoken English, by "chaff" or "splinter", met with approval from the Monthly Review.[5]

Other works by Worsley were grammatical tables (1736),[6] and Exemplaria Latino-Anglica (1745).[7] A Short, Plain and Comprehensive Grammar for the Latin Tongue was published in 1771.[8]

Family

In c. 1727, John married Grace Hughes (2 November 1696 – 23 October 1786), great-granddaughter of George Hughes (clergyman). Another son, also called John Worsley (died 1807), was his successor as schoolmaster, and was the father of Israel Worsley.[6]


References

  1. 1 2 Paul, William E. (17 April 2009). English Language Bible Translators. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-4243-0.
  2. ↑ Chamberlin, William J. (1991). Catalogue of English Bible Translations: A Classified Bibliography of Versions and Editions Including Books, Parts, and Old and New Testament Apocrypha and Apocryphal Books. ABC-CLIO. p. 540. ISBN 978-0-313-28041-2.
  3. ↑ The Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature William Thomas Lowndes, Henry George Bohn – 1834 Page 1802 "The New Testament or New Covenant of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, translated from the Greek, according to the present Idiom of the English Tongue, with Notes and References, by Mr. John Worsley, of Hertford. London, 1770. 8vo.
  4. ↑ Newth, Samuel (1881). Lectures on Bible revision, with an appendix containing the prefaces to the chief historical editions of the English Bible. Hodder and Stoughton. p. 97.
  5. ↑ Tucker, Susie I. (13 January 2014). Protean Shape: A Study in Eighteenth-century Vocabulary and Usage. A&C Black. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-4725-1267-3.
  6. 1 2 Webb, R. K. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29984. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ↑ Worsley, John (1745). Exemplaria Latino-Anglica: or the true method of translating and imitating the Latin classics ... exemplified and illustrated by double translations, etc. A. Ward; R. Hett.
  8. ↑ Allibone, Samuel Austin (1872). A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors: Living and Deceased, from the Earliest Accounts to the Latter Half of the Nineteenth Century; Containing Over Forty-six Thousand Articles (authors), with Forty Indexes of Subject. Lippincott. p. 2851.
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