List of Old Etonians born before the 18th century

The following notable old boys of Eton College were born in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

15th century Thomas Rotherham (1423–1500), Keeper of the Privy Seal, 1467–1474, Bishop of Rochester, 1468–1472, Bishop of Lincoln, 1472–1480, Lord Chancellor, 1474–1483, and Archbishop of York, 1480–1500 Oliver King (c.1432–1503), Bishop of Exeter, 1492–1495, and Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1495–1503 John Doget (c.1434–1501), humanist scholar Robert Wydow (c.1446–1505), poet and church musician Walter Lambe (c.1450-c.1504), composer and church musician John Browne (1453-c.1500) composer Robert Hacomblen (c.1455-1528) classical scholar and composer, Provost of King's College, Cambridge John Barker (fl. c.1471–1482), logician Nicholas West (c.1461–1533), Bishop of Ely, 1535–1538, and diplomat John Kite (died 1537), Archbishop of Armagh, 1513–1521, and Bishop of Carlisle, 1521–1537 Richard Croke (or Crocus) (c.1489–1558), classical scholar Edward Fox (c.1496–1538), Bishop of Hereford, 1535–1538

16th century John Frith (1503–1533), Protestant clergyman and martyr Sir Thomas Pope (1507–1558), founder of Trinity College, Oxford Edward Aglionby (1520–c.1587), poet Thomas Tusser (1524–1580), poet and farmer Robert Glover (died 1555), Protestant martyr Laurence Saunders (died 1555), Protestant preacher and martyr Sir Thomas Sutton (c.1532–1611), founder of Charterhouse School Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c.1539–1583), coloniser of Newfoundland Ralph Sherwin (1550–1581), Jesuit priest, martyr and Catholic saint Thomas Aufield (1552–1585), Roman Catholic priest and beatified martyr John Cowell (1554–1611), Regius Professor of Civil Law, University of Cambridge, 1594–1611 Sir John Harington (1561–1612), author and inventor of the water closet Sir Thomas Posthumous Hoby (1566–1640), Member of Parliament, claimed as the inspiration for Malvolio in Twelfth Night.J. L. Simmons, 'A Source for Shakespeare's Malvolio: The Elizabethan Controversy with the Puritans' in Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 36 (May 1973), pp. 181–201 William Oughtred (1575–1660), mathematician Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex (1591–1646), General, Parliamentarian Army, 1642–1645 Méric Casaubon (1599–1671), classical scholar

17th century Henry Hammond (1605–1660), clergyman Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605–1675), lawyer and politician, prominent Parliamentarian during the Civil War Edmund Waller (1606–1687), poet and anti-Parliamentarian conspirator John Pearson (1613–1686), Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 1661–1672, and Bishop of Chester, 1673–1686 Henry More (1614–1687), theologian and philosopher George Fane (c.1616–1663), Royalist commander Antony Ascham (died 1650), Parliamentarian Ambassador to Spain, 1650, and murder victim Robert Boyle (1627–1691), natural philosopher and chemist Henry Godolphin (1648–1733), Provost of Eton, 1695–1707, 1726–1733, and Dean of St Paul's, 1707–1726 George Stanhope (1660–1728), Dean of Canterbury, 1704–1728 John Rosewell Headmaster (1671–1682) James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope (1673–1721), Secretary of State for the Southern Department, 1714–1717, 1718–1721, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1717–1718, and soldier Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (1674–1738), Secretary of State for the Northern Department, 1714–1717, 1721–1730 Anthony Collins (1676–1729), deist Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (1676–1745), Secretary at War, 1708–1710, Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1721–1742 John Weldon (1676–1736), organist and composer Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751), Secretary at War, 1704–1708 Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol (1685–1737), Solicitor General, 1726–1733, and Lord Chancellor, 1733–1737 Sir William Wyndham (1687–1740), Secretary at War, 1712–1713, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1713–1714 Thomas Thackeray, 1693–1760, an 18th-century Head Master of Harrow William George (c.1698 – 1756) Dean of Lincoln, Provost of King's College, Cambridge, Head Master of Eton

See also List of Old Etonians born in the 18th century List of Old Etonians born in the 19th century List of Old Etonians born in the 20th century

References