BATHURST, RALPH, M. D. an eminent physician, poet, and divine, born in the year 1620. He studied divinity in Trinity college, Oxford; but the times of confusion coming on, he changed the course of his studies, and applied himself to physic. He took a doctor's degree in that faculty; in which he rose to such eminence, that he was, in the time of the usurpation, appointed physician to the state. Upon the restoration, he quitted his profession of physic; was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and president of his college; and having entered into holy orders, he was made chaplain to the king, and afterwards dean of Wells. Soon after, he served the office of vice-chancellor of Oxford, and was nominated by King William and Queen Mary to the see of Bristol; which he refused to accept. His learning and talents were various. He was an orator, a philosopher, and a poet: he possessed an inexhaustible fund of wit, and was a facetious companion at 80 years of age. Ridicule was the weapon with which he used to correct the delinquents of his college; and he was so absolute a master of it, that he had it always at hand. His poetical pieces in the Muse Anglicana are excellent in their kind. He wrote several poems, both in English and Latin; and died June 14. 1704, in the 84th year of his age.