ALABASTER, WILLIAM, an English divine, was born at Hadley, in the county of Suffolk. He was one of the doctors of Trinity College in Cambridge; and attended the Earl of Essex as his chaplain in the expedition to Cadiz in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Apparently from pique at
Alabaster not being advanced in the English Church according to his own estimation of his merits, he there joined the Romish communion. Disappointed, however, in his expectations, he returned to England in order to resume his former religion. He obtained a prebend in the cathedral of St Paul, and after that the rectory of Therfield in Hertfordshire. He was well skilled in the Hebrew tongue; but wasted his ingenuity in the study of the Cabala, as is testified by his theological writings. He was also a poet, and is honoured with the praises of Spenser and Herrick. He died in the year 1610.