(Francis), the son of James Quarles clerk to the board of green cloth and purveyor to queen Elizabeth, was born in 1592. He was educated at Cambridge; became a member of Lincoln's inn; and was for some time cup-bearer to the queen of Bohemia, and chronologer to the city of London. It was probably on the ruin of her affairs that he went to Ireland as secretary to archbishop Usher; but the troubles in that kingdom forcing him to return, and not finding affairs more at peace in England, some disquiet he met with were thought to have hastened his death, which happened in 1644. His works both in prose and verse are numerous, and were formerly in great esteem, particularly his Divine Emblems: but the obsolete quaintness of his style has caused them to fall into neglect, excepting among particular classes of readers.