Thomas), eminent for his translations of ancient authors both in prose and verse, was son of Thomas Creech, and born near Sherborne in Dorsetshire in 1659. He was educated in grammar learning under Mr Carganen of Sherborne, to whom he afterwards dedicated a translation of one of Theocritus's Idylls; and entered a commoner of Wadham college in Oxford in 1675. Wood tells us that his father was a gentleman; but Giles Jacob says, in his Lives and characters of English Poets, that his parents circumstances not being sufficient to afford him a liberal education, his disposition and capacity for learning raised him up a patron in Colonel Strangeways, whose generosity supplied that defect. Be that as it will, Creech distinguished himself much, and was accounted a good philosopher and poet, and an diligent student. June 13, 1683 he took the degree of master of arts, and not long after was elected probationer fellow of All Souls college; to which, Jacob observes, the great reputation acquired by his translation of Lucretius recommended him. Wood tells us, that upon this occasion he gave singular proofs of his classical learning and philosophy before his examiners. He also took the degree of B.D. on the 18th of March, 1696. He now began to be well known by the works he published; but Father Niceron observes, that they were of no great advantage to his fortune, since his circumstances were always indifferent. In 1699, having taken holy orders, he was presented by his college to the living of Welwyn in Hertfordshire; but this he had not long enjoyed before he put an end to his own life. The motives of this fatal catastrophe have been variously represented. The author of the Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres informs us, that in the year 1700 Mr Creech fell in love with a woman who treated him... with great neglect, though she was complaisant enough to several others. This affront he could not bear, and resolved not to survive it. Whereupon he shut himself up in his study, where he hanged himself about the end of June 1700, and was found in that circumstance three days after. The Poetical Register says nothing of the particular manner of his death, but only that he unfortunately made away with himself in the year 1701; and ascribes this fatal catastrophe of Mr Creech's life to the moroseness of his temper, which made him less esteemed than his great merit deserved, and engaged him in frequent animosities and disputes upon that account. But from an original letter of Arthur Charlett, preserved in the Bodleian library, it has lately been discovered, that this unhappy event was owing to a very different cause. There was a fellow collegate of whom Creech frequently borrowed money; but repeating his applications too often, he met one day with such a cold reception, that he retired in a fit of gloomy disgust, and in three days was found hanging in his study. Creech's principal performances are, 1. A Translation of Lucretius. 2. A Translation of Horace; in which, however, he has omitted some few odes. 3. The Idylliums of Theocritus, with Rapin's Discourse of Pastoral. 4. A Translation of Manilius's Astronomicon. Besides translations of several parts of Virgil, Ovid, and Plutarch; printed in different collections.