(John), an eminent English poet in the 17th century, son of a nonconformist minister, was educated under his father, and then sent to Edmund-hall in Oxford. He became usher to the free-school at Croydon in Surrey; where he received a visit from the earls of Rochester and Dorset, Sir Charles Sedley, and other persons of distinction, merely upon the reputation of some verses of his which they had seen in manuscript. He was tutor to several gentlemen's sons successively; and having saved a small sum of money, came to London, and became a perfect votary to the bottle, being an agreeable companion. He was quickly found out here by the noblemen who had visited him at Croydon, who brought him acquainted with Mr Dryden. He lived mostly with the earl of Kingston at Holme-Pierpoint in Nottinghamshire, where he died of the smallpox in 1683, Old-Head in the 30th year of his age. His acquaintance with learned authors appears by his satires against the Jesuits, in which there is as much learning as wit discovered. Mr Dryden esteemed him highly. His works are printed in 2 vols 12mo. They chiefly consist of satires, odes, translations, paraphrases of Horace and other authors, elegiac verses, imitations, parodies, familiar epistles, &c.