(John), earl of Rochester, a great wit in the reign of Charles II. The son of Henry earl of Rochester, was born in 1648. He was taught grammar and classical learning at the free-school at Burford; where he obtained a quick relish of the beauties of the Latin tongue, and afterwards became well versed in the authors of the Augustine age. In 1659, he was admitted a nobleman of Wadham college, where he obtained the degree of master of arts. He afterwards travelled through France and Italy; and at his return was made one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber to the king, and comptroller of Woodstock Park. In 1665, he went to sea, and was in the Revenge, commanded by Sir Thomas Fiddiman, when an attack was made on the port of Bergen in Norway; during the whole action he showed the greatest resolution, and gained a high reputation for courage; which he supported in a second expedition, but afterwards lost it in a private adventure with Lord Mulgrave.

Before the earl of Rochester travelled, he had given into the most disorderly and intemperate way of living; at his return, however, he seemed to have got the better of it entirely. But falling into the company of the courtiers, who continually practised these excesses, he became so sunk in debauchery, that he was for five years together so given up to drinking, that during all that time he was never cool enough to be master of himself. His violent love of pleasure, and his disposition to extravagant mirth, carried him to great excesses. The first involved him in sensuality, and the other led him into many adventures and ridiculous frolics. Once disguising himself so that he could not be known by his nearest friends, he set up in Tower-street for an Italian mountebank, and there dispersed his nothings for some weeks. He often disguised himself as a porter, or as a beggar, sometimes to follow a mean amour; at other times, he would go about merely for diversion, in odd shapes; and acted his part so naturally, that he could not be known even by his friends. In short, by his constant indulgence in wine, women, and irregular frolics, he entirely wore out an excellent constitution before he was 30 years of age. In October 1679, when recovering from a violent disease, which ended in a consumption, he was visited by Dr Burnet, upon an intimation that such a visit would be agreeable to him. Dr Burnet published an account of his conferences with Lord Rochester; in which it appears, that though he had lived the life of a libertine and atheist, yet he died the death of a penitent Christian. His death happened in 1680; since which time his poems have been various times printed, both separately and together; but when once he obtained the character of a lewd and obscene writer, every thing in that strain was fathered upon him; and thus many pieces not of his writing have crept into the later editions of his works. "The author of the Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors says, he was 'a man whom the Muses were fond to inspire, and ashamed to avow, and who practiced without the least reserve that secret which can make verses more read for their defects than their merits.' Lord Rochester's Poems have much more obscenity than wit, more wit than poetry, and more poetry than politeness." His writings, besides those already mentioned, are, A Satyre against Mankind; Nothing, a poem; Valentinian, a tragedy; Fifty-four Letters to Henry Saville, and others; Seven more to his Wife and Son; a Letter on his deathbed to Dr Burnet. He also left behind him several other papers, and a History of the Intrigues of the Count of Charles II. but his mother, a very devout lady, ordered all his papers to be burned.