JOHN, a commentator on Horace and Persius, was born in Somersetshire in the year 1550, and educated at Winchester school. In 1569 he was entered a student of the university of Oxford, probably in the New college, of which he became either one of the clerks or one of the chaplains. He took his bachelor of arts degree in 1573, and that of master in 1579; soon after which he was appointed by his college, master of the free school at Taunton in Somersetshire. In this employment he continued many years with great reputation: but being at length weary of his laborious employment, he commenced physician, and we are told became eminent in that capacity. He died in the year 1612, possessed of several lands and tenements in his neighbourhood; but whether acquired by the practice of physic, does not appear. He wrote, 1. Commentarii in poemata Q. Horatii, 8vo. 2. Commentarii in sex satyras Perfit, Lond. 1614, 8vo.

in Law, is a deed whereby the obligor obliges himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, to pay a certain sum of money to another at a day appointed. If this be all, the bond is called a simple one, simplex obligatio. But there is generally a condition added, that if the obligor does some particular act, the obligation shall be void, or else shall remain in full force: as payment of rent; performance of covenants in a deed; or repayment of a principal sum of money borrowed of the obligee, with interest; which principal sum is usually one half the penal sum specified in the bond. In case this condition is not performed, the bond becomes forfeited, or absolute at law, and charges the obliger while living; and after his death the obligation descends upon his heir, who (on defect of personal assets) is bound to discharge it, provided he has real effects by descent as a recompense.

If the condition of a bond be impossible at the time of making it, or be to do a thing contrary to some rule of law that is merely positive, or be uncertain, or insensible, the condition alone is void, and the bond shall stand single and unconditional: for it is the folly of the obligor to enter into such an obligation from which he can never be released. If it be to do a thing that is mutum in se, the obligation itself is void: for the whole is an unlawful contract, and the obligee shall take no advantage from such a transaction. And if the condition be possible at the time of making it, and afterwards becomes impossible by the act of God, the act of law, or the act of the obligee himself, there the penalty of the obligation is saved: for no prudence or foresight of the obligor could guard against such a contingency. On the forfeiture of a bond, or its becoming single, the whole penalty was recoverable at law; but here the courts of equity interposed, and would not permit a man to take more in conscience than he ought, viz. his principal, interest, and expenses, in case the forfeiture accrued by non payment of money borrowed: the damages sustained upon non-performance of covenants; and the like. And the statute 4 and 5 Ann. c. 16. hath also enacted, in the same spirit of equity, that in case of a bond, conditioned for the payment of money, the payment or tender of the principal sum due, with interest and costs, even though the bond be forfeited and a suit commenced thereon, shall be a full satisfaction and discharge.

in masonry and brick-laying, is when bricks or stones are as it were knit and interwoven; and when they lay, make good bond, they mean that the joints are not made over or upon other joints; but reach at least fix inches, both within the wall and on the surface, as the art of building requires.