See MAMMALIA.

Dr Francis, an English bishop, the date of whose birth is unknown, but who was bred at Eton School, and from that foundation became a member of King's College, Cambridge, where he had the tuition of the Marquis of Blandford, only son of the illustrious Duke of Marlborough, who had appointed him chaplain-general to the army. He afterwards obtained the deanery of Worcester, and was thence promoted to the bishopric of Chichester, which he held with the deanery of St Paul's till his death, which happened in 1740. Owing to party prejudices, he was dismissed from his office as chaplain to George I. in 1718, along with Dr Moss and Dr Sherlock, persons distinguished for talents and learning. About the end of Queen Anne's reign, he published a remarkable pamphlet, entitled *The Difficulties and Discouragements attending the Study of the Scriptures, in the way of private judgment, in order to show, that since such a study of the Scriptures is an indispensable duty, it concerns all Christian societies to remove, as much as possible, those discouragements.* He also published many pieces against Bishop Hoadley, in the Bangorian Controversy, as it was called, besides other learned works, which, after his death, were collected and published in four volumes 8vo. He likewise published an edition of Terence, with notes, in 4to; and the book of Psalms in Hebrew, 4to. In this last work he pretends to have discovered the Hebrew metre, which was supposed to be irrevocably lost. But his hypothesis, though defended by some, has been confuted by several learned men, particularly by Dr Lowth in his *Metrica Hareana brevis Confutatio*, annexed to his lectures *De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum*.