or **ALLESTRY**, RICHARD, D.D., was born at Uppington in Shropshire in 1619, and educated in the grammar school of Coventry, and afterwards at Christ Church in Oxford. His natural talents, which were uncommonly vigorous, were carefully improved by unremitting application to study. Accordingly, his promotion was rapid. After passing as bachelor of arts, he was made successively moderator in philosophy, canon of Christ Church, doctor of divinity, chaplain in ordinary to the king, and regius professor of divinity. His early studies, however, were interrupted by the hostilities of the times. In the year 1641 he and many other students of Oxford entered the royal service, and gave eminent proofs of their courage and loyalty. A short interval of hostilities permitted Allestry to return to his literary pursuits; but soon after he again took up arms, and was present at the battle of Keinton-field. On his way to Oxford to prepare for the reception of the king; he was taken prisoner, but was released by the king's forces. A violent disease which then prevailed in the garrison of Oxford brought Allestry to the brink of the grave; but recovering, he again joined a regiment of volunteers, chiefly consisting of Oxford students. Here he served as a common soldier, and was often seen with the musket in one hand and a book in the other. At the close of the revolutionary struggle, he returned to his favourite studies, but still continued true to his party. This occasioned his expulsion from the college; but he was provided with a comfortable retreat in the families of the Honourable Francis Newport and Sir Anthony Cope.

Such was the confidence reposed in him, that when the friends of Charles II. were secretly preparing the way for his restoration, they intrusted him with personal messages to the king. In returning from one of these interviews he was seized at Dover, and upon examination committed a prisoner to Lambeth House. The Earl of Shaftesbury obtained his release in a few weeks. Returning to visit his friends, and among others the learned Dr Hammond, he met his corpse at the gate of his house, on its way to the grave. This melancholy occurrence deeply affected his mind. The doctor left him his library, assigning as a reason that "he well knew that his books in his hands would be useful weapons for the defence of that cause he had so vigorously supported." This valuable library, along with his own, Allestry bequeathed at his death to the university. He died in January 1681.

Allestry erected at his own private expense the west side of the outward court of Eton College, and the grammar school in Christ Church College; besides settling several liberal pensions upon individual persons and families. A volume of sermons, printed at Oxford in 1684, is all by which posterity can judge of his literary abilities.