Hannah Yip; UCL Special Collections Catalogue; AIM25 Catalogue
AO (Foster); CCEd (Person ID: 158158); Irvine Gray, 'Records of Four Tewkesbury Vicars, c. 1685-1769', in S. T. Blake and A. Saville, eds, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 102 (1984); Daniel C. Beaver, Parish Communities and Religious Conflict in the Vale of Gloucester, 1590-1690 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998)
The Reverend John Matthews was vicar of Tewkesbury from 1689 until his resignation in 1728.
He was the son of John Matthews of Gloucester, a landlord/innholder. He was admitted to Oriel College, Oxford, in 1667, and graduated M. A. in 1673. Matthews was Master of Derby Grammar School c. 1674-1679, and in 1685 was briefly appointed to the Mastership of Tewkesbury Grammar School. In January 1687, he became domestic chaplain to the Third Viscount Tracy of Rathcoole until Tracy's death in March of the same year.
Matthews held the living of Tewkesbury from 1689 until 1728, dying aged 79 on 26 May 1729. He had retired from his office fifteen months before his death on account of failing health and memory.
John Matthews never married. Although a native of the staunchly Parliamentarian city of Gloucester, he remained a Royalist. He was also anti-Catholic.
His published works include Forgiveness of Enemies (a sermon on Luke 23:34) (Oxford, 1706) and The Energy of Liberality (Worcester, 1712).