STRYPE, John (1643-1737), historian and biographer, was the son of John Strype or Van Stryp, a native of Brabant, who to escape religious persecution went to England, and settled near London, in a locality afterwards known as Strype’s Yard, formerly in the parish of Stepney, but subsequently annexed to that of Christ Church, Spitalfields. Here he carried on the business of a merchant and silk throwster. The son was born 1st November 1643. He was educated at St Paul’s School, and on 5th July 1662 entered Jesus College, Cambridge. Thence he proceeded to Catherine Hall, where he graduated B.A. in 1665 and M.A. in 1669. On the 14th July of the latter year he was preferred to the curacy of Theydon-Bois, Essex, and a few months afterwards was chosen curate and lecturer of Low Leyton in the same county. On account of the smallness of the salary, the patron allowed the people to choose their own minister, the vacancy in the vicarage remaining unfilled during the life of Strype. He was never instituted or inducted, but in 1674 he was licensed by the bishop of London to preach and expound the word of God, and to perform the full office of priest and curate during the vacancy of the vicarage. In his later years he obtained from Archbishop Tenison the sinecure of Tarring, Sussex, and he discharged the duties of lecturer at Hackney till 1724. When he became infirm he took up his residence with Mr Harris, an apothecary at Hackney, who had married his daughter, and died there 11th December 1737, at the advanced age of ninety-four....
At an early period of his life Strype obtained access to the papers of Sir Michael Hicks, secretary to Lord Burghley, from which he made extensive transcripts; he also carried on an extensive correspondence with Archbishop Wake and Bishops Burnet, Atterbury, and Nicholson. The materials thus obtained formed the basis of his historical and biographical works, which relate chiefly to the period of the Reformation. The greater portion of his original materials have been preserved, and are included in the
Lansdowne manuscripts in the British Museum. His works can scarcely be entitled original compositions, his labour having consisted chiefly in the arrangement of his materials, but on this very account they are of considerable value as convenient books of reference, easier of access and almost as trustworthy as the original documents. Besides a number of single sermons published at various periods, he was the author of an edition of Lightfoot’s Works, vol. ii., 1684; Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, 1694; Life of Sir Thomas Smith, 1698; Life and Actions of John Aylmer, Bishop of London, 1701; Life of Sir John Cheke, with his Treatise on Superstition, 1705; Annals of the Reformation in England, 4 vols., vol. i. 1709 (reprinted 1725), vol. ii. 1725, vol. iii. 1728, vol. iv. 1731; 2d ed. 1735, 4 vols.; 3d ed. 1736-38, 4 vols.; Life and Actions of Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1710, of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1711, and of John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1818; An Accurate Edition of Stow’s Survey of London, 1720, 2 vols, fol., the standard edition of Stow and of great value, although its interference with the original text is a method of editing which can scarcely be reckoned fair to the original author; and Ecclesiastical Memorials, 1721, 3 vols.; 1733, 3 vols.; new ed. 1816. His Historical and Biographical Works were published in 10 vols., with a general index, 1820-40.
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