LIGHTFOOT, JOHN, was born at Stoke-upon Trent in the. year 16°2. He was early imbued with the elements of sound learning. He was edu cated first at a grammar school at Morton Green, in Cheshire, and afterwards at Cambridge. He was remarkable both at Cambridge, and afterwards as assistant at the well-known school of Repton in Derbyshire, for Ins pregnant wit,' his proficiency and continued improvement in Greek and Latin, and his amiable disposition ; but it was not till lie had taken orders, and settled at Norton-under Hales, in Staffordshire, that he began that acquaint ance with Hebrew which ripened into the most familiar and consummate knowledge of the whole range of Biblical and Rabbinical literature. Ile was first led to embrace this line of study by the friendly recommendation and example of Sir Row land Cotton, a pious and learned country gentle man, who resided at Bellaport, in the neighbour hood, and took Lightfoot into his house as his chaplain. Lightfoot continued with Sir Rowland Cotton till the latter left Bellaport for London, after which he settled on a sphere of ministerial labour at Stone, in Staffordshire, where he con tinued for two years, and married at the age of twenty-six. From Stone he removed to Hornsey, in order to be near the library of Sion College, and from thence to the rectory of Ashford, in Stafford shire, which was presented to him by his worthy friend Sir Rowland Cotton. Herc, that he might devote himself more uninterruptedly to his learned labours, he bought a piece of ground not far from his parsonage, and built upon it a small house, with a study below and a sleeping-room above, where lie spent most of his time, visiting his family,onee a day, for the single meal to which he restricted himself. And here he remained in the quiet dis charge of his professional duties during the turbulent years which led to tbe death of Charles I., the establishment of the Commonwealth, and the tem porary subversion of the Church of England.
Lightfoot was one of those good men who, in those days of trouble and uncertainty, thought it best to follow the course of events ; and it was natural for those in power to seek the assistance of his learn ing and soundness of mind in framing a new religious system for the country-. Thus he be came one of the assembly of divines at Westminster (1643), where his solid learning and independent spirit was often the corrective of crude and hasty deductions drawn from fanciful interpretations of Holy Scripture. While in London, he was the minister of St. Bartholomew's, behind the Ex change, where lte felt himself to be in a kind of exile from his own,' but was soon rewarded for his services in the assembly of divines by the gift of the rectory of Great Munden, in Hertfordshire, and was appointed in the same year to the master ship of Catherine Hall at Cambridge. He became D.D. in 1652, and was vice-chancellor of the University in 1653. The living of Great Munden is in the gift of the Crown, and had been given suc cessively to two eminent divines by the Kings James and Charles. Lightfoot received it from the Par liament, and Charles II. was no sooner restored than another person applied for and obtained the living. Lightfoot, on hearing this, acted with promptness and decision. Sheldon, then Bishop of London, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and the munificent donor of the Sheldonian thcatre to the University of Oxford, had been a devoted adherent to the Royal cause. Lightfoot, personally unknown to him, sought his presence, and so repre sented his claims, that Sheldon exerted himself actively in his favour, and procured his re-instate ment in his living, as well as his confirntation in the mastership of Catherine Hall, which he had offered to resign. Through the influence of Sir Orlando Bridgeman he was appointed to a preben dal stall in the cathedral of Ely-, where he died peaceably, after a life full of labours, in the year 1675.