Francis Cherry (non-juror)

The son of William and Anne Cherry of Shottesbrooke in Berkshire, he was born in Maidenhead in 1665,[1] and was a gentleman commoner of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

William Cherry survived until the Glorious Revolution; he allowed his son £2,500 a year to visit Bath and other places, and for charity.

At Shottesbrooke he often entertained Thomas Ken; Henry Dodwell he settled in a house near his own, and Robert Nelson was his constant guest.

His views on the duty of the non-jurors when the rights of the deprived bishops ceased to exist are found in letters of Brokesby, with whom he and Dodwell returned to the communion of the Church of England on 26 February 1710.

In accordance with his wishes his funeral was performed privately at 10 p.m. in Shottesbrooke churchyard, and on his tomb were inscribed only the words ‘Hic jacet peccatorum maximus,’ with the year of his death.

Among them was a letter Hearne had written to him on the subject of the oath of allegiance, which fell into the hands of the antiquary's enemies, and caused him trouble.