Richard Allestree

Richard Allestree or Allestry (/ˈɔːlstriː/ AWL-stree; 1621/22 – 28 January 1681) was an English Royalist churchman and provost of Eton College from 1665.

When the parliamentary forces arrived in Oxford, he hid the Christ Church valuables, and the soldiers found nothing in the treasury "except a single groat and a halter at the bottom of a large iron chest".

At the close of the English Civil War, he returned to his studies, took holy orders, was made Censor and became a "noted tutor".

While returning from one of these missions, in the winter before the Restoration, he was arrested at Dover and committed a prisoner at Lambeth Palace, then used as a jail for royalists, but was freed after a few weeks at the instance, among others, of Lord Shaftesbury.

His additions to the college buildings were less successful: the Upper School constructed by him at his own expense, was falling into ruin almost in his lifetime, and was replaced by the present structure in 1689.

[2] Allestree bequeathed his library of circa 3500 books to Christ Church, Oxford,[4] where he also served as treasurer, helping the college to recover in the years after the civil war.

A share in the composition, if not the sole authorship, of the books published under the name of the author of The Whole Duty of Man has been attributed to Allestree (Nichols's Anecdotes, ii.