Laurence Nowell, cartographer and antiquarian, was one of the first people to study Old English after the Dissolution. Details of his life are rather confused, not least because his cousin, the dean of Lichfield, was also called Laurence Nowell, and until the 1970s the two people were thought to be one.
Nowell the antiquarian was born in 1530 or 1531 and died about 1570. His father was Alexander Nowell of Read Hall, Whalley, Lancashire, and his mother Grace, daughter of Rafe Catherall of Mitton, also of Lancashire. He matriculated at Christ Church Oxford by 1550, and proceeded BA in 1552. He then began a series of tours on the continent in 1553, which concluded in 1558 or thereabouts. Nowell may have been a member of Queen Elizabeth’s first parliament of 1559: there was an MP with this
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Citation: Stokes, Peter Anthony. "Laurence Nowell". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 October 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11744, accessed 21 November 2024.]
