The First Cambridge Company
The First Cambridge Company translated the Hebrew text of the middle part of the Old Testament from 1 Chronicles through the Song of Solomon. Several members of this company were associated in some way with Cambridge’s Trinity College, the largest and most prominent college at the university.
The company’s best-known member, however, may have been Laurence Chaderton. A Puritan participant in the Hampton Court conference, Chaderton was the long-time master of the university’s Emmanuel College, which was something of a center for Puritan divinity students. The label Puritan, intended mockingly at first, referred to those who favored various changes in church practices, particularly the elimination of some retained from Catholic times and others thought to be corrupt.
The director of the company, Edward Lively, the regius professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, died early in the group’s work in May 1605. The company’s depth of expertise in Hebrew may be judged from the fact that another translator in the company, Robert Spalding, succeeded Lively in the regius professorship of Hebrew, and yet another, Andrew Byng, held that chair beginning in 1609.
 Laurence Chaderton. By permission of the Master and Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. |
Trinity College, Cambridge. The Bridgeman Art Library.
This company translated:
1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Solomon
Go to: The Second Cambridge Company
