Hamlet Puleston

Hamlet Puleston or Puliston (1632–1662) was an English academic, known as a political writer.

Born at Old Alresford, Hampshire, he was the son of Richard Puleston, a cleric, and nephew of John Puleston. Admitted a scholar of Wadham College, Oxford on 20 August 1647, he graduated B.A. on 23 May 1650, and M.A. on 25 April 1653.^[1]

Puleston at first declined to subscribe to the ordinances of the parliamentary visitors;^[1] he took part, in fact, in the stubborn armed resistance in Lincoln College, around George Hitchcocke.^[2] Subsequently he became a fellow of Jesus College. He was nominated moderator dialecticæ on 19 May 1656. Anthony Wood wrote that he also became a local preacher.^[1]

Puleston later settled in London, where he died at the beginning of 1662, in poverty according to Wood.^[1]

Puleston published in 1660 Monarchiæ Britannicæ singularis Protectio; or a brief historical Essay tending to prove God's especial providence over the British Monarchy. It was reissued as the Epitome Monarchiæ Britannicæ … wherein many remarkable observations on the civil wars of England, and General Monk's Politique Transactions in reducing the Nation to a firm Union, for the resettlement of his Majesty, are clearly discovered, 1663.^[1]

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Puleston, Hamlet". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 47. London: Smith, Elder & Co.