_John Owen_, the celebrated epigrammatist, was a native of Caernarvonshire. He was educated at Winchester School, and New College, Oxford, where he graduated L.L.D., and became a fellow. He afterwards held the mastership of a grammar-school, near Monmouth, whence he removed to a similar situation in Warwick. While here, he distinguished himself by his skill in Latin poetry, and more particularly epigrams. This talent, however, did great harm, for he was struck out of the will of a rich uncle for his satirical epigrams on the church of Rome. He died in 1622, and he was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral, at the expense of Archbishop Williams, by whom he was supported in the latter part of his life. His epigrams have been several times reprinted, both in England, and on the Continent; they are justly admired for their wit and purity of language. _John Owen_, D.D., the most eminent of Nonconformist divines in this country, was descended of a respectable family in North Wales, though born at Stadham, in Oxfordshire, in 1616, of which place his father, a native of Wales, was vicar. He was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, where he was supported by a rich uncle, living in North Wales; but who, being a royalist, was offended at his nephew’s principles, and died without leaving him anything. On the breaking out of the civil war, he sided with the parliament, and became a Presbyterian in his religious opinions; and his display of Arminianism, which was published in 1642, so recommended him to the prevailing party, that he was presented to the living of Fordham, in Essex, and subsequently by the Earl of Warwick, at the request of the parishioners, to that of Coggeshall, in the same county. Having now acquired great celebrity, and become acquainted with General Fairfax during the seige of Colchester, he was appointed to preach at Whitehall the day after the execution of Charles the First. He soon after became a favourite with Cromwell, whom he accompanied on his expeditions to Ireland and Scotland; and in 1651 he was appointed to the deanery of Christ Church, Oxford, on which appointment he received his doctor’s degree, and in 1652, Cromwell being chancellor, Owen was made his vice-chancellor, which office he held for five years. On the death of his patron, the Protector, he was deprived of his office and deanery, through the influence of the Presbyterian party, whom he had offended by adopting the Independent mode of worship, which he thought more conformable to the New Testament; and he published his reasons for thinking so, in two volumes, quarto. On the Restoration, his merit was so highly appreciated, that Lord Clarendon offered him immediate preferment if he would conform, which he respectfully declined. This eminent man died at Ealing, Middlesex, in 1683. His works, which are of high Calvinistic principles, are very numerous, amounting to seven folio, twenty quarto, and thirty octavo volumes.