Rainbow, Edward (1608-1684), Anglican cleric and Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge

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Rainbow, Edward (1608-1684), Anglican cleric and Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge

• Edward Rainbowe
• Edward Rainbow, Bishop of Carlisle, DD

20 April 1608 - 26 March 1684

Master of Magdalene College, 1642 - 1650 (ejected), 1660 - 1664

Born at Blyton in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, son of Thomas Rainbow, the vicar, and his wife, Rebecca, daughter of David Allen, rector of the neighbouring parish of Ludborough.
Educated at school in Gainsborough and then in Peterborough under John Williams. In 1621 he transferred to Westminster School.
In July 1623 he obtained a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where his brother was a Fellow, but through the family of his godfather Edward Wray of Rycot, he received from Frances, Dowager Countess of Warwick, a nomination to one of the Wray scholarships founded at Magdalene College, Cambridge by her father.

He matriculated in 1624; BA in 1627; MA in 1630.

He was ordained in April 1632.

1633 made a Fellow.
1637 he accepted the small vicarage of Childerley, near Cambridge, and became Dean of Magdalene.
1642 he was appointed Master in succession to Henry Smyth. He was an effective Master, putting College registers in order, ably managing finances and increasing student numbers.
He served as Master twice, having been ejected for Royalist principles in 1650. He was restored in 1660 and resigned in 1664.
He was appointed Chaplain to the King.
1661 he was made Dean of Peterborough.
1662 appointed Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.
1664 became Bishop of Carlisle.

Arms in Hall glass, E3.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography