ABSTRACT
THE long life of Edward Pococke covers nearly the whole of the seventeenth century and his career illustrates the early history of Arabic studies at Oxford. 1 His father, also named Edward, was vicar of Chieveley in Berkshire. He was born in Oxford and christened on 11 November 1604, at the church of St. Peter-in-the-East. His early education was at the grammar school of Thame, some fourteen miles from Oxford, which had been opened in 1570 by the executors of Lord Williams of Thame, an ambitious politician who died in 1559, president of the Council of the Marches. The headmaster in Pococke's time was Richard Boucher or Butcher (1561-1627), an Oxfordshire man who had been educated at Winchester and New College, with which foundations the school at Thame was connected. Pococke's memories of his teacher were kindly; Twells describes him as "a Man of great Accuracy in Grammatical Learning, whose Skill and Industry the Doctor, even in his old Age, would often very gratefully remember". 2 The function of the school was mainly the teaching of Latin, in which the master was advised by the statutes to "follow as nearly as he can, the method of teaching which he will know to be served at Winchester in the School founded by Wykeham".3 Pococke may also have learnt Greek at school, although that language does not seem to have been prescribed by the statutes.
