Reverend Lancelot Addison (1632 – 20 April 1703) was born at Crosby Ravensworth in Westmorland. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford.
Rev. Addison worked at Tangier as a chaplain for seven years and upon his return he wrote "West Barbary, or a Short Narrative of the Revolutions of the Kingdoms of Fex and Morocco" (1671).
In 1670 he was appointed royal chaplain or Chaplain in Ordinary to the King, shortly thereafter Rector of Milston, Wilts, and Prebendary in the Cathedral of Salisbury. In 1683 became Dean of Lichfield, and in 1684 Archdeacon of Coventry.
Among his other works was "The Present State of the Jews" (1675), a detailed study of the Jewish population of the Barbary Coast in the seventeenth century; their customs, and their religious behavior. Scholars have pointed out that part of Addison's book simply repeats material found in the English translation of Johannes Buxtorf's work, The Jewish Synagogue, or an Historical Narration of the State of the Jewes (Synagoga Judaica, London, 1657).
He died in 1703 leaving three sons: poet Joseph Addison, scholar Lancelot Addison, and Gulston Addison, who became Governor of Madras.
Rev. Addison was buried in Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire.
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God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott.””
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