#15450, David LE VAVASSEUR DIT DURELL

Following his MA he was appointed a Tutor of Hertford College and in 1757 at the early age of 27 he was made Principal.  This was quite irregular, as by the Statutes the choice was confined to Westminster students of Christ Church, but no one seems to have challenged it.  All through his principalship he quietly ignored out-of-date Statutes to the great advantage of the college.  He took his BD in 1760 and his DD in 1764.

As well as being principal of Hertford College he was rector of Bishopstone in Glamorgan.  He was appointed a canon of Canterbury Cathedral in 1767 and vicar of Ticehurst in Sussex.  He was a Hebrew scholar and published several works on the Old Testament, of which he gave copies to the library at Canterbury Cathedral.

In 1768 he became involved in a controversy that attracted nation-wide attention.  He expelled six undergraduates for 'venturing to dispute their Tutor's opinions in his lectures on the Thirty-Nine Articles.'  A flood of differing views exploded but the general view was that Durell had acted unjustly.  In 1770 on his way to Jersey he was arrested as a spy but released shortly thereafter.

He published The Hebrew Text of the Parallel Prophecies of Jacob and Moses with translation and notes together with the Samaritan-Arabic Version of those passages and four Dissertations on points connected with these Prophecies, 1763 and Critical Remarks on the Books of Job, Proverbs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes and Canticles, 1772.

Our illustration is of one of his bookplates from the William & Mary Law School, Williamsburg, Virginia.