David Durell

David Durell D.D. was Principal of Hertford College, Oxford, from 1757 to 1775, Vice-Chancellor of [the University of Oxford] from 1765 to 1768, and a noted Old Testament scholar of his day.

Birth and career

David Durell, son of Thomas Durell, was born of a prosperous family in Jersey in 1728. He went to Cowbridge School in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, 1741–7.
In March 1747, Durell entered Pembroke College, Oxford and graduated B.A. in 1750 and M.A. in 1753, becoming a Fellow of the new Hertford College that year. On 12 November 1757 he was appointed Principal of Hertford College. He held concurrently with his principalship a vicarage in Sussex and a canonry in Canterbury Cathedral.
On Tuesday 8 October 1765, Durell was invested as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. His tenure is notable for the expulsion of six students from St Edmund Hall for holding unauthorized prayer meetings.

Scholarship

Durell gained his Bachelor of Divinity in 1760 and his Doctorate of Divinity in 1764. Durell was an industrious scholar of the Old Testament. In the 1760s and 1770s he variously and extensively commented on, translated, and edited parts of the Scriptures which treated of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the Books of Job, Proverbs, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes, and the Canticles. He was also an ardent advocate of a new translation of the Bible to improve on the Authorized Version.

Death and burial

Durell died on 16 October 1775 and was buried at the church of St Peter-in-the-East in Oxford, now the library of St Edmund Hall.