Everard Digby

Everard Digby (born c. 1550) was an English academic theologian, expelled as a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge for reasons that were largely religious. He is known as the author of a 1587 book, written in Latin, that was the first work published in England on swimming; and also as a philosophical teacher, writer and controversialist. The swimming book, De Arte Natandi, was a practical treatise following a trend begun by the archery book Toxophilus of Roger Ascham, of Digby's own college. According to Eugene D. Hill, in Digby's Theoria Analytica of 1579, Life Born about 1550, he matriculated as a sizar of St John's College, Cambridge, 25 October 1567; was admitted a scholar 9 November 1570; proceeded B. A. 1570–1, M.A. 1574, and B.D. 1581; and became a Lady Margaret fellow on 12 March 1572–3, and senior fellow 10 July 1585. He was principal lecturer in 1584. Digby took part in the college performance of Thomas Legge's Richardus Tertius in 1580.