Dictionary of Welsh Biography


COX , LEONARD ( fl. 1524-72 ), schoolmaster and author ,

second son of Laurence Cox of Monmouth by Elizabeth his wife. He graduated B.A. at Cambridge , but removed in 1528 to Oxford and was admitted to the B.A. degree of that University, 19 Feb. 1529/30 . He afterwards became headmaster of the grammar school, Reading , a post which he occupied till 1546 . He later went to live at Caerleon , where he taught school . In 1572 he became headmaster of Coventry grammar school . He was learned in modern languages and had travelled extensively on the continent of Europe . He was a friend of Erasmus and Melanchthon and was himself distinguished as a rhetorician and a grammarian . In 1524 he wrote The Art and Crafte of Rhethoryke and in 1540 Commentaries upon Will. Lily's Construction of the eight parts of speech . He also translated from Greek to Latin Marcus Eremita de Lege et Spiritu and from Latin to English Erasmus 's Paraphrase of the Epistle to Titus , 1549 .


  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ;
  • The Cambridge history of English literature (1908-1927) , iii, 290;
  • introduction by G. J. Williams to Egluryn Ffraethineb sef dosbarth ar retoreg ; un o'r saith gelfyddyd (Cardiff, 1930) by Henri Perry , vii.


Walter Thomas Morgan (1912-90), Aberystwyth

Published date: 1959