thumb|right|200px|Richard Allestree, 1684 engraving by [[David Loggan.]]
Richard Allestree or Allestry ( ; 1621/22 – 28 January 1681) was an English Royalist churchman and provost of Eton College from 1665.
Life
The son of Robert Allestree, descended from an old Derbyshire family, he was born at Uppington in Shropshire. Although John Fell gave his birth date as March 1619, this conflicts with his college records. He was educated at the Free School, Coventry, and entered Christ Church, Oxford, under Richard Busby. He entered as a commoner in 1636, matriculating as a student on 17 February 1637 aged fifteen, In 1665 he was appointed provost of Eton College, and proved himself a capable administrator. He introduced order into the disorganised finances of the college and procured the confirmation of William Laud's decree which reserved five of the Eton fellowships for members of King's College. His additions to the college buildings were less successful: the Upper School constructed by him at his own expense, was falling into ruin almost in his lifetime, and was replaced by the present structure in 1689.
Allestree was buried in the chapel at Eton College, where there is a Latin inscription to his memory. where he also served as treasurer, helping the college to recover in the years after the civil war.
- Architectural History of Eton and Cambridge, by R. Willis, i. 420
- History of Eton College, by Sir H. C. Maxwell-Lyte
- History of Eton College, by Lionel Cust (1899)
- Egerton manuscripts, Brit. Mus. 2807 f. 197 b.
References
Further reading
- Richard Allestree (1621-1681) and the Allestree Library at Christ Church, Oxford