Sir John Cheke (Cheek) was an English classical scholar and statesman.
Background
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth the family seat had been for more than a century at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone) was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529/30. John's mother was Agnes Duffeild or Dufford of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen and Mary.
Education
He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1529.
Career
His learning gained him an exhibition from the king, and in 1540, on Henry VIII.
's foundation of the regius professorships, he was elected to the chair of Greek.
Together with Sir Thomas Smith, he introduced a new method of Greek pronunciation very similar to that commonly used in England in the 19th century.
His zeal for Protestantism induced him to follow the duke of Northumberland, and he filled the office of secretary of state for Lady Jane Grey during her nine days' reign.
In consequence Mary threw him into the Tower and confiscated his wealth.
He was, however, released on the 13th of September 1554, and granted permission to travel abroad.
He went first to Basel, then visited Italy, giving lectures in Greek at Padua, and finally settled at Strassburg, teaching Greek for his living.
Overcome with shame, he did not long survive, but died in London on the 13th of September 1557, carrying, as T. Fuller says (Church History), " God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him. "
The descendants of one of these, Henry, known only for his translation of an Italian morality play Freewyl (Tragedio del Libero Arbitrio) by Nigri de Bassano, settled at Pyrgo in Essex. Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and most interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nash, in To the Gentlemen Students, prefixed to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), calls him " the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir Ihon Cheke, a man of men, super- naturally traded in all tongues. "
Many of Cheke's works are still in MS. , some have been altogether lost.
Membership
On 1 October he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden.