Background
He was born at Gloucester, the son of Christopher Capel, an alderman of the city, and his wife Grace, daughter of Richard Hands. His father was a good friend to ministers who had suffered for nonconformity.
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Richard Capel
Edit ProfileEducation
Richard was educated in Gloucester, and became a commoner of Saint Alban Hall, Oxford, in 1601. In the reign of James I he attended at court on Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, and continued there till the death of his friend Sir Thomas Overbury.
Career
He was afterwards elected a demy of Magdalen College, and in 1609 was made perpetual fellow there, being then Master of Arts During his residence at the university he was much consulted by Calvinists, and his pupils included Accepted Frewen and William Pember. In 1613 he was instituted to the rectory of Eastington, Stroud, presented by Nathaniel Stephens. In 1633, when the Book of Sports of James I was published the second time by royal authority, he declined to read it in his church, and voluntarily resigned his rectory where he was succeeded by William Mew.
Capel obtained a license to practise physic from Godfrey Goodman, the bishop of Gloucester.
He now settled at Pitchcombe, near Stroud, where he had an estate. He died at Pitchcombe on 21 September 1656.
Membership
In 1643 he became a member of the Westminster Assembly.
