John Urry (literary editor)


John Urry was a noted literary editor and medieval scholar of Scottish family.

Life

Matriculating from Christ Church, Oxford on 30 June 1682, he was elected to a studentship. He graduated B.A. in 1686. However, the younger John Urry fought against Monmouth, and would not swear the oath of allegiance to William III on his accession, thereby losing his studentship.
At the end of 1711, Christ Church's dean Francis Atterbury convinced a reluctant Urry to edit a proposed new edition of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Though the work was incomplete on Urry's death 4 years later and had to be completed and revised by Timothy and William Thomas, Urry's work on it – the first edition of Chaucer to be entirely in Roman type – posthumously made his name.