Robert Creighton (1639?–1734)

Robert Creighton or Creyghton (1639? – 17 February 1734) was an English churchman and composer of church music. He served as Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge during the Restoration period, and then as the precentor of Wells Cathedral. Early life Creighton was the son of the elder Robert Creighton, a Scottish churchman. The elder Creighton served as chaplain to King Charles I during the English Civil War and then as chaplain to Charles II during his exile after the defeat of the Royalists; he then returned to England at the Stuart Restoration in 1660, becoming Dean of Wells in 1660 and Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1670. The younger Creighton was born in about 1639, and probably went into exile with his father, returning together with him at the Restoration. Career In 1662, Creighton took the degree of M.A. at Cambridge, where he was elected fellow of Trinity College and Regius Professor of Greek. In the entry in the Dictionary of National Biography upon which the present article is based, William Barclay Squire suggests that Creighton held the Regius Professorship for only one year starting in 1662, since in 1663 John Le Neve in the third volume of his Fasti g