John Favour was an English divine.

Life

Favour was born at Southampton

Southampton

Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

, and was sent to Winchester College

Winchester College

Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...

, whence he was elected probationer fellow of New College, Oxford

New College, Oxford

New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...

, in 1576, and in 1578 was made complete fellow. In April 1584 he took the degree of LL.B., proceeding LL.D. on 5 June 1592 (ib. i. 258). In January 1593–4 he became vicar of Halifax

Halifax, West Yorkshire

Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...

, Yorkshire. In August 1608 according to Thoresby, but in March 1618 according to Wood, he was made warden of St. Mary Magdalen's Hospital at Ripon

Ripon

Ripon is a cathedral city, market town and successor parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located at the confluence of two streams of the River Ure in the form of the Laver and Skell. The city is noted for its main feature the Ripon Cathedral which is architecturally...

, Yorkshire. He was made prebendary of Southwell in 1611 and of Osbaldwick, York, in 1614. In March 1616–17 he was collated to the prebend of Driffield and to the chantorship of the church of York. He was also chaplain to the archbishop and residentiary.

Favour died on 10 March 1623–4, and was buried in the chancel of Halifax Church, where on a pillar on the south side of the choir is an inscription to his memory (Watson, Hist. of Halifax, pp. 377–8). He married at Leeds, on 12 November 1695, Ann Power, probably the daughter of William Power, rector of Barwick-in-Elmet, near that town.

Works

Favour published ‘Antiqvitie trivmphing over Noveltie: Whereby it is proved that Antiqvitie is a true and certaine Note of the Christian Catholicke Church and verity, against all new and late vpstart heresies aduancing themselues against the religious honour of old Rome,’ &c., pp. 602, London, 1619. From the dedication to Tobie Mathew, archbishop of York, it appears that the work was begun by the author when he was ‘threescore yeares old’ at the desire, and carried on under the encouragement, of the archbishop. As an instance of the ignorance of the people when the Bible was withheld from them by the ‘Romanists,’ he relates at page 334 a story of a woman who, when she ‘heard the passion of Christ read in her owne tongue,’ wept bitterly. ‘After some pause and recollection of her spirits, she asked where this was done, & when: it was answered, many thousand miles hence at Ierusalem, and a great while ago, about fifteene hundred yeares. Then (quoth she) if it was so farre off, and so long ago, by the grace of God it might proue a lye, and therein she comforted her selfe.’