296 Notes on the History of Mere. 
He hath written and published An interpretation of the number 666, wherein 
not only the manner how this number ought to be interpreted, is clearly proved 
and demonstrated; but it is also shewed, that this number is an exquisite and 
perfect character, truly, exactly and essentially describing that state of govern- 
ment, to which all other notes of Antichrist do agree. Oxon 1642. qu. Which 
book as one (Joseph Mede of Cambs) saith ‘is the happiest that ever yet came 
into the world; and such as cannot be read (save of those persons that will not 
believe it) without mueh admiration &c.’ A book called also The Key of 
the Scripture written by a London Divine, wherein, being large upon the 
Revelations he prefers the said Interpretation before all others. It was after- 
wards translated into French, Dutch and Latin ; the last of which was done by 
several hands and severally printed. One copy was all or mostly performed by 
Tho. Gilbert of S. Edm. Hall printed at Amsterd. 1677, oct. And that, or the 
other, was partly remitted into Matth. Poole’s Synopsis Critic. in the second 
part of the fourth volume, on the Revelations. What answers were made to 
the said Interpretation, that were printed, I think there were none; sure I am 
that one Lambert Morehouse, Minister of Pertwood,! about 6 miles from 
Kilmanton accounted by some a learned man and a good Mathematician did 
write against it, and seemed to be angry with the Author that 25 is not the true, 
but the propinque root ; To which the Author replied with some sharpness. The 
M.S. of this controversie Morehouse gave to Dr. Seth Ward, B. of Salisbury, 
an. 1668, before which time he was prefer’d by Dr. Henchman then B. of that 
place to the spiritual cure of Little Langford in Wilts, where he died about 
1672. He was a Westmorland man by birth, was educated, I think in Clare 
Hall in Cambridge and wrot other things, but are not printed. As for our 
author Potter, he lived to a good old age, died perfectly blind at Kilmanton 
between Easter and Whitsuntide (in the month of Apr. I think) in sixteen 
hundred seventy and eight, and was buried in the chancel of the church there. 
His memory is preserved in Z’rin. Coll. by a Dial that he made and set up on the 
north side of the Old Quadrangle, where it doth yet remain. His father’s name 
was Rich. Potter, an Oxfordshire man born, some time Fellow of the said 
Coll. of the holy Trinity and afterwards Vicar of a little mercate Town in 
Wilts, and rector of Kilmington or Kilmanton in Somersetshire before men- 
tion’d.” 
Aubrey, in his “ Topographical Collections, under Mere, says :— 
“Tt ought not to be forgotten that the reverend and learned Divine, Mr. 
Francis Potter, D.D., Rector of Kilmington, in Co. Somerset, 1675, quondam a 
Commoner of Trinity College in Oxford, author of the ‘ Interpretation of the 
number 666,’ which is translated into French, High Dutch, Low Dutch, and 
1 This is an error. It should be Launcelot Moorbouse. He had the character 
of a learned man and good mathematician. He objected to Potter’s theory that 
25 is not the true, but the approximate or “ propinque ” root of the number 666, 
which drew forth a sharp answer from that singular character. Launcelot 
Moorhouse is buried at Little Langford, under a common gravestone near the 
altar. 
