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

Life

Matriculating from Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

 on June 30, 1682, he was elected to a studentship. He graduated B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in 1686. However (his father William was a major of the royal guards in Scotland at the Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

, and his elder brother John

John Hurry

Sir John Hurry was a Scottish soldier.He was born in Aberdeenshire, and saw military service as a young man in Germany.In 1641 he returned home and became Lieutenant-Colonel in a Scottish regiment. At the end of the same year he was involved in the plot known as the "Incident"...

 fought on the Royalist side in the Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

), the younger John Urry fought against Monmouth

Monmouth Rebellion

The Monmouth Rebellion,The Revolt of the West or The West Country rebellion of 1685, was an attempt to overthrow James II, who had become King of England, King of Scots and King of Ireland at the death of his elder brother Charles II on 6 February 1685. James II was a Roman Catholic, and some...

, and would not swear the oath of allegiance to William III

William III of England

William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...

 on his accession, thereby losing his studentship.

At the end of 1711, Christ Church's dean Francis Atterbury

Francis Atterbury

Francis Atterbury was an English man of letters, politician and bishop.-Early life:He was born at Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, where his father was rector. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he became a tutor...

 convinced a reluctant Urry to edit a proposed new edition of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...

. Though the work was incomplete on Urry's death 4 years later (he is buried at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford, which consists of the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is also, uniquely, the chapel of Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford.-History:...

) 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

Roman type

In typography, roman is one of the three main kinds of historical type, alongside blackletter and italic. Roman type was modelled from a European scribal manuscript style of the 1400s, based on the pairing of inscriptional capitals used in ancient Rome with Carolingian minuscules developed in the...

– posthumously made his name.