OWEN, JOHN (1560-1622).—­Epigrammatist, b. at Plas Dhu, Carnarvonshire, ed. at Winchester and Oxf., and became head master of King Henry VIII.  School at Warwick.  His Latin epigrams, which have both sense and wit in a high degree, gained him much applause, and were translated into English, French, German, and Spanish.

OWEN, JOHN (1616-1683).—­Puritan divine, b. at Stadhampton, Oxfordshire, and ed. at Oxf., from which he was driven by Laud’s statutes.  Originally a Presbyterian, he passed over to Independency.  In 1649 he accompanied Cromwell to Ireland, and in 1650 to Edinburgh.  He was Dean of Christ Church, Oxf. (1651-60), and one of the “triers” of ministers appointed by Cromwell.  After the Restoration he was ejected from his deanery, but was favoured by Clarendon, who endeavoured to induce him to conform to the Anglican Church by offers of high preferment.  Strange to say Charles II. also held him in regard, and gave him money for the Nonconformists; and he was allowed to preach to a congregation of Independents in London.  His great learning and ability rendered him a formidable controversialist, specially against Arminianism and Romanism.  His works fill 28 vols; among the best known being The Divine Original, etc., of the Scriptures, Indwelling Sin, Christologia, or ...  The Person of Christ_, and a commentary on Hebrews.

OWEN, ROBERT (1771-1858).—­Socialist and philanthropist, b. at Newton, Montgomeryshire, had for his object the regeneration of the world on the principles of socialism.  His sincerity was shown by the fact that he spent most of the fortune, which his great capacity for business enabled him to make, in endeavours to put his theories into practice at various places both in Britain and America.  He was sincerely philanthropic, and incidentally did good on a considerable scale in the course of his more or less impracticable schemes.  He propounded his ideas in New Views of Society, or Essays on the Formation of the Human Character (1816).

OXFORD, EDWARD DE VERE, EARL of (1550-1604).—­Was a courtier of Queen Elizabeth, who lost his friends by his insolence and pride, and his fortune by his extravagance.  He m. a dau. of Lord Burghley, who had to support his family after his death.  He had some reputation as a writer of short pieces, many of which are in the Paradise of Dainty Devices.

PAINE, THOMAS (1737-1809).—­Political and anti-Christian writer, s. of a stay-maker and small farmer of Quaker principles at Thetford, became with large classes perhaps the most unpopular man in England.  After trying various occupations, including those of schoolmaster and exciseman, and having separated from his wife, he went in 1774 to America where, in 1776, he pub. his famous pamphlet, Common Sense, in favour of American independence.  He served in the American army, and also held some