James Frey (priest)

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John James Frey (6 June 1606 – 28 August 1636) was a Swiss Anglican clergyman who became dean of Armagh in Ireland.

He was born Johann Jacob Frey in Basel, Switzerland. He studied at the University of Basel, earning a Master of Arts in 1625, and then studied in Geneva, Lyon, and Oxford. From 1629 he tutored Richard Boyle, the future 1st Earl of Burlington. He was made an MA at Oxford as a member of Christ Church on 4 July 1629 and was ordained a Deacon in May 1630. He briefly served as pastor in Basel and studied theology in Leyden.

In 1632–1633 Frey travelled with Richard Boyle through France and later worked in London and Lismore, conducting research for Archbishop James Ussher. He helped arrange a copy of Scipio Lentulus’ History of the Waldensian People. In 1635, after Dungarvan’s marriage, Frey returned to Basel with about 130 English books for the university. The volumes, which included sermons, poetry, plays, Raleigh’s History of the World, and a Second Folio of Shakespeare, helped form the Frey-Grynaeum library in Basel. About 30 volumes bear Frey’s signature and notes, including a Hebrew and Greek Bible and some surprising items for a Protestant minister, such as Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, early Latin epigrams by Richard Crashaw, Selden’s Marmora Arundelliana, and Plato’s Menexenos with notes.

Frey later returned to Basel to teach Greek at the University of Basel. He preferred to return to Britain but instead agreed to become the dean of Armagh in Ireland, planning to move there in spring 1637. On 28 August 1636, the day Basel granted him leave to take up the Armagh post, Frey died of a fever at age 30. He was deeply mourned by Swiss and English friends.

James Ussher later remembered their intellectual exchanges, calling Frey “our Frey.” Frey’s letters show he spoke Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, and possibly Arabic, and he was fluent in French, Italian, and English. He was ordained at 23 and preached in English; he corresponded in English with Ussher, John Gregory, and with Frances Clifford and Elizabeth Boyle.