John Cosin (1594-1672) was born in Norwich and educated at Caius College, Cambridge. After serving as secretary to Bishop Overall of Norwich, he became chaplain to Bishop Neile of Durham, and during the 1620's and 1630's was, successively or simultaneously, Master of Greatham Hospital, rector of Elwick and Brancepeth, Co. Durham, prebendary of Durham Cathedral, archdeacon of the East Riding, and from 1634/5 Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge. His close association with the policies of Archbishop Laud and Charles I brought him into collision with the puritan party in Durham, especially his fellow prebendary Peter Smart, and into disfavour with the Long Parliament, and from 1644 until the Restoration he lived in exile in France, as chaplain to Queen Henrietta Maria. He became Bishop of Durham in 1660, and played a leading part in the Restoration church settlement, particularly in the evolution of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. In his own diocese he energetically set about restoring order and repairing the depredations of the Interregnum, and carried out extensive building work at Durham castle and cathedral, and Auckland castle, as well as founding the library in Durham which still bears his name.
Isaac Basire (1607-1676) came to Durham in 1632 as chaplain to Bishop Morton. He subsequently became rector of Eaglescliffe near Yarm, prebendary of Durham Cathedral in 1643, archdeacon of Northumberland in 1644, and chaplain to Charles I, who gave him the rich living of Stanhope. A high churchman, strongly identified with the royalist cause, he was imprisoned in 1646, and then went into exile, travelling extensively through Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. In 1654 Prince George Racoczi appointed him professor of divinity at the university of Alba Julia in Transylvania. He returned to England after the Restoration, and set about putting his archdeaconry in order with a diligence which matched that of Cosin in the diocese at large.
From the guide to the Cosin Letter-Books, 1593-1686, (Durham University Library, Archives and Special Collections)
