The court in Guildford heard a coroner, John Derrick, that when he was a scholar at the "Free School at Guildford", fifty years earlier, "he and diverse of his fellows did run and play [on the common land] at cricket and other players".
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Is "diverse of" grammatical?
How about "diverse range of"?
Or do you have better expressions?
I believe the word most often used was "divers." But spelling consistency was not a big deal Back in the Day. I have run across it in old books and the King James bible.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket
Since the quoted parts in your passage are direct quotations from another source, you should not be changing any parts of it. If your questions are trying to explain some old expressions in English, then be sure you put those words in square brackets, like this:
The court in Guildford heard a coroner, John Derrick, that when he was a scholar at the "Free School at Guildford", fifty years earlier, "he and [many of his friends] did run and play [on the common land] at cricket and other players".
In 1598, "diverse of" must have meant many of or many different.
The phrase "diverse of" is not grammatically correct. It should be "a diverse range of" or simply "diverse" without the word "of."
Here are a few alternatives you can use to express a similar idea:
1. Various: You can say "various of his fellows" to indicate that there were different individuals involved.
2. Several: Another option is to use "several of his fellows" to convey the idea of a small number of people.
3. Different: You can also use the word "different" instead of "diverse" if you want to imply variation or variety.
4. Numerous: If you want to express a large number of people, you can use "numerous" instead of "diverse."
Remember, it's important to choose the word that best suits the context and conveys your intended meaning accurately.