Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
england_n esq_n sir_n william_n 5,495 5 9.8160 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A43532 Scrinia reserata a memorial offer'd to the great deservings of John Williams, D. D., who some time held the places of Ld Keeper of the Great Seal of England, Ld Bishop of Lincoln, and Ld Archbishop of York : containing a series of the most remarkable occurences and transactions of his life, in relation both to church and state / written by John Hacket ... Hacket, John, 1592-1670. 1693 (1693) Wing H171; ESTC R9469 790,009 465

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

much I may Excuse it Or Secondly How I may Recompence it with some other Praise A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF JOHN WILLIAMS D.D. Who sometimes Held the Places of the LORD-KEEPER of the GREAT-SEAL of England c. PART I. Paragraph 1. EDMOND WILLIAMS Esq of Aber. Conway in the County of Carnarvan was the Son of William Williams Esq of Coghwillanne near adjoyning and of Dorothy Daughter to Sir William Griffith Knight of Penrhyn This Edmond took to Wife Mary Daughter to Owen Wyn Esq and by her had five Sons and two Daughters Of the Male Children John was the youngest the Womb of his Mother ceasing to bear when it had done its best This John whose Memory deserves to be Dignified in a lasting Story was born at Aber-Conway a Sea-Town in Carnarvanshire about or upon the Feast-day of our Lady the Blessed Virgin March 25. 1582. The Shire wherein he drew his first Breath is notorious for the highest Hills of this Island Snoden Penmanmaur Creig-Eriri and others It is not unlikely that it hath much Riches under the Earth but it is Barren above Ground As Pliny speaks of the Orobii certain Mountainers in Italy Lib. 3. c. 17. Etiam nomine prodentes se al. tius quàm fortunatiùs sitos Their Situation was rather high than prosperous But what the Region wants in Fatness of Soil is requited by the Generous Spirits of the Inhabitants a far greater Honour than much Clay and Dirt. I light upon it in the Invention of a Masque Presented before King James at Whitehall An. 1619. that our Laureat-Poet Ben. Johnson hath let some weighty Words drop from him to the Honour of that Nation and I take them as a serious Passage and will own them That the Country is a Seed-Plot of honest Minds and Men. What Lights of Learning hath Wales sent forth for our Schools What Industrious Students of our Laws What Able Ministers of Justice Whence hath the Crown in all times better Servitors more Liberal of their Lives and Fortunes And I know I have their good Leave to say That the Honour of Wales shin'd forth abroad in the Lustre of such a Native as this and I add what Pliny writes to Sabinus of the Firmians among whom he was born Credibile est optimos esse inter quos tu talis extiteris Lib. 6. Epist 2. For Carnarvanshire in particular says Reverend Mr. Cambden the Ordovices lived there of old who held the Romans Play to preserve their Liberties the longest of all our Britains and forced the Roman General Suetonius Paulinus to fix his Head-Quarter there desiring to keep them his first and surest Friends who were his last subdued Enemies Afterward the Saxons had the longest and stoutest Repulses in North-Wales that they felt in all their Battels which made them bloody their Swords most barbarously in the Bodies of those resolute Defendants 3. Among the Champions of greatest Note and Valour that did the best Feats of Chivalry against the Saxons was a gallant Commander the Top of the House of Williams which is preserv'd in Memory to this day because the Family of that Name doth until this time bear in their Coat three Saxons Heads De tree pen Saix they call it in Welch I think a noble Testimony of the Valour of the Chief of that Stock that sought manfully for his Country and preserv'd it from the Invasion of the Saxons when their Armies had march'd over the Ground of England now so called with Slaughter and Conquests And since the best Men of the ancient Houses in Wales did manage War so valiantly in maintenance of Glory and Liberty it is no marvel if the Inhabitants are noted in the current Ages ever since to have almost a Religious Care in preserving the Pedigrees of their Gentry Who could excuse them from Ingratitude if they should not garnish Heraldry with the Genealogies of such Worthies 4. Among their copious Stems and far-fetch'd Descents the Pedigree of the House of Williams of Coghwillanne hath as many brave Strings in the Root and spreads as wide in the Branches as I have seen produced from the Store-house of their Cambrian Antiquities It grows up in the top Boughs to the Princes of North-Wales in King Stephen's days as it is deducted by Authentick Records which I have seen and are formalized into a comely shape by Evan Lloyd of Egloyvach in the County of Denbigh and Jacob Chaloner of London Gent. Men faithful and expert in such Monuments of elder Years The same Authors demonstrate that Williams of Coghwillanne hath continued his Coat of three Saxons Heads constantly and without any the léast alteration from Edneuet Vychan Lord-Steward of Wales an 1240. and of Hen. 3. his Reign an 25. to this day It hit right indeed for a Coat of Arms says the neat Wit of Mr. Hugh Hotland when one of that Lineage was advanced to be Lord-Keeper of the Great-Seal as he couched it in an elegant Distic engraven on his Lordship's Silver Standish as I found it there Qui sublime fori potuit cons●●ndere tignum Par suit hunc capitum robur habere trium Meaning it was a sign he had the Abilities and Brains of three Heads whose good Parts lifted him up to that Honour to set Chief Judge in the highest Court of the Kingdom But I need neither the light Air of Poetry much less the empty Wind of Vain-boasting to blow it about the World that he was Anciently and Nobly descended there are so many Proofs for it as there are Offsprings of Gentry in North-Wales being all of his Blood and Alliance to whom a Catalogue might be added of Great and Honourable Persons in England Which King James was aware of when he was sworn his Counsellor for He told him pleasantly that He thought not the worse of him nor suspected his Fidelity though He knew well enough that Sir William Stanley then living a great Traitor to his Prince and Country was his near Kinsman I could insist more upon this but it is the Rule of a wise Author that whosoever will search into a Man prudently and Philosophically Nunquam cunabula quaerit Et qualis non unde satus I close it up therefore that his Pedigree of Ancestors gave a good Lustre to his Birth but he gave a greater to them Howsoever I receive it for a Moral Truth as well as a Mathematical that the longest Line is the least of all quantitive Dimensions 5. Now to begin with my Subject from the first time that he was able to go without the hand His Education was like to be Prosperous for not only his Parents but his Grandmother the Lady Griffith his Grandmother Lois as well as his Mother Eunice contributed her Care to give him Godly and Learned Breeding It fell out well for their purpose that their Pious Country-man Gabriel Goodman Dean of Westminster had about that time founded a Publick School at Reuthen and had placed a good Grammarian in it under whom