more able child of more docility Docil the child Master of great ability At last he was prefered Bishop of Ely 1559. commendably continuing therein whatever causless malice hath reported to the contrary twenty one years and dying Anno Domini 1580. THOMAS BICKLEY was born at Stow in this County bred first Chorister then Scholar then Fellow in Magdalen-colledge in Oxford In the first of Edward the sixth his detestation of Superstition may rather be commended then his discretion in expressing it when before the publique abolishing of Popery at Evening-prayer he brake the consecrated Host with his hands and stamped it under his feet in the Colledge-chappel Afterwards he fled over into France living an exile at Paris Orleans all the reign of Queen Mary Returning into Eugland he became Chaplain to Arch-bishop Parker who preferred him Warden of Merton-colledge wherein he continued twenty years When pass'd the age of a man eighty years old he began the life of a Bishop and was rather contented then willing to accept the Bishoprick of Chichester * freely offered unto him Yet lived he eleven years therein and died ninety years of age April 30 1596. and had a most sumptuous funerall all the Gentry of the Vicinage doing their homage to the Crown of his old age which was foun'd in the way of truth He led a single life left an hundred pound to Merton-colledge and other moneys to pious uses JOHN KING was born at Warnhall nigh Tame in this County Robert King the last Abbot of Osney and first Bishop of Oxford being his great Uncle he was first Deane of Christ-church then Bishop of London being ful fraught with all Episcopal qualities so that he who endeavoureth to give a perfect account thereof will rather discover his own defects then describe this Prelates perfections He died Anno Dom. 1618. being buried in the Quire of Saint Pauls with the plain Epitaph of Resurgam and I cannot conceal this elegant Elegie made upon him Sad Relique of a blessed soul whose trust We sealed up in this Religious dust O do not thy low Exequies suspect As the cheap Arguments of our Neglect 'T was a commanded duty that thy Grave As little pride as thou thy self should have Therefore thy covering is an humble stone And but a word for thy inscription When those that in the same earth neighbour thee Have â—…ach his Chronicle Pedigree They have their waving Pennons and their flaggs Of Matches and Alliance formal Braggs Whenthou although from ancestors thou came Old as the Heptarchy great as thy name Sleepst there inshrin'd in thy admired parts And hast no Heraldry but thy deserts Yet let not them their prouder Marbles boast For they rest with less Honor though more cost Go search the world with your Mattokwound The groaning bosom of the patient ground Digg from the hidden veins of her dark womb All that is rare and precious for a tomb Yet when much treasure more time is spent You must grant his the Nobler Monument Whose faith standsore him for a Hearse hath The Resurrection for his Epitaph See more of the character of this most worthy Prelate in our Ecclesiasticall History anno 1620. wherein he died RICHARD MONTAGUE was born at Dorney where his Father was Vicar of the Parish within 3. miles of Eaton and so though not within the reach within the sight of that Staple Place for Grammar learning wherein he was bred Thence was he chosen successively Fellow of Kings Colledge in Cambridge Fellow of Eaton Parson of Stanford Rivers in Essex Canon of Windsor Parson of Petworth elected Bishop of Chichester and at last of Norwich He spent very much in repairing his Parsonage-house at Petworth as also on his Episcopal house at Allingbourn near Chichester He was most exact in the Latin and Greek and in the Vindication of Tithes wrestled with the grand Antiquary of England and gave him a fair flat fall in the point of a Greek Criticisme taxing him justly for mistaking a God amongst the Aegyptians more then there was by making a Man amongst the Grammarians fewer then they should be He hath many learned works extant against the Papists some in English some in Latin and one called his Appello Caesarem which without his intent and against his will gave occasion of much trouble in the Land He began an Ecclesiasticall History and set forth his Apparatus and alas it was but an Apparatus though through no Default of his but defect of his Health sicknesse troublesome times and then death surprizing him Had it been finished we had had Church Annalls to put into the Ballance with those of Baronius and which would have swayed with them for Learning and weighed them down for Truth He dyed Anno Dom 1641. HENRY KING D. D. son to John King lately mentioned Bishop of London and his wife of the ancient family of the Conquests was born in this County in the â—…me town house and chamber with his father a locall Coincidence which in all considerable particulars cannot be parallel'd We know the Scripture-Proverb used in Exprobration As is the mother so is the daughter both wicked both wofull But here it may be said by way of thankfullness to God and honour to the persons As was the father so is the son both pious both prosperous till the calamity of the times involved the later Episcopacy Anno 1641. was beheld by many in a deep consumption which many hoped would prove mortal To cure this it was conceived the most probable cordiall to prefer persons into that Order not only unblameable for their life and eminent for their learning but also generally beloved by all disingaged people and amongst these King Charles advanced this our Doctor Bishop of Chichester But all would not do their Innocency was so far from stopping the mouth of malice that malice almost had swallowed them down her throat Since God hath rewarded his Patience giving him to live to see the Restitution of his Order David saith that the good Tree Man shall bring forth his fruit in due season so our Doctor varied his fruits according to the diversity of his age Being brought up in Christ-church in Oxford he delighted in the studies of Musiâ—…k and Poetry more elder he applyed himself to Oratory and Philosophy and in his reduced age fixed on Divinity which his Printed Sermons on the Lords-prayer and others which he preached remaining fresh in the minds of his Auditors will report him to all posterity He is still living Anno Domini 1660. Writers on the Law Sir GEORGE CROOK Knight son of Sir John Crook and Elizabeth Unton his wife was born at Chilton in this County in the second year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth bred first in Oxford then a double Reader in the Inner Temple Serjeant at Law and the Kings Serjeant Justice first of the Common-bench 22. Jacobi and then of the Upper-bench 4. Caroli His ability
Requests and at last Secretary of State for twenty years together He was a very zealous Protestant and did all good Offices for the advancement of true Religion and died the eighth of Septemb. 1644. Capital Judges and Writers on the Law JOHN STATHOM He was born in this County in the Raign of King Henry the sixth and was a learned man in the Laws whereof he wrote an Abridgement much esteemed at this day for the Antiquity thereof For otherwise Lawyers behold him as Souldiers do Bows and Arrows since the invention of Guns rather for sight than service Yea a Grandee in that Profession hath informed me that little of Stathom if any at all is Law at this day so much is the practice thereof altered whereof the Learned in that faculty will give a satisfactory accompt though otherwise it may seem strange that reason continuing alwayes the same Law grounded thereon should be capable of so great alteration The first and last time that I opened this Author I lighted on this passage Molendinarius de Matlock tollavit bis â—…ò quod ipse audivit Rectorem de eadem villa dicere in Dominica Ram. Palm Tolle tolle The Miller of Matlock took toll twice because he heard the Rectour of the Parish read on Palme Sunday Tolle Tolle i. e. crucifie him crucifie him But if this be the fruit of Latine Service to encourage men in Felony let ours be read in plain English Sir ANTHONY FITZ-HERBERT Son of Ralph Fitz-Herbert Esquire was born at Norbury in this County He was first the Kings Serjeant at Law and was afterwards in the fourteenth of King Henry the eighth made one of the Justices of the Common Pleas so continuing until the thirtieth year of the said King when he died He wrote the excellent Book De Natura Brevium with a great and laborious Abridgement of the Laws and a Kalendar and Index thereunto Monuments which will longer continue his Memory than the flat blew Marble stone in Norbury Church under which he lieth interred Sea-Men Sir HUGH WILLOUGHBY was extracted from a right worthy and ancient stock at Riseley in this County He was in the last year of the raign of King Edward the sixth employed for the North-East passage and by the King and Merchants of London made Captain General of a Fleet for Discovery of Regions and places unknown Their Fleet consisted of three Ships the Bona Esperanza Admiral of one hundred and twenty Tun the Edward Bonaventure whereof Richard Chancelour Pilot-Major of one hundred and sixty Tun and the Good Confidence of ninety Tun. A large Commission was granted unto them which Commission did not bear date from the year of our Lord but from the year of the World 5515. because in their long Voyage they might have occasion to present it to Pagan Princes They departed from Debtford May 10. 1553. and after much foul weather steered up North-North-East But on the second day of August a tempest arose and their ships with the violence of the Wind were much shattered and the Bonaventure scattered from the other two ships which never after saw it again Sir Hugh holding on his course descried a Land which for Ice he could not approach lying from Synam an Island belonging to the King of Denmark one hundred and sixty leagues being in Latitude seventy two Degrees This was then called Willoughby-land as well it might seeing it had neither then or since any Owner or Inhabitant pretending to the propriety thereof It appeareth by a Will found in the ship which was the Admiral in the pocket of a person of quality how in January 1554. Sir Hugh and most of his Company were then in health though all soon after froze to death in a River or Haven called Arzina in Lapland We are bound in charity to believe them well prepared for death the rather because they had with them a Minister Mr. Richard Stafford by name one of the twelve Councellors to manage the design who read constantly every morning and evening the English Service to those who were in the Admiral with the Bible and Paraphrases thereon So that this may be termed the first reformed Fleet which had the English Prayers and Preaching therein However seeing Nocumenta Documenta and that the Ship-wrecks of some are Sea-marks to others even this Knights miscarriage proved a direction to others As for the Bonaventure which answering its name was onely found by losing it self it returned safe and performed afterwards most excellent service in opening the Traffick to Muscovy Thus as the last Dog most commonly catcheth the Hare which other Dogs have turned and tired before so such who succeed in dangerous and difficult enterprises generally reap the benefit of the adventures of those who went before them As for Sir Hugh and his Company their Discoveries did thaw though their Bodies were frozen to death the English the Summer following finding a particular account of all passages of their voyages remaining entire in the Ship wherein they perished Lapland hath since been often surrounded so much as accosts the Sea by the English the West part whereof belongeth to the King of Sweden but the East moity to the Muscovite They were generally Heathen as poor in knowledge as estate paying their Tribute in Furres whose little Houses are but great â—…oles wherein generally they live in the ignorance of Money Here let me insert a passage to refresh the Reader after this long and sad story of a Custom in this barbarous Country from the mouths of credible Merchants whose eyes have beheld it It is death in Lapland to marry a Maid without her Parents or Friends consent Wherefore if one beare affection to a young Maid upon the breaking thereof to her friends the fashion is that a day is appointed for their friends to meet to behold the two young parties to run a Race together The maid is allowed in starting the advantage of a third part of the race so that it is impossible except willing of her self that she should ever be overtaken If the Maid overrun her Suitor the matter is ended he must never have her it being penal for the Man again to renew the motion of Marriage But if the Virgin hath an affection for him though at the first running hard to try the truth of his love she will without Atalantaes Golden Balls to retard her speed pretend some casualty and make a voluntary hault before she cometh to the mark or end of the race Thus none are compelled to marry against their own wills and this is the cause that in this poor Countrey the married people are richer in their own contentment than in other lands where so many forced Matches make fained Love and cause real unhappinesse Physicians THOMAS LINACER Doctor of Physick was born in the Town of 〈◊〉 bred in Oxford whence he afterwards travelled beyond the Seas residing chiefly at Rome and Florence Returning into England he brought Languages along
happened hath been shewn to some eminent Lawyers riding that Circuit which are yet alive However no violent impression is intimated in this his peaceable Epitaph on his Monument in Amerie Church Hic jacet Will. Hankford Miles quondam Capitalis Justiciarius Domini R. de Banco qui obiit duodecimo Die Decembris Anno Domini 1422. cujus c. His Figure is portraied kneeling and out of his mouth in a Label these two sentences do proceed 1 Miserere mei Deus secundum magnam misericordiam tuam 2 Beati qui custodiant judicium faciunt justitiam omni tempore No charitable Reader for one unadvised act will condemn his Memory who when living was habited with all requisites for a person of his place Sir JOHN FORTESCUE was born of a right Ancient and Worthy Family in this County first fixed at Wimpstone in this Shire but since prosperously planted in every part thereof They give for their Motto Forte Scutum Salus Ducum and it is observable that they attained eminency in what Profession soever they applyed themselves In the Field In Westminster Hall In the Court. Sir HEN FORTESCUE a valiant and fortunate Commander under King Henry the Fifth in the French Wars by whom he was made Governour of Meux in Berry Sir HEN. FORTESCUE was Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and justly of great esteem for his many vertues especially for his sincerity in so tempting a place Sir JOHN FORTESCUE that wise Privy Councellor Overseer of Queen Elizabeth her Liberal Studies And Chancellor of the Exchequer and Dutchy of Lancaster Sir ADRIAN FORTESCUE Porter of the Town of Calice came over with King Henry the Seventh and effectually assisting him to regain the Crown was by him deservedly created Knight Banneret Sir JOHN FORTESCUE our present Subject Lord Chief Justice and Chancellour of England in the Raign of King Henry the Sixth whose learned Commentaries on the Law make him famous to all posterity  Sir LEWIS POLLARD of Kings Nimet in this County Sergeant of the Law and one of the Justices of the Kings Bench in the time of King Henry the Eighth was a man of singular knowledg and worth who by his Lady Elizabeth had Eleven Sons whereof four attained the honour of Knighthood Sir Hugh Sir John of Ford. Sir Richard Sir George who got his honour in the defence of Bullen All the rest especially John Arch Deacon of Sarum and Canon of Exeter were very well advanced Eleven Daughters married to the most potent Families in this County and most of them Knights So that what is said of Cork in Ireland that all the Inhabitants therein are Kinne by this Match almost all the Ancient Gentry in this County are allied The Portraiture of Sir Lewis and his Lady with their two and twenty Children are set up in a Glasse Window at Nimet-Bishop There is a Tradition continued in this Family that the Lady glassing the Window in her husbands absence at the term in London caused one child more then she then had to be set up presuming having had one and twenty already and usually conceiving at her husbands coming home she should have another child which inserted in expectance came to passe accordingly This memorable Knight died Anno 1540. Sir JOHN DODERIDG Knight was born at ...... in this County bred in Exeter Colledg in Oxford where he became so general a Scholar that it is hard to say whether he was better Artist Divine Civil or Common Lawyer though he fixed on the last for his publick Profession and became second Justice of the Kings Bench. His soul consisted of two Essentials Ability and Integrity holding the Scale of Justice with so steady an hand that neither love nor lucre fear or flattery could bow him on either side It was vehemently suspected that in his time some gave large sums of money to purchase places of Judicature And Sir John is famous for the expression That as old and infirm as he was he would go to Tyburn on foot to see such a man hang'd that should proffer money for a place of that nature For certainly those who buy such Offices by whole sale must sell Justice by retail to make themselves savers He was commonly called the Sleeping Judg because he would sit on the Bench with his eyes shut which was onely a posture of attention to sequester his sight from distracting objects the better to lissen to what was alledged and proved Though he had three Wives successively out of the respectful Families of Germin Bamfield and Culme yet he left no issue behind him He kept a Hospital House at Mount-Radford neer Exeter and dying Anno Domini 1628. the thirteenth day of September after he had been seventeen years a Judg in the seventy third year of his age was interred under a stately Tomb in our Ladys Chappel in Exeter To take my leave of the Devonian Lawyers they in this County seem innated with a Genius to study Law none in England Northfolk alone excepted affording so many Cornwal indeed hath a Famine but Devon-shire makes a Feast of such who by the practice thereof have raised great Estates Three Sergeants were all made at one Callâ—… Sergeant Glanvil the Elder Dew and Harris of whom it was commonly said though I can nor care not to appropriate it respectively One Gained as much as the other two Spent Gave One Town in this Shire Tavistock by name furnisheth the Bar at this present with a Constellation of Pleaders wherein the biggest Stars Sergeant Glanvil who shineth the brighter for being so long eclipsed and Sergeant Maynard the Bench seeming sick with long longing for his sitting thereon As it is the Honour of this County to breed such able Lawyers so is it its happinesse that they have most of their Clients from other Shires and the many Suits tried of this County proceed not so much from the Litigiousnesse as Populousnesse of her Inhabitants Souldiers Sir RICHARD GREENVIL Knight lived and was richly landed at Bediford in this County He was one of the Twelve Peers which accompanied Robert Fitz-Haimon in his expedition against the Welsh when he overthrew Rhese ap Theodore Prince of South-Wales and Justine Lord of Glamorgan and divided the conquered Countrey betwixt those his Assistants This Sir Richard in my apprehension appears somewhat like the Patriarch Abraham For he would have none make him rich but God alone though in his partage good land was at Neath Nidum a City in Antoninus in Glamorgan-shire allotted unto him Indeed Abraham gave the tenth to God in Melchisedeck and restored the rest to the King of Sodom the former proprietary thereof This Knight according to the Devotion of those darker dayes gave all to God erecting and endowing a Monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary at Neath for Cistertians bestowing all his military Acquests on them for their maintenance so that this Convent was valued at 150 li. per. annum at the dissolution Thus having finished and setled this foundation he
their own Country Well it were if this good old custome were resumed for if where God hath given Talents men would give but Pounds I mean encourage hopefull Abilities with helpfull Maintenance able persons would never be wanting and poor men with great parts would not be excluded the Line of preferment This Sir Thomas was afterwards Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth and a grand benefactor to both Universities as I have formerly declared at large He died Anno Domini 1577. THOMAS HOWARD wherever born is justly reputed of this County wherein he had his first honour and last habitation He was second son to Thomas last Duke of Norfolk but eldest by his wife Margaret sole heir to Thomas Lord Audley Queen Elizabeth made him Baron of Audley and Knight of the Garter and King James who beheld his father a State-Martyr for the Queen of â—…ots in the first of his raign advanced him Lord Chamberlain and Earl of Suffolk and in the twelfth of his raign July 12. Lord Treasurer of England He was also Chancellour of Cambridge loving and beloved of the University When at his first coming to Cambridge Master Francis Nethersole Orator of the University made a Latine Speech unto him this Lord returned though I understand not Latine I know the Sence of your Oration is to tell me that I am wellcome to you which I believe verily thank you for it heartily and will serve you faithfully in any thing within my power Doctor Hasnet the Vice-chancellour laying hold on the Handle of so fair a Proffer requested him to be pleased to Entertain the King at Cambridge a Favour which the University could never compass from their former great and wealthy Chancellours I will do it saith the Lord in the best manner I may with the speediest conveniency Nor was he worse then his word giving his Majesty not long after so Magnificent a Treatment in the University as cost him five thousands pounds and upwards Hence it was that after his death Thomas his second son Earl of Bark-shire not suing for it not knowing of it was chosen to succeed him losing the place as some suspected not for lack of voices but fair counting them He died at Audley end Anno Domini 1626. being Grand-father to the right Honourable James Earl of Suffolk RICHARD WESTON I behold him son to Sir Jerome Weston Sheriff of this County in the one and fourtieth of Queen Elizabeth and cannot meet with any of his relations to rectifie me if erronious In his youth he impaired his estate to improve himself with publique accomplishment but came off both a saver and a gainer at the last when made Chancellor of the Exchequer and afterwards upon the remove of the Earl of Marlburrough July 15. in the fourth of King Charles Lord Treasurer of England But I hear the Cocks crow proclaiming the dawning day being now come within the ken of many alive and when mens memories do arise it is time for History to haste to bed Let me onely be a Datary to tell the Reader that this Lord was Created Earl of Portland February 17. in the eight of King Charles and died Anno Domini 163. being father to the right Honorable Jerome now Earl of Portland Capitall Judges Sir JOHN BRAMSTONE Knight was born at Maldon in this County bred up in the Middle-Temple in the study of the common-Common-law wherein he attained to such eminency that he was by King Charles made Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench One of deep learning solid judgement integrity of life gravity of behaviour in a word accomplished with all qualities requisite for a Person of his place and profession One instance of his integrity I must not forget effectually relating to the Foundation wherein I was bred Serjeant Bruerton of whom formerly bequeathed by Will to Sidney-colledge well nigh three thousand pounds but for haste or some other accident so imperfectly done that as Doctor Samuel Ward informed me the gife was invalid in the Rigour of the Law Now Judge Bramstone who married the Serjeants Widdow gave himself much trouble gave himself indeed doing all things gratis for the speedy payment of the money to a Farthing and the legal setling thereof on the Colledge according to the true intention of the dead He deserved to live in better times the delivering his judgement on the Kings side in the case of Ship â—…oney cost him much trouble The posting Press would not be perswaded to stay till I had received farther instructions from the most Hopefull sons of this worthy Judge who died about the year 1646. Souldiers ROBERT FITZ-WALTER It is observable what I read in my Author that in the raign of King John there were three most eminent Knights in the land 〈◊〉 for their prowess viz. Robert Fitz-Roger Richard Mont-Fâ—…chet and this Robert Fitz-Walter Two of which three a fair proportion fall to be natives of this County This Robert was born at Woodham-walters and behaved himself right 〈◊〉 on all occasions highly beloved by King Richard the first and King John untill the later banished him the land because he would not prostitute his daughter to his pleasure But worth will not long want a Master the French-King joyfully entertained him till King John recalled him back again on this occasion five-years truce being concluded betwixt the two Crowns of England and France an English-man challenged any of the French to just a course or two on horse-back with him whom Fitz-Walter then oâ—… the French party undertook and at the first course with his great spear fell'd horse and man to the ground Thus then and ever since English-men generally can be worsted by none but English-men Hereupon the King next day sent for him restored his lands with license for him to repair his Castles and particularly Bainards-castle in London which he did accordingly He was styled of the common-people The Marshall of Gods Army and Holy-Church He died Anno Domini 1234. and lieth buried in the Priory of Little-Dunmow Sir JOHN HAWKEWOOD Knight Son to Gilbert Hawkewood Tanner was born in Sible heningham This John was first bound an apprentice to a Taylor in the City of London but soon turned his needle into a sword and thimble into a shield being pressed in the service of King Edward the third for his French Wars who rewarded his valour with Knighthood Now that mean men bred in manuall and mechanick trades may arrive at great skill in Martiall performances this Hawkewood though an eminent is not the onely instance of our English nation The heat of the French Wars being much remitted he went into Italy and served the City of Florence which as yet was a Free State Such Republiques preferred forrainers rather then natives for their Generalls because when the service was ended it was but disbursing their pay and then disbanding their power by cashering their Commission such Forraigners having no advantage to continue their
may be said to have ushered him to the English Court whilest the Lady Lucy Countess of Bedford led him by the one hand and William Earl of Pembroke by the other supplying him with a support far above his patrimonial income The truth is Sommersets growing daily more wearisome made Villiers hourly more welcome to K. James Soon after he was knighted created successively Baron Viscount Villiers Earl Marquess Duke of Buckingham and to bind all his honours the better together the noble Garter was bestowed upon him And now Offices at Court not being already void were voided for him The Earl of Worcester was perswaded to part with his place of Master of the horse as the Earl of Nottingham with his Office of Admiral and both conferred on the Duke He had a numerous and beautiful female kindred so that there was hardly a noble Stock in England into which one of these his Cients was not grafted Most of his Neices were matched with little more portion then their Uncles smiles the forerunner of some good Office or Honour to follow on their Husbands Thus with the same act did he both gratifie his kindred and fortifie himself with noble alliance It is seldome seen that two Kings father and Son tread successively in the same Tract as to a Favourite but here King Charles had as high a kindness for the Duke as K. James Thenceforward he became the Plenipotentiary in the English Court some of the Scottish Nobility making room for him by their seasonable departure out of this Life The Earl of Bristoll was justled out the Bishop of Lincoln cast flat on the Floor the Earls of Pembroke and Carlisle content to shine beneath him Holland behind him none even with much lesse before him But it is generally given to him who is the little God at the Court to be the great Devil in the Countrey The Commonalty hated him with a perfect hatred and all miscarriages in Church and 〈◊〉 at Home Abroad at Sea and Land were 〈◊〉 on his want of Wisdom Valour or Loyalty John â—…elton a melancholy malecontented Gentleman and a sullen Souldier apprehending himself injured could find no other way to revenge his conceived wrongs then by writing them with a point of a Knife in the heart of the Duke whom he stabbed at Portsmouth Anno Dom. 1620. It is hard to say how many of this Nation were guilty of this murther either by publick praising or private approving thereof His person from head to foot could not be charged with any blemish save that some Hypercriticks conceived his Brows somewhat over pendulous a cloud which in the judgement of others was by the beams of his Eyes sufficiently dispelled The Reader is remitted for the rest of his Character to the exquisite Epitaph on his magnificent Monument in the Chappel of Henry the Seventh Capital Judges Sir ROBERT BELKNAP Being bred in the Study of the Laws he became Chief Justice of the Common Pleas October the 8. in the 48. of King Edward the third and so continued till the general Rout of the Judges in the wonder-working Parliament the eleventh of Richard the second when he was displaced on this occasion The King had a mind to make away certain Lords viz. His Unkle the Duke of Glocester the Earls of Arundel Warwick Darby Nottingham c. Who in the former Parliament had been appointed Governors of the Kingdome For this purpose he called all the Judges before him to Nottingham where the Kings many Questions in fine were resolved into this Whether he might by His Regal power revoke what was acted in Parliament To this all the Judges Sir VVilliam Skipwith alone excepted answered affirmatively and subscribed it This Belknap underwrote unwillingly as foreseeing the danger and putting to his seal said these words There wants nothing but an hurdle an horse and an halter to carry me where I may suffer the Death I deserve for if I had not done this I should have dyed for it and because I have done it I deserve death for betraying the Lords Yet it had been more for his credit and conscience to have adventured a Martyrdome in the defence of the Laws then to hazzard the death of a Malefactour in the breach therof But Judges are but men and most desire to decline that danger which they apprehend nearest unto them In the next Parliament all the Judges were arrested in VVestminster-hall of high treason when there was a Vacation in Term time till their places were resupplied Sir R. Tresilian Cheif Justice of the Kings Bench was executed The rest thus named and reckoned up in the printed Statutes Robert Belknap John Holt John Cray William Burgh Roger Fulthorp all Judges and Knights with J. Locktan Serjeant at Law had their lands save what were intailed with their goods and chattels forfeited to the King their persons being banished and they by the importunate intercession of the Queen hardly escaping with their lives Belknap is placed in this County only because I find a worshipful family of his name fixed therein whereof one was High Sheriff in the 17. of K. Henry the 7. Provided this be no prejudice to Sussex the same Name being very ancient therein Sir ROBERT CATELIN descended from the ancient Family of the Catelins of Raunds in Northampton shire as doth appear by the Heralds visitation was born at Biby in this County He was bred in the Study of the Municipal Laws profiting so well therein that in the first of Q. Elizabeth he was made Lord Cheif Justice of the Kings Bench. His Name hath some allusion to the Roman Senator who was the Incendiary of that State though in Nature far different as who by his Wisdom and Gravity was a great support to his Nation One point of Law I have learned from him at the Tryall of Thomas Duke of Norfolk who pleaded out of Bracton that the Testimonies of Forreigners the most pungent that were brought against him were of no Validity Here Sir Robert delivered it for Law that in case of Treason they might be given in for evidence and that it rested in the Brest of the Peers whether or no to afford credit unto them He had one as what man hath not many Fancy that he had a prejudice against all those who write their Names with an alias and took exceptions at one in this respect saying that no honest man had a double name or came in with an alias The party asked him what exceptions his Lordship could take at Jesus Christ alias Jesus of Nazareth He dyed in the Sixteenth year of Queen Elizabeth and his Coat of Arms viz. Party per Cheveron Azure and Or 3 Lions passant Guardant counterchanged a Cheif Pearl is quartered by the Right Honourable the Lord Spencer Earl of Sunderland this Judges Daughter and Sole Heir being married to his Ancestor Some forty years since a Gentleman of his name and kindred had a Cause in the Upper-Bench to
the lands belonging to the Church of Norwich which formerly he had so industriously recovered and setled thereon were again called into question being begged by a Peer who shall pass nameless Sir Edward desired him to desist telling him that otherwise he would put on his Gown and Cap and come into Westminster-hall once again and plead there in any Court in Justification of what he had done He died at Stoke Poges in Buckingham-shire on Wednesday the 3. of September being the 83. year of his age whose last words were Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done Sir THOMAS RICHARDSON Knight was born at Mulbarton in this County his father being Minister thereof He was bred in the study of our municipal-Municipal-law and became the Kings Serjeant therein Afterwards on the 28. of November 1626. he was sworn Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas that place having been void ten months before But coming now to our own times it is safest for me to break off Virgil I remember put a period to his Eclogue with Et Hylax in limine latrat VVe 'l Verfifie no more For do but hark Hylax doth bark at th' entrance of the Dore. Seeing many will be ready to carp it is safest for me to be silent whilst his Brass Monument on the South-side of VVestminster Abby thus entertaineth the Reader Deo Om. Thomae Richardsoni Iceni Equitis Aurati Humanum Depositum Ille Juris Municip omnes gradus exantlavit Conventus tertii ordinis ann Jacobi Regis 21 22. Prolocutor extitit Fori civilis Communium Placitorum vocant Supremum Magistratum quinquennium gessit Ad summum tandem primarii per Angliam judicis Tribunal A Rege Carolo evectus expiravit Anno aetatis 66. salutis MDCXXXIIII Tho. Richardson fil unicus Eques Aur. Baro Scotiae designatus Patri incomparabili posuit This Judge married for his second Lady Elizabeth Beaumont the sister as I take it of Mary Countess of Buckingham and the Relict of ........ Ashburnham Knight She was by King Charles Created Baroness of Craumount in Scotland and though issueless by the Judge the Honour descended to his Grand-child Souldiers ROBERT VENILE Knight one I confess whose name I never heard of till meeting with this memorable Note in a Modern Historian And here must not be forgotten Robert Venile Knight a Norfolk man who when the Scots and English were ready to give battle a certain stout Champion of great stature commonly called Tournboll coming out of the Scots Army and challenging any English man to meet him in a single combate this Robert Venile accepteth the challenge and marching towards the Champion and meeting by the way a certain black Mastife dog which waited on the Champion he suddenly with his sword cut him off at the loyns and afterwards did more to the Champion himself cutting his head from off his shoulders This put me with blushing enough that one so eminent in himself should be altogether to me obscure upon the inquiry after this valiant Knight but all my industry could not retrive him in any author so that he seems to me a kin to those spirits who appear but once and finally vanish away Sir OLIVER HINGHAM was born richly landed and buried in Hingham an eminent Market-town in this County A right valiant man whom King Edward the third left Governour of Aquitain in France an honorable but difficult place being to make good a great Country with a few men against a fierce and numerous enemy Yet he gave a good account of his trust When the French lay before Burdeaux the Citizens thereof to abuse the enemies hopes set open their gates displaying the Golden-lilies the French-armes on their Towers as if they were theirs the French were no sooner securely entred but brave Oliver Captain of this City and Warden of the whole Country for King Edward gave them such an entertainment that they drank not so much Claret-wine in the City as they left Bloud behi nd them This happ'ned in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Edward the third This Sir Oliver liv'd many years after and was made Knight of the Garter and lies buried at Hingham under a fair tomb of free-stone curiously wrought with his resemblance in his Coat-Armour having a Crowned Owle out of an Ivy-bush for his Crest lying upon a Rock beholding Sun Moon and Stars because a great Travailer all lively set forth in metal with four and twenty mourners about his monument JOHN FASTOLFE Knight was a native of this County as I have just cause to believe though some have made him a French-man meerly because he was Baron of Sineginle in France on which account they may rob England of many other Worthies He was a Ward and that the last to John Duke of Bedford a sufficient evidence to such who understand time and place to prove him of English extraction To avouch him by many arguments valiant is to maintain that the sun is bright though since the Stage hath been over bold with his memory making him a Thrasonical Puff and emblem of Mock-valour True it is Sir John Oldcastle did first bear the brunt of the one being made the make-sport in all plays for a coward It is easily known out of what purse this black peny came The Papistsâ—…ailing â—…ailing on him for a Heretick and therefore he must also be a coward though indeed he was a man of arms every inch of him and as valiant as any in his age Now as I am glad that Sir John Oldcastle is put out so I am sorry that Sir John Fastolfe is put in to relieve his memory in this base service to be the anvil for every dull wit to strike upon Nor is our Comedian excusable by some alteration of his name writing him Sir John Falstafe and making him the property of pleasure for King Henry the fifth to abuse seeing the vicinity of sounds intrench on the memory of that worthy Knight and few do heed the inconsiderable difference in spelling of their name He was made Knight of the Garter by King Henry the sixth and died about the second year of his reign Sir CLEMENT PASTON Knight fourth son to Sir VVilliam Paston son to Sir John Paston a famous Soldier and favorite to King Edward the fourth sent by him with the Lord Scales to conduct the Lady Margaret the sister of the King to her husband Charles Duke of Burgundy son to VVilliam Paston the Judge was born at Paston in this County When a youth he was at the burning of Conquest in France and afterwards by King Henry the eight was made Captain of one of his ships of war and in a Sea-fight took a French Gally and therein the Admiral of France prisoner called the Baron of Blancard whom he brought into England and kept at Castor nigh rarmouth till he had payed 7000. crowns for his ransome besides the spoil of the Galley wherein he had a cup and two snakes of gold which were the
Minister bred Fellow of Trinity-colledge in Oxford afterwards an eminent Preacher in London and Dean of ............ Hence he was preferr'd Bishop of Bristol and afterwards of Oxford and is still and long may he be living States-men Sir CHRISTOPHER HATTON was born I collect at Holdenby in this County of a family rather ancient then wealthy yet of no mean estate He rather took a bate then made a meal at the Inns of Court whilst he studied the Laws therein He came afterwards to the Court in a mask where the Queen first took notice of him loving him well for his handsome dancing better for his proper person and best of all for his great abilities His parts were far above his learning which mutually so assisted each other that no manifest want did appear and the Queen at last preferred him Lord Chancellour of England The Gown-men grudging hereat conceived his advancement their injury that one not thoroughly bred in the Laws should be preferred to the place How could he cure diseases unacquainted with their causes who might easily mistake the Justice of the common-Common-law for Rigour not knowing the true reason thereof Hereupon it was that some sullen Serjeants at the first refused to plead before him until partly by his power but more by his prudence he had convinced them of their errors and his abilities Indeed he had one Sir Richard Swale Doctor of the Civil-laws and that Law some say is very sufficient to dictate equity his servant-friend whose advice he followed in all matters of moment A scandal is raised that he was popishly affected and I cannot blame the Romanists if desirous to countenanâ—…e their cause with so considerable a person Yet most â—…ue it is that his zeal for the discipline of the Church of England gave the first being and life to this report One saith that he was a meer Vegetable of the Court that sprung up at night and sunk again at his noon though indeed he was of longer continuance Yet it brake his heart that the Queen which seldome gave boons and never forgave due debts rigorously demanded the present payment of some arrears which Sir Christopher did not hope to have remitted but did onely desire to be forborn failing herein in his expectation it went to his heart and cast him into a mortal disease The Queen afterwards did endeavour what she could to recover him bringing as some say cordial broaths unto him with her own hands but all would not do Thus no Pullies can draw up a heart once cast down though a Queen her self should set her hand thereunto He dyed Anno Domini 1591. and is buried under a stately monument in the Qâ—…ire of Saint Pauls Sir WILLIAM FITZ-WILLIAMS born at Milton in this County married the sister of Sir Henry Sidney Lord Deputy of Ireland Yea he himself was five times Lord Deputy of that Kingdome a sufficient evidence of his honesty and ability seeing Queen Elizabeth never trusted twice where she was once deceiv'd in a Minister of State She so preserved him in the power of his place that sending over Walter Earl of Essex a person higher in honour to be Governour of Ulster it was ordered that the Earl should take his Commission from the Lord Deputy An intelligent pen alloweth him serviceable towards the reduction of that Kingdome in two eminent particulars First in raising a composition in Mounster then in setling the possessions of the Lords and Tenants in Monahan one of the last acts of State tending to the reformation of the civil government perform'd in the reign of Queen Elizabeth His vigilancy was most conspicuous in the Eighty-eight when the routed Armado in its return did look dared not to land in Ireland except against their wills driven by tempest when they found the shore worse then the sea unto them I confess some impute the Irish Rebellion which afterwards brake out to this Deputies severity in imprisoning suspected persons for concealing Spanish goods though this onely gave the Irish a mantle for their intended wickedness He died Anno Domini 15 ... Sir ISAAC WAKE was born in this County whose father Arthur Wake Clerk was Parson of Billing Master of the Hospital of Saint Johns in Northampton and Canon of Christs-church and son to John VVake of Sancy-forrest Esquire of a most ancient and honorable family He was bred Fellow of Merton-colledge in Oxford Proctour and Oratour of that University he was afterwards Secretary to Sir Dudley Carleton Secretary of State and from his was advanced into the Kings Service and imployed Embassadour to Venice where he neglected his own commodity to attend his Majesties imployment the reason that he died rich onely to his own Conscience Coming from Venice he was appointed Leiger for France and designed Secretary of State had not death prevented him at Paris He was accomplished with all qualifications requisite for publique Employment Learning Languages Experience Abilities and what not King Charles hearing of his death commanded his Corps to be decently brought from Paris into England allowing the expences for his Funeral and enjoyning his neerest relations to attend the performance thereof These accordingly met his body at Bulloin in France and saw it solemnly conveyed into England where it was interred in the Chappel of the Castle of Dover Anno Dom. 16 ... Capital Judges and Writers on the Law MARTIN de PATESHULL Let him remain here till any shall show me a Town called Pateshulle in any other County of England which village in this Shire gave the name and afforded the habitation to that ancient family Though a Clergy-man he was in the first of King Henry the third made Justice of the Lower-â—…ench or Common-Pleas wherein he continued for twelve years and upwards as appeareth by the date of his death out of an excellent Author Eodem anno obiit Martinus de Pateshulle Decanus St. Pauli London 18. Cal. Decem. vir mirae prudentiae Legum Regni peritissimus He was the fourth Dean of Saint Pauls as reckoned up in Bishop Godwin his Catalogue In that age we see Clergy men were not onely trusted with the spirit I mean the equity but also with the letter of the Law being Judges in those Courts wherein were the most strictest proceedings Sir THOMAS de BILLING was born in this County where two Villages his namesakes near Northampton and had his habitation in great state at Ashwell in this Shire He was made Chief-Justice of the Kings-Bench in the sixth and so continued till the one and twentieth of Edward the fourth whose lands and those very large have since by the Lovels descended to the Shirlies Nothing else have I to observe of him save that he married for his second wife Mary the daughter and heir of Robert Nesenham of Conington in Huntingtonshire the Relict of William Cotton whose issue possess her inheritance at this day and she lieth intomb'd in VVestminster Sir
itcrum tedeat esse tuam Do not the least part of your trust disdain Nor grudge of Boys to take the care again He lived to be a very aged man past seventy six and died Anno Domini 162. JOHN FLETCHER Son of Richard Fletcher D. D. was as by proportion of time is collectible born in this County before his Father was Bishop of Bristol or London and whilst as yet he was Dean of Peterborough He had an excellent wit which the back-friends to Stage-plays will say was neither idle nor well imploy'd For he and Francis Beaumont Esquire like Castor and Pollux most happy when in conjunction raised the English to equal the Athenian and Roman Theater Beaumont bringing the ballast of judgement Fletcher the sail of phantasie both compounding a Poet to admiration Meeting once in a Tavern to contrive the rude draught of a Tragedy Fletcher undertook to kill the King therein whose words being over-heard by a listener though his Loyalty not to be blamed herein he was accused of High Treason till the mistake soon appearing that the plot was onely against a Drammatick and Scenical King all wound off in merriment Nor could it be laid to Fletcher's charge what Ajax doth to Ulysses Nihil hic Diomede remoto When Diomede was gone He could do nought alone For surviving his partner he wrote good Comedies himself though inferiour to the former and no wonder if a single thread was not so strong as a twisted one He died as I am inform'd in London of the plague in the first of King Charles 1625. Sir HENRY MONTAGUE Knight third son to Sir Edward Montague Knight grand-child to Sir Edward Montague Knight Lord chief-Chief-Justice of the Kings-bench was born at Boughton in this County One skilful in mysterious arts beholding him when a School-boy foretold that by the pregnancy of his parts he would raise himself above the rest of his family which came to pass accordingly He was bred first in Christs-colledge in Cambridge then in the Middle-Temple where he attained to great learning in the Laws and passed through many preferments viz. 1. Sergeant at Law 2. Knighted by King James July 22. 1602. 3. Recorder of London 4. Lord chief-Chief-Justice of the Kings-Bench November 18. 1616. 5. Lord Treasurer of England Decem. 16. 1620. 6. Baron of Kimbolton 7. Viscount Mandevile 8. President of the Council Septem 29. 1621. 9. Earl of Manchester 10. Lord Privy-Seal He wisely perceiving that Courtiers were but as counters in the hands of Princes raised and depress'd in valuation at pleasure was contented rather to be set for a smaller sum then to be quite put up into the box Thus in point of place and preferment being pleased to be what the King would have him according to his Motto Movendo non mutando me he became almost what he would be himself finaly advanced to an Office of great honour When Lord Privy-Seal he brought the Court of Requests into such repute that what formerly was called the Almes-basket of the Chancery had in his time well nigh as much meat in and guests about it I mean Suits and Clients as the Chancery it self His meditations on Life and Death written in the time of his health may be presumed to have left good impressions on his own soul preparatory for his dissolution which happened 164. Writers JOHN of NORTHAMPTON in Latine Johannes Avonius was born in the Town of Northampton in ipso Insulae umbilico saith Bale and is not mistaken in his proportion This mindeth me of a village in this County sufficiently known commonly call'd Navesby whose Orthography Criticks will have Navelsby as in the middle of England This John became a Carmelite in his native Town and so addicted himself to the Study of Mathematicks that he became one of the most eminent in that age for practical experiments He was Author of a work which he called The Philosophers Ring This was not like The Philosophers Stone a thing meerly imaginary nor yet was it a work of the Cyclopedy of Arts as the sound may seem to import but it was in plain truth a perpetual Almanack I say Almanack which word though many make of Arabick extraction a great Antiquary will have it derived from the Dutch Al-mon-aght that is to say Al-mon-heed the regard or observation of all Moons However this work of John was beheld as a Master-piece of that age and since commented upon by other Writers He flourished Anno Domini 1340. ROBERT HOLCOT was born in a Village of this County so named bred in the University of Oxford and afterwards became a Dominican in Northampton A deep Scholar and yet commended to be prudent in rebus agendis and accounted one of the greatest School-men in that age Nor was he onely a Candle or domestick light confin'd within the walls of his own Country but his learning was a publick Luminary to all Christendome as appears by the praise which Trithemius bestoweth upon him Vir in Divinis Scripturis eruditissimus secularium literarum non ignarus ingenio praestans clarus eloquio declamator quoque sermonem egregius Scripsit multa praeclara opuscula quibus nomen suum posteris notificavit He died at Northampton of the plague Anno 1349 before he had finished his Lectures on the seventh of Ecclesiastes I say of the plague which at that time so raged in England that our Chroniclers affirm scarce a tenth person of all sorts was left alive Insomuch that the Churches and Church-yards in London not sussicing for their interments a new Church-yard was Consecrated in West-smithfield wherein fifty thousand were buried who at that time died of the pestilence ROBERT DODFORD was born in a Village so called in this County where the Wirlyes Gentlemen of good account have long had their habitation so named as I take it from a Ford over the river Avon and Dods Water-weeds commonly called by children Cats Tales growing thereabouts He was bred a Benedictine Monke in the Abby of Ramsey and applied himself to the Study of the Hebrew Tongue wherewith the Library of which he was Keeper in that Convent did much abound He wrote Postills on the Proverbs and other Sermons which the envy of time hath intercepted â—…rom us He is said to have flourished about the year 1370. by Bale though Pitz on what account I know not maketh him more ancient by an hundred years PETER PATESHULL was no doubt born in that Village not far from Northampton bred a Augustinian in Oxford however falling afterwards into some dislike of his Order he procured from Walter Dysse Legate to Pope Urbane the sixth a Dispensation to relinquish it and was made the Popes Honorary Chaplain Afterwards by often reading the works of Wickliffe but especially his book of Real Universals he became of his judgement and after the death of Wickliffe preached and promoted his doctrine he wrote an Exposition of the Prophesie of Hildegardes a Stinging
about three years viz. from the seventh of July in the 22. year of King Henry the Sixth being the year of our Lord 1544. until the 25. year of that Kings raign This Lord built Sudeley Castle in this County which of Subjects Castles was the most handsome Habitation and of Subjects Habitations the strongest Castle King Edward the Fourthâ—…ent â—…ent for him with such summons that this Lord conjectured and that truly enough that it was but a Preface to his imprisonment whereupon going to London and resting himself on a Hill whence he did behold his own Castle It is thou Sudeley it is thou said he and not I that am a Traytor and so resigned the same at last into the hand of the King to procure his own liberty So true it is what Solomon saith The ransome of a mans life are his riches but the poor heareth not rebuke I find not the certain date of his death Capital Judges and Writers on the Law ANTHONY FITZ-HERBERT for a long time Justice of the Common Pleas was as a good Antiquary will have it born about Dean Forrest in this County but is by another no whit his inferiour on better evidence referred to Derby-shire where formerly we have placed his Nativity Yea I have been informed from excellent hands the Natives of this County that no Capital Judge of the three Great Courts though many of the Marches was ever born in this County yet are they here as litigious as in other places Sure I am that Gloucester-shire did breed if no Judge yet a Plaintiff and Defendant of the primest quality which betwixt them with many alternations traversed the longest suit that ever I read in England for a suit was commenced betwixt the Heirs of Sir Thomas Talbot Viscout Lisle on the one party and the heirs of Lord Barkley on the other about certain possessions lying in this County not far from Wotton-under-edge which suit begun in the end of King Edward the Fourth was depending until the beginning of King James when and was it not high time it was finally determined But the long barrenness of this County in Judges may be recompenced with fruitfulness at last the rather because Gloucestershire at this day sheweth two eminent ones Mr. Justice Adkins and Mr. Justice Hales which grace the Court of the Common Pleas with their known ability and integrity EDWARD TROTMAN Son of Edward Trotman Esquire was born at Cam nigh Duresly in this County bred a Student of the Law till he became a Bencher in the Inner Temple He wrote an Abridgement of Sir Edward Coke his eleven Volumes of Reports for the benefit of those who had not money to purchase or leisure to peruse them at large Yea such as have both may be profitted thereby for in my owne profession and in the Book of Books even those who are best acquainted with the Chapters make also use of the Contents This Gentleman in his Title page ingeniously wisheth that his Compendium might not prove Dispendium to the Reader thereof And I verily believe he hath had his desire being informed that his endeavours are well esteemed by the Learned in that profession He was buried in the Temple Church May 29. Anno Dom. 1643. Souldiers Sir WILLIAM TRACY of Todington in this County was a Gentleman of high Birth State and Stomach much in favour with King Henry the second on whom he was a daily attendant One fact hath made his Memory call it famous or infamous because he was the first and forwardest of the four Knights who at the encouragement if not command at leastwise at the connivance if not encouragement of the aforesaid King Imbrewed their hands in the blood of Thomas Becket In his old age he went into Devon-shire where he had large possessions as may appear by so many Towns bearing his surname 1. Wollocomb-Tracy 2. Bovi-Tracy 3. Nimet-Tracy 4. Bradford-Tracy c. It is reported that he intended a penitential Pilgrimage to Jerusalem but setting to Sea was ever crost with adverse Winds He is conceived to lie buried in the Parish Church of Mort in Devonshire dying about the year of our Lord 1180. Seamen This is scarcely a Maritine-shire rather bordering on the Severn than on the Sea having therein no considerable Haven Bristol being beheld as a City entire of it self and therein eminent Seamen cannot be expected yet one Family herein hath been most fortunate in such voyages having their chief Seat at Lydney in the Forrest of Dean which hath afforded WILLIAM WINTER Knight and Vice Admiral of England famous in his Generation for several performances 1. Anno 1559. being then but Machinarum classicarum praefectus English it as you please he frighted the French in Edenborough Frith assaulting their Fort in the Island of Inchkeith 2. Anno 1567. he was sent with Sir Thomas Smith with the sound of the Trumpet and shooting of some Cannons to demand the restitution of Callis of the French King 3. Anno 1568. he conducted a great Treasure of the Genoan Merchants safely into the Netherlands in despight of the French opposing him 4. Anno 1576. he with Robert Beale Clerk of the Councel was employed into Zeland to demand the restitution of our Ships which they had either taken or did detain 5. Anno 1588. he did signal service in the station appointed him coming in though not in the heat in the coole of the day when the Spanish Fleet was fallen towards the shore of Zeland and were sadly sensible of his valour I conceive him not to survive long after because if in life he would have been in action and if in action I should have found him in Cambden's Elizabeth And therefore from no mention I conclude no motion that about this time he departed Besides others of this Family unknown to me and justly referred to this County as their chief habitation And were the phrase as proper of Men sailing as Fishes swimming in the Sea I should say that Lydney-House hath brought forth a shole of Mariners So happy have they been in Sea voyages One wondring how the English durst be so bold as to put to Sea in all weathers it was returned that they were provided to saile in all seasons having both Winters and Summers on their side The more the pity that this worthy Family of the Winters did ever leave the Element of Water to tamper with Fire especially in a destructive way to their King and Country Writers OSBERNUS CLAUDIANUS or Osbern of Gloucester was bred a Benedictine Monk in the famous Convent in that City He was learned saith Leland Praeter iliius aetatis sortem above the Standard of that age He was a good Linguist Philosopher Divine he used to give clearness to what was obscure facility to what was difficult politeness to what was barbarous Nor wanted he a becoming facetiousness in his Dialogues He wrote many Books dedicating them to Gilbert Foliot Bishop of Hereford as a
of the Sea c. I confesse the modern mystery of Watch-making is much completed men never being more curious to divide more carelesse to imploy their time but surely this was accounted a master-peece in that age His Sermons so indeared him to King Edward 6. that he preferred him whilst as yet scarce thirty six yeares of age to the Bishoprick of Rochester then of Winchester But alas these honor 's soon got were as soon lost being forced to fly into high Germany in the first of Queen Mary Where before he was fully fourty and before he had finished his Book begun against Thomas Martin in defence of Ministers marriage he died at Strasburg the 2. August 1556. And was buried there with great Lamentation RICHARD FLETCHER was born in this County Brother to Doctor Giles Fletcher the Civilian and Embassadour in Russia and bred in Bennet Colledge in Cambridge He was afterwards Dean of Peterborough at what time Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay to whom he made saith my Authour Verbosam Orationem a Wordy speech of her past present and future condition wherein he took more pains that he received thanks from her who therein was most concerned Hence he was preferred Bishop of Peterborough and at last of London my Authour saith he was Presul Splendidus and indeed he was of a comly presence and Queen Elizabeth knew full well Gratior est pulcro veniens è corpore virtus The Iewel vertue is more Grac'd When in a proper person Cas'd Which made her alwayes on an equality of Desert to reflect favourably on such who were of Graceful countenance and stature In one respect this Bishop may well be resembled to John Peckham Archbishop of Canterbury of whom I find this Character Quanquam gestu incessu saepeetiami n Sermone gloriosus videretur elatus animo tamen fuit benignissimo perquam comi Although he seemed a boaster and puffed up both in gesture and gaâ—…e and sometimes in his speech also yet was he of a loving disposition exceeding courteous Such a one was Bishop Fletcher whose pride was rather on him than in him as only gate and gesture-deep not sinking to his heart though causelesly condemned for a proud man as who was a good Hypocrite and far more humble than he appeared He married a Lady of this County who one commendeth for very vertuous which iâ—… so the more happy she in her self though unhappy that the world did not believe it Sure I am that Queen Elizabeth who hardly held the second matches of Bishops excusable accounted his marriage a trespasse on his gravity whereupon he fell into her deep displeasure Hereof this Bishop was sadly sensible and seeking to lose his sorrow in a mist of smoak died of the immoderate taking thereof June the fifteenth 1596. BRIAN DUPPA D. D. the worthy Bishop of Winchester was born at Lewsham in in this County staying for farther instructions I am forced to deferre his life to our Additions States-Men Sir EDWARD POYNINGS Knight was in martial performances inferiour to none of his age and a Native of this County as from the Catalogue of the Sheriffs therein may be collected We will insist only on his Irish Action being employed by King Henry the seventh to conjure down the last walking Spirit of the House of York which haunted that King I mean Perkin Warbeck Having ferreted him out of Ireland he seriously set him self to reclaim that barbarous Nation to civility and in order thereunto passed an Act in Parliament whereby all the Statutes made in England bâ—…fore that time were enacted established and made of force in Ireland He caused also another Law to be made that no Act should be propounded in any Parliament in Ireland till first it had been transmitted into England approved there by the King and returned thence under his broad Seal Now though this Act seemeth prima facie prejudicial to the liberty of the Irish Subjects yet was it made at the request of the Commons upon just important cause being so sensible of the oppression and Laws imposed by private Lords for their particular ends that they rather referred themselves to the Kings Justice than to the merciless mercy of so many Masters Also to conform Ireland to England he procured the passing of an Act that the Irish Barons should appear in Parliament in their Robes which put a face of Grandeur and State on their Convention And indeed formalities are more than Formalities in matters of this nature essentiall to beget a veneration in barbarous people who carry much of their Brain in their Eyes He thriftily improved the Kings Revenues and obtained a Subsidy of twenty six shillings eight pence payable yearly for five years out of every six score Acres manured The worst was the burden fell on their backs whose Islands were most industrious whereby the Soveraign became not more wealthy but the Subjects more lazy the mischief being as apparent as the remedy impossible Many more large Laws of his making found but narrow performance viz. only within the Pale Nor was Henry the seventh though in title in trâ—…th Lord of all Ireland but by the favour of a Figure and large Synechdeche of a part for the whole These things thus ordered Sir Edward was recalled in to England created a Baron and dying in the beginning of King Henry the eight left a numerous natural but no legitimate issue Sir ANTHONY St. LEGER is rationally reputed a Kentish man though he had also a Devonshire Relation as will appear to such who peruse the Sheriffs of this County He was properly the first Vice-Roy of Ireland seeing shadows cannot be before their substance and in his Deputy-ship Henry the eight in the 33. year of his reign assumed the Title of King and Supream Head of the Church of Ireland To him all the Irish Nobility made their solemn submission falling down at his feet upon their knees laying aside their Girdles Skeines and Caps This was the fourth solemn submission of the Irish to the Kings of England and most true it is such seeming submissions have been the bane of their serious subjection For out of the Pale our Kings had not power either to Punish or Protect where those Irish Lords notwithstanding their Complemental Loyalty made their list the law to such whom they could over-power He caused also certain Ordinances of State to be made not altogether agreeable with the Rules of the Law of England a satisfactory reason hereof being given in the Preamble to them Quia nondum sic sapiunt leges Jura ut secundum ea jam immediate vivere regi possint Because the Irish as yet do not so savour the Laws of England as immediately to live after and be ruled by them Thus the greatest Statesmen must sometimes say by your leave to such as are under them not acting alway according to their own ability but others capacity He seized all
returned For your Masters sake I will stoop but not for the King of Spains This worthy Patriot departed this life in the seventy seventh year of his Age August the 4th 1598. Capitall Judges Sr. WILLIAM de SKIPVVITH was bred in the study of the Laws profiting so well therein that he was made in Trinity Terme Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the thirty fifth continuing therein untill the fortieth of the Reign of King Edward the third I meet not with any thing memorable of him in our English Histories except this may pass for a thing remarkable that at the importunity of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster this Sr. William condemned William Wichkam Bish. of Winchester of Crimes rather powerfully objected then plainly proved against him whereupon the Bishops Temporalls were taken from him and he denied access within twenty miles of the Kings Court. I confess there is a Village in the East riding of Yorkshire called SKIPWITH but I have no assurance of this Judge his Nativity therein though ready to remove him thither upon clearer information Sr. WILLIAM SKIPVVITH Junior He was inferior to the former in place whom I behold as a Puisne Judge but herein remarkable to all posterity That he would not complie neither for the importunity of King Richard the second nor the example of his fellow Judges in the 10th year of that Kings Reign to allow that the King by his own power might rescinde an Act of Parliament Solus inter impios mansit integer Gulielmus Skipwith * Miles Clarus ideo apud Posteros And * shined the brighter for living in the midst of a crooked Generation bowed with fear and favour into Corruption I know well that the Collar of S. S. S. or Esses worn about the necks of Judges and other persons of Honor is wreathed into that form whence it receiveth its name Chiefly from Sanctus Simon Simplicius an uncorrupted Judge in the Primitive Times May I move that every fourth link thereof when worn may mind them of this SKIPVVITH so upright in his judgment in a matter of the highest importance Having no certainty of his Nativity I place him in this County where his name at Ormesby hath flourished ever since his time in a very worshipfull equipage Sr. WILLIAM HUSEâ—… Knight was born as I have cause to believe in this County where his name and Familie flourish in a right worshipfull equipage He was bred in the study of our Municipall Law and attained to such eminencie therein that by King Edward the fourth in the one and twentieth of his Reign he was made Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. King HENRY the seventh who in point of policy was onely directed by himself in point of Law was chiefly ruled by this Judge especially in this question of importance It hapned that in his first Parliament many Members thereof were returned who being formerly of this Kings partie were attainted and thereby not legal to sit in Parliament being disabled in the highest degree it being incongruous that they should make Laws for others who themselves were not Inlawed The King not a little troubled therewith remitted it as a case in Law to the Judges The Judges assembled in the Exchequer Chamber agreed all with Sr. VVilliam Husee their Speaker to the King upon this Grave and safe opinion mixed with Law and convenience that the Knights and Burgesses attainted by the course of Law should forbear to come into the House till a Law were passed for the reversall of their attainders which was done accordingly When at the same time it was incidently moved in their Consultation what should be done for the King himself who likewise was attainted the rest unanimously agreed with Sr. VVilliam Husee that the Crown takes away all defects and stops in blood and that by the Assumption thereof the fountain was cleared from all attainders and Corruptions He died in Trinity Term in the tenth year of King Henry the 7th Sr. EDMUND ANDERSON Knight was born a younger brother of a Gentile extract at Flixborough in this County and bred in the Inner Temple I have been informed that his Father left him 1000 l. for his portion which this our Sr. Edmund multiplyed into many by his great proficiency in the Common Law being made in the twenty fourth of Queen Elizabeth Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. When Secretary Davison was sentenced in the Star Chamber for the business of the Queen of Scots Judge Anderson said of him that therein he had done * justum non juste and so acquitting him of all malice censured him with the rest for his indiscretion When H. â—…uff was arraigned about the Rising of the Earl of Essex and when Sr. Edward Coke the Queens Solicitor opposed him and the other answered Syllogistically our Anderson sitting there as Judge of Law not Logick checked both Pleader and Prisoner ob stolidos Syllogismos for their foolish Syllogismes appointing the former to press the Statute of King Edward the third His stern countenance well became his place being a great promoter of the established Church-discipline and very severe against all Brownists when he met them in his Circuit He dyed in the third of King James leaving great Estates to several sons of whom I behold Sr. Francis Anderson of Euworth in Bedfordshire the eldest whose son Sr. John by a second Wife Audrey Butler Neece to the Duke of Buckingham and afterwards married to the Lord Dunsmore in VVarwickshire was according to some conditions in his Patent to succeed his Father in Law in that honour if surviving him This I thought fit to insert to vindicate his memory from oblâ—…vion who being an hopefull Gentleman my fellow Colleague in Sidney Colledge was taken away in the prime of his youth Souldiers Sr. FREDERICK TILNEY Knight had his chief Residence at Bostone in this County He was a man of mighty stature and strength above the Proportion of ordinary persons He attended King Richard the first Anno Dom. 1190. to the Seidge of Acon in the Holy Land where his Atcheivements were such that he struk terror into the Infidels Returning home in safety he lived and died at Terington nigh Tilney in Norfolk where the measure of his incredible stature was for many 〈◊〉 preserved Sixteen Knights flourished from him successively in the Male line till at last their Heir generall being married to the Duke of Norfolk put a period to the Lustre of that ancient family PEREGRINE BERTY Lord Willoughby Son of Richard Berty and Katharine Dutchess of Suffolk Reader I crave a dispensation that I may with thy good leave trespass on the Premised Laws of this Book his name speaking his foraign Nativity born nigh Hidleberg in the Palatinate Indeed I am loath to omit so worthy a Person Our Histories fully report his valiant Atcheivements in France and the Netherlands and how at last he was made Governour of
their Consciences As wise as a man of Gotham It passeth publickly for the Periphrasis of a Fool and an hundred Fopperies are feigned and fathered on the Town-folk of Gotham a Village in this County Here two things may be observed 1. Men in all Ages have made themselves merry with singling out some place and fixing the staple of stupidity and stolidity therein Thus the Phrygians were accounted the fools of all Asia and the Anvils of other mens wits to work upon serò sapiunt Phryges Phryx nisi ictus non sapit In Grecia take a single City and then Abdera in Thracia carried it away for Dull-heads Abderitanae pectora plebis habes But for a whole Countrey commend us to the Boetians for Block-heads and Baeotium ingcnium is notoriously known In Germany auris Baetava is taken by the Poet for a dull Ear which hath no skill in witty conceits 2. These places thus generally sleighted and scoffed at afforded some as witty and wise persons as the world produced Thus Plutarch himself saith Erasmus was a Baeotian and Erasmus a Batavian or Hollander and therefore his own copy-hold being touch'd in the Proverb he expoundeth auris Batava a grave and severe Ear. But to return to Gotham it doth breed as wise people as any which causelesly laugh at their simplicity Sure I am Mr. William de Gotham fifth Master of Michael-house in Cambridge Anno 1336. and twice Chancellor of the University was as grave a Governor as that Age did afford And Gotham is a goodly large Lordship where the ancient and right well respected Family of St. Andrews have flourished some hundreds of years till of late the name is extinct in and lands divided betwixt Female co-heirs matched unto very worshipful persons The little Smith of Nottingham Who doth the work that no man can England hath afforded many rare workmen in this kind whereof he may seem an Apprentice to Vulcan and inferiour onely to his Master in making the invisible Net who made a Lock and Key with a Chain of ten links which a Flea could draw But what this little Smith and great workman was and when he lived I know not and have cause to suspect that this of Nottingham is a periphrasis of Nemo Ou T is or a person who never was And the Proverb by way of Sarcasm is applied to such who being conceited of their own skill pretend to the atchieving of impossibilities Martyrs I meet with none within this County either before or in the Marian dayes imputing the later to the mild temper of Nicholas Heath Archbishop of York and Diocesan thereof Yet find we a Martyr though not in this yet of this County as a Native thereof here following THOMAS CRANMER was born at Arse lackton Speed calls it Astackton in this County and being bred in Jesus college in Cambridge became Archbishop of Canterbury and at last after some intermediate failings valiantly suffered for the Truth at Oxford An. Dom. 1556. March 22. Two hungry meals saith our English Proverb makes the third a gluttâ—…n This may also be inverted Two glutton meals require the third an hungry one fasting being then necessary lest Nature be surcharged If the Reader hath formerly perused Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments and my Ecclesiastical History Cranmer his story is so largely related in those two books there is danger of his surfet if I should not now be short and sparing therein onely one memorable passage omitted by Mr. Fox and that 's a wonder I must here insert out of an excellent Author After his whole body was reduced into ashes his heart was found intire and untouch'd Which is justly alledged as an argument of his cordial integrity to the truth though fear too much and too often prevailed on his outward actions So that what the Holy Spirit recorâ—…eth of King Asa was true of him Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his dayes though good man he was guilty of many and great imperfections The like to this of Cranmer is reported of Zuinglius Quòd cadavere flammis ab hostibus tradito cor exuri non potuerit His foes making this a sign of the obduration and hardness of his heart his friends of the sincerity thereof And thus saith my moderate and learned Author Adeo turbat is odio aut amore animis ut fit in religionis dissensionibus pro se quisque omnia superstitiosè interpretatur Their minds being so disturbed with hatred or love as it comes to pass in dissentions of Religion every one interprets all things superstitiously for his own advantage The best is our Religion wherein it differs from Romish Errors hath better demonstration for the truth thereof than those Topical and Osier accidents lyable to be bent on either side according to mens fancies and affections Prelates since the Reformation WILLIAM CHAPPELL was born at Lexington in this County and bred a Fellow in Christs college in Cambridge where he was remarkable for the strictness of his Conversation No one Tutor in our memory bred more and better Pupils so exact his care in their Education He was a most subtile Disputant equally excellent with the Sword and the Shield to reply or answer He was chosen Provost of Trinity college in Dublin and afterwards Bishop of Corke and Rosse Frighted with the Rebellion in Ireland he came over into England where he rather exchanged than eased his condition such the wofulness of our civil wars He dyed Anno 1649. and parted his Estate almost equally betwixt his own Kindred and distressed Ministers his charity not impairing his duty and his duty not prejudicing his charity Capital Judges Sir JOHN MARKHAM descended of an ancient Family was born at Markham in this County and brought up in the Municipal Law till being Knighted by Edward the Fourth he was made Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in the place of Sir John Fortescue These I may call the two Chief Justices of the Chief Justices for their signal integrity For though the one of them favoured the House of Lancaster the other of York in the Titles to the â—…rown both of them favoured the House of Justice in matters betwixt party and party It happened that Sir Thomas Cooke late Lord Mayor of London one of vast wealth was cast before hand at the Court where the Lord Rivers and the rest of the Queens Kindred had pre-devoured his Estate and was onely for Formalities sake to be condemned in Guild-hall by extraordinary Commissioners in Oyer and Terminer whereof Sir John Markham was not the meanest The Fact for which he was arraigned was for lending money to Margaret the Wife of King Henry the Sixth this he denyed and the single testimony of one Haukins tortured on the Rack was produced against him Judge Markham directed the jury as it was his place and no partiality in point of Law to do to find it onely Misprision of treason whereby Sir Thomas
of the Garter Governour of the Isles of Jersey and Gernsey and Privy Counsellor to Queen Elizabeth who chiefly committed the keeping of Mary Queen of Scots to his fidelity who faithfully discharged his trust therein I know the Romanists rail on him as over-strickt in his Charge but indeed without cause for he is no unjust Steward who to those under him alloweth all his Masters allowance though the same be â—…ut of the scantest proportion Besides it is no news for Prisoners especially if accounting their restraint unjust to find fault with their Keepers meerely for keeping them And such who complain of him if in his place ought to have done the same themselves When Secretary Walsingham moved this Knight to suffer one of his Servants to be bribed by the Agents of the Queen of Scots so to compasse the better intelligence he would in no terms yield thereunto Such conniving at was consenting to and such consenting to in effect was commanding of such falshood Whereupon the Secretary was fain to go further about and make use of an Instrument at a greater distance who was no menial servant to Sir Amias He died Anno Dom. 15. And was buried in London in St. Martins in the fields where his Epitaph is all an allusion to the three Swords in his Arms and three words in his Motto Gardez la Foy Keep the Faith Which harping on that one string of his fidelity though perchance harsh musick to the ears of others was harmonioâ—…s to Queen Elizabeth Capital Judges JOHN FITZ-JAMES Knight was born at Redlinch in this County of right ancient and worthy Parentage bred in the Study of our Municipal Laws wherein he proved so great a Proficient that by King Henry the Eighth He was advanced Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. There needs no more be said of his merit save that King Henry the Eighth preferred him who never used either Dunce or Dâ—…one in Church or State but Men of Ability and Activity He sate above thirteen years in his Place demeaning himself so that he lived and died in the Kings favour He sate one of the Assistants when Sir Thomas More was arraigned for refusing the Oath of Supremacy and was shrewdly put to it to save his own Conscience and not incurre the Kings displeasure For Chancellor Audley Supream Judge in that place being loath that the whole burthen of Mores condemnation should lye on his shoulders alone openly in Court asked the advice of the Lord Chief Justice Fitz-James whether the Indictment were sufficient or no to whom our Judge warily returned My Lords all by St. Gillian which was ever his Oath I must needs confesse that if the Act of Parliament be not unlawful then the Indictment is not in my conscience insufficient He died in the thirtyeth year of King Henry the Eighth and although now there be none left at Redlinch of his Name and Family they flourish still at Lewson in Dorsetshire descended from Alured Fitz-James brother to this Judge and to Richard Bishop of London whose Heir in a direct line Sir John Fitz-James Knight I must acknowledge a strong encourager of my weak endeavours JOHN PORTMAN Knight was born of Wealthy and Worshipful Extraction at Portmâ—…ns Orchard in this County a fair Mannor which descended to him by Inheritance the Heir of the Orchards being matcht into his Family He was bred in the Study of the Common Law attaining to such eminency therein that June 11 the second of Queen Mary he was made Chief Justice of the Kings Bench continuing two years in the place and dying therein for ought I find to the contrary and a Baronet of his name and Linage flourisheth at this day with a great and plentiful Estate DAVID BROOKE Knight born at Glassenbury son to John Brook Esq. who as I read in Claréntiaux was Serjeant at Law to King Henry the Eighth Our David was also bred in the study of our Laws and in the First of Queen Mary was made Chief Baron of the Exchequer but whether dying in or quitting the place in the First of Queen Elizabeâ—…h I am not informed He married Katharine daugher of John Lord Shandois but died without Issue JAMES DIER Knight younger son to Richard Dier Esq. was born at Roundhill in this County as may appear to any by the Heralds Visitation thereof and doth also to me by particular information from his relations He was bred in the study of our Municipal Law and was made Lord Chief Justice of the 〈◊〉 Pleas Primo Eliz. continuing therein 24 years longer if my eye or Arithmetick faâ—…l me not than any in that place before or after him When Thomas Duke of Northfolk was Anno 1572 arraigned for Treason this Judge was present thereat on the same token that when the Duke desired Council to be assigned him pleading that it was granted to Humphry Stafford in the reign of King Henry the Seventh our Judge returned unto him That Stafford had it allowed him only as to Point of Law then in dispute viz. Whether he was legally taken out of the Sanctuary but as for matter of Fact neither he nor any ever had or could have any Councel allowed him a course observed in such Cases unto this day But let his own Works praise him in the Gaâ—…es is known for the place of publick Justice amongst the Jews Let his Learned Writings called his Commentaries or Reports evidence his Abilities in his Profession He died in 25 Eliz. though married without any Issue and there is a House of a Baronet of his name descended from an elder son of Richard father to our Judge at Great Stoughton in Huntington-shire well improved I believe with the addition of the Judges Estate Sr. JOHN POPHAM of most ancient descent was born at Huntworth in this County In his youthful dayes he was as stout and skilful a Man at Sword and Buckler as any in that age and wild enough in his recreations But Oh! if Quick-silver could be really fixed to what a treasure would it amount Such is wild Youth seriously reduced to Gravity as by this young man did appear He applied himself to a more profitable Fencing the study of the Laws therein atteining to such eminency that he became the Queens Attourny and afterwards Lord Chief Justice of England Being sent Anno 1600 by the Queen with some others to the Earl of Essex to know the cause of the confluence of so many Military Men unto his House the Souldiers therein detained him for a time which some did make to Tantamount to an imprisonment This his violent detention Sir John deposed upon his Oath at the Earls Trial which I note the rather for the rarity thereof that a Lord Chief Justice should be produced as witness in open Court In the Beginning of the reign of king James his Justice was exemplary on Theeves and Robbers The Land then swarmed with people which had been Souldiers who had never gotten or
would do very well on the shoulders of Sir Robert Naunton Secretary of State These words were complained of and Wiemark summoned to the Privy Councel where he pleaded for himself that he intended no dis-respect to Mr. Secretary whose known Worth was above all detraction Only he spake in reference to an old Proverb Two heads are better than one And so for the present he was dismissed Not long after when rich men were called on for a Contribution to St. Pauls Wiemark at the Councel-Table subscribed a hundred pounds but Mr. Secretary told him two hundred were better than one which betwixt fear and charity Wiemark was fain to subscribe He died Anno Domini 163. leaving one daughter who first was married to Paul Vicount Banning and after to the Lord Herbert eldest son to Philip Earl of Pembroke Capital Judges JOHN de METINGHAM was born in this County where Metingham is a Village in VVang ford Hundred not far from Bongey and was Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of King Edward the Third It is reported to his eternal praise that when the rest of the Judges 18 Edw. 3. were fined and outed for corruption this Metingham and Elias de Beckingham continued in their places whose innocence was of proof against all accusations and as Caleb and Joshâ—…a amongst the Jury of false Spies so these two amongst the Twelve Judges onely retained their integrity King Edward in the 20th of his reign directed a Writ unto him about the stinting of the number of the Apprentices and Attourneys at Law well worth the inserting D. Rex injunxit John de Metingham Sociis suis quod ipsi per discreâ—…ionem eorum provideant Ordinent numerum certum è quolibet Comitatu de melioribus legalioribus libentius add scentibus secundum quod intellexerint quod Curiae suae populo de regno melius valere poterit c. Et videtur Regi ejus Consilio quod Septies viginti sufficere poterint Apponant tamen praefati Justiciarii plures si viderint esse faciendum vel numerum anticipent The Lord the King hath enjoyned John de Metingham and his Assistants that they according to their discretion provide and ordain a certain number out of every County of such persons vvhich according to their understanding shall appear unto them of the better sort and most Legal and most vvillingly applying themselves to the learning of the Lavv vvhat may better avail for their Court and the good of the people of the Land c. And it seems likely to the King and his Councel that Sevenscore may suffice for that purpose However the afore-said Justices may add more if they see it ought to be done or else they may lessen the number Some conceive this number of sevenscore confined only to the Common Pleas whereof Metingham was Chief Justice But others behold it as extended to the whole Land this Judge his known integrity being intrusted in their choice and number which number is since much increased and no wonder our Land being grown more populous and the people in it more litigious He died Anno Domini .... Sir JOHN CAVENDISH Knight was born at Cavendish in this County where his name continued until the reign of King Henry the Eighth bred a Student of the municipal-Municipal-Law attaining to such learning therein that he was made Lord Chief Justice of the Kings or Upper Bench July 15 in the 46th of King Edward the Third discharging his place with due commendation untill his violent death on the fifth of King Richard the Second on this occasion John Raw a Priest contemporary with Jack Straw and Wat Tyler advanced Robert Westbroome a Clown to be King of the Commons in this County having no fewer than fifty thousand followers These for eighth dayes together in savage sport caused the heads of great persons to be cut off and set on Poles to kisse and whisper in one anothers ears Chief Justice Cavendish chanced then to be in the Country to whom they bare a double pique one because he was honest the other learned Besides they received fresh news from London that one John Cavendish his kinsman had lately kill'd their Idol Wat Tiler in Smithfield Whereupon they dragg'd the Reverend Judge with Sir John of Cambridge Prior of Bury into the Market-place there and beheaded them Whose innocent bloud remained not long unreveng'd by Spencer the Warlike Bishop of Norwich by whom this rascal rabble of Rebels was routed and ruined 1381. Reader be charitably pleased that this Note may till better information preserve the Right of this County unto Sir ROBERT BROKE a great Lawyer and Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of Queen Mary He wrote an Abridgment of the whole Law a Book of high account It insinuateth to me a probability of his birth herein because Lawyers generally purchase near the place of their Birth his Posterity still flourish in a Worshipful equipage at Nacton nigh Ipswich in this County Souldiers Sir THOMAS WENTWORTH of Nettlested in this County of a younger Family confessed by the Crescent in his Coat descended from the Wentworths of Wentworth-Woodhouse in York-shire was created Baron VVentworth by King Henry the Eighth He was a stout and valiant Gentleman a cordial Protestant and his Family a Sanctuary of such Professors John Bale comparing him to the good Centurion in the Gospel and gratefully acknowledging him the cause of his conversion from a Carmelite The memory of this good Lord is much but unjustly blemished because Calis was lost the Last of Queen Mary under his government The manner hereof was huddled up in our Chronicles least is best of a bad business whereof this the effect The English being secure by reason of the late conquest at St. Quintin and the Duke of Guise having notice thereof he sate down before the Town at the time not when Kings go forth to but return from battle of mid-Winter even on New-years-day Next day he took the two Forts of Rise-bank and Newnam-bridge wherein the strength of the City consisted but whether they were undermined or undermonied it is not decided and the last left most suspicious Within three dayes the Castle of Calis which commanded the City and was under the command of Sir Ralph Chamberlain was taken the French wading thorough the ditches made shallower by their artificial cut and then entering the Town were repulsed back by Sir Anthony Ager Marshal of Calis the only man saith Stow who was kill'd in the fight understand him of note †Others for the credit of the business accounting four score lost in that service The French re-entring the City the next being Twelfth-day the Lord Wentworth Deputy thereof made but vain resistance which alas was like the wriggling of a Wormstail after the head thereof is cut off so that he was forced to take what terms he could get viz. That the
precious extraction to King James reputed a great preserver of health and prolonger of life He is conceived by such helps to have added to his vigorous vivacity though I think a merry heart whereof he had a great measure was his best Elixar to that purpose He died exceeding aged Anno Dom. 164. JOHN BUCKRIDGE was born at Dracot nigh Marleborough in this County and bred under Master Mullcaster in Merchant-Taylors school from whence he was sent to Saint Johns-colledge in Oxford where from a Fellow he became Doctor of Divinity and President thereof He afterwards succeeded Doctor Lancelot Andrews in the Vicaridge of Saint Giles Criplegate in which Cure they lived one and twenty years a piece and indeed great was the Intimacy betwixt these two learned Prelates On the ninth of June 1611. he was Consecrated Bishop of Rochester and afterwards set forth a learned Book in opposition of John Fisher De potestate papae in Temporalibus of which my Author doth affirm Johannem itaque Roffensem habemus quem Johanni Roffensi opponamus Fishero Buckerigium cujus argumentis si quid ego video ne à mille quidem Fisheris unquam respondebitur He was afterwards preferred Bishop of Ely and having Preached the Funerall Sermon of Bishop Andrews extant in Print at the end of his works survived him not a full year dying Anno Dom. 163. He was decently Interred by his own appointment in the Parish-church of Bromly in Kent the Manner thereof belonged to the Bishoprick of Rotchester States-men EDWARD SEIMOR and THOMAS SEIMOR both Sons of Sir John Seimor of Wolfull Knight in this County I joyn them together because whilst they were united in affection they were invinsible but when devided easily overthrown by their enemies Edward Seimor Duke of Sommerset Lord Protector and Treasurer of England being the Elder Brother succeeded to a fair Paternal inheritance He was a valiant Souldier for Land-service fortunate and generally beloved by Martiall men He was of an open nature free from jealousie and dissembling affable to all People He married Anne Daughter of Sir Edward Stanhop knight a Lady of a high mind and haughty undaunted spirit Thomas Seimor the Younger Brother was made Barron of Sudley by offices and the favours of his Nephew K. Edward the sixth obtained a great Estate He was well experienced in Sea affairs and made Lord Admirall of England He lay at a close posture being of a reserved Nature and was more cunning in his Carriage He married Queen Katharine Parr the Widdow of King Henry the eighth Very great the Animosities betwixt their Wives the Dutchess refusing to bear the Queens Train and in effect justled with her for Precedence so that what betwixt the Train of the Queen and long Gown of the Dutchess they raised so much dust at the Court as at last put out the eyes of both their husbands and occasioned their Executions as we have largely declared in our Ecclesiasticall History The Lord Thomas Anno 154. The Lord Edward Anno 154. Thus the two best Bullworks of the safety of King Edward the sixth being demolished to the ground Duke Dudley had the advantage the nearer to approach and assault the Kings Person and to practice his destruction as is vehemently suspected Sir OLIVER SAINT JOHN Knight Lord Grandison c. was born of an ancient and honourable family whose prime seat was at Lediard-Tregoze in this County He was bred in the warrs from his youth and at last by King James was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland and vigorously pursued the principles of his Predecessours for the civilizing thereof Indeed the Lord Mountjoy reduced that Country to obedience the Lord Chichester to some civility and this Lord Grandison first advanced it to considerable profit to his Master I confess T. Walsingham writeth that Ireland afforded unto Edward the third thirty thousand pound a year paid into His Exchequer but it appears by the Irish-records which are rather to be believed that it was rather a burden and the constant revenue thereof beneath the third part of that proportion But now the Kingdome being peaceably settled the income thereof turned to good account so that Ireland called by my Author the Land of Ire for the constant broiles therein for 400. years was now become the Land of Concord Being re-called into England he lived many years in great repute and dying without issue left his Honour to his Sisters son by Sir Edward Villiers but the main of his estate to his Brothers son Sir John Saint John Knight and Baronet Sir JAMES LEY Knight and Baronet son of Henry Ley Esquire one of great Ancestry who on his own cost with his men valiantly served King Henry the eighth at the siedge of Bullen was born at Tafant in this County Being his fathers sixth son and so in probability barred of his inheritance he indeavoured to make himself an Heir by his Education applying his book in Brasen-nose-colledge and afterwards studying the Laws of the Land in Lincolns-Inn wherein such his proficiency King James made him Lord Chief Justice in Ireland Here he practised the charge King James gave him at his going over yea what his own tender Conscience gave himself namely Not to build his Estate on the ruines of a miserable Nation but aiming by the unpartial execution of Justice not to enrich himself but civilize the People he made a good Progress therein But the King would no longer lose him out of his own Land and therefore recalled him home about the time when his fathers inheritance by the death of his five elder brethren descended upon him It was not long before Offices and Honour flowed in fast upon him being made by King James King Charles 1. Aturney of the Court of Wards 2. Chief Justice of the Upper Bench 18. of his raign Jan. 29. 3. Lord Treasurer of England in the 22. of his raign Decemb. 22. 4. Baron Ley of Ley in Devonshire the last of the same Month. 1. Earl of Marleburg in this County immediately after the Kings Coronation 2. Lord President of the Councell in which place he died Anno Domini 1629. He was a person of great gravity ability and integrity and as the Caspian Sea is observed neither to ebb nor flow so his mind did not rise or fall but continued the same constancy in all conditions Sir FRANCIS COTTINGTON Knight was born nigh Meer in this County and bred when a youth under Sir ........ Stafford He lived so long in Spain till he made the garbe and gravity of that Nation become his and become him He raised himself by his naturall strength without any artificial advantage having his parts above his learning his experience above his parts his industry above his experience and some will say his success above all so that at the last he became Chancellour of the Exchequer Baron of Hanworth in Middlesex and upon the resignation of Doctor Juxon Lord Treasurer of England gaining also
Agent in yea a principall procurer of the Foundation of the University and Colledge of Dublin where Dermitius son of Mercard King of Lemster had formerly found a Convent for Canons Regular and the first Honorary Master thereof being then Arch-bishop if not Chancellour of Ireland to give the more credit and countenance to thaâ—… Foundation He died Aprill 5. Anno 1605. and was buried in the Church of Saint Patrick having been Arch-bishop from his Consecration eight Months above two and forty years Reader I must confess I admired hereat untill I read that Miller Magragh who dyed Anno Domini 1622. was Arch-bishop of Cassell in Ireland ten months above one and fifty years GEORGE MOUNTAINE was born in this County at ......... and bred in Quéenscolledge in Cambridge where he became Fellow and Proctor of the University He was Chaplain to the Earl of Essex whom he attended in his Voyage to Cales being indeed one of such personall valour that out of his gown he would turn his back to no man he was afterwards made Dean of Westminster then successively Bishop of Lincoln and London whilst residing in the latter he would often pleasantly say that of him the Proverb would be verified Lincoln was and London is and York shall be which came to pass accordingly when he was removed to the Arch-bishoprick of York wherein he died thorough which Sees never any Prelate so methodically passed but himself alone He was a good Benefactour to the Colledge wherein he was bred whereon he bestowed a fair piece of plate called Poculum Charitatis with this Inscrip tion Incipio I begin to thee and founded two Scollerships therein Capitall Judges Sir WILLIAM GASCOINGE was born at Gauthorp in Harwood parish in the mid-way betwixt Leeds and Knaresburgh and afterwards was Student of the Law in the Inner Temple in London Wherein he so profited that being Knighted the sixth of King Henry the fourth he was made Chief Justice of the Kings-bench November 15. and therein demeaned himself with much integrity but most eminent for the following passage It happened that a servant of Prince Henry afterwards the fifth English King of that Christian name was arraigned before this Judge for fellony whom the Prince then present endeavoured to take away coming up in such fury that the beholders believed he would have stricken the Judge But he sitting withouâ—… moving according to the Majesty he represented committed the Prince prisoner to the Kings-bench there to remain untill the pleasure of the King his Father were farther known Who when he heard thereof by some pickthank Courtier who probably expected a contrary return gave God thanks for his infinite goodness who at the same instant had given Him a Judge who could minister and a Son who could obey justice I meet in J. Stow with this Marginall note William Gascoinge was Chief Justice of the Kings-bench from the sixth of Henry the fourth till the third of Henry the fifth and another Historian maketh King Henry the fifth in the first of his raign thus expressing himself in relation to that Lord Chief Justice For which act of Justice I shall ever hold him worthy of the place and my favour and wish all my Judges to have the like undaunted courage to punish offenders of what rank soever Hence our Comedian fancy will quickly blow up a drop in History into a bubble in Poetry hath founded a long scene on the same subject Give me leave for my love to truth to rectifie these mistakes out of authentick records First Gascoinge was made Judge not in the sixth but first of King Henry the fourth on the first of November Secondly he died December 17. in the fourteenth of King Henry the fourth so that in a manner his sitting on the bench ran parallel to the Kings sitting on the throne This date of his death is fairly written in his stately Monument in Harwood Church GUâ—…DO de FAIRFAX A word of his Surname and Family Fax and Vex are the same signifying Hair Hence Mathew Westminster calleth a Comet which is stella â—…rinita a Vexed Star and this Family had their Name from Beautifull Bushy Hair I confess I find in Florilegus writing of the Holy War Primum Bellum Christianorum fuit apud Pontem Pharfax fluminis The first Battle of the Christians was at the Bridge of the River Pharfax but cannot concur with them who hence derive the Name of this Family But where ever it began it hath continued at Walton in this County more then four hundred and fifty years for Nineteen Generations Charles a Viscount now living being the Twentieth But to return to Sir Guiao Fairfax Knight he was bred in the study of the Common Law made Serjeant thereof and ever highly favoured the house of York in those Civil distempers Hence it was that he assumed a White-rose bearing it in his Coat of Armes on the shoulder of his Black Lyon no difference as some may suppose but an evidence of his affection to that Family Yet was he by King Henry the seventh advanced Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-bench supplying the Intervall betwixt Sir William Hussey and Sir John Fineaux The certain date of his death is to me unknown ROGER CHOLMLEY Knight He is placed in this County with moderate assurance For his Father as I am instructed by those of his Family lived in this County though branched from Cheshire and much conversant in London being Lieutenant of the Tower under King Henry the seventh By his Will he bequeathed a Legacy to Roger his Naturall Son then Student of the Laws the self same with our Roger as Proportion of time doth evince He applyed his studies so effectually that in the 37. of King Henry the eight in Michaelmas terme he was made Chief Baron of the Exchequer and in the sixth of Edward the sixth Chief Justice of the Kings-bench In the first of Queen Mary July 27. he with Sir Edward Mountague Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was committed to the Tower for drawing up the Testament of King Edward the sixth wherein his Sisters were dis-inherited Yet Sir Rogers activity amounted no higher then to a Complyance and a subscription of the same He afterwards was enlarged but lost his Judges Place living some years in a private condition When William Flower was burnt in Westminster Sir Hugh being present though called by Master Fox but plaine Master Cholmley willed him to recant his Heresy which I impute rather to his Carnall Pity then Great Affection to Popery He built a Free-school of brick at High-gate about the year 1564. the Pension of the Master being uncertain and the School in the disposition of six Governours and I believe he survived not long after and have some ground for my suspicion that he dyed without Issue Sir CRISTOPHER WRAY Knight was born in the spatious Parish of Bedall the main motive which made his
Amirall of England and kept it until the day of his Death Afterwards Men were chequered at the pleasure of our Princes and took their turns in that Office For this cause I can make no certain Catalogue of them who can take with my most fixed Eye no steddy aime at them the same persons being often alternately In and Out of the Place whilst Officers protermino vitae may be with some certainty recounted Yet have we sometimes inserted some Memorable Amiralls under the Tiâ—…le of Statesmen and Vice-Amiralls under the Topick of Seamen because the former had no great knowledge in Navigation I say great it being improper they should be seamasters who in no degree were seamen and were imployed rather for their Trust then skill to see others do their Duty whilst the latter were allwayes persons well experienced in Maritine affairs Lord-Deputies of IRELAND Ever since King Henry the second conquered Ireland few of our English Princes went thither in person and none continued any long time there save King John and King Richard the second neither of them over-fortunate But that Land was governed by a Substitute commissioned from our Kings with the same power though sometimes under several names Lord Lieutenants Lord Deputies Lord Cheif Justiceâ—… These were also of a double nature for Some staid in England and appointed Deputies under them to act all Irish Affairs Others went over into Ireland transacting all things by presence not proxie Immediately deputed by the King to reside there We insist on this title as which is most constant and current amongst them Not of the Kings Bench or Common-Pleas but of all Ireland This power was sometime sole in a single person and sometimes 〈◊〉 in two together Thus these three Titles are in sense Synonima to signifie the same power and place Some erroniously term them Presidents of Ireland a Title belonging to the particular Governours of Mounster and Connagh It is true of Ireland what was once said of * Edom their Deputies were Kings No Vice-roy in Christendome Naples it self not excepted is observed in more state He chooseth Sheriffes and generally all Officers save Bishops and Judges and these also though not made by his commanding are usually by his commending to the King He conferreth Knighthood hath power of life and death signified by the Sword carried commonly before him by a person of Honour His attendance and House-keeping is magnificent partly to set a Copy of State to the barbarous Irish by seeing the difference betwixt the rude rabble routs runing after their native Lords and the solemnity of a regulated retinue partly to make in that Rebellious Nation a reverential impression of Majesty that by the Shadow they may admire the Substance and proportionably collect the State of the King himself who therein is represented Our English Kings were content with the Title of Lords of Ireland until King Henry the Eighth who partly to shew his own power to assume what style he pleased without leave or liberty from the Pope whose Supremity he had suppressed in his Dominions partly the more to awe the Irish wrote himself King thereof Anno Dom. 1541. from which Year we date our Catalogue of Lord Deputies as then and not before Vice-Royes indeed Indeed it was no more then needs for King Henry the Eighth to assume that Title seeing quod efficit tale magis est tale and the Commission whereby King Henry the Second made William-Fitz-Adelme his Lieutenant of Ireland hath this direction Archiepiscopis Episcopis Regibus Comitibus Baronibus et omnibus fidelibus suis in Hibernia salutem Now though by the post-poning of these Kings to Arch-bishops and Bishops it plainly appears that they were no Canonical Kings as I may say I mean solemnly invested with the Emblems of sovereignty the King of Connagh the King of Thomond yet were they more then Kings even Tyrants in the exercise of their Dominions so that King Henry was in some sort necessitated to set himself King Paramount above them all CHAPTER VII Of Capital Judges and Writers on the Common Law BY CAPITAL JUDGES we understand not those who have power to condemn Offenders for Capital Faults as all the Twelve Judges have or any Serjeant commissioned to ride the Circuit but the Chief Judges who as Capital LETTERS stand in Power and Place above the rest viz. 1. the Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. 2. of the Common Pleas 3. the Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the Learned Antiquary Sr. Henry Spelman avoweth the Title of Capital Justicers properly applicable to these alone The Chief Justice of the Kings or Upper Bench is commonly called the Lord Chief Justice of England a Title which the Lord Chancellor accounting himself Chief in that kind looks on as an injurious usurpation And many alive may remember how Sr. Edward Cook was accused to K. James for so styling himself in the Frontespiece of his Reports Part the Tenth and Eleventh insomuch that the Judg was fain to plead for himself Erravimus cum Patribus as who could have produced plenty of Precedents therein 2. The chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Place beneath is in Profit above the former So that some have out of Designe quitted That to accept of This Amongst these was Sr. Edward Mountague in the Raign of K. Henry the eighth who being demanded of his Friends the Reason of his Self-degradation I am now saith he an Old Man and love the Kitching above the Hall the Warmest place best suiting my Age. The Chief Baron is chiefly imployed in the Exchequer to decide causes which relate to the Kings Revenue Their Brevia or Writts did commonly run with this Clause That the Judg should have and hold his PLACE quam diu se benè geserit so long as he well behaved himself on this Token That Sr. John Walter Lord chief Baron of the Exchequer being to be outed of his Place for adjudging the Loan-mony illegal pleaded for himself That he was guilty of no Misdemeanour who had only delivered his Judgment according to his Conscience Others are granted from the King durante nostro beneplacito to continue in their Office during his will and pleasure We begin the Army of our Judges for some Few like the Forlorne Hope advance higher about the time of King Edward the first It is impossible exactly to observe that Inn of Court wherein each of them had his Education especially some of them being so Ancient that in their times Lincolnes Inn and Greys Inn were Lincoln's Inn and Grey's Inn I mean belonged to those their Owners from whom they had their Names as being before they were appropriated to the Students of our Municipall Lawes Here I will condemn my self to prevent the condemning of others and confesse our Characters of these Judges to be very brief and defective Indeed were the Subject we treat of overstrewed with Ashes like the floor of Bells Temple it were easie to finde out and follow the
the Returns do not answer to the extent of those Shires 4. Not done Which I sadly confess and cannot help being Twelve in number as hereafter will appear I dare not conjecture the cause of this Casualty whether in such Shires the Oaths were never Tendred or tendred and not taken or taken and not returned or returned and not recorded or recorded and not preserved or preserved but misplaced in some Roll which hitherto it hath not been my hap to lite upon It is possible that some disgusted the Kings Design as who under the pretence of keeping the peace indevoured to smother and suppress such who should appear for the Title of York whereof more in the Respective Countyes May the Reader be pleased to take notice that in the Reign of Henry the Sixth de such a place began then to be left off and the addition of Knight and Squire to be assumed Yet because no Fashion can be generally followed at first such additions are used in the Returns of some Shires and neglected in others In some Counties we have the Names of a few Mechanicks returned with their Trades Brasier Smith Ironmonger c. Who no doubt were considerable either in themselves as Robustious Persons or in their Servants as Numerous or in their popular and tumultuous Influence of others And grant these passing under the name of Valecti whereof formerly it appears by the penalty imposed on their Recusancy of the Oath that they were substantial 〈◊〉 which stood and propably could make others go on their own Account Some Clergymen not only Regular as Abbots and Priors but secular Parochial priests are inserted in some Returns These some will say might well be omitted as nothing Informative to the Gentry of the Land because dead Stakes in the Hedge then unconcerned in posterity because forbidden marriage However I have here presented as I found them intending neither to mingle nor mangle conceiving that if I were found guilty either of Omissions or Alterations it might justly shake the credit of the whole Catalogue Indeed if the word Superstition importeth not Trespassing on Religion and if the bare signification be adequate to the Etymology thereof a Super Stando for standing in his own opinion too curiously on a thing which in the Judgement of others may not Merit so much Exquisitenesse I here voluntarily confess my self Superstitious in observing every Punctillo according to the Original May the Reader be pleased to take notice that in mens proper names some letters of like sound are confounded in vulgar pronunciation as V for F. Fenner and Venner K. and C. Kary and Cary F. and Ph. as Purfrey and Purphrey though the name be the same in both Sometimes the name is spelled not truly according to Orthography but according to the common speaking thereof which melteth out some essential Letters as Becham for Beauchamp Again there is such an allusion betwixt the forms of some letters nothing symbolyzing in sound that as they are written though not in ordinary in Record-hand they may easily be mistaken by Writer or Reader through the similitude of their Character as m e n f n l g w o u s r t y This hath put us many times to a stand and sometimes to a loss what letter it hath been But we have in all particulars conformed our Transcript to the original in all possible exactness though afterwards taking the boldness to interpose our opinion in our observations A later List might be presented of the English Gentry towards the end of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth but such would be subject to just exception For as the Gibeonites though by their mouldy bread and clouted Shooes pretending to a long peregrination were but of the Vicinage So most of those Gentry notwithstanding their specious claim to Antiquity will be found to be but of one Descent low enough in themselves did they not stand on the vantage ground heightned on the Rubbish of the Ruines of Monasteries CHAP. XV. Of SHIRE-REEVES or SHIRIFFES REEVE which hath much Affinity with the Dutch Grave signifieth an Officer to oversee and order being chief in the Shire In Latin Vice-comes or Vicecount And seeing shadows in effect are as ancient as the bodies they may be beleived as old as Counts and Counts as Counties and Counties as King Alfred who first divided England into Shires about the year of our Lord 888. The late fashion was that the Clerk of the Peace for each County in Michaelmas-Term presented to the Lord Cheif Justice of the Kings Bench sixe or more names of able persons for that Office The Lord Chief Justice calling the other Judges into the Exchequer Chamber where the Attorney General and the Sollicitour attends presented three out of that number unto the King out of which the King pricks one who stands Sheriffe of the County His Power is sufficiently known to suppress Riots secure Prisoners distrain for Debts execute Writs return the choice of Knights and Burgesses for Parliament empannel Juries attend the Judâ—… 〈◊〉 the Execution of Malefactors c. Several Statutes have provided that no man should be Sheriffe in any County except he hath land sufficient in the same County to answer the King and his people And it is remarkable that since the beginning of that Office it appeareth not upon any Record that ever any Sheriffe pro tempore failed in his Estate but was responsible in his place Whereas it is too plain by sad Precedents that some Receivers being men of meaner estates have Sheriffes are bound to abide in their proper persons within the County that they may the more effectually attend their Office And in our Remembrance some great persons whose Activity in Parliament was suspected have been made Sheriffes to keep them out of harms way and confine them at home But later years have dispenced with such critical Niceties unreasonable that the Sheriffe himself should be a Prisoner in his own County allowing him more liberty on the providing of an able Deputy in his absence Though I will not avouch it true there may be somewhat of truth in their spiteful observation who maintain that the Shrevalty in ancient times was Honos sine Onere in the middle times Honos cum onere and in our days little better than Onus sine honore though â—… trust the Office will now be restored to its former honour Honos sine onere An honour without a burden As when Prince Edward the first was for many years together High-Sheriffe of Bedford and Buckingham-shire and many prime Peers of the Land were Honorary Sheriffes gracing the place with accepting it living where they pleased themselves and appointing their Substitutes to transact the businesse of the County Honos cum onere An Honour with a burden From King Edward the Third till within our Remembrance For the principal Gentry in every shire of most ancient extractions and best Estates were deputed for that place keeping great Attendance and Hospitality
Brigges ar ut prius  4 5 Ioh. Denton ar ut prius  5 6 Rich. Fines ar ut prius  REG. ELIZA   Anno   1 Edw. Ashfeld ar   2 Edw. Fabian ar   3 Ioh. Doyle ar  Or 2 Bendlets Az. 4 Hen. Norys ar ut prius  5 Ric. Wenman ar  Quarterly Gules Az. a Cross Patence Or. 6 Ioh. Croker ar Tame P. Ox. Argent on a Cheveron Engrailed Gules between 3 Crows as many Mullets Or pierced 7 Tho. Stafford ar ut prius  8 Christ. Brome   Henry IV. 2 THOMAS CHAUCER He was sole son to Geffery Chaucer that famous Poet from whom he inherited fair lands at Dunnington-Castle in this County and at Ewelme in Oxfordshire He married Maud daughter and coheir of Sir John Burwash by whom he had one only daughter named Alice married unto William de la Pole Duke of Suffolk He lyeth buried under a fair tomb in Ewelme Church with this inscription Hic jacet Thomas Chaucer Armiger quondam Dominus istius villae Patronus istius Ecclesiae qui obiit 18. die Mensis Novembris Anno Dom. 1434. Matilda uxor ejus quae obiit 28. mensis Aprilis Anno Domini 1436. Henry V. 1 THOMAS WIKHAM I behold him as kinsman and next heir to William Wykham that famous Bishop of Winchester to whom the Bishop left notwithstanding above six thousand pounds bequeathed by him in legacies for the discharge whereof he left ready mony one hundred pound lands a year As for his Arms viz. Argent two Cheverons Sable between three Roses Gules a most ingenious Oxfordian conceiveth those Cheverons alià s Couples in Architecture given him in relation to the two Colledges he built the one in Oxford the other in Winchester It will be no sin to suspect this no original of but a post-nate-allusion to his Armes who was whatever is told to the contrary though his parents were impoverished of a Knightly extraction But if it was his assigned and not hereditary Coat it will be long enough ere the Heraulds Office grant another to any upon the like occasion Henry VI. JOHANES GOWFRE Ar. No doubt the same with him who 2 do Hen. 5 nti was written John Golofre He is the first person who is styled Esquire though surely all who were before him were if not Knights Esquires at the least And afterwards this addition grew more and more fashionable in the Reign of King Henry the sixth For after that â—…ack Straw one of the grand founders of the Levellers was defeated the English Gentry to appear above the common sort of people did in all publick instruments insert theit Native or acquired Qualifications Edward IV. 8 JOHN HOWARD Miles He was son to Sir Robert Howard and soon after was created a Baron by this King and Duke of Northfolk by King Richard the third as Kinsman and one of the Heirs of Anne Dutchess of York and Northfolk whose Mother was one of the Daughters of Thomas Mowbray Duke of Northfolk Soon after he lost his life in his quarrell who gave him his honour in Bosworth field From him descended the Noble and Numerous family of the Howards of whom I told four Earls and two Barons sitting in the last Parliament of King Charles I have nothing else for the present to observe of this Name save that a great Antiquary will have it originally to be Holdward L. and D. being omitted for the easier pronunciation which signifieth the Keeper of any Castle Hold or Trust committed unto them wherein they have well answered unto their Name Did not Thomas Howard Earl of Surry well hold his ward by Land when in the reign of King Henry the eighth he conquered the Scots in Flodden-field and took James the fourth their King Prisoner And did not Charles Howard afterwards Earl of Nottingham hold his ward by Sea in 88. when the Armado was defeated But hereof God willing hereafter 15 HUMPHRY FOSTER Ar. This must be he consent of times avowing it who was afterwards Knighted and lyeth buried in Saint Martinâ—… in the Fields London with the following inscription Of your charity pray for the soul of Sir Humphery Foster Knight whose body lyeth buried here in earth under this Marble-stone which deceased the 18. day of the Month of September 1500. on whose Soul sesu have mercy Amen Henâ—…y VII 8 ROBERT HARECOURT Miles Right ancient is this family in France having read in a French Herauld who wrote in the reign of King Edward the sixth that it flourished therein eight hundred years as by a Genealogy drawn by him should appear Of this Family for both give the same Coat at this day viz. Gâ—…les two Barrs Or a younger branch coming over at the Conquest fixed it self in the Norman Infancy at Staunton Harecourt in Oxfordshire And I find that in the reign of King â—…ohn Richard de Harecourt of Staunton aforesaid marrying Orabella daughter of Saer de Quincy Earl of Winchester had the rich manor of Bosworth in Leicester-shire bestowed on him for his wifes portion I cannot exactly distinguish the several Harecourts contemporaries in this County and Sheriffs thereof so as to assign them their severall habitations but am confident that this Robert Harecourt Sheriffe in the reign of King Henry the seventh was the same person whom King Edward the fourth made Knight of the Garter From him lineally descended the valiant Knight Sir Simon Harecourt lately slain in the wars against the Rebells in Ireland whose Son a hopefull Gentleman enjoys the Manor of Staunton at this day 15 JOHN BASKET He was an Esquire of Remark and martiall activity in his younger days who in some years after removed to Devenish in Dorsetshire to whom King Henry the eighth going over into France committed the care of that County as by his following Letter will appear Henry VIII By the King Trusty and Well-beloved We greet you well And whereas we at this time have written as well to the Sheriff of that Our Shire as also to the Justices of Our Peace within Our said Shire Commanding and straightly Charging that as well the said Sheriffs as the said Justices endeavour them for the keeping of Our Peace and the entertainment of Our Subjects in good quiet and restfullness durying the time of Our journey into the parties of beyond the Sea to the which We entend to dispose us about the latter end of this present month of May And forasmuch also as We have for your great ease spared you of your aettendance upon Us in Our said journey and left you at home to doe Us service in keeping of Our Peace and good Rule amongst Our said Subjects We Will thereforâ—… and Command you that dureing the time of Our said absence out of this Our Realme ye have a speciall over-sight regard and respect as well to the Sheriff as to the said Justice how and in what diligence they do and execute
Bark of Trees as more solid still couâ—…enanced in the Notation of the word Liber Next they wrote in Labels or Sheets of Lead wherein the Letters were deeply engraven being a kind of Printing before Printing and to this I refer the words of Job an Author allowed Contemporary with if not Senior to Moses himself Oh that my words were now written oh that they were printed in a book To omit many other devices in after ages to signify their conceptions Paper was first made of a broad Flag not unlike our great Dock growing in and nigh Canopus in Egypt which it seems was a sâ—…aple commodity of that Country and substantiall enough to bear the solemn Curse of the Prophet The Paper-reeds by the brooks shall wither be driven away and be no more Our Modern Paper is made of Grinded Raggs and yet this New Artificiall doth still thankfully retain the Name of the Old Naturall Paper It may pass for the Emblem of Men of mâ—…an Extraction who by Art and Industry with Gods blessing thereon come to high preferment He raiseth the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill that he may set him with his Princes even with the Princes of his People One may finâ—… if searching into the pedigree of Paper it cometh into the world at the doungate raked thence in Rags which refined by Art especially after precious secrets are written therein is found fit to be choicely kept in the Cabinets of the Greatest 〈◊〉 Pity it is that the fiâ—…st Author of so usefull an invention cannot with any assurance by assigned There are almost as many severall kinds of Paper as conditions of Persons betwixt the Emperor and Beggar Imperial Royal Cardinal and so downwards to that course Paper called Emporetica usefull onely for Chapmen to wrap their wares therein Paper Participatâ—…s in some sort of the Caracters of the Countrymen which make it the Venetian being neat subtile and courtlike the French light slight and slender the Dutch thick corpulent and gross not to say sometimes also charta Bibula sucking up the Ink with the sponginess thereof Paper is entred as a Manufacture of this County because there are Mills nigh Sturbridge-fair where Paper was made in the memory of our Fathers And it seemeth to me a proper Conjunction that seeing Cambridge yeildeth so many good writers Cambridg-shire should afford Paper unto them Pitty the making thereof is disused considering the vast sums yearly expended in our Land for Paper out of Italy France and Germany which might be lessened were it made in our Nation To such who object that we can never equall the perfection of Venice-paper I return neither can we match the purity of Venice-glasses and yet many green ones are blown in Sussex profitable to the makers and convenient for the users thereof as no doubt such courser home-spun Paper wouldbe found very beneficiall for the Common-wealth Baskets These are made of the Osiers plentifully growing in the moist parts of this County an acre whereof turns to more profit then one of wheat A necessary utensill in an house whereby many things are kept which otherwise would be lost Yea in some sort it saved the life of St. Paul when let down by the wall of Damascus in a basket Whence some not improbably conjecture him hominem tricubitalem a man of low stature Martial confesseth Baskets to have been a Brittish invention though Rome afterwards laid claime thereunto Barbara de pictis veni Baseauda Britannis Sed me jam mavult dicere Roma suam 1 foreign Basket first in Brittain known Am now by Rome accounted for her own Their making is daily improved with much descant of art splitting their wickers as small as threads and dying them into several colours which daily grow a greater commodity The Buildings Cambridge is the chief credit of this County as the University is of Cambridge It is confess'd that Oxford far exceeds it forsweetness of situation and yet it may be maintained that though there be better aire in Oxford yet there is more in the Colledges of Cambridge For Oxford is an University in a Town Cambridge a Town in an University where the Colledges are not surrounded with the offensive embraces of Streets but generally situated on the out-side affording the better conveniency of private Walks and Gardens about them But having formerly written of the fabricks of Cambridge I forbear any further inlargement Eely Minster This presenteth it self afar off to the eye of the traveller and on all sides at great distance not onely maketh a promise but giveth earnest of the beauty thereof The Lanthorn therein built by Bishop Hotham wherein the labour of twenty years and five thousand ninety four pounds eighteen shillings ten pence half penny farthing was expended is a Master-piece of Architecture When the bells ring the wood-work thereof shaketh and gapeth no defect but perfection of structure and exactly chocketh into the joynts again so that it may pass for the lively embleme of the sincere Christian who though he hath motum trepidationis of fear and trembling stands firmly fixt on the basis of a true faith Rare also is the art in the Chappel of Saint Maries the patern or parent of that in Kings-colledge in Cambridge though here as often elsewhere it hath happened the child hath out-grown the father Nor must the Chappel of Bishop West be forgotten seeing the Master-masons of King James on serious inspection found finer stone-work herein then in King Henry the seventh his Chappel at Westminster It grieved me lately to see so many new ligh's in this Church supernumerary windows more then â—…re in the first fabrick and the whole structure in a falling condition except some good mens chaâ—…y seasonably support it Yet was I glad to hear a great Antiquary employed to transcribe and preserve the monuments in that Church as all others in the late-drowned-land And it is hard to say which was the better office whether of those who newly have dried them from the inundation of water or of those who shall drain them from the deluge of oblivion by perpetuating their antiquities to posterity Wonders Let me here insert an artificial wonder of what is commonly called Devils-ditch Country-folk conceiting that it was made by the Devil when the Devil he made it being the work of some King or Kings of the East Angles See the laziness of posterity so far from imitating the industry of their ancestors that they belibell the pure effects of their pains as hellish atchivements But if the aforesaid Kings meerly made this ditch to get themselves a name Divine Justice hath met with them their names being quite forgotten More probably it was made to divide and defend their Dominions from the Kingdome of Mercia or possibly to keep the people in employment for diversion of mutinous thoughts laziness being the mother of disloyalty industry of obedience Proverbs Cantabrigia petit Aequales
was whispered at Rome And numerous the spies and eyes of this Argus dispersed in all places The Jesuites being out-shot in their own Bow complain'd that he out-equivocated their equivocation having a mental reservation deeper and farther than theirs They tax him for making Heavenâ—…ow â—…ow too much to Earth oft-times borrowing a point of conscience with full intent never to pay it again whom others excused by Reasons of State and dangers of the times Indeed his Simulation which all allow lawful was as like to Dissimulation condemned by all good men as two things could be which were not the same He thought that Gold might but Intelligence could not be bought too dear The cause that so great a States man left so small an estate and so publick a person was so privately buried in Saint Pauls Anno Dom. 1590. His only Daughter Frances was successively matched to three matchlesse men Sir Phili Sidney Robert Earl of Essex and Richard Earl of Clanricard Capital Judges and Writers on the Law Sir JOHN FINEUX was by all probability born at Swinkfield in this County as I am informed from my good friend Mr. Thomas Fineux a descendant from him a place saith Mr. Cambden bestowed on his Ancestor by T. Criol a great Lord in Kent about the raign of King Edward the second I learned from the same Gentleman that he was eight and twenty years of age before he betook him to the study of the Law that he followed that profession twenty eight years before he was made a Judg and that he continued a Judge for twenty eight years whereby it appears that he lived fourscore and four years This last exactly agrees with Sir Henry Spelman making him continue Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench from the eleventh of King Henry the seventh until the seventeenth of King Henry the eight He was a great Benefactor unto Saint Augustines in Canterbury whose Prior William Mallaham thus highly commendeth him in a Manuscript Instrument Vir prudentissimus genere insignis Justitia praeclarus pietate refertus Humanitate splendidus charitate foecundus c. Now though some will say his Convent may well afford him good words who gave them good deeds yet I believe this Character of him can in no part be disproved He died about the year 1526. and lies buried in Christ Church in Canterbury who had a fair habitation in this City and another in Herne in this County where his Motto still remains in each window Misericordias Domini cantabo in Aeternum Sir ROGER MANWOOD born at Sandwich in this County applyed himselfe from his youth to the study of the Common Law wherein he attained to such eminency that by Queen Elizabeth he was preferred second Justice of the Common Pleas in which place he gave such proof of his ability and integrity that not long after in Hillary Term in the 21. of Queen Elizabeth he was made chief Baron of the Exchequer discharging that office to his 〈◊〉 Commendation full fourteen years till the day of his death He was much employed in matters of State and was one of the Commissioners who sate on the Trial of the Queen of Scots His Book on the Forest Laws is a piece highly prized by men of his Profession In Vacation time his most constant habitation was at Saint Stephens in Canterbury where saith my Author the poor inhabitants were much beholding to his bounteous liberality He erected and endowed a fair Free Schoole at Sandwich the place of his Nativity and died in the 35. of Queen Elizabeth Anno Dom. 1593. Sir HENRY FINCH Knight was born in this County of Right Worshipful Extraction their ancient sirname being Herbert a Family which had and hath an hereditary happinesse of Eminency in the study of the Laws He was Sergeant at Law to King James and wrote a Book of the Law in great esteem with men of his own profession yet were not his studies confined thereunto witnesse his Book of The calling of the Jews and all ingenious persons which dissent from his judgement will allow him learnedly to have maintained an error though he was brought into some trouble by King James conceiving that on his principles he advanced and extended the Jewish Commonwealth to the depressing and contracting of Christian Princes free Monarchies He was father unto Sir John Finch Lord Chief Justice and for a time Lord Keeper and Baron of Foreditch who is still alive Souldiers Kent hath so carried away the credit in all ages for Man-hood that the leading of the Front or Van-guard so called from Avant-guard or Goe on guard because first in marching in former times hath simply and absolutely belonged unto them I say absolutely for I find two other Shires contending for that place The best is it is but a Book-Combate betwixt learned Writers otherwise if real such a division were enough to rout an Army without other Enemy But let us see how all may be peaceably composed It is probable that the Cornish-men led the Van in the days of King Arthur who being a Native of Cornwall had most cause to trust his own Country-men But I behold this as a temporary honour which outlasted not his life who bestowed it The men of Archenfeld in Hereford-shire claimed by custom to lead the Van-guard but surely this priviledge was Topical and confined to the Welsh Wars with which the aforesaid men as Borderers were best acquainted As for Kent Cantia nostra primae cohortis honorem primos congressus hostium usque in Hodiernum diem in omnibus praeliis obtinet saith my Author Reader It may rationally be concluded that the ensuing Topick had been as large in this as in any County in England seeing it is bounded by the Sea on the East and South sides thereof had not the Author departed this life before the finishing of the same Seamen WILLIAM ADAMS was as his own Pen reporteth born at Gillingham in this County and take the brief account of his Life being the first Englishman who effectully discovered Japan Twelve years he lived at home with his Parents Twelve years he was Apprentice and Servant to Nich. Diggins a brave Seaman for some time he was Master of one of the Queens Ships Ten years he served the English Company of Barbary Merchants Fourteen years as I collect it he was employed by the Dutch in India For he began his Voyage 1598. Pilot to their Fleet of five Sail to conduct them to Japan and in order to the settlement of Trade endured many miseries He who reads them will concur with Cato and repent that ever he went thither by Sea whither one might go by Land But Japan being an Island and unaccessible save by Sea our Adams his discretion was not to be blamed but industry to be commended in his adventures He died at Firando in Japan about 1612. Civilians NICHOLAS WOTTON Son to Sir Robert was born at Bockton-Malherb in this
late Lord Chamberlain unto King John and Lord Chiefe Justice of England In this year of his 〈◊〉 he not only valiantly defended the Castle of Dover against Lewis the French Kings Son but also in a naval conflâ—…ct overthrew a new supply of Souldiers sent to him for his assistance I behold this Hugo joyned with him as the shadow to the substance as his Under-Sheriff acting the affairs of the County in his absence II HUBERT de BUROZO WILL. de BRITO This year Anno 1227. Hugo de Burgo of whom immediately before was in the month of Februaâ—…y by the King made Earle of Kent and for a farther reward had granted unto him the third penny of all the Kings profits arising in the said County and Hubert de Burozo succeeded him in his Office But I humbly conceive him the same person who was both Comes and Vice-Comes of Kent at the same time a conjuction often precedented in other Counties The rather because this Hubert lived many years after till at last he got the Kings ill will for doing him so many good Offices not dying till the twenty seventh year of his Raign Anno 1243. Edw. I. 20 JOHAN de NORTHWOD This was a right Ancient Family in this County for I find in the Church of Minster in Shepy this Inscription Hic jacent Rogerus Norwod Boan uxor ejus sepulti ante Conquestum Possibly they might be buried here before the Conquest but the late Character of the Letter doth prove it a more modern Inscription The chief Râ—…sidence of the Norwods was a house of their own name in the Parish of Milton-Chuâ—…ch where they have many fair Monuments but with defaced Epitaphs One of their Heirs was married into the Family of the Nortons of whom hereafter Sheriffs Name Place Armes RICH. II.   Anno   1 Tho. de Cobham Roundall G. on a Chev. Or 3 Cress. Sa. 2 Jo. de Fremingham Freming  3 〈◊〉 c de Peckham Yâ—…ldham Sab. a chev Or between 3. cross Croslets Fitchee Arg. 4 Will. Septuans Milton  5 Arnald Sâ—…vage Bobbing Arg. 6. Lioncâ—…ls 3 2 1. Sab. 6 Tho. Brockhul Cale-Hill Gul. a Cross ingraild between 12. cross-croslets Fitche Ar 7   8 Rob. Corby Boughton  9 Arnold Savage ut prius  11 Radus Seintleger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fretee Arg. a Chief Gul. 11 〈◊〉 de Guldeâ—…ord Hempsted Oâ—… a Saltyr betwixt 4 Martlets Sable 12 Jacobus Peckham ut prius  13 Will. Burcestre â—…antshire  14 Rich. de Berham Berham Arg. 3. Bâ—…ars Sable 2. 1. 〈◊〉 Or. 15 â—…ho Chich †Dungeon  16 Wilâ—… Barry Sevâ—…ngton †Az. 3 Lions rampant within a border Arg. 17 Joh. Fremingham   18 Tho. Colepeper Pepenbnry Arg. a Bend engrailed Gules â—…9 Will. Haut Waddenhal Or a Cross engrailed Gules 20 Tho. Seintleger ut prius  21 Nich. Potyne Queen-Co  12 Joh Botiller Gravency Aâ—…g on a Chief Sab. 3. Cups covered Or. HEN. IV.   Anno   1 R b Câ—…ifford Bobbing Checkee Or and Azure a Fess within a border Gul. 2 Tho. Lodelow Joh Diggs 〈◊〉 Digs Cou. 〈◊〉 on a Cross Arg. 5. Eaglets displayed Sable 3 Tho. Hyach   4 Rich Cliderow G ldstanton Arg. on a Cheveron Gules bâ—…twixt 〈◊〉 Spread-Eagles Sable 5 Annulets Or. 5   6 Valent Baret Lenham  7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉   8 Edw. Haut ut prius  9 Will. Snayth  †Ar. 4. 〈◊〉 G. on a chief S. a bar 〈◊〉 of the first 10 Reginald Pimpe †Pimps Co.  11 Joh Darel Cale-Hil Az. a Lion rampant Or crowned Argent 12 Will. Notebeame   HEN. V.   Anno   1 Will. Clifford ut prius  2 Rob. Clifford ut prius  3 Will. Langley   4 Will Darel â—…t prius  5 Joh Darel ut prius  6 Rich. Cliderow ut prius  7 Joh Burgh   8 Will. Haut Hautsburn ut 〈◊〉 9   10 Joh. Darel ut prius  HEN. VI.   Anno   1 〈◊〉 Darel ut prius  2 Wilâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Azure 6. Lions rampant Argent a Canton Erm. 3 Joh Rykeld EastlinghaÌ„  4 Will. Clifford ut pâ—…ius  5 Will. Culpeper Preston ut prius 6 Tho. Ellis Burton 〈◊〉 on a Cross S. 5. Cressants A. 7 Will. Scot Braborne AMP. 8 Joh. Peach Lullingston  9 Joh. Seintleger ut prius  10 Edward Gulfort Haâ—…den ut prius 11 Will. Burys Bâ—…omeley  12 Rich Woâ—…veile NorthaÌ„p Arg. a Fess and Canton Gul. 13 Will. Clifford ut prius  14 Will. Manston Manston  15 Jacobus Fienis Kâ—…msing Az 3. Lions rampant Or. 16 Rich Wâ—…ller Grome-Br Sab. 3. V Vallnut-leaves Or between 2. Benlets Argent 17 Edw Gulâ—…eford ut prius  18 Gervasius Clifton Brabourn Sable Semi de cinque Foyles a Lion rampant Argent 19 Joh. Yeard Denton  20 Joh Waâ—…ner Voteâ—…crey  21 Will. Mareys 〈◊〉 †Sable 3 Lions pass in Bend double cotised Argent 22 Tho. Brown †Surrey  23 Will. Crowmer Tunstal Arg. a Cheveron 〈◊〉 three Ravens Sable 24 Joh. 〈◊〉 Feversham  25 Will. 〈◊〉 Sundridge Eâ—…min a Fesse Gules 26 Will. Kene Well Hal  27 Steph. 〈◊〉 ut prius  28 Hen. Crowmer ut prius  29 Garvasius Clifton ut prius  30 Rob. Horn Horns place  31 Tho Ballard Hoâ—…ton  32 Joh 〈◊〉 Repton  33 Joh 〈◊〉 mil. ut prius  34 〈◊〉 Belknâ—…p arm The Moat  35 Alex Eden arm Westwell  36 Joh Gâ—…ldeford ar ut prius  37 〈◊〉 Clifton mil. ut prius  38 Tâ—…o Brown mil ut prius  Joh. Scot ar Vicis vic Scots-Hal ut prius EDW. IV.   Anno   1 Joh. Isaac ar Howlets  2 Will. Peach mil.   3 Idem   4 Joh. Diggs ar ut prius  5 Alex. Clifford ar ut prius  6 VVill. Haut mil. ut prius  7 â—…oh Colepeper mil. ut prius  8 〈◊〉 Seâ—…ntleger ar ut prius  9 Hen. Fâ—…rrers ar Warw shire  10 Joh. Bromston ar Preston  11 Rich Colepeper ar Oxenhoath ut prius 12 Ja Peckham ar ut prius  13 Joh. Fogge mil.   14 Joh. Isley ar ut prius  15 Will Haut mil. ut prius  16 〈◊〉 Green ar Scadbury Gules across 〈◊〉 Ermin within a border Gobony Arg. and Sable 17 Will. Cheyney ar ut prius  18 Rich. Haut ar ut prius  19 Rich. Lee ar Delce  20 Ioh. Fogge mil.   21 Geo. Brown mil. ut prius  22 Rich. Haut ar ut prius  RICH. III.   Anno   1 Will. Haut mil. ut prius  2 Ioh. Banne Grench  3 Rich Brakenbury mil The Moat  Will Cheyney ut prius  HEN. VII   Anno   1 Will. Cheyney ut prius Â
no wonder if the streams issuing thence were shallow when the fountain to feed them was so low the revenues of the Crown being much abated There is no redemption from Hell There is a place partly under partly by the Exchequer Court commonly called Hell I could wish it had another name seeing it is ill jesting with edge tools especially with such as are sharpened by Scripture I am informed that formerly this place was appointed a prison for the Kings debtors who never were freed thence untill they had paid their uttermost due demanded of them If so it was no Hell but might be termed Purgatory according to the Popish erronious perswasion But since this Proverb is applyed to moneys paid into the Exchequer which thence are irrecoverable upon what plea or pretence whatsoever As long as Megg of Westminster This is applyed to persons very tall especially if they have Hop-pole-heighth wanting breadth proportionable thereunto That such a gyant woman ever was in Westminster cannot be proved by any good witness I pass not for a late lying Pamphlet though some in proof thereof produce her Grave-stone on the South-side of the Cloistures which I confess is as long an large and entire Marble as ever I beheld But be it known that no woman in that age was interred in the Cloistures appropriated to the Sepultures of the Abbot and his Monkes Besides I have read in the Records of that Abby of an infectious year wherein many Monkes dyed of the Plague and were all buried in one Grave probably in this place under this Marble Monument If there be any truth in the Proverb it rather relateth to a great Gun lying in the Tower commonly call'd long Megg and in troublesome times perchance upon ill May day in the raign of King Henry the eighth brought to Westminster where for a good time it continued But this Nut perchance deâ—…erves not the Cracking Princes EDWARD the first was born in Westminster being a Prince placed by the posture of his nativity betwixt a weak Father and a wilful Son Yet he needed no such advantage for foils to set forth his 〈◊〉 worth He was surnamed Longshanks his step being another mans stride and was very high in stature And though oftimes such who are built four stories high are observed to have little in their cock-loft yet was he a most judicious man in all his undertakings equally wise to plot as valiant to perform and which under Divine Providence was the result of both happy in success at Sea at Land at Home Abroad in VVar in Peace He was so fortunate with his Sword at the beginning of his raign that he awed all his enemies with his Scabbard before the end thereof In a word he was a Prince of so much merit that nothing under a Chronicle can make his compleat Character EDWARD sole â—…on to King Henry the sixth and Margaret his Queen was born at Westminster on the 13 day of Octo. 1453. Now when his Father's party was totally and finally routed in the battail at Teuks-bury this Prince being taken prisoner presented to King Edward the fourth and demanded by him on what design he came over into England returned this answer That he came to recover the Crown which his Ancestos for three desents had no less rightfully then peaceably possessed An answer for the truth befitting the Son of so holy a Father as King Henry the sixth and for the boldness thereof becoming the Son of so haughty a Mother as Queen Margaret But presently King Edward dashed him on the mouth with his 〈◊〉 and his Brother Richard Crook-back stab'd him to the heart with his dagger A barbarous murder without countenance of justice in a legal or valour in a military way And his blood then shed was punished not long after Here I am not ashamed to make this observation That England had successively three Edwards all Princes of Wales sole or eldest sons to actual Kings Two dying violent all untimely deaths in their minority before they were possessed of the Crown viz. 1 Edward Son to Henry 6. stab'd In the Seventeenth years of his age 2 Edward Edward 4. stifled Tenth 3 Edward Richard 3. pined away Eleventh The murder of the second may justly be conceived the punishment of the murder of the first and the untimely death of the last of whom more in Yorkshire a judgement for the murder of the two former EDWARD eldest son of Edward the fourth and Elizabeth his Queen was born in the Sanctuary of Westminster November 4. 1471. His tender years are too soft for a solid character to be fixed on him No hurt we find done by him but too much on him being murthered in the Tower by the procurement of his Unckle Protector Thus was he born in a spiritual and kill'd in a temporal Prison He is commonly called King Edward the fifth though his head was ask'd but never married to the English Crown and therefore in all the Pictures made of him a distance interposed forbiddeth the banes betwixt them ELIZABETH eldest daughter of King Edward the fourth and Elizabeth his Queen was born in Westminster on the eleventh of February 1466. She was afterwards married to King Henry the seventh and so the two Houses of York and Lancaster united first hopefully in their Bed and aâ—…terwards more happily in their Issue Bâ—…sides her dutifulness to her husband and fruitfulness in her children little can be extracted of her personal character She dyed though not in Child bearing in Child-bed being safely delivered on Candlemas day Anno 1503 of the Lady Katharine and afterwards falling sick languished until the eleventh of February and then died in the thirty seventh year of her age on the day of her nativity She lieth buried with her husband in the Chappel of his erection and hath an equal share with him in the use and honour of that his most magnificent monument CECILY second daughter to King Edward the fourth by Elizabeth his Queen bearing the name of Cecily Dutchess of York her grand mother and god mother was born at Westminster In her Child-hood mention was made of a marriage betwixt her and James son to James the third Prince of Scotland But that Motion died with her father Heaven wherein marriages are made reserving that place for Margaret her eldest sisters eldest daughter She long led a single life but little respected of King Henry the seventh her brother in law That politick King knowing that if he had none or no surviving Issue by his Queen then the right of the Crown rested in this Cecily sought to suppress her from popularity or any publick appearance He neither preferred her to any 〈◊〉 Prince nor disposed of her to any prime Peer of England till at last this Lady wedded her self to a Linconshire Lord John Baron Wells whom King Henry advanced Viscount and no higher After his death my Author saith she was re-married not mentioning her husbands name
five parts which were used in Cathedrals many years after his death the certain date whereof I cannot attain JOHN DOULAND was as I have most cause to believe born in this City sure I am he had his longest life and best livelyhood therein being Servant in the Chappel to Queen Elizabeth and King James He was the rarest Musician that his Age did behold Having travailed beyond the Seas and compounded English with Forreign Skill in that faculty it is questionable whether he excell'd in Vocal or Instrumental Musick A chearful Person he was passing his days in lawful meriment truly answering the Anagram made of him JOHANNES DOULANDUS ANNOS LUDENDO HAUSI Christian the fourth K. of Denmark coming over into England requested him of K. James who unwillingly willing parted with him Many years he lived as I am credibly informed in the Danish Court in great favour and plenty generally imployed to entertain such English Persons of quality as came thither I cannot confidently avouch his death at Denmark but believe it more probably then their assertion who report him returned and dying in England about the year 1615. Benefactors to the Publique JAMES PALMER B. D. was born in this City and bred in Magdalen-colledge in Cambridge The Company of Carpenters in London gave him an exhibition towards his maintenance there or lent it him rather For since his bounty hath repaid them the Principle with plentiful consideration He was afterwards for many years the constant Preacher of Saint Bridgets in Fleetstreet the onely Church preferment he enjoyed I perceive thus craft and cruelty may raise a quick and great but plain frugallity especially if vivacious will advance a better and surer estate Though sequestred in these times what he had formerly gained in his place he hath since bestowed in building and endowing over against the New Chappel in Westminster a fair Almes-house for twelve poor people besides this many and great have his gifts been to Ministers poor widdows and wonder not Reader if they be unknown to me which were unknown to his own left-hand all this he did in his life time O it giveth the best light when one carrieth his Lant-horn before him The surest way that ones Will shall be performed is to see it performed Yea I may say that his poor people in his Almes-house are in some sort provided for not onely from head to foot but also from body to soul he constantly preaching to them twice a week He dyed Anno 1659. Memorable Persons EDMOND DOUBLEDAY Esquire was of a tall and proper person and lived in this City Nor had this large case a little jewell this long body a lazy soul whose activity and valour was adequate to his strength and greatness whereof he gave this eminent testimony When Sir Thomas Knevet was sent November 4. 1605. by King James to search the Cellar beneath the Parliament-house with very few for the more privacy to attend him he took Master Doubleday with him Here they found Gui Faux with his dark-lant-horn in the dead of the night providing for the death of many the next morning He was newly come out of the Divels Closset so I may fitly term the inward room where the powder lay and the train was to be laid into the outward part of the Cellar Faux beginning to bussel Master Doubleday instantly ordered him at his pleasure up with his heels and there with the Traytor lay the Treason flat along the floor by Gods goodness detected defeated Faux vowed and though he was a false Traitor herein I do believe him that had he been in the inner room he would have blown up himself and all the company therein Thus it is pleasant musick to hear disarmed malice threaten when it cannot strike Master Doubleday lived many years after deservedly loved and respected and died about the year of our Lord 1618. The Farewell Seeing the well-being yea being of this City consisteth in the Kings Court and in the Courts of Justice I congratulate the happy return of the one praying for the long continuance of the other yea may the Lawyers in Westminster-hall never again plead in their Armour as they did in the time of Wyats rebellion but in their peaceable Gowns and Legal Formalities Nor doth this Wish onely extend to the Weal of Westminster but all England For no such dearth in a Land as what is caused from a drought of Justice therein For if judgement do not run down as Waters and righteousness as a mighty Stream Injustice like an Ocean will drown all with its inundation NOR FOLK hath the German Ocean on the North and East thereof Suffolk severed by the river Waveny on the South-side Cambridge-shire parted by the river Ouse and a small part of Lincoln shire on the West it extendeth full 50. miles from East to West but from North to South stretcheth not above thirty miles All England may be carved out of Norfolk represented therein not onely to the kind but degree thereof Here are Fens and Heaths and Light and Deep and Sand and Clay-ground and Meddows and Pasture and Arable and Woody and generally woodless land so gratefull is this Shire with the variety thereof Thus as in many men though perchance this or that part may justly be cavelled at yet all put together complete a proper person so Norfolk collectively taken hath a sufficient result of pleasure and profit that being supplied in one part which is defective in another This County hath the most Churches of any in England six hundred and sixty and though the poorest Livings yet by some occult quallity of their good husbandry and Gods blessing thereon the richest Clergy-men Nor can there be given a greater demonstration of the wealth and populousness of this County than that in the late Act for an Assessment upon England at the rate of sixty thousand pounds by the Month for three Months Norfolk with the City of Norwich is rated at three thousand two hundred sixty six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence the highest proportion of any Shire in England And though Norfolk hath little cause to please and less to pride it self in so dear purchased pre-eminence yet it cannot but account it a credit to see it self not undervalued Natural Commodities It shareth plentifully in all English Commodities and aboundeth with the best and most Rabbits These are an Army of natural Pioners whence men have learned cuniculos agere the Art of undermining They thrive best on barren ground and grow fattest in the hardest frosts Their flesh is fine and wholesome If Scotish-men tax our language as improper and smile at our wing of a Rabbit let us laugh at their shoulder of a Capon Their skins were formerly much used when furs were in fashion till of late our Citizens of Romans are turned Grecians have laid down their grave gowns and took up their light cloaks men generally disliking all habits though emblemes of honour if also badges of age Their rich
from VVolstan de Paston who three years after the Conquest came into England to VVilliam Earl of Glandwill were all interred at Paston He lest rich revenues to John Paston Esquire his eldest son who married Margaret daughter and heir of John Mautby and no mean Estate to VVilliam his second surviving son who married Anne daughter to Edmond Duke of Somerset Sir EDWARD COKE Knight son of Robert Coke Esquire and of VVinefred Knightly his wife was born at Mileham in this County bred when ten years of age at Norwich-school and thence removed to Trinity-colledge in Cambridge After four years continuance there he was admitted into Cliffords-Inn-London and the year following entered a Studient of the Municipal-law in the Inner-Temple Such his proficiency therein that at the end of six years exceeding early in that strict age he was callâ—…d to the Bar and soon after for three years chosen Reader in Lyons-Inn Here his learned Lectures so spred forth his fame that crouds of Clients sued to him for his counsel and his own suit was the sooner granted when tendering his affections in order to marriage unto Briget daughter and Co-heir of John Paston Esquire She was afterwards his incomparable wife whose Portion moderately estimated Viis modis amounted unto thirty thousand pounds her vertues not falling under valuation and she enriched her husband with ten children Then began preferment to press upon him the City of Norwich chusing him Recorder the County of Norfolk their Knight to Parliament the Queen her Speaker therein as also successively her Solicitor and Attorney King James honoured him with Knighthood and made him Chief Justice first of the Common-Pleas then of the Kings-Bench Thus beginning on a good bottome left him by his father marrying a wife of extraordinary wealth having at the first great and gainful practice afterwards many and profitable Offices being provident to chuse good penny-worths in purchases leading a thrifty life living to a great age during flourishing and peaceable times born as much after the Persecution under Queen Mary as dying before our Civil Wars no wonder if he advanced a fair estate so that all his sons might seem elder brethren by the large possessions left unto them Some falsly character him a back-friend to the Church and Clergy being a grand benefactour to the Church of Norwich who gratefully under their publique seal honoured him with the ensuing testimony Edwardus Coke Armiger saepius in multis difficillimis negotiis Ecclesiae nostrae auxiliatus est nuper eandem contra Templorum Helluones qui dominia maneria haereditamenta nostra devorare sub titulo obscuro Concelatum dicunt sponte suâ nobis insciis sine mercede ullâ legittimè tutatus est atque eandem suam nostri defensionem in perpetuam tantaerei memoriam quam posterorum si opus fuerit magna cum industria scriptis redegit nostrae Ecclesiae donavit As for the many Benefices in his own Patronage he freely gave them to worthy men being wont to say in his Law-language that he would have Church-livings pass by Livery and Seisin not Bargain and Sale Five sorts of people he used to fore-design to misery and poverty Chemists Monopolizers Concelers Promoters and Rythming Poets For three things he would give God solemn thanks that he never gave his body to physick nor his heart to cruelty nor his hand to corruption In three things he did much applaud his own success in his fair fortune with his wife in his happy study of the laws and in his free coming by all his Offices nec prece nec pretio neither begging nor bribing for preferment His parts were admirable he had a deep judgment faithful memory active fancy and the jewel of his mind was put into a fair case a beautiful body with a comely countenance a case which he did wipe and keep clean delighting in good cloaths well worne and being wont to say that the outward neatness of our bodies might be a Monitor of purity to our souls In his pleadings discourse and judgements he declined all Circumlocutions usually saying The matter lies in a little room In all places callings and jurisdictions he commended modesty and sobriety within their boundaries saying If a River swells beyond its Banks it loseth its own Channel If any adverse party crossed him he would patiently reply If another punisheth me I will not punish my self In the highest Term of business he made Vacation to himself at his Table and would never be perswaded privately to retract what he had publikely adjudged professing he was a Judge in a Court and not in a Chamber He was wont to say No wise man would do that in prosperity whereof he should repent in adversity He gave for his Motto Prudens qui Patiens and his practise was accordingly especially after he fell into the disfavor of King James The cause hereof the Reader may find in our English Chronicles whilst we behold how he employed himself when retired to a private life when he did frui suo infortunio and improv'd his loss to his advantage He triumphed in his own innocency that he had done nothing illegally calling to mind the Motto which he gave in his rings when made Serjeant Lex est tutissima Cassis The Law is the safest Helmet And now he had leisure to peruse what formerly he had written even thirty books with his own hand most pleasing himself with a Manual which he called his Vade mecum from whence at one view he took a prospect of his life pass'd having noted therein most remarkables His most learned and laborious works on the Laws will last to be admired by the judicious posterity whilst â—…ame hath a trumpet left her and any breath to blow therein His judgement lately passed for an Oracle in Law and if since the credit thereof hath causelesly been questioned the wonder is not great If the Prophet himself living in an incredulous age found â—…ause to complain Who hath believed our Report it need not seem strange that our licentious times have afforded some to shake the authenticalness of the Reports of any earthly Judge He constantly had prayers said in his own house and charitably relieved the poor with his constant almes The foundation of Suttous-hospital when indeed but a foundation had been ruined before it was raised and crush'd by some Courtiers in the hatching thereof had not his great care preserved the same The Free-school at Thetford was supported in its being by his assistance and he founded a School on his own cost at Godwick in this County It must not be forgotten that Doctor Whitgift afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury was his Tutor who sent unto his Puple when the Queens Atturney a fair New Testament with this message He had now studied Common-law enough let him hereafter study the Law of God Let me adde to this that when he was under a cloud at Court and outed of his Judges place
commanded the Taylor to cut his gown as full of holes as his Sheers could make which purged J. Drakes of his proud humour that he would never be of the Gentlemans fashion again HENRY the Eight 29 EDMUND WINDHAM He was a Gentleman of a fair Estate in this County great Birth and Aliance whose Grand mother was daughter to John Howard Duke of Northfolk but it seems somewhat given to his Passion This caused him in the 33. of this Kings reign to strike Master Clere a Gentleman of his own County in the Kings Tennis Court For this he was araigned in the great Hall at Greenwich before Master Gage Comptroler of the Kings Houshold and other Justices and one Quest of Gentlemen another of Yeomen passed upon him to enquire of the same stripe by whom he was found guilty and had Judgement to lose his right-hand Then was he brought in to solemn execution by Sir Willian Pickering Knight Martial and confessing his fault desired that the King of mercy would be pleased to take his left-hand and spare his right for therewith said he I may hereafter be able to do his Grace service The King informed hereof by his Justices granted his full Pardon neither to lose Hand Land nor Goods but restored him to his liberty See more of him in the third of King Edward the sixth EDWARD the Sixth 3 EDMUND WINDHAM Mil. Of him before in the twenty ninth of King Henry the eight he now made good his former promise to the Son which he made to his Father of using his right-hand in the service of his Sovereign For in this year Kets Rebellion began in this Couuty which this Sheriff endeavoured withal his power and policy to suppress till at last it proved a task beyond his strength to perform Queen MARY 1 THOMAS WOODHOUSE Mil. Though he be the first of his Surname whom we meet in our Catalogue I find many of his family anciently employed in State-affairs In a Manuscript-collection extant in the Library of Sir Thomas Cotton of persons summoned to Parliament by King Edward the third I read 1. Rex dilecto Clerico suo Roberto de Woodhouse Archidiacono de Richmund Thesaurario salutem Negotia nos statum regni contingentia c. vobis mandamus firmiter injungentes quod omnibus aliis praetermissis c. 2. John Woodhouse Esq was servant and one of the Executors to King Henry the fifth 3. Sir VVilliam VVoodhouse neer related to our Sheriff was Vice-Admiral of our English fleet at Musoleburrough-field 4. Philip VVoodhouse Esq was very active at the taking of Cadiz and Knighted there for his good service by the Earl of Essex And ever since there hath been a Military inclination in this family which hath manifested it self on several occasions Sheriffs of Norfolk alone Name Place Armes ELIZ. REG.   Anno   17 Tho. Townsend ar Rainham Az. a Cheveron Ermine betwixt 3 Escallops Arg. 18 Drugo Drury ar  Arg. on a Chief Vert the letter Tau betwixt 2 Mullets pierced Or. 19 Hen. Weston mil.   20 Basing Gaudy ar  Vert a Tortois passant Argent 21 Tho. Knivett mi.  Arg. a Bend within a border engrailed Sab. 22 Edw. Clere mil.  Argent on a Fefs Azu 3 Eaglets Or. 23 Arth. Heven nghaÌ„  Quarterly Or G. a Border Sab. charged with Escallop-shels Arg. 24 Will. Paston mil.  Arg. 6 Flower de luces Az. a Chief indented Or. 25 Will. Heydon m.  Quarterly Ar. G. a Cross ingrailed counterchanged 26 Hen. Woodhouse Kimberly Sab. a Cheveron ' 〈◊〉 3 Cinqueâ—…oils Ermin 27 Tho. Hogan ar Hen. Hogan ar ut prius Arg. a Cheveron ingrailed vary Or Gul. ' 〈◊〉 3 Hurts each charged with 3 Lions legs erased Argent 28 Nath. Bacon ar SUFFOL Gul. on a Chief Arg. 3 Mullets Sable 29 Clem. Paston ar ut prius  30 â—…oh Peiton mil.  Sable a Cross ingrailed Or. 31 Rob. Southwell   32 Hen. Dolney ar   33 Milo Corbett ar 〈◊〉 Or a Raven Proper 34 Hen. Gaudy ar ut pri s  35 Bâ—…sing Gaudy m. ut prius  36 Phil. Woodhouse ut prius  37 Tho. Clere ar ut prius  38 Hum. Guibon ar  Or a Lion rampant Sab. debrused with a Bend Gul. charged with 3 Escallops Arg. 39 Nich. Bacon mil. ut prius  40 Clem. Spelman m.  Sab. Platee proper 2 Flaunches Argent 41 Nath. Bacon ar ut prius  42 Ric. Jenkinson ar  Or 2 Bars Gemells Gul. ' 〈◊〉 3 Boars-heads and Necks Erased S. 43 Basen Gaudy m. ut prius  44 Arâ—…h Hemingham ut prius  45 Edm. Doyley 1. Jac.  Gul. 3 Bucks-heads cabosed Arg. JAC. REG.   Anno   1 Edm. Doyley ar ut prius  2 Hen. Spelman m. ut prius  3 Rad. Hare mil.  Gul. 2 Bars and a Chief indented Or. 4 Le'Stran Mordant  Arg. a Cheveron betwixt 3 Estoils Sable 5 Hen. Gawdy mil. ut prius  6 Hamo Le Strange HunstantoÌ„ Gul. 2 Lions Passant Argent 7 Tho. Barney mil. Parkhal R. Per Pale Gul. and Ermin a Cross engrailed Ermin 8 Chri. Gawdy mil. ut prius  9 Tho. Corbet ar ut prius  10 Tho. Lewer mil.   11 Jac. Calthrope m.  Checkee Or and Azu a Fess Erm. 12 Joh. Heveningham ut prius  13 Ric. Jenkinson ar ut prius  14 Aug. Palgrave m.  Azu a Lion Passant Argent 15 Anth. Drury mil. ut prius  16 Tho. Holland m.  Az. semy of Flower de luce a lion ramp Guardant Arg. 17 Hen. Beddingfeld  Ermin an Eagle desplayed Gul. 18 Tho. Heirne mil.   19 Will. YelvertoÌ„ ba.  Arg. 3 Lion cells rampant Gul. a Chief of the second 20 Rich. Berney bar ut prius  21 Le'Stran Mordant ut prius  22. Tho. Woodhouse ut prius  CAR. REG.   Anno   1 Tho. Holle arm  Or on a Cheveron S. 3 Unicorns-heads Erased Argent 2 Car. LeGroose m.  Quarterly Arg. and Azu on a Bend S 3 〈◊〉 Or. 3 Fran. Gawdy ar ut prius  4 Rob. Gawdy mil. ut prius  5 Rog. Townsend b. ut prius  6 Fran. Mapes ar   7 Tho. Pettus ar Recheath Gul. a fess Arg. ' 〈◊〉 3 〈◊〉 Or. 8 Jo. Hobart m. b. Blickling Sab. an Estoil with 8 points 'twixt 2 Flanches Ermin 9 Will. HeveninghaÌ„ ut prius  10 Joh. Wentworth ut prius  11 Edr. Barkham m.  Arg. 3 Pallets Gul. over all a Cheveron 12 Will. Paston ar ut prius  13 Edr. Asteley ar   14 August Holt 〈◊〉 ut prius  15   16   17 Tho. Guibon m. ut prius  18 Joh. Coke ar  Party per Pale Gul. and Azu 3 Eagles displayed Argent 19   20 Valen. Pell mil.   21  Â
WILLIAM CATESBYE was born in this County where his family long flourished at Asby Saint Leger He was first advanced by VVilliam Lord Hastinges by whose countenance he came to the notice then favour of Richard the third though ill requiting it when betraying him who caused his preferment Take his character transcribing in this kind is safer then inditing from an Author above exception This Catesbye was a man well learned in the Laws of this Land and surely great pity it was that he had not had more truth or less wit If any object that being neither Lord Chief-Justice Chief-Baron nor any VVriter on the Law He falleth not under my Pen by the Charter of Method prefixed to this Catalogue know that though formerly none he was eminently all Officers in every Court of Judicature all the Judges shaking at his displeasure Witness the Libel which Collingborn made and which cost him his life for the same The Rat and the Cat and Lovel the Dog Do govern all England under the Hog The time of his death is uncertain but because we find him not molested in the raign of King Henry the seventh which had he survived surely had happened it is probable he died before his Patron and Preferrer King Richard the third Sir RICHARD EMPSON It is pity to part them seeing Empson may be called the Catesbye to King Henry the seventh as Catesbye the Empson to King Richard the third both Country-men eminent for having odious for abusing their skill in Law active for the Prince injurious to the people This Sir Richard was Chancellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster and from a Sieve-makers son at Towceter in this County where he was born came to sift the estates of the most wealthy men in England For King Henry the seventh vexed that he had refused Columbus his profer whereby the VVest-Indies being found out fortunately fell to Ferdinand King of Spain resolved to discover Indies in England and to this purpose made Empson Promotor General to press the Penal-Statutes all over the land Impowred hereby this prolling Knight did grind the faces of rich and poor bringing the grist thereof to the King and keeping the toll thereof to himself whereby he advanced a vast estate which now with his name is reduced to nothing He united the two houses of York and Lancaster in the Kings Coffers taking no notice of parties or persons for their former good service but making all equally obnoxious to fines and forfeitures But in the beginning of the reign of King Henry the eight he was arraigned condemed and beheaded August the 17. 1510. Say not that Princes if sacrificing their Ministers to popular fury will want persons faithfully to serve them seeing such exemplary justice will rather fright Officers from false disserving them for in fine no real profit can redoun to the Soveraign which resulteth from the ruine of his Subjects I must not forget how there was an old man in VVarwickshire accounted very judicious in Judicial Astrology of whom Sir Richard Empson then in his prime did scoffingly demand VVhen the Sun would Change to whom the old man replyed Even when such a wicked Lawyer as you go to Heaven But we leave him to stand and fall to his own Master and proceed EDWARD MONTAGUE son of Thomas Montague born at Brigstocke in this County was bred in the Inner-Temple in the study of the Laws until his ability and integrity advanced him Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench in the thirtieth of Henry the eight He gave for his Motto Equitas Justiae Norma And although equity seemeth rather to resent of the Chancery then the Kings-Bench yet the best justice will be worm-wood without a mixture thereof In his Times though the golden showers of Abby-lands rained amongst great men it was long before he would open his lap scrupling the acception of such gifts and at last received but little in proportion to others of that age In the thirty seventh of King Henry the eight he was made Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas a descent in honor but ascent in profit it being given to old age rather to be thrifty then ambitious In drawing up the Will of King Edward the sixt and setling the Crown on the Lady Jane for a time he swam against the tide and torrent of Duke Dudley till at last he was carried away with the stream as in our Church History is largely related Outed of his Judges Office in the first of Queen Mary he returned into Northamptonshire and what contentment he could not find in VVestminster-hall his Hospital-hall at Boughton afforded unto him He died Anno 1556. and lieth buried in the Parish-Church of VVeekely Sir AUGUSTIN NICOLLS Son to Thomas Nicolls Serjeant at Law was born at Eckton in this County Now though according to the rigor of our Fundamental Premises he cometh not within our Cognizance under this Title yet his merit will justifie us in presenting his Character He was bred in the study of the Common-law wherein he attained to such knowledge that Queen Elizabeth made him a King James his own Serjeant whence he was freely preferred one of the Judges of the Common-Pleas I say freely King James commonly calling him the Judge that would give no money Not to speak of his moral qualifications and subordinate abilities He was renowned for his special Judiciary Endowments Patience to hear both parties all they could say a happy memory a singular sagacity to search into the material circumstances exemplary integrity even to the rejection of gratuities after judgment given His forbearing to travail on the Lords day wrought a reformation on some of his own Order He loved plain and profitable Preaching being wont to say I know not what you call Puritanical Sermons but they come neerest to my Conscience The speech of Caesar is commonly known Oportet Imperatorem stantem mori which Bishop Jewell altered and applyed to himself Decet Episcopum concionantē mori of this man it may be said Judex mortuus est jura dans dying in his calling as he went the Northern Circuit and hath a fair Monument in Kendall-church in Westmerland Sir ROBERT DALLINGTON Knight was born at Geddington in this County bred a Bible-clerk as I justly collect in Bennet-colledge and after became a School-master in Northfolk Here having gained some money he travailed over all France and Italy being exact in his observations and was after his return Secretary to Francis Earl of Rutland He had an excellent wit and judgement witness his most acurate Aporismes on Tacitus At last he was Knighted and preferred Master of the Charter-house where the School-master at his first entering wellcomed him with a Speech in Latine verse spoken by a School-boy but sure he was more then a Boy who indited it It is hard to say whether Sir Robert was more pleased or displeased with the last Distick therein Partem oneris vestri minimā ne despice curam Nec Pueros
his Paynes and Piety Prelates ROBERT of SHREWSBURY was in the reign of King John but I dare not say by him preferred Bishop of Bangor 1197. Afterwards the King waging war with Leoline Prince of Wales took this Bishop prisoner in his own Cathedral Church and enjoyned him to pay Three hundred Hawkes for his ransome Say not that it was improper that a Man of Peace should be ransomed with Birds of Prey seeing the Bishop had learnt the Rule Redime te captum quam queas minimo Besides 300 Hawkes will not seem so inconsiderable a matter to him that hath read how in the reign of King Charles an English Noble Man taken prisoner at the I le Ree was ransomed for a Brace of Grey-hounds Such who admire where the Bishop on a sudden should furnish himself with a stock of such Fowl will abate of their wonder when they remember that about this time the Men of Norway whence we have the best Hawkes under Magnus their General had possessed themselves of the Neighbouring Iland of Anglesea Besides he might stock himself out of the Aryes of Pembrook-shire where Perigrines did plentifully breed How ever this Bishop appeareth something humerous by one passage in his Will wherein he gave order that his Body should be buried in the middle of the Market place of Shrewsbury Impute it not to his profaness and contempt of Consecrated ground but either to his humility accounting himself unworthy thereof or to his prudential fore-sight that the fury of Souldiers during the intestine War betwixt the English and Welsh would fall fiercest on Churches as the fairest market and men preferring their profit before their Piety would preserve their Market-places though their Churches were destroyed He died Anno 1215. ROBERT BURNEL was son to Robert and brother to Hugh Lord Burnel whose Prime Seat was at Acton-Burnel-Castle in this County He was by King Edwà rd the First preferred Bishop of Bath and VVellâ—…s and first Treasurer then Chancelor of England He was well vers'd in the Welsh affairs and much us'd in managing them and that he might the more effectually attend such employment caused the Court of Chancery to be kept at Bristol He got great Wealth wherewith he enriched his kindred and is supposed to have rebuilt the decayed Castle of Acton-Burnel on his own expence And to decline envy for his secular structures left to his heirs he built for his Successors the beautiful Hall at VVells the biggest room of any Bishops Palace in England pluck'd down by Sir John Gabos afterwards executed for Treason in the reign of King Edward the Sixth English and Welsh affaires being setled to the Kings contentment he employed Bishop Burnel in some businesse about Scotland in the Marches whereof he died Anno Domini 1292. and his body solemnly brought many miles was buried in his own Cathedral WALTER de WENLOCK Abbot of Westminster was no doubt so named from his Nativity in a Market Town in this County I admire much that Matthew of VVestminster writeth him VVilliam de VVenlock and that a Monk of VVestminster should though not miscall mis-name the Abbot thereof He was Treasurer of England to King Edward the First betwixt the twelfth and fourteenth year of his reign and enjoyed his Abbots Office six and twenty years lacking six dayes He died on Christmasse day at his Mannor of Periford in Glocester-shire 1307 and was buried in his Church at VVestminster besides the High-Altar before the Presbutery without the South dore of King Edward's Shrine where Abbas VValterus non fuit Ausâ—…erus is part of his Epitaph RALPH of SHREWSBURY born therein was in the third of King Edward the Third preferred Bishop of Bath VVells Being consecrated without the Popes privity a daring adventure in those dayes he paid a large sum to expiate his presumption therein He was a good Benefactor to his Cathedral and bestowed on them a Chest Port-cullis-like barred with iron able to hold out a siege in the view of such as beheld it But what is of proof against Sacriledge Some Thieves with what Engines unknown in the reign of Queen Elizabeth forced it open But this Bishop is most memorable for erecting and endowing a spacious structure for the Vicars-Choral of his Cathedral to inhabit together which in an old Picture is thus presented The Vicars humble petition on their knees Per vicos positi villae Pater alme rogamus Ut simul uniti te dante domos maneamus To us dispers'd i th' streets good Father give A place where we together all my live The gracious answer of the Bishop sitting Vestra petunt merita quod sint concessa petita Ut maneatis ita loca fecimus haec stabilita Your merits crave that what you crave be yeilded That so you may remain this place we 've builded Having now made such a Palace as I may term it for his Vicars he was in observation of a proportionable distance necessitated in some sort to enlarge the Bishops Seat which he beautified and fortified Castle-wise with great expence He much ingratiated himself with the Country people by disforasting Mendip Beef better pleasing the Husbandmans palate than Venison He sate Bishop thirty four years and dying August 14. 1363. lieth buried in his Cathedral where his Statue is done to the life Vivos viventes vultus vividissimè exprimens saith my Authour ROBERT MASCAL Was bred saith Bale in and born saith Pitz positively at Ludlow in this County where he became a Carmelite Afterwards he studied in Oxford and became so famous for his Learning and Piety that he was made Confessor to Henry the Fourth and Counsellor to Henry the Fifth Promoted by the former Bishop of Hereford He was one of the Three English Prelates which went to and one of the Two which returned alive from the Council of Constance He died 1416 being buried in the Church of White-Friers in London to which he had been an eminent Benefactor RICHARD TALBOTE was born of Honourable Parentage in this County as Brother unto John Talbote the first Earl of Shrewsbury Being bred in Learning he was consecrated Arch-bishop of Dublin in Ireland 1417. He sate two and thirty years in that See being all that time a Privy Counsellor to King Henry the Fifth and Sixth twice Chief Justice and once Chancelor of Ireland He deserved well of his Church founding six petty Canons and as many Choristers therein yea generally of all Ireland writing a Book against James Earl of Ormond wherein he detected his abuses during his Lieutenancy in Ireland He died August the 15. 1449. and lieth buried in Saint Patricks in Dublin under a marble stone whereon an Eâ—…itaph is written not worthy the inserting The said Richard was unanimously chosen Arch-bishop of Armagh a higher place but refused to remove wisely preferring Safety above either Honor or Profit GEORGE DAY was born in this County and successively Scholer Fellow and
and Sollicitor to king Charles From these places he was preferred to be Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas when he was made Privy Counsellor thence advanced to be Lord Keeper and Baron of Mounslow the place of his Nativity He died in Oxford and was buried in Christ Church Anno 1645. Souldiers Sir JOHN TALBOT was born as all concurring indications do avouch at Black-Mere in this County the then flourishing now ruined House devolved to his Family by marying the Heir of the Lord Strange of Black-Mere Many Honourable Titles deservedly met in him who was 1 Lord Talbot and Strange by his Paternal extraction 2 Lord Furnival and Verdon by maryage with Joan the daughter of Thomas de Nevil 3 Earl of Shrewsbury in England and Weisford in Ireland by creation of King Henry the Sixth This is that terrible Talbot so famous for his Sword or rather whose Sword was so famous for his arm that used it A Sword with bad Latin upon it but good Steel within it which constantly conquered where it came insomuch that the bare fame of his approach frighted the French from the Siege of Burdeaux Being victorious for twenty four years together successe failed him at last charging the enemy neer Castilion on unequal termes where he with his Son the Lord Lisle were slain with a shot July 17. 1453. Hence forward we may say Good night to the English in France whose victories were buried with the body of this Earl and his body enterred at White-Church in this County Sir JOHN TALBOT son to Sir John Talbot aforesaid and Vicount Lisle in right of his Mother Though he was slain with his Father yet their ashes must not be so hudled together but that he must have a distinct commemoration of his valour The rather because a Noble Pen hath hinted a parallel betwixt him and Paulus Aemilius the Roman General which others may improve 1 Aemilius was overpowred by the forces of Hannibal and Asdrubal to the loss of the day 2 Corn. Lentulus intreated Aemilius sitting all bloodied upon a stone to rise and save himself offering him his horse and other assistance 3 Aemilius refused the proffer adding withall That he would not again come under the judgment of the people of Rome 1 The same sad success attended the two Talbots in fight against the French 2 The Father advised the son by escape to reserve himself for future fortune 3 His son crav'd to be excused and would not on any termes be perswaded to forsake his father In two considerables Talbot far surpass'd Aemilius for Aemilius was old grievously if not mortally wounded our Lord in the flower of his youth unhurt easily able to escape Aemilius accountable for the over-throw received the other no wayes answerable for that daye 's mis-fortune being as we have said the 17 of July 1453. Learned Writers ROBERT of SHREWSBURY Take Reader a tast of the different Spirits of Writers concerning his Character Leland's Text. Eadem opera religionem celebrabat literas With the same endeavour He plied both Religion and Learning Bale his Comment Per religionem fortassis Monachatum intelligit per literas Sophistica praestigia It may be he meaneth Monkery by Religion and by Learning Sophistical fallacies I confess he might have imployed his pains better But Bale proceeds de Consultis Ruthenis consulting not the Russians as the word sounds to all Criticks but the Men of Ruthin in Wales He wrote the Life and Miracles of S. Winfride flourished Anno 1140. DAVID of CHIRBURY a Carmelite was so named from his Native place in the West of this County bordering on Mountgomery-shire A small Village I confesse yet which formerly denominated a whole hundred and at this day is the Barony of the Lord Herbert He was saith Leland whom I take at the second hand on the trust of John Pits Theologiae cognitione clarus And going over into Ireland was there made Episcopus Dormorensis Bishop of Drummore as I take it He is said to have wrote some Books though not mentioned in Bale and which is to me a wonder no notice taken of him by that Judicious Knight Sr. James Ware So that it seems his Writings were either few or obscure Returning into England he died and was buried in his Native County at Ludlow in the Convent of the Carmelites Anno Dom. 1420. Since the Reformation ROBERT LANGELAND forgive me Reader though placing him who lived one hundred fifty years before since the Reformation For I conceive that the Morning-star belongs rather to the Day then to the Night On which account this Robert regulated in our Book not according to the Age he was in but Judgement he was of may by Prolepsis be termed a Protestant He was born at Mortimers-Clibery in this County eight miles from Malvern-Hills was bred a Priest and one of the first followers of J. Wickliffe wanting neither Wit nor Learning as appears by his Book called The vision of Pierce Plowgh-man and hear what Character a most Learned Antiquary giveth thereof It is written in a kind of English meeter which for discovery of the infecting corruptions of those times I preferre before many of the more seemingly serious Invectives as well for Invention as Judgement There is a Book first set forth by Tindal since exemplied by Mr. Fox called The Prayer and complaint of the Plowghman which though differing in title and written in prose yet be of the same subject at the same time in the same Language I must referre it to the same Authour and let us observe a few of his strange words with their significations 1 Behotef 1 Promiseth 2 Binemen 2 Take away 3 Blive 3 Quickly 4 Fulleden for 4 Baptized 5 Feile times 5 Oft times 6 Forward 6 Covenant 7 Heryeth 7 Worshipeth 8 Homelich 8 Household 9 Lesew 9 Pasture 10 Leude-men 10 Lay-men 11 Nele 11 Will not 12 Nemeth for 12 Taketh 13 Seggen 13 Do say 14 Swevens 14 Dreams 15 Syth 15 Afterwards 16 Thralles 16 Bond-men It 's observeable that Pitzaeus generally a perfect Plagiary out of Bale passeth this Langland over in silence and why because he wrote in oppositum to the Papal Interest Thus the most Light finger'd Thieves will let that alone which is too hot for them He flourished under King Edward the Third Anno Dom. 1369. THOMAS CHURCHYARD was born in the Town of Shrâ—…wesbury as himself doth affirm in his Book made in Verse of the Worthines of VVales taking Shropshire within the compass making to use his own expression Wales the Park and the Marches to be the Pale thereof Though some conceive him to be as much beneath a Poet as above a Rbimer in my opinion his Verses may go abreast with any of that age writing in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth It seems by this his Epitaph in Mr. Camdens Remains that he died not guilty of much Wealth Come Alecto lend me thy Torch To find a Church-yard in
of his Nativity Prelates JOCELINE of WELLS Bishop Godwin was convinced by such evidences as he had seen that he was both born and bred in Welles becomming afterwards the Bishop thereof Now whereas his Predecessors stiled themselves Bishops of Glaston especially for some few years after their first Consecration He first fixed on the Title of Bath and Wells and transmitted it to all his Successors In his time the Monks of Glassenbury being very desirous to be only subjected to their own Abbot purchased their Exemption by parting with four fair Mannors to the See of Wells This Joceline after his return from his five years Exile in France banished with Archbishop Langton on the same account of obstinacy against King John layed out himself wholely on the beautifying and enriching of his Cathedral He erected some new Prebends and to the use of the Chapter appropiated many Churches increasing the revenues of the Dignities so fitter called than Profits so mean then their maintenance and to the Episcopal See he gave three Mannors of great value He with Hugo Bishop of Lincoln was the joynt Founder of the Hospital of St. Johns in Wells and on his own sole cost built two very fair Chappels one at VVokey the other at VVells But the Church of VVells was the Master-piece of his Works not so much repaired as rebuilt by him and well might he therein have been afforded a quiet repose And yet some have plundered his Tomb of his Effigies in Brasse being so rudely rent off it hath not only defaced his Monument but even hazarded the ruin thereof He sat Bishop which was very remarkable more than thirty seven years God to Square his great undertakings giving him a long life to his large heart and died 1242. FULKE of SAMFORD was born in this County but in which of the Samfords there being four of that name therein none elsewhere in England is hard and not necessary to decide He was first preferred Treasurer of St. Pauls in London and then by Papal Bull declared Archbishop of Dublin 1256. Mr. Paris calleth him Fulk Basset by mistake He died in his Mannor of Finglas 1271 and was buried in the Church of St. Patrick in the Chappel of St. Maries which likely was erected by him JOHN of SAMFORD It is pity to part Brethren He was first Dean of St. Patrick in Dublin preferred probably by his Brother and for a time Eschaetor of all Ireland Indeed the Office doth male audire sound ill to ignorant eares partly because the vicinity thereof to a worse word Esquire and Squire are known to be the same partly because some by abusing that Office have rendred it odious to people which in it self was necessary and honourable For the name Eschaetor cometh from the French word Escheoir which signifieth to Happen or Fall out and He by his place is to search into any Profit accrewing to the Crown by casualty by the condemnation of Malefactors Persons dying without an Heir or leaving him in minority c. and whereas every County in England hath an Eschaetor This John of Samford being Eschaetor General of Ireland his place must be presumed of great Trust from the King and Profit to himself He was Canonically chosen and by King Edward the first confirmed Archbishop of Dublin 1284 mediately succeeding John de Derlington interposed his Brothet Fulke therein and I cannot readily remember the like Instance in any other See For a time he was Chief Justice of Ireland and thence was sent with Anthâ—… Bishop of Durham Embasâ—…adour to the Emperour whence returning he died at London 1294. and had his Body carried over into Ireland an Argument that he was well respected and buried in the Tomb of his Brother in the Church of St. Patricks THOMAS BECKINTON was born at Beckinton in this County bred in New-Colledge Doctor in the Laws and Dean of the Arches till by King Henry the Sixth he was advanced Bishop of Bath and VVelles A good 1 States-man having written a Judicious Book to prove the Kings of England to the Crown of France notwithstanding the pretenced Salique-Law 2 Church-man in the then notion of the Word professing in his Will that he had spent six thousand Marks in the repairing and adorning of his Palaces 3 Towns-man besides a Legacy given to the Town where he was born he built at VVells where he lived a fair Conduit in the Market-place 4 Subject alwayes loyal to King Henry the Sixth even in the lowest condition 5 Kinsman plentifully providing for his alliance with Leases without the least prejudice to the Church 6 Master bequeathing five pounds a piece to his chief five Marks a piece to his meaner Servants and fourty shillings a piece to his Boys 7 Man He gave for his Rebus in allusion to his Name a burning Beacon to which he answered in his Nature being a burning and a shining light Witnesse his many benefactions to VVells Church and the Vicars therein VVinchester New Merton but chiefly Lincoln-Colledg in Oxford being little lesse than a second Founder thereof A Beacon we know is so called from Beckoning that is making signs or giving notice to the next Beacon This bright Beacon doth nod and give hints of bounty to future ages but it is to befeared it will be long before his signs will be observed understood imitated Nor was it the least part of his prudence that being obnoxious to King Edward the Fourth in his life time he procured the confirmation of his Will under the broad Seal of England and died January the 14 1464. RICHARD FITZ-JAMES Doctor at Law was born at Redlinch in this County of right ancient and worshipful extraction bred at Merton Colledge in Oxford whereof he became Warden much meriting of that place wherein he built most beautiful Lodgings expending also much on the repair of St. Maries in Oxford He was preferred Bishop first of Rochester next of Chichester last of London He was esteemed an excellent Scholar and wrote some Books which if they ever appeared in publick never descended to posterity He cannot be excused for being over busie with fire and faggot in persecuting the poor Servants of God in his Diocess He deceased Anno 1512. lyeth buried in his Cathedral having contributed much to the adorning thereof in a Chappel-like Tomb built it seems of Timber which was burnt down when the steeple of St. Pauls was set on fire Anno 1561. This Bishop was brother to Judg Fitz-James Lord Chief Justice who with their mutual support much strengthned one another in Church and State To the Reader I cannot recover any native of this County who was a Bishop since the Reformation save only John Hooper of whom formerly in the Catalogue of Martyrs States-men Sir AMIAS POULET Son to Sir Hugh grand-Child to Sir Amias Poulet who put Cardinal Wolsey then but a Schoolmaster in the Stockes was born at Hinton Saint George in this County He was Chancelor
else quite forgotten any other vocation Hard it was for peace to feed all the Idle mouthes which a former war did breed being too proud to begge too lazy to labour Those infected the Highwayes with their Felonies some presuming on their multitudes as the Robbers on the Northern Rode whose knot otherwise not to be untyed Sr. John cut asunder with the Sword of Justice He possessed King James how the frequent granting of pardons was prejudicial to Justice rendring the Judges to the contempt of insolent Malesactors which made his Majesty more sparing afterward in that kind In a word the deserved death of some scores preserved the lives and livelyhoods of more thousands Travellers owing their safety to this Judges severity many years after his death which happened Anno Dom. 16. Souldiers JOHN COURCY Baron of Stoke-Courcy in this County was the first Englishman who invaded and subdued Ulster in Ireland therefore deservedly created Earl thereof He was afterward surprised by Hugh Lacy corrival for his Title sent over into England and imprisoned by King John in the Tower of London A French-Castle being in controverfie was to have the Title thereof tried by Combate the Kings of England and France beholding it Courcy being a lean lank body with staring eyes prisoners with the wildnesse of their looks revenge the closenesse of their bodies is sent for out of the Tower to undertake the Frenchman and because enfcebled with long durance a large bill of fare was allowed him to recruit his strength The Monsieur hearing how much he had eat and drank and guessing his courage by his stomack oâ—… rather stomack by his appetite took him for a Canibal who would devoure him at the last course and so he declined the Combate Afterwards the two Kings desirous to see some proof of Courcy's strength caused a steel Helmet to be laid on a block before him â—…ourcy looking about him 〈◊〉 grimme countenance as if he intended to cut with his eyes as well as with his arms sundered the Helmet at one blow into two pieces striking the Sword so deep into the wood that none but himself could pull it out again Being demanded the cause why he looked so sternly Had I said he failed of my design I would have killed the Kings and all in the place words well-spoken because well taken all persons present being then highly in good humour Hence it is that the Lord Courcy Baron of Ringrom second Baron in Ireland claim a priviledge whether by Patent or Prescription Charter or Custome I know not after their first obeisance to be covered in the Kings presence if processe of time had not antiquated the practice His devotion was equal to his valour being a great Founder and endower of Religious Houses In one thing he fouly failed turning the Church of the Holy Trinity in Down into the Church of St. Patrick for which as the Story saith he was condemned never to return into Ireland though attempting it fifteen several times but repell'd with foul weather He afterwards went over and died in France about the year 1210. MATTHEW GOURNAY was born at Stoke-under-Hamden in this County where his Family had long flourished since the Conquest and there built both a Castle and a Colledge But our Matthew was the honour of the House renowned under the reign of King Edward the Third having fought in seven several signal set Battails viz. 1 At the siege of d'Algizer against the Sarazens 2 At the Battail of Benemazin against the same 3 Sluce a Sea-fight against the French 4 Cressy a Land-fight-against the same 5 Ingen Pitch'd fights against the French 6 Poictiers Pitch'd fights against the French 7 Nazaran under the Black Prince in Spain His Armour was beheld by Martial Men with much civil veneration with whom his faithful Buckler was a relique of esteem But it added to the wonder that our Matthew who did lie and watch so long on the bed of honour should die in the bed of peace aged ninety and six years about the beginning of King Richard the Second He lieth buried under a fair Monument in the Church of Stoke aforesaid whose Epitaph legible in the last age is since I suspect defaced Sea-men Sir AMIAS PRESTON Knight was descended of an Ancient Family who have an Habitationat Cricket nigh Creukern in this County He was a Valiant Souldier and Active Sea-man witnesse in 88. when he seized on the Admiral of the Galiasses wherein Hugh de Moncada the Governour making resistance with most of his Men were burnt or killed and Mr. Preston as yet not Knighted shared in a vast Treasure of Gold taken therein Afterwards Anno 1595 he performed a victorious Voyage to the West-Indies wherin he took by assault the I le of Puerto Santo invaded the I le of Coche surprised the Fort and Town of Coro sacked the stately City of St. Jago put the Town of Cumana to ransome entred Jamaica with little loss some profit and more honour safely returned within the space of six months to Milford Haven in Wales I have been informed from excellent hands that on some dis-tast he sent a Challenge to Sr. Walter Raleigh which Sr. Walter declined without any abatement to his Valour wherein he had abundantly satisfied all possibility of suspicion and great advancement of his Judgement For having a fair and fixed Estate with Wife and Children being a Privy Counsellor and Lord Warden of the Stannereys he thought it an uneven lâ—…y to stake himself against Sr. Amias a private and as I take it a single person though of good birth and courage yet of no considerable Estate This also is consonant to what he hath written so judiciously about Duels condemning those for ill Honours where the Hangman gives the Garland However these two Knights were afterwards reconciled and Sr. Amias as I collect died about the beginning of the reign of King James Learned Writers GILDAS sirnamed the WISE was born in the City of Bath and therefore it is that he is called Badonicus He was eight years junior to another Gildas called Albanius whose Nativity I cannot clear to belong to our Brittain He was also otherwise sur-stiled Querulus because the little we have of his Writing is only a Complaint Yet was he none of those whom the Apostle condemneth These are Murmurâ—…s Complainers c. taxing only such who either were impious against GOD or uncharitable against men complaining of them either without cause or without measure whilst our Gildas only inveigheth against the sins and bemoaneth the sufferings of that wicked and woful age wherein he lived calling the Clergy Montes Malitiae the Brittons generally Atramentum seculi He wrote many Books though we have none of them extant at this day some few fragments excepted inserted amongst the Manuscript Canons but his aforesaid History This makes me more to wonder that so Learned a Critick as Dr. Gerrard 〈◊〉 should attribute the Comedy of Aulularia
 16 Ioh. Agard arm   17 Ed. Mosely Bar.  Sable on a Cheveron betwixt 3 Mallets Argent as many Mullets Gules 18   19 Simon* Rudgeley   20  * Argent on a Chevâ—… Sable 3 Mullets of the first 21   22 Th. Kynnersley armiger  Azure 〈◊〉 de crosses croslet a lion rampant Argent RICHARD the Second 1 BRIAN CORNWAL He 〈◊〉 also this year Sheriff of Shrop-shire so that the two adjacent Counties were under his inspection 4 ROGER de WIRLEY When I observe how this Gentleman is fixed in his Generation I cannot satisfie my self whether he lived nearer unto his Ancestor Roberâ—… de Wirley who flourished in this County under King Henry the 2d if not before or whether he approached nearer unto his Descendent Sâ—… John Wirley that learned Knight now living at Hampsteade In my Arithmetick he is equally distanced from them both HENRY the Sixth 12 THOMAS STANLEY His true name was Audley For after that Adam youngest Brother to James Lord 〈◊〉 had married the daughter and heir of Henry de Stanley William their son assumed the sir-name of Stanley transmitted it to his posterity As for this Thomas Stanley till I be clearly convinced to the contrary he shall pass with me for the same person whom King Henry the Sixth made Lord Stanley Knight of the Garter Lord Deputy of Ireland and Lord Chamberlain of his Household and father unto Thomas Stanley whom King Henry the Seventh created the first Earle of Derby 34 JOHN DELVES Esq. He is the last of that Ancient Family appearing in this Catalogue who were fixed in this County in the reign of King Edward the Third This Sir John Delves for he was afterwards Knighted left one daughter and sole heir called Helene married unto Sir Robert Sheffield Knight and Recorder of London Ancestor unto the present Earl of Moulgrave EDWARD the Fourth 1 WALTER WROTESLEY He was lineally descended from Sâ—… Hugh Wrotesley one of the first Founder of the most Noble Order of the Garter HENRY the Eighth 28 JOHN DUDLEY I had thought his Ambition had been too high to come under the Roof of such an Office and discharge the place of a Sheriff But know that as yet Sir John Dudley was but Sir John Dudley a Plain but powerful Knight who not long afterwards viz. the 38th of King Henry the Eighth was created Viscount Lisley and then Earl of Warwick in the first of King Edward the sixth and in the fifth of the said King Duke of Northumberland However now he waited at Assizes on the Itinerant Judges who afterwards made all the Judges of the Land Justice Hales alone excepted attend on him and dance after the Pipe of his pleasure when the Instrument was drawn up Testament I can hardly term it whereby the two Sisters of King Edward the sixth were dis-inherited King CHARLES 3 WILLIAM BOWYER Knight Thomas Bowyer his Ancestor from whom he is lineally descended did in the reign of King Richard the Second marry Katharine daughter and heir of Robert Knipersley of Knipersley in this County with whom he had a fair Inheritance The Bowyers of Sussex invited thither some 200 years since by an Earl of Northumberland are a younger Branch from these in Stafford-shire BATTLES At Hopton Heath in this County in March 1643 a fierce fight happened betwixt the Kings and Parliaments Forces on a ground full of Cony-borroughs therefore affording ill footing for the Horse But an equal disadvantage on both sides is no disadvantage on either The Royalists may be said to have got the Day and lost the Sun which made it I mean the truly Loyal and Valiant Spencer Earl of Northampton though still surviving as in his grateful memory so in his Noble and Numerous Issue no less deservedly honoured by others then mutually loving amongst themselves The Farewel To take our Vale of Stafford-shire I wish that the Pit-coal wherewith it aboundeth may seasonably and safely be burnt in their Chimnies and not have their burning antedated before they be digg'd out the Bowels of the Earth The rather because I have read how in the year 1622 there was found a Coal-mine actually on fire between Willingsworth and Weddesbury in this County I find not by what casualty this English Aetna was kindled nor how long it did continue And although such combustions be not so terrible here as in the South of Italy where the sulphureous matter more inrageth the fury of the fire yet it could not but cause much fright and fear to the people thereabouts SUFFOLK hath Norfolk on the North divided with the Rivers of Little Ouse and Waveny Cambridge-shire on the West the German Ocean on the East and Essex parted with the River Stoure on the South thereof From East to West it stretcheth fourty five miles though the general breadth be but twenty saving by the Sea-side where it runneth out more by the advantage of a Corner The Air thereof generally is sweet and by the best Physicians esteemed the best in England often prescribing the Receit thereof to the Consumptionish-Patients I say generally sweet there being a smal parcel nigh the Sea-side not so excellent which may seem left there by Nature on purpose to advance the purity of the rest Naturall Commodities Cheese Most excellent are made herein whereof the finest are very thin as intended not for food but digestion I remember when living in Cambridge the Cheese of this County was preferred as the best If any say that Scholars palates are incompetent Judges whose hungry appetites make course Diet seem delicates unto them let them know that Pantaleon the Learned Dutch Physician counted them equal at least with them of Parma in Italy Butter For Quantity and Quality this County doth excel and venteth it at London and elsewhere The Child not yet come to and the old Man who is past the use of Teeth eateth no softer the Poor Man no cheaper in this Shire the Rich no wholesomer food I mean in the morning It was half of our Saviours Bill of Fare in his Infancy Butter and Hony shall he eat It is of a Cordial or if I may say Antidotal Nature The story is well known of a Wife which desiring to be a Widow incorporated Poison in the Butter whereon her Husband had his principal repast The poor man finding himself strangely affected repaired to a Physician who by some Symptomes suspecting poison demanded of his Patient which was his chiefest Diet. The sick man told him that he fed most constantly on Butter Eat Butter still return'd the Physician which hitherto hath saved your Life for it corrected the poison that neither the malignity thereof nor the malice of the wife could have their full operation Manufactures Cloathing Here it will not be amiss to insert a passage which I meet with in an Industrious Antiquary as relating to the present subject The Manufacture of Cloathing in this
enjoy the honour thereof or farther off so as not to be envied and suspected for his Title thereunto by King Henry the Fourth Now all the harm this Earl had done King Henry was this that King Henry held from him his lawful Inheritance Yea this meek Mortimer was content to wave the Crown so be it he might but enjoy his private Patrimony which he could not without many molestations from the King For this is the nature of some Men to heap injuries on those they have wronged as if the later injuries would give a countenance of Justice to the former He employed this Edmund in a War against Owen Glendour the Welsh Rebel on the same design that Saul sent David to fight against and fetch the fore-skins of the Philistins If he prov'd Conquerour then was King Henry freed from a professed Foe if conquered then was he rid of a suspected Subject But Mortimer went by the worst and being taken prisoner the King though often solicited never endeavoured his enlargement till at last he dearly ransomed himself Yet did he but exchange a Welsh for an Irish prison kept 20 years in râ—…traint in his own Castle of Trim in the end of the reign of cunning King Henry the Fourth all the reign of couragious King Henry the Fifth and the beginning of the reign of innocent King Henry the Sixth their different tempers meeting in cruelty against this poor Prisoner He died Anno Domini 1454. without Issue leaving Anne his sister his heir and lieth buried in Clare as is aforesaid Saints St. EDMUND King of the East-Angles Hear what falshoods are hudled together in our English Martyrology written as he terms himself By a Catholick Priest Permiâ—… Superiorum 1608. pag. 319 on the 20 of November At Hexam in Northumberland the passion of St. Edmund King and Martyr who being a Saxon by Bloud born in the City of Noremberg in that Province and Nephew to Offa King of the East-Angles First Hexam in Northumberland should be Hoxton in this County where St. Edmund was martyred Secondly there is no City Noremberg in Brittain nor Europe save that in Germany This is enough to make us distrust what he writeth afterwards viz. that When the said St. Edmund was cruelly murdered by the Danes and when the Christians seeking his Corps were lost in a Wood did call one to another Where art Where art Where art The martyred head answered Here Here Here. However God forbid that this Authors fauxities should make us undervalue this worthy King and Martyr cruelly tortured to death by the Pagan Danes and by an old Author thus not unhansomely express'd Utque cruore suo Gallos Dionysius ornat Graecos Demetrius gloria quisque suis. Sic nos Edmundus nulli virtute secundus Lux patet patriae gloria magna suae Sceptra manum diadema caput sua purpura corpus Ornat ei sed plus vincula mucro cruor As Denis by his death adorneth France Demetrius Greece each credit to his place So Edmunds lustre doth our Land advance Who with his vertues doth his Country grace Scepter Crown Robe his hand head corps renouns More famous for his bonds his bloud his wounds His death happened Anno Domini 870. whose body was placed in a goodly shrine richly adorned with jewels and precious stones at Bury in this County These all are vanish'd whilst the name of St. Edmund will ever remain in that Towns denomination ROBERT GROSTHEAD â—…ehosaphat seeing four hundred Prophets of Baal together and suspecting they were too many to be good cast in that shrewd question Is there not here a Prophet of the Lord besides and thereupon Micaiah was mentioned unto him Possible the Reader seeing such swarms of Popish Saints in England will demand Is there not â—…et a Saint of the Lord besiâ—…es and I conceive my self concerned to return a true answer that there is Robert Grosthead by name whom now we come to describe He was born in this County bred in Oxford where he became most eminent for Religion and Learning in all kind of Languages Arts and Sciences and at last was preferred Bishop of Lincoin 1235. He wrote no fewer than three hundred Treatises whereof most are extant in Manuscript in Westminster Library which Dr. Williams his Successor in the See of Lincoln intended to have published in three fair Folio Volumes had not the late troublesome Times dis-heartned him Thus our Civil Warrs have not only filled us with Legions of lying Pamphlets but also deprived us of such a Treasure of Truth as this worthy Mans works would have proved to all posterity He was a stout Opposer of Popish-Oppression in the Land and a sharp Reprover of the Corruptions of the Court of Rome as we have largely declared in our Ecclesiastical History Such the Piety of his Life and Death that though loaded with Curses from the Pope he generally obtained the Reputation of a Saint Bellarmine starts a Question whether one may pray lawfully to him paint his Picture in the Church who is not Canonized by the Pope and very gravely he determineth a short line will serve to fadom a shallow water that privately he may do it and that a Picture of such a Man may be painted in the Church provided his head be not encompassed with a Radiated Circle as particular to Canonized Saints Thus our Learned and Pious Robert must want that addition of a Glory about his Picture and the matter is not much seeing no doubt having Turned many to righteousness he doth shine in Heaven as the brightness of the Firmament Whose death happened Anno Domini 1254. Martyrs ROWLAND TAYLOR Where born unknown though some without any assurance have suggested his Nativity in Yorkshire was bred in Cambridge and became head of Borden Hostle nigh if not now partly in Cajus Colledge where he commenced Doctor of the Laws Hence he was by Archbishop Cranmer presented to the Rectory of Hadley in this County He was a great Scholar painful Preacher charitable to the Poor of a comly Countenance proper Person but inclining to corpulency and chearful behaviour The same devotion had different looks in several Martyrs frowning in Stern Hooper weeping in meek Bradford and smiling constantly in pleasant Taylor Indeed some have censured his merry Conceits as trespassing on the gravity of his calling especially when just before his death But surely such Romanists who admire the temper of Sr. Thomas More jesting with the Axe of the Executioner will excuse our Taylor for making himself merry with the Stake But though it be ill Jesting with edged Tooles whereof Death is the sharpest yet since our Saviour hath blounted it his servants may rather be delighted than dismayed with it Not long after Doctor Taylor set Archbishop Cranmer who was his Patron a Copy of Patients who indeed wrote after it but not with so steady a hand and so even a Character of constancy Taylor was martyred at Hadley February 9 1555.
bred in Bennet Colledge in Cambridge to which afterwards he proved a bountiful Benefactor building a beautiful Chappel therein He afterwards applied himself to the study of the Common Law and was made Attourney to the Court of Wards whence he was preferred Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in the First of Queen Elizabeth 1558. He married Anne second daughter to S â— Anthony Cook of Giddy-hall in Essex Governour to King Edward the Sixth And it is worthy of our observation how the Sates-men in that Age were arched together in affinity to no small support one to another Sir John Cheek Secretary to K. Edward the Sixth whose sister was first wife to Sr William Cecil Secretary to the same King Sir Will. Cecil aforesaid for his second wife married the wives sister unto this Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper Sr. Francis Walsingham Secretary to Queen Elizabeth had a sister married unto Sir Walter Mildmay Chancellour of the Exchequer Sir Franc. Walsingham was also brother in Law unto Sir Tho. Randolph that grand States-man Ambassador To return to Sir Nicholas Bacon he was condemned by some who seemed wise and commended by those that were so for not causing that Sâ—…atute to be repealed the Queen relying on him as her Oracle of Law whereby the Queen was made illegitimate in the dayes of her Father For this wise States-man would not open that wound which time had partly closed and would not meddle with the variety yea contrariety of Statutes in this kind whereby people would rather be perplexed than satisfied but derived her right from another Statute which allowed her succession the rather because Lawyers maintain That a Crown once worn cleareth all defects of the wearer thereof He continued in his Office about eighteen years being a Man of rare wit and deep experience Cui fuit ingenium subtile in corpore crasso For he was loaden with a corpulent body especially in his old Age so that he would be not only out of breath but also almost out of life with going from Westminster-hall to the Star-chamber in so much when sitting down in his place it was some time before he could recover himself And therefore it was usual in that Court that no Lawyer should begin to speak till the Lord Keeper held up his staffe as a signal to him to begin He gave for his Motto Mediocria Firma and practised the former part thereof Mediocria Never attaining because never affecting any great Estate He was not for Invidious Structures as some of his Contemporaries but delighted in Domo Domino pari Such as was his house at Gorhambury in Hartfordshire And therefore when Queen Elizabeth coming thither in progresse told him My Lord your house is too little for you No Madam returned he no less wittely than gratefully But it is your Highness that hath made me too great for mine house Now as he was a just practiser of the first part of this Motto Mediocria so no doubt he will prove a true Prophet in the second part thereof Firma having left an Estate rather good than great to his posterity whose eldest son Sir Edward Bacon in this County was the first Baronet of England He died on the 20th of February 1578 and Iieth buried in the Quire of St. Pauls In a word he was a goodman a grave States-man a Father to his Country and Father to Sir FRANCIS BACON Sir WILLIAM DRUERY was born in this County where his Worshipful Family had long flourished at Haulsted His name in Saxon soundeth a Pearle to which he answered in the pretiousness of his disposition clear and hard innocent and valiant and therefore valued deservedly by his Queen and Country His youth he spent in the French Wars his middle in Scotland and his old Age in Ireland He was Knight Marshal of Barwick at what time the French had possessed themselves of the Castle of Edenburgh in the minority of King James Queen Elizabeth employed this Sir William with 1500 men to besiege the Castle which service he right worthily performed reducing it within few dayes to the true owner thereof Anno 1575 he was appointed Lord President of Mounster whether he went with competent Forces and executed impartial Justice in despite of the Opposers thereof For as the Sign of Leo immediately precedeth Virgo and Libra in the Zodiack so no hope that innocency will be protected or Justice administred in a Barbarous Country where power and strength do not first secure a passage unto them But the Earl of Desmond opposed this good President forbidding him to enter the County of Kerry as a Palatinate peculiarly appropriated unto himself Know by the way as there were but four Palatinates in England Chester LancasterDurham and Ely whereof the two former many years since were in effect invested in thâ—… Crown there were no fewer than eight Palatinates in Ireland possessed by their Respective Dynasts claiming Regal Rites therein to the great retarding of the absolute Conquest of that Kingdom Amongst these saith my Author Kerry became the Sanctuary of sin and Refuge of Rebels as out-lawed from any English Jurisdiction Sir William no whit terrified with the Earls threatning entred Kerry with a competent Train and there dispenced Justice to all persons as occasion did require Thus with his seven-score men he safely forced his return through seven hundred of the Earls who sought to surprise him In the last year of his life he was made Lord Deputy of Ireland and no doubt had performed much in his place if not afflicted with constant sickness the fore-runner of his death at Waterford 1598. Sir ROBERT NAUNTON was born in this County of Right ancient Extraction some avouching that his Family were here before others that they came in with the Conqueror who rewarded the chief of that Name for his service with a great Inheretrix given him in marriage In so much that his Lands were then estimated at a vast sum in my Judgment seven hundred pounds a year For along time they were Patrons of Alderton in this County where I conceive Sir Robert was born He was first bred Fellow Commoner in Trinity Colledge and then Fellow of Trinity-Hall in Cambridge He was Proctor of the University Anno Domini 160 0 1 which Office according to the Old Circle returned not to that Colledge but once in fourty four years He addicted himself from his youth to such studies as did tend to accomplish him for Publick imployment I conceive his most excellent piece called Fragmenta Regalia set forth since his death was a fruit of his younger years He was afterwards sworn Secretary of State to King James on Thursday the eighth of January 1617. which place he discharged with great ability and dexterity And I hope it will be no offence here to insert a pleasant passage One Mr. Wiemark a wealthy Man great Novilant and constant Pauls walker hearing the News that day of the beheading of Sir Walter Raleigh His head said he
he was the son of a good King which many men would wish and no child could help The then present Power more of coveteousness than kindness unwilling to maintain him either like or unlike the son of his Father permitted him to depart the Land with scarce tolerable Accommodations and the promise of a never-performed Pension for his future Support A passage I meet with in my worthy Friend concerning this Duke deserveth to be written in letters of Gold In the year 1654 almost as soon as his two Elder Brethren had removed themselves into Flanders he found a strong practise in some of the Queens Court to seduce him to the Church of Rome whose temptations he resisted beyond his years and thereupon was sent for by them into Flanders He had a great appetite to Learning and a quick digestion able to take as much as his Tutors could teach him He fluently could speak many understood more Modern Tongues He was able to express himself in matters of importance presently properly solidly to the admiration of such who trebled his Age. Judicious his Curiosity to inquire into Navigation and other Mathematical Mysteries His Courtesie set a lustre on all and commanded mens Affections to love him His life may be said to have been All in the night of affliction rising by his Birth a little before the setting of his Fathers and setting by his Death a little after the rising of his Brothers peaceable Reign It seems Providence to prevent Excess thought fit to temper the general mirth of England with some mourning With his Name-sake Prince Henry he compleated not twenty years and what was said of the Unkle was as true of the Nephew Fatuos a morte defendit ipsa insulsitas si cui plus caeteris aliquantulum salis insit quod miremini statim putrescit He deceased at Whitehall on Thursday the 13th of September 1660 and was buried though privately solemnly Veris spirantibus lacrymis in the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh Martyrs I meet with few if any in this County being part of the Diocess of Politick Gardiner The Fable is well known of an Ape which having a mind to a Chest-nut lying in the fire made the foot of a Spannel to be his tongs by the proxy whereof he got out the Nut for himself Such the subtlety of Gardiner who minding to murther any poor Protestant and willing to save himself from the scorching of general hatred would put such a person into the fire by the hand of Bonner by whom he was sent for up to London and there destroyed Confessors ELEANOR COBHAM daughter to the Lord Cobham of Sterborough-Castle in this County was afterwards married unto Humphrey Plantaginet Duke of Glocester This is she who when alive was so persecuted for being a Wickliffiâ—…e and for many hainous crimes charged upon her And since her memory hangs still on the file betwixt Confessor and Malefactor But I believe that the voluminous paines of Mr. Fox in vindicating her innocency against the Cavils of Alane Cope and others have so satisfied all indifferent people that they will not grudg her position under this Title Her troubles happened under King Henry the Sixth Anno Domini 14 ... Prelates NICHOLAS of FERNHAM or de Fileceto was born at Fernham in this County and bred a Physician in Oxford Now our Nation esteemeth Physicians little Physick little worth except far fetcht from foreign parts Wherefore this Nicholas to acquire more skill and repute to himself travelled beyond the Seas First he fixed at Paris and there gained great esteem accounted Famosus Anglicus Here he continued until that â—…niversity was in effect dissolved thorough the discords betwixt the Clergy and the Citizens Hence he removed and for some years lived in Bononia Returning home his fame was so great that he became Physician to King Henry the Third The Vivacity and health of this Patient who reigned longer than most men live was an effect of his care Great were the giâ—…ts the King conferred upon him and at last made him Bishop of Chester Wonder not that a Physician should prove a Prelate seeing this Fernham was a general Scholar Besides since the Reformation in the reign of Queen Elizabeth we had J. Coldwel Doctor of Physick a Bishop of Sarum After the Resignation of Chester he accepted of the Bishoprick of Durham This also he surrendred after he had sitten nine years in that See reserving only three Mannors for his maintenance He wrote many Books much esteemed in that Age of the practice in Thysick and use of Herbs and died in a private life 1257. WALTER de MERTON was born at Merton in this County and in the reign of King Henry the Third when Chancellors were chequered in and out three times he discharged that Office 1 Anno 1260 placed in by the King displac'd by the Barons to make room for Nicholas of Ely 2 Anno 1261. when the King counting it no Equity or Conscience that his Lords should obtrude a Chancellor on him restored him to his place continuing therein some three years 3 Anno 1273. when he was replaced in that Office for a short time He was also preferred Bishop of Rochester that a rich Prelate might maintain a poor Bishoprick He founded Merton-Colledge in Oxford which hath produced more famous School-men than all England I had almost said Europe besides He died in the year 1277 in the fifth of King Edward the First THOMAS CRANLEY was in all probability born at and named from Cranley in Blackheath Hundred in this County It confirmeth the conjecture because I can not find any other Village so named in all England Bred he was in Oxford and became the first Warden of New Colledge thence preferred Arch-bishop of Dublin in Ireland Thither he went over 1398 accompanying Thomas Holland Duke of Surrey and Lieutenant of Ireland and in that Kingdom our Cranley was made by King Henry the Fourth Chancellour and by King Henry the Fifth Chief Justice thereof It seems he finding the Irish possessed with a rebellious humour bemoaned himself to the King in a terse Poem of 106 Verses which Leland perused with much pleasure and delight Were he but half so good as some make him he was to be admired Such a Case and such a Jewel such a presence and a Prelate clear in Complexion proper in Stature bountiful in House-keeping and House-repairing a great Clerk deep Divine and excellent Preacher Thus far we have gone along very willingly with our Author but now leave him to go alone by himself unwilling to follow him any farther for fear of a tang of Blasphemy when bespeaking him Thou art fairer than the children of men full of grace are thy lips c. Anno 1417 he returned into England being fourscore years old sickned and died at Faringdon and lieth buried in New-Colledge Chappel and not in Dublin as some have related NICHOLAS WEST was born at Putney in
1. William 2. Guy 3. Thomas 4. Thomas 5. Richard 6. Henry Such a series there was of successive undauntedness in that noble Family But if a better may be allowed amongst the best and a bolder amongst the boldest I conceive that Thomas the first of that name gave the chief occasion to this Proverbe of whom we read it thus reported in our Chronicles At Hogges in Normandy in the year of our Lord 1346. being there in safety arrived with Edward the third this Thomas leaping over ship-board was the first man who went on land seconded by one Esquire and six Archers being mounted on a silly Palfray which the suddain accident of the business first offered to hand with this company he did fight against one hundred armed men and in hostile manner overthrew every one which withstood him and so at one shock with his seven assistants he slew sixty Normans removed all resistance and gave means to the whole fleet to land the Army in safety The Heirs-male off this name are long since extinct though some deriving themselves from the Heirs-generall are extant at this day The Bear wants a Tail and cannot be a Lion Nature hath cut off the Tail of the Bear close at the Rump which is very strong and long in a Lion for a great part of the Lions strength consists in his Tail wherewith when Angry he useth to Flap and Beat himself to raise his Rage therewith to the Height so to render himself more Fierce and Furious If any ask why this Proverbe is placed in Warwick-shire Let them take the Ensuing Story for their satisfaction Robert Dudley Earl of Leiceâ—…er derived his Pedegree from the ancient Earls of Warwick on which Title he gave their Crest the Bear and Ragged Staffe and when he was Governour of the Low Countries with the high Title of his Excellency disusing his Own Coat of the Green-Lion with Two Tails he signed all Instruments with the Crest of the Bear and Ragged Staffe He was then suspected by many of his jealous adversaries to hatch an Ambitious design to make himself absolute Commander as the Lion is King of Beasts over the Low-Countries Whereupon some Foes to his faction and Friends to the Dutch-freedome wrote undeâ—… his Crest set up in Publick places Ursa caret cauda non queat esse Leo. The Bear he never can prevail To Lion it for lack of Tail Nor is Uâ—…sa in the feminine meerly placed to make the Verse But because Naturalists observe in Bears that the Female is always the strongest This Proverb is applyed to such who not content with their Condition aspire to what is above their worth to deserve or Power to atchive He is true Coventry-blew It seems the best blews so well fixed as not to fade are died in Coventry It is applied to such an one who is fidus Achates a fast and faithfull friend to those that employ him Opposite hereunto is the Greek Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignavi vertitur color A Coward will change colour either for fear or falsehood when deserting those who placed confidence in him As for those who apply this Proverb to persons so habited in wickedness as past hope of amendment under favour I conceive it a secondary and but abusive sense thereof Princes ANNE NEVILL Daughter and Co heir to Richard Nevill Earl of Warwick was most probâ—…bly born in Warwick-castle She was afterward married with a great portion and inheritance to Edward Prince of Wales sole Son to King Henry the sixth A Prince neither dying of Disease nor slain in Battle nor executed by Justice but barbarously butchered by Richard Duke of Gloucester Was it not then a daring piece of Court-ship in him who had murthered her husband to make love unto her in way of marriage and was not his success strange in obtaining her having no 〈◊〉 to commend his person to her affection O the Impotency of the weaker sex to resist the battery of a Princely Suitor who afterward became King by his own ambition however her life with him proved neither long nor fortunate It happened that there was the muttering of a marriage between Henry Earl of Richmond and Elizabeth eldest Daughter to Edward the fourth so to unite the houses of Lancaster and York To prevent this King Richard the third intended to marry the Lady himself so methodicall he was in breaking the Commandements of the second Table First Honour thy Father and Mother when he procured his Mother to be proclaimed a harlot by a Preacher at Pauls Cross. Secondly Thou shalt not kill when he murthered his Nephews Thirdly Thou shalt not Commit adultery being now in pursuit of an incestuous Copulation Say not that this match would nothing confirme his title seeing formerly he had pronunced all the Issue of King Edward the fourth as Illegitimate for first that designe was rather indevoured then effected most men remaining notwithstanding this bastardizing attempt well satisfied in the rightfulness of their extraction Secondly they should or should not be Bastards as it made for his present advantage Tyrants always driving that nail which will goe though it go cross to those which they have driven before Lastly if it did not help him it would hinder the Earl of Richmond which made that Usurper half wild till he was wedded But one thing withstood his desires this Anne his Queen was still alive though daily quarrelled at and complained of her son being lately dead for barren and O what a loss would it be to nature it self should her husband dye without an heir unto his vertues Well this Lady understanding that she was a burthen to her husband for grief soon became a burthen to herself and wasted away on a suddain Some think she went her own pace to the grave while others suspect a grain was given her to quicken her in her journy to her long home Which happened Anno Dom. 1484. EDWARD PLANTAGâ—…NET Son to George Duke of Clarence may passe for a Prince because the last Male-heir of that Royal Family Yea some of his Foes feared and more of his Friends desired that he might be King of England His Mother was Isabel Eldest Daughter to Richard Nevill Earl of Warwick And he was born in Warwick-castle As his Age increased so the Jealousie of the Kings of England on him did increase being kept Close Prisoner by King Edward the fourth Closer by King Richard the third and Closest by King Henry the seventh This last being of a New Linage and Sirname knew full well how this Nation hankered after the Name of Plantagenet which as it did out-syllable Tuthar in the Mouths so did it out-vie it in the Affections of the English Hence was it that the Earl was kept in so strict Restraint which made him very weak in his Intellectuals and no wonder being so sequestred from human converse It happened a marriage was now in debate betwixt Prince Arthur and Katherine Daughter to Ferdinand King of
not so much for his first bringing over Painted Glass into England as for his bringing up Pious Bead in his Monastery Being struck beneath the Girdle with the dead Palsey his soul retired into the Upper Rooms of his Clay Cottage much employed in meditation untill the day of his death which happened Anno 703. Saint JOHN of Beverley may be challenged by this County on a threefold title because therein he had his 1. Birth at Harpham in this County in the East-Riding 2. Life being three and thirty years and upwards Archbishop of York 3. Death at Beverley in this County in a Colledge of his own foundation I remember his Picture in a Window in the Library at Salisbury with an inscription under it whose character may challenge to it self three hundred years antiquity affirming him the first Master of Arts in Oxford and Alfredus Beverlacensis reporteth as much Arts indeed were and Oxford was though hardly an University in that age but seeing the solemnity of graduating was then unknown a judicious Oxonian rejecteth it as a fiction More true it is that he was bred at Strenshalt under Hilda aforesaid which soundeth something to her honour and nothing to his disgrace seeing eloquent Apollos himself learned the Primer of his Christianity partly from Priscilla He was afterwards educated under Theodorus the Grecian and Arch-bishop of Canterbury Yet was he not so famous for his Teacher as for his Scholar Venerable Bede who wrote this Johns life which he hath so spiced with Miracles that it is of the hottest for a discreet man to digest into his belief Being very aged he resigned his Arch-bishoprick that he might the more effectually apply his private devotions in his Colledge at Beverley for which he procured the Freedstool from King Athelston Yet such Sanctuaries though carrying something of holiness in their name had a profane abuse for their very use making Malefactours with their promise of impunity and then protecting them from justice Saint John died May 7. 722. and was buried in the Porch of his Collegiate Church A Synod held at London 1416. assigned the day of his death an Anniversary Solemnity to his Memory THOMAS PLANTAGENET Before I proceed I must confess my self formerly at a great loss to understand a passage in an Honourable Author speaking of the counterfeit Reliques detected and destroyed at the Reformation Lord Herbert in the life of King Henry the eighth pag. 431. The Bell of Saint Guthlac and the Felt of Saint Thomas of Lancaster both remedies for the Head ach But I could recover no Saint Thomas saving him of Canterbury in any English Martyrology till since on inquiry I find him to be this Thomas Plantagenet He was Earl of Derby Lancaster Leicester and in the right of Alice his Wife of Lincoln A popular person and great enemy to the two Spencers Minions to King Edward the second who being hated as Devils for their pride no wonder if this Thomas was honoured as a Saint and Martyr by the common sort Indeed he must be a good Chymist who can extract Martyr out of Malefactour and our Chronicles generally behold him put to death for Treason against K. Edward the 2d. But let him pass for a Saint in this Shire though never solemnly canonized it being true of such locall Saints what Servius Honoratus observeth of Topicall Gods Ad alias Regiones nunquam transibant They travailed not so far as to be honoured in other Countries His beheading alias his Martyrâ—…ome happened at Pontfret Anno Dom. 1322. RICHARD ROLE alias HAMPOLE had his first Name from his Father the other from the Place three Miles from Doncaster where living he was Honoured and dead was Buried and Sainted He was a Heremite led a strict life and wrot many Books of Piety which I prefer before his Propheticall Predictions as but a degree above Almanack Prognostications He threatned the Sins of the Nation with suture Famine Plague Inundations War and such generall Calamities from which no Land is long free but subject to them in some proportion Besides his Predictions if Hitting were Heeded if Missing not Marked However because it becomes me not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him pass for a Saint I will adde that Our Saviours Dilemma to the Jews may partly be pressed on the Papists his Contemporaries If Hampoles Doctrine was of Men why was he generally reputed a Saint if from God why did they not Obey him seeing he spake much against the vitiousness and covetousness of the Clergy of that Age He died Anno Domini 1349. JOHN of BIRLINGTON or BRIDLINGTOM was born hard by that Town bred two years in Oxford where he profited in piety and learning above his age and equals Returning home for a short time he was teacher to a Gentlemans Sons untill the twentieth year of his age he entred himself a Canon-Regular in the Covent of Bridlington where he grew eminent for his exemplary holiness It was his happiness that such offices always fell to his share as did not retard but quicken his devotion as Chaunter Almoner c. At last he was choâ—…en Prior but refus'd the place alledging his own unworthiness professing he had rather be beaten in pieces with blows then accept thereof so that another was put into the place This new elect dying soon after our John was chosen again in the vacancy and then took it fearing there might be as much peevishness in rejecting as pride in effecting it and hoping that Providence which fairly called him to would freely fit him for the discharge of that office He used to treat strangers at his table with good chear and seemingly kept pace with them in eating morsell for morsell whilst he had a secret contrivance wherein he conveyed his exceedings above his Monasticall pittance Being demanded of one why he did not enter into more strict and austere Order Surely said he A man may lead a sincere and acceptable life in any order and it were arrogancy in me to pretend to a severer discipline when I cannot observe as I ought this easier course of life My Author saith that Martha and Mary were both compounded in him being as pious so provident to husband the revenues of their house to their best advantage Going to view their lands in Richmond-shire he gave a visit to a woman lately turn'd an Ancorist and renowned for her holiness she told him that now her vision was out who the night before dreamed that an Eagle flew about her house with a label in his bill wherein was written Jesus is my love and you saith she are the person who so honour him in your heart that no earthly thing can distract you To whom our John returned I came hither to hear from you some saving and savoury discourse but seeing you begin with such idle talk farewell and so waved any farther converse However I must not dissemble that the prophesies fathered on this our John are as
his Grand-Child Robert Earl of Essex to have died in the same year of his age or to have lived longer let others decide Writers AMBROSE MERLIN was born at Carmarthen a City so denominated from his Nativity therein This I write in conformity to common Tradition and he who will not errare cum vulgo must pugnare cum vulgo my own judgement remonstrating against the same finding the City called Mariadunum in Ptolomy before Merlins Cradle was ever made if Merlins Cradle was ever made His extraction is very incredible reported to have an Incubus to his Father pretending to a Pedigree older than Adam even from the Serpent himself But a Learned Pen demonstrateth the impossibility of such Conjunctions And let us not load Satan with groundless sins whom I believe the Father of lyes but in a litteral sense no Father of Bastards Many are the pretended Prophesies of Merlin whereof the British have a very high esteem and I dare say nothing against them only I humbly tender to this Nations consideration a modest Proverb of their own Country Namyn Dduw nid oes Dewin that besides God there is no Diviner Yet I deny not but the Devil can give a shrewd conjecture but often the deceiver is deceived Sure I am Merlins Prophesies have done much mischief seeing such who pretended skill therein that they could unfold his meaning though for my part I believe they must have the Devils key who open the Devils lock put Owen Glendower on his Rebellion against King Henry the fourth perswading him the time was come wherein he should recover the Welsh Principality which caused the making of those cruel Laws with Draco's written in blood against the Welsh which no tender Englishman can read without regret There want not those who maintain Merlin to be a great Chymist and those we know have a Language peculiar to themselves so that his seeming Prophesies are not to be expounded historically but naturally disguising the mysteries of that faculty from vulgar intelligence The best Prophesie I meet with in Merlin which hit the mark indeed is what I find cited out of him by Giraldus Cambrensis Sextus maenia Hiberniae subvertent Regiones in Regnum redigentur The Sixth shall overturn the walls of Ireland and reduce their Countries into a Kingdom This was accomplished under King James the sixth when their Fastnesses Irish Walls were dismantled and Courts of Civil Justice set up in all the Land But enough of Merlin who is reported to have died Anno The Farewell How this County with the rest of Wales hath preserved its woods in our unhappy Civil Wars is to me unknown yet if they have been much wasted which I suspect I wish that the Pit-Coal which in some measure it affordeth may daily be increased for the supply of their fewell CARNARVON This County hath the Irish Sea on the West Anglesea divided by Menaifreâ—… on the North Denby shire on the East and Merionith shire on the South This I have observed peculiar to this County that all the Market are Sea Towns being five in number as noted in the Maps which no other County in England or Wales doth afford The Natives hereof count it no small credit unto them that they made the longest resistance against and last submitted unto the English And indeed for natural strength it exceedeth any part of this Principality so that the English were never more distressed than in the Invasion thereof I am much affected with the ingenuity of an English Nobleman who following the Camp of King Henry the third in these parts wrote home to his friends about the end of September 1245. The naked truth indeed as followeth We lie in our Tents watching fasting praying and freezing we watch for fear of the Welsh-men who are wont to invade us in the night we Fast for want of meat for the half peny loaf is worth five pence we Pray to God to send us home again speedily we Freeze for want of winter garments having nothing but thin linnen betwixt us and the wind Yet is this County in it self sufficiently plentiful though the Welsh had the wit to keep â—…ood from the English and Snow-don-Hills therein are commended by my * Author for fertility of wood cattel fish and fowl Smile not Reader to hear of Fish in so high Mountains which have plenty of Pools interposed Wonders Giraldus Cambrensis telleth us how there is a Lake in Snowden Hills in this County which hath a floating Island therein But it seemeth that it either always swimmeth away from such who endeavour to discover it or else that this vagrant wearied with long wandring hath at last fixed it self to the Continent He telleth us also of Monoculous Fishes though not fully acquainting us how their one eye is disposed Whether Polyphemus-like in the midst of their head or only on one side The truth is these One-eyed Fishes are too nimble for any men with two eyes to behold them Proverbs Craig Eriry or Snow don will yield sufficient Pasture for all the Cattell of VVales put together Some will say this cannot be literally true except the Cattel of VVales be few beneath and Snow-don-hills fruitful above all belief The best is the time is not expressed how long these hills will suffice for their pasture But let us not be so morose but to understand the meaning of this expression importing by help of an Hyperbole the extraordinary fruitfulness of this place Diange ar Gluyd a boddi ar Gonway That is to scape Clude and be drown'd in Conway parallel to the Latine Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charibdin However that Pilot is to be pitied who to shun Scylla doth run on Charibdis because those rocks were neer and a narrow passage betwixt them whereas the two Rivers of Clude and Conway are twenty miles a sunder affording men scope enough to escape them but little or much in such cases are the same with indiscreet persons Princes EDWARD the Fourth but first surviving son of King Edward the First and Queen Eleanor was born at Carnarvon in this County April 25. 1284. No Prince ever ascended the English Throne with greater or used it with less advantage to himself First though his Father had in a manner surprised the Wâ—…lsh to accept him for their Prince pleading his royal extraction birth in VVales in ability to speak a word of English and innocence that none could tax him with actual sin Yet I find them not for his Fathers fallacy to think the worse of his Son sic juvat esse deceptos and generally they accepted him as preferring that a Prince should be put with wit rather than with violence upon them In England he succeeded to a wise and victorious Father who happily had hit the expedient to be both beloved and feared by his Subjects leaving the land in so good a posture for government that touch the wheele and it would turn in the right
the Dolphin who sent him a Barrel of Paris Tennis-Balls sending such English Balls that they proved to their great loss He died at Boys S. Vincent in France the last day of August Anno 1422. and was brought over with great solemnity and interred in Westminster Abby Prelates ELIAS de RADNOR GUILIELMUS de RADNOR Ijoyn them together for three Reasons First because Natives of the same Town understand it Old Radnor the new town of that name being built probably since their decease Secondly because Bishops of the same See Landaff Thirdly because eminent being eminent for Nothing the names and dates of their deaths the one May 6. 1240. the other June the 30. 1256. being all that learned Antiquary and their Successour Bishop Godwin could recover of their memories which dishearâ—…eth me from â—…arther enquiry after them For let them never look for a crop who sow that ground which so skilful an husband-man thought fit to lie fallow The Farewell It much affected me and I believe all others whose hearts are of flesh and blood what I read in an Author concerning the rigorous laws imposed on the observation of the Welsh For when Owen Glyndower-dwy inveigled by some well-skilled in Merlins Prophesies that the time was come wherein the Britains through his assistance should recover their ancient freedom and liberty raised a Rebellion making war upon the Earl of March the Heir apparent both to the Crown of England and Principality of Wales King Henry the fourth inraged at his proceedings enacted these ensuing Laws First That no Welshman should purchase Lands or be chosen Citizen or Burgess of any City Borough or Market Town nor be received into any Office of Mayor Bayliff Chamberlaine c. or to be of the Councel of any Town or to bear Armour within any City Besides that if any Welsh-man should impeach or sue an Englishman It was ordained he should not be convicted unless by the judgment of English Justices verdict of English Burgesses or by the Inquest of the English Boroughs where the suits lay Yea that all English Burgesses who married Welsh Women should be disfranchised of their Liberties No congregation or Council was permitted to the Welsh-men but by licence of the chief Officers of the same Seigâ—…ory and in the presence of the same Officers That no Victuals should be brought into Walls unless by the especial licence of the King and his Council That no Welshmen shouâ—…d have any Castle Fortress or House of Defence of his own or any other mâ—…ns to keep That no Welsh-man should be made Justice Chamberlaâ—… Chancellor c. of a Castle Receivor Eschetor c. nor other Officer or Keeper oâ—…W Records â—… nor of the Council of any English Lord. That no English man that in time to come should marry a Welsh-woman be put in any Office in Wales or in the Marches oâ—… the same Now as I am heartily sorry that ever the Welsh were bound to the observance of so rigorous Laws so am I truly glad that at this day they are to the happiness both of England and Wales freed from the same Yea I shall constantly pray that God would be pleased to grant us of the Loins of our Soveraign one who may be born Prince of the one and after the though late decease of his Majesty King of the other FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL INDEX TO FULLER'S Worthies of England A. NAMES SHIRE PAGE ST Aaron Monm 50 Robert Abbot Surr. 82 George Abbot Surr. 83 Sir Roger Achley Shrop. 10 John Acton Middl. 104 Ralph Acton ib. 178 Sir Thomas Adams Shrop. 10 William Adams ib. 10 William Adams Kent 77 Adam de Marisco Somer 27 St. Adelme Wilt. 147 Pope Adrian IV. Hertf. 20 Agelnoth Kent 68 William Alabaster Suff. 70 â—… Alan de Morton Berk. 104 Albericus de Veer Bedf. 121 b Alan of Lynne Norf. 256 Flaccus Albinus alias Alcuinus York 227 King Alfred Berk. 96 Alphred of Beverly York 205 Henry de Aldecheleia Staff 50 John Alcock York 214 Albricius of Lond. 216 Robert Aldricke Bucks 131 William Alley ib. 131 William Aldersea Ches 191 St. Alride Cumb. 217 St. Alkmund Derb. 231 James Altham Essex 347 William Alton Hant. 11 St. Alban Hertf. 19 St. Alnulphus Bedf. 115 c William Alan Lanc. 109 Edward Allin Lond. 223 Rose Allin Essex 323 Bertram Fitz-Allin Linc. 166 Thomas Allin Staff 42 John Amersham Buck. 135 St. Amphibalus Monm 50 Anderton Lanc. 119 Sir Edmund Anderson Linc. 161 Anderson Northumb. 310 Lancelot Andrewes Lond. 206 Thomas Andrewes Northamp 300 Richardus Anglicus Lond. 215 Laurentius Anglicus ib. 216 Anne D. to King Charles Westm. 229 Richard Angervile Suff. 29 Henry D'Anvers Wilt. 153 Sir Edmund Appleby Leicest 136 Thomas de Appleby Westmorl 137 Roger de Appleby ibid.  Sir Simon Archer Warw. 133 William Armyne Linc. 155 David Archidiaconus Bedf. 122 King Arthur Cornw. 201 Prince Arthue Hant. 4 John Arundle Cornw. 200   202 209 Thomas Arundell Suss. 103 St. Asaph Flint 38 Roger Ascham York 209 John Ashburnham Surrey 95 Thomas Askine Berk. 91 William Ascough Linc. 156 Anne Askewe ib. 155 Thomas Ashbourne Derby 236 Sir Thomas de Ashton Lanc. 122 John de Aston Staff 48 Sir Walter Aston ib. 50 Atwell Cornw. 202 Edmund Audley Staff 42 Sir Thomas Audley Essex 327 James Lord Audley Devon 258 John Aylmer Norf. 238 B. NAMES SHIRE PAGE Richard Badew Essex 335 John Badby Lond. 204 Sir Francis Bacon Westmin 241 Robert Bacon Oxf. 337 Sir Nicholas Bacon Suff. 62 75 Ralph Baines York 197 John Baconthorpe Norf. 255 William Baitman Norw 276 Sir Richard Baker Oxf. 338 John Bale Suff. 60 Thomas Bagnols Staff 44 Christopher Bambridge Westmorl 136 Bankinus Londin Lond. 217 Sir John Banks Cumb. 219 John Ball Oxf. 339 John Bancroft ib. 333 Richard Bancroft Lanc. 112 Ralph Baldock Herâ—…f 21 Sir Paul Bannyng Essex 347 Hugo de Balsham Camb. 160 Amias Bamfeild Devon 272 Richard Barnes Lanc. 110 William Barry Kent 94 Thomas Barrington Essex 340 John Barnston Chesh. 183 John Barkham Devon 276 Juliana Barnes Lond. 217 Richard de Barking Essex 325 Adam of Barking ib. 332 Thomas Barret ib. 340 a John Barret Norf. 258 John Barnet Hertf. 21 Edward Bash ib. 30 Richard de Baskervill Heref. 44 Sir James Baskervill ib. 46 John Barningham Suff. 69 Herbert de Basham Sussex 101 William Barlow ib. 103 Salephilax the Bard Wales 13 John of Basingsloke Hant. 10 b Valentine Barret Kent 94 John Basket Berk. 108 Thomas Basket Dorces 28â—… John Basket Wilt. 163 Abbot of Battle Sussex 106 Walter de Baud Simon alii Essex 343 James Baynam Glocest. 354 Richard Basset Bedf. 121 John Basset Cornw. 210 Thomas Beckington Somers 23 Thomas Becket Lond. 203 Bede Durham 292 Sir Thomas Beigney Devon 265 Philip de la Beach Berk. 104 Margaret Beaufort Bedf. 115 Anne Beauchamp Oxâ—… 330 Richard Beauchamp Berk. 92  Worc. 171 Sir Edward Bellingham Westmorl 138 Thomas Bell Glocest. 362 Beavois Hant. 9