not know and dare not too curiously inquire left I turn their mirth among themselves into anger against me Sure it is seated in a fruitful soyl and cheap Country and where good chear and company are the Premisses mirth in common consequence will be the Conclusion Which if it doth not trespass in time cause and measure Heraclitus the sad Philosopher may perchance condemn but Saint Hilary the good Father will surely allow Princes HENRY youngest son to William Duke of Normandy but eldest to King William the Conquerour by whom he was begotten after he was Crowned King on which politick 〈◊〉 he claim'd and gain'd the Crown from Duke Robert his eldest brother was Anno Dom. 1070. born at Selbey in this County If any ask what made his Mother travail so far North from London know it was to enjoy Her Husbands company who to prevent insurrections and settle peace resided many months in these parts besides his peculiar affection to Selby where after he founded a MitredAbby This Henry was bred say some in Paris say others in Cambridge and I may safely say in both wherein he so profited that he attained the Surname of Beauclerke His learning may be presumed a great advantage to his long and prosperous raign for thirty five years and upwards wherein he remitted the Norman rigour and restored to His subjects a great part of the English Laws and Liberties Indeed his princely vertues being profitable to all did with their lustre so dazle the eyes of his subjects that they did not see his personall vices as chiefly prejudicial to himself For he was very wanton as appeareth by his numerous natural issue no fewer then fourteen all by him publickly owned the males highly advanced the females richly married which is justly reported to his praise it being lust to beget but love to bestow them His sobriery otherwise was admirable whose temperance was of proof against any meat objected to his appetite Lampreys alone excepted on a surfeit whereof he died Anno Domini 1135. He had onely two children William dying before and Maud surviving him both born in Normandy and therefore omitted in our Catalogue THOMAS Fifth son of King Edward the first and the first that he had by Margaret his second Wife was born at and surnamed from Brotherton a small Village in this County June 1. Anno Dom. 1300. He was created Earl of Norfolke and Earl Marshall of England He left no male-issue but from his females the Mowbrays Dukes of Norfolke and from them the Earls of Arundel and Lords Berkeley are descended RICHARD PLANTAGENET Duke of York commonly is called Richard of Conisborrow from the Castle in this Shire of his nativity The Reader will not grudge him a place amongst our Princes if considering him fixed in his Generation betwixt an Antiperistasis of Royal extraction being Son to a Son of a King Father to the Father of a King Edmund of Langley Duke of York Richard Duke of York Fifth son to K. Edward 3. Father to King Edward 4. Besides he had married Anne Daughter and sole Heir to Edward Mortimer the true Inheritrix of the Crown But tampering too soon and too openly to derive the Crown in his Wives right to himself by practising the death of the present King he was taken and beheaded for treason in the raign of K. Henry the fifth EDWARD sole son to King Richard the third and Anne his Queen was born in the Castle of Midleham near Richmond in this County and was by his father created Prince of Wales A Prince who himself was a child of as much hopes as his Father a man of hatred But he consumed away of a suddain dying within a month of his Mother King Richard little lamenting the loss of either and presently projecting to repair himself by a new Marriage The untimely death of this Prince in respect of the terme to which by Naturall possibility he might have attained in his innocent age is generally beheld as a punishment on him for the faults of his Father The Tongue foreswears the Ears are cut off the Hand steals the Feet are stocked and that justly because both consisting of the same body And because Proles est pars parentis it is agreeable with divine justice to inflict on Children temporal judgements for defaults of their Parents Yet this judgment was a mercy to this Prince that he might not behold the miserable end of his Father Let me adde and a mercy also to all England For had he survived to a mans estate he might possibly have proved a wall of partition to hinder the happy union of the two houses of York and Lancaster Saints HILDA was daughter unto Prince Hererick nephew to Edwin King of Northumberland and may justly be counted our English Huldah not so much for sameness of sex and name-sounding similitude as more concerning conformities Huldah lived in a Colledge Hilda in a Convent at Strenshalt in this County Huldah was the Oracle of those times as Hilda of her age being a kind of a Moderatresse in a Saxon Synod or conference rather called to compromise the controversie about the celebration of Easter I behold her as the most learned English Female before the Conquest and may call her the She-Gamaliel at whose feet many Learned men had their education She ended her holy life with an happy death about the year of our Lord 680. BENEDICT BISCOP was born saith Pitz amongst the East Saxons saith Hierome Porter in Yorkshire whom I rather believe First because writing his life ex professo he was more concerned to be curious therein Secondly because this Benedict had much familiarity with and favour from Oswy King of Northumberland in whose Dominions he fixed himself building two Monasteries the one at the influx of the river Were the other at the river Tine into the sea and stocking them in his life time with 600 Benedictine Moncks He made five Voyages to Rome and always returned full fraught with Reliques Pictures and Ceremonies In the former is driven on as great a Trade of Cheating as in any earthly Commodity in so much that I admire to meet with this passage in a Jesuite and admire more that he Met not with the Inquisition for writing it Addam * nonnunquam in Tem plis reliquias dubias profana corpora pro Sanctorum qui cum Christo in Coelo regnant exuviis sacris fuisse proposita He left Religion in England Braver but not better then he found it Indeed what Tully said of the Roman Lady That she danced better then became a modest woman was true of Gods Service as by him adorned the Gaudiness prejudicing the Gravity thereof He made all things according not to the Patern in the Mount with Mose's but the Precedent of Rome and his Convent being but the Romish Transcript became the English Original to which all Monasteries in the Land were suddenly conformed In a word I reverence his Memory
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
him in his letter to King Henry the eight Britannicarum Literarum Lumen Decus Indeed he had seholarship enough and wit too much seeing one saith truly of him Ejus sermo salsus in mordacem risus in opprobrium jocus in amaritudinem Yet was his Satyrical wit unhappy to light on three Noli me tangere's viz. the rod of a Schoolmaster the Couls of Friars and the Cap of a Cardinal The first gave him a lash the second deprived him of his livelyhood the third almost outed him of his life William Lilly was the School-master whom he fell foul with though gaining nothing thereby as may appear by his return And this I will do for W. Lilly though often beaten for his sake endeavour to translate his answer Quid me Sceltone fronte sic apertâ Carpis vipereo potens veneno Quid versus trutinâ meos iniquâ Libras dicere vera num licebit Doctrinae tibi dum parare famam Et Doctus fieri studes Poeta Doctrinam nec habes nec es Poeta VVith face so bold and teeth so sharp Of Vipers venome why dost carp VVhy are my verses by thee weigh'd In a false scale may truth be said VVhilst thou to get the more esteem A learned Poet fain wouldst seem Skelton thou art let all men know it Neither lâ—…arned nor a Poet. The Dominican Friars were the next he contested with whose vitiousness lay pat enough for his hand but such foul Lubbers fell heavy on all which found fault with them These instigated Nix Bishop of Norwich to call him to account for keeping a Concubine which cost him as it seems a suspension from his benefice But Cardinal VVolsey impar congressus betwixt a poor Poet and so potent a Prelate being inveighed against by his pen and charged with too much truth so persecuted him that he was forced to take Sanctuary at VVestminster where Abbot Islip used him with much respect In this restraint he died June 21. 1529. and is buried in Saint Margarets Chappel with this Epitaph J. Sceltonus Vates Pierius hic situs est The word Vates being Poet or Prophet minds me of this dying Skeltons prediction foretelling the ruine of Cardinal VVolsey Surely one unskilled in prophecies if well versed in Solomons Proverbs might have prognosticated as much that Pride goeth before a fall We must not forget how being charged by some on his death-bed for begetting many children on the aforesaid Concubine he protested that in his Conscience he kept her in the notion of a wife though such his cowardliness that he would rather confess adultery then accounted but a venial than own marriage esteemed a capital crime in that age Since the Reformation JOHN BARRET was born of an honest family at Linne in this County bred a Carmelite of White-Friars in Cambridge when learning ran low and degrees high in that University For many usurped scarlets qualified onely with ignorance and impudence properties seldome parted so that a Scholar could scarcely be seen for Doctors till the University sensible of the mischief thereby appointed Doctor Cranmer afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury to be the Poser-general of all Candidates in Divinity amongst whom he stopt Barret for insufficiency Back goes Barret to Linne turns over a new yea many new leaves plying his book to purpose whose former ignorance proceeded from want of pains not parts and in short time became a tollerable a good an excellent and admirable scholar and Commencing Doctor with due applause lived many years a painful Preacher in Norwich always making honourable mention of Doctor Cranmer as the means of his happyness Indeed he had been ever if not once a dunce who if not debarred had never deserved his Degree Bale saith that in the reign of Q. Mary he returned to his vomit and became a great Papist But his praises are better to be believed then his invectives and seeing Wood not growing crooked but warping with weight may be straightned again we charitably believe that though complying in times of persecution he returned to the truth in the reign of Queen Elizabeth in the beginning whereof he died EDMOND GOURNEY born in this County was bred in Queens and Bennet-Colledge in Cambridge where he Commenced Bachelour of Divinity and afterwards was beneficed in this Shire An excellent scholar who could be humorous and would be serious as he was himself disposed his humors were never prophane towards God or injurious towards his Neighbours which premised none have cause to be displeased if in his fancies he pleased himself Coming to me in Cambridge when I was studying he demanded of me the subject whereon I studied I told him I was Collecting the Witnesses of the truth of the Protestant Religion through all ages even in the depth of Popery conceiving it feasible though difficult to evidence them It is a needless pains said he for I know that I am descended from Adam though I cannot prove my pedigree from him And yet Reader be pleased to take notice he was born of as good a family as any in Norfolk His book against Transubstantiation and another on the second Commandement are learnedly and judiciously written he died in the beginning of our Civil Wars Benefactors to the Publique GODFREY BOLLEN Knight Son of Jeffrey Bollen was born at Salle in this County Being but a second brother he was sent into the City to acquire wealth ad aedificandum domum antiquam Unto whose atchievements fell in both the blood and inheritance of his eldest brother for want of Issue Male. By which accumulation he attained great wealth and Anno Domini 1457. was Lord Mayor of London By his Testament made in the next year he gave liberally to the Prisoners Hospitals and Lazer-houses Besides he gave one thousand pounds the greatest sum I meet with in that age to pious uses to poor Housholders in London and two hundred pounds to those in Norfolk But it was the height of his and our happiness that he was Great-grand-father by the Mothers side to Queen Elizabeth JAMES HOBART was born in this County though I dare not say at Halles-hall which he left to his posterity He was Atturney-general and of the Privy-counsel to King Henry the seventh by him dubbed Knight at such time as he Created Henry his Son Prince of Wales This worthy Patriot besides his many benefactions to his Parish-church in London built a fair Bridge over the river VVaveny betwixt this County and Suffolk and a firm Cause-way thereby with many other works of charity so that the three houses of his issue planted in this County with fair possessions may be presumed to prosper the better for the piety of this their Ancestour ANDREW PERNE was born at Bilny bred in Peter-house whereof he was Fellow and Master as also Proctor and Vice-chancellour of Cambridge and Dean of Ely Very bountiful he was to his Colledge wherein he founded a Fellowship and Scholarships Besides many rare
Esquire of Addington by Isabel his wife sister and at last sole heir to Henry Green of Drayton Esquire of whom formerly This Henry was afterwards Knighted and dying without Issue-male Elizabeth his daughter and co heir was married to John first Lord Mordant to whom she brought Draiton-house in this County and other fair lands as the partage of her portion NICHOLAS VAUX Mil. He was a jolly Gentleman both for Camp and Court a great Reveller good as well in a March as a Masque being Governour of Guines in Picardie whom King Hen. the eight for his Loyalty and Valour Created Baron of Harouden in this County Ancestor to Edward Lord Vaux now living This Sir Nicholas when young was the greatest Gallant of the English-Court no Knight at the marriage of Prince Arthur appearing in so costly an equipage when he wore a gown of purple velvet pight with pieces of gold so thick and massive that it was valued besides the silk and furs at a thousand pounds and the next day wore a Colar of S. S. which weighed as Goldsmiths reported eight hundred pounds of nobles Some will wonder that Empson and Dudley the Royal Promoters then in prime did not catch him by the Collar or pick an hole in his Gown upon the breach of some rusty penal sumptuary Statute the rather because lately the Earl of Oxford was heavily fined for supernumerous attendance But know that King Henry could better bear with 〈◊〉 then greatness in his Subjects especially when such expence cost â—…imself nothing and conduced much to the solemnity of his Sons Nuptials Besides such plate as wrought employed Artizans as massive retain'd its intrinsecal value with little loss either of the owners or Common-wealth HENRY the Eight 1 THOMAS PAR Mil. His former residence was at Kendal-Castle in Westmerland whence he removed into this Country having married Maud one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir Thomas Green of Green-Norton He was father to Queen Katharine Par which rendereth a probability of her nativity in this County and to William Marquiss of Northampton of whom hereafter 15 WILLIAM FITZ-WILLIAMS Sen. Mil. This must be the person of whom I read this memorable passage in Stows Survey of London Sir William Fitz-Williams the elder being a Merchant-Taylor and servant sometime to Cardinal Wolsey was chosen Alderman of Bread-street-Ward in London Anno 1506. Going afterward to dwell at Milton in Northamptonshire in the fall of the Cardinal his former Master he gave him kind entertainment there at his house in the Country For which deed being called before the King and demanded how he durst entertain so great an Enemy to the State his Answer was that he had not contemptuously or wilfully done it but onely because he had been his Master and partly the means of his greatest fortunes The King was so well pleased with his Answer that saying himself had few such servants immediately Knighted him and afterwards made him a Privy Counsellour But we have formerly spoken of the benefactions of this worthy Knight in the County of Essex whereof he was Sheriffe in the sixth of King Henry the eight 17 WILLIAM PAR Mil. I have cause to be confident that this was he who being Uncle and Lord Chamberlain to Queen Katharine Par was afterwards by King Henry the eight Created Baron Par of Horton Left two daughters onely married into the Families of Tressame and Lane The Reader is requested to distinguish him from his Name-sake Nephew Sheriffe in the 25. of this Kings reign of whom hereafter 21 JOHN CLARKE Mil. I find there was one Sir John Clarke Knight who in the fifth of Henry the eight at the Siege of Terrowane took prisoner Lewis de Orleans Duke of Longevile and Marquiss of Rotueline This Sir John bare for his paternal Coat Argent on a Bend Gules three Swans proper between as many Pellets But afterwards in memory of his service aforesaid by special command from the King his Coat armour was rewarded with a Canton Sinister Azure and thereupon a Demi-ramme mounting Argent armed Or between two Flowers de lices in Chief of the last over all a Batune dexter-ways Argent as being the Arms of the Duke his prisoner and by Martial-law belonging to him He lieth buried in the next County viz. in the Church of Tame in Oxfordshire where his Coat and cause thereof is expressed on his Monument If this be not the same with Sir John Clarke our Sheriffe I am utterly at a loss and desire some others courteous direction All I will adde is this If any demand why this Knight did onely give a parcel and not the entire Arms of the Duke his prisoner a learned Antiquary returns this satisfactory answer That he who â—…aketh a Christian Captive is to give but part of his Arms to mind him of charitable moderation in using his success intimating withall that one taking a Pagan prisoner may justifie the bearing of his whole Coat by the laws of Armory I must not conceal that I have read in a most excellent Manuscript viz. the View of Staffordshire made by Sampson Erderswicke Esquire That one William Stamford in that County had good land given him therein for taking the Duke of Longevile prisoner August the 16. in the fifth of King Henry the eight History will not allow two Dukes of Longevile Captives and yet I have a belief for them both that Sir John Clarke and William Stamford were causae sociae of his Captivity and the King remunerated them both the former with an addition of honour the later with an accession of Estate 23 WILLIAM SPENCER Miles DAVID SISILL Arm. 24 DAVID CECILL Arm. Sir William Spencer dying it seems in his Sherivalty David Sissill supplied the remainder of that and was Sheriffe the next year This David had three times been Alderman of Stamford part whereof called Saint Martins is in this County viz. 1504. 1515. and 1526. and now twice Sheriffe of the County which proves him a person both of Birth Brains and Estate seeing in that age in this County so plentiful of capable persons none were advanced to that office except Esquires at least of much merrit The different spelling of his name is easily answered the one being according to his extraction of the Sitsilts of Alterynnis in Herefordshire the other according to the vulgar pronunciation All I will adde is this that his Grand-child William Cecil afterwards Baron of Burghley and Lord Treasurer of England being born Anno 1521. was just ten years of age in the Sherivalty of this David his Grand-father 25 WILLIAM PAR Mil. He was son to Sir Thomas Par of whom before Ten years after viz. in the 35. year of his reign King Henry the eight having newly married his Sister Queen Katharine Par made him Lord Par of Kendall and Earl of Essex in right of Anne Bourcher his wife King Edward the sixth Created him Marquiss of Northampton Under Queen Mary
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
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-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
same morning he was elected Bishop of Ely made him his Chaplain and Dr. Featly chose him his second in one of his Disputations against Father Fisher yea Mr. Walker alone had many encounters with the subtillest of the Jesuitical party He was a man of an holy life humble heart and bountiful hand who deserved well of Sion Colledge Library and by his example and perswasion advanced about a thousand pounds towards the maintenance of preaching-Ministers in this his Native County He ever wrote all his Sermons though making no other use of his Notes in the Pulpit than keeping them in his pocket being wont to say that he thought he should be out if he had them not about him His Sermons since printed against the prophanation of the Sabboth and other practises and opinions procured him much trouble and two years Imprisonment till he was released by the Parliament He dyed in the seventy year of his Age Anno Dom. 1651. Romish Exile Writers EDWARD RISHTON was born in this * County and bred some short time in Oxford till he fled over to Doway where he was made Master of Arts. Hence he removed to Rome and having studyed Divinity four years in the English Colledge there was ordained Preist 1580. Then was he sent over into England to gain Proselites in prosecution whereof he was taken and kept Prisoner three years Yet was the Severity of the State so mercifull unto him as to spare his Life and only condemn him to Banishment He was carried over into France whence he went to the University of Pontmuss in Loraine to plye his Studies During his abode there the place was infected with the Plague Here Rishton forâ—…ate the Physicians Rule Citâ—… Procul Longe Tarde flye away soon live away far sâ—…ay away long come again slowly For he remained so long in the Town till he carried away the infection with him and going thence dyed at St. Manhow 1585. I presume no Ingenuous Papist will be censorious on our Painful Munster Learned Junius Godly Greenham all dying of the Pestilence seeing the most conscientious of their own Perswasion subject to the same and indeed neither Love nor Hatred can be collected from such Casualties THOMAS WORTHINGTON was born in this * County of a Gentile Family was bred in the English Colledge at Doway where he proceeded Bachelour in Divinity and a little before the Eighty Eight was sent over into England as an Harvinger for the Spanish Invasion to prepare his Party thereunto Here he was caught and cast into the Tower of London yet found such favour that he escaped with his life being banished beyond the Seas At Triers he commenced Doctor in Divinity and in process of time was made President of the English Colledge at Rhemes When after long expectation the Old Testament came out in English at Rhemes permitted with some cautions for our Lay-Catholicks to read this Worthington wrote his notes thereupon which few Protestants have seen and fewer have regarded He was alive in 1611. but how long after is to me unknown If not the same which for his vivaciousness is improbable there was a Father Worthington certainly his Kinsman and Countryman very busie to promote the Catholick cause in England about the beginning of King Charles He Dining some thirty years since with a Person of Honour in this Land at whose Table I have often eaten was very obstreperous in arguing the case for Transubstantiation and the Ubiquitariness of Christs body Suppose said he Christ were here To whom the Noble Master of the House who till then was silent returned If you were away I beleive he would be here Worthington perceiving his Room more wellcome then his Company embraced the next opportunity of Departure ANDERTON whose christian name I cannot recover was born in this County and brought up at Blackborne School therein and as I have been informed he was bred in Christs Colledge in Cambridge where for his Eloquence he was commonly called Golden Mouth Anderton afterwards he went beyond the Seas and became a Popish preist and one of the learnedst amongst them This is he who improving himself on the poverty of Mr. Robert Bolton sometimes his School-Fellow but then not fixed in his Religion and Fellow of Brazenose colledge perswaded him to be reconciled to the Church of Rome and go over with him to the English Seminary promising him gold enough a good argument to allure an unstable mind to popery and they both appointed â—… meeting But it pleased the God of Heaven who holdeth both an Hour-glass and reed in his hand to measure both time and place so to order the matter that though Mr. Bolton came Mr. Anderton came not accordingly So that Rome lost and England gain'd an able Instrument But now I have lost J. Pitz to guide me and therefore it is time to knock off having no direction for the date of his Death Benefactors to the publick WILLIAM SMITH was born at * Farmeworth in this County bred Fellow in Pembroke hall in Cambridge and at last by King Henry the Eighth preferred Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry That Politick Prince to ease and honour his Native Country of Wales erected a Court of Presidency conformable to the Parliaments of France in the Marshes thereof and made this Bishop first President those Parts lying partly in his Diocesse He discharged the place with singular Integrity and general contentment retaining that Office till the day of his Death when he was removed to be Bishop of Lincoln A good name is an Ointment poured out saith Solomon and this man wheresoever he went may be followed by the perfume of charity he left behind him 1. At Lichfield he founded an Hospital for a Master two preists and ten poor people 2. In the same place he founded a School procuring from King Henry the seventh that the Hospital of Downholl in Cheshire with the Lands there unto belonging should be bestowed upon it Say not this was Robbing the Spittle or at the best Robbing Peter to pay Paul seeing we may presume so charitable a Prelate would do nothing unjust though at this distance of time we cannot clear the particulars of his proceedings At Farmeworth where he was born he founded a school allowing ten pounds annually in that age no mean salary for the Master thereof The University of Oxford discreetly chose him Oxford being in his Diocesse of Lincoln their Chancellour and lost nothing thereby for he proved a more loving Nephew than Son so bountiful to his Aunt Oxford that therein he founded Brazen Nosecolledge but dyed 1513 before his Foundation was finished Molineux a famous preacher about Henry the Eigths time descended of the house of Sefton in the County of Lancaster builded the Church at Sefton anew and houses for Schools about the Church-yard and made the great Wall about Magdalen Colledge in Oxford EDVVARD HALSALL in the County of Lancaster Esquire sometimes Chamberlain of the Exchequer at Chester
to inherit Happiness so severe her Education VVhilest a childe her Father's was to her an House of Correction nor did she write Woman sooner than she did subscribe Wife and in Obedience to her Parents was unfortunately matched to the L. Guilford Dudley yet he was a goodly and for ought I â—…ind to the contrary a Godly Gentleman whose worst fault was that he was Son to an ambitious Father She was proclaimed but never crowned Queen living in the Tower which Place though it hath a double capacity of a Palace and a Prison yet appeared to her chiefly in the later Relation For She was longer a Captive than a Queen therein taking no contentment all the time save what she found in God and a clear Conscience Her Family by snatching at a Crown which was not lost a Coronet which was their own much degraded in Degree and more in Estate I would give in an Inventory of the vast Wealth they then possessed but am loth to grieve her surviving Relations with a List of the Lands lost by her Fathers attainture She suffered on Tower-Hill 〈◊〉 on the twelfth of February KATHARINE GREY was second Daughter to Henry Duke of Suffolk T is pity to part the Sisters that their Memories may mutually condole and comfort one another She was born in the same place and when her Father was in height married to Henry Lord Herbert Son and Heir to the Earl of Pembroke buâ—… the politick old Earl perceiving the case altered and what was the high way to Honour turned into the ready road to Ruin got pardon from Queen Mary and brake the marriage quite off This Heraclita or Lady of Lamentation thus repudiated was seldome seen with dry eyes for some years together sighing out her sorrowful condition so that though the Roses in her Cheeks looked very wan and pale it was not for want of watering Afterward Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford married her privately without the Queens Licence and concealed till her pregnancy discovered it Indeed our English Proverb It is good to be near a kin to Land holdeth in private patrimonies not Titles to Crowns where such Aliances hath created to many much molestation Queen Elizabeth beheld her with a jealous Eye unwilling she should match either Forreign Prince or English Peer but follow the pattern she set her of constant Virginity For their Presumption this Earl was fined fifteen thousand pounds imprisoned with his Lady in the Tower and severely forbidden her company But Love and Money will find or force a passage By bribing the Keeper he bought what was his own his Wifes Embraces and had by her a surviving Son Edward Ancestor to the Right Honourable the Duke of Somerset She dyed January 26. a Prisoner in the Tower 1567. after nine years durance therein MARY GREY the youngest Daughter frighted with the Infelicity of her two Elder Sisters Jane and this Katharine forgot her Honour to remember her Safety and married one whom she could love and none need fear Martin Kayes of Kent Esq. who was a Judge at Court but only of Doubtful casts at Dice being Seâ—…jeant-Porter and died without Issue the 20. of April 1578. Martyrs HUGH LATIMER was born at Thurcaston in this County what his Father was and how qualified for his State take from his own mouth in his first Sermon before King Edward being confident the Reader will not repent his pains in perusing it My Father was a Yeoman and had no Lands of his own onely he had a Farme of three or four Pounds a Year at the uttermost and hereupon he tilled so much as kept halfe a dozen men he had walk for an Hundred Sheep and my Mother milked thiry Kine he was able and did finde the King an HARNESS with himself and his Horse whilest he came unto the Place that he should receive the Kings Wages I can remember I buckled his Harness when he went to Black Heath Field He kept me to School or else I had not been able to have Preached before the Kings Majestie now He married my Sisters with Five Pounds or twenty Nobles a piece so that he brought them up in Godliness and Fear of God He kept Hospitallity for his Poor Neighbours and some Almes He gave to the Poor and all this did he of the same Farme where he that now hath it payeth sixteen pounds by the Year and more and is not able to do any thing for his Prince for himself nor for his Children or give a Cup of Drink to the Poor He was bred in Christ's Colledg in Cambridg and converted under God by Mr. Bilney from a Violent Papist to a Zealous Protestant He was afterwards made Bishop of Worcester and four Years after outed for refusing to subscribe the six Articles How he was martyred at Oxford 1555. is notoriously known Let me add this Appendix to his Memory when the Contest was in the House of Lords in the Raign of K. Henry the Eighth about the giving all Abby Lands to the King There was a Division betwixt the Bishops of the Old and New Learning for by those Names they were distinguished Those of the Old Learning unwillingly willing were contented that the King should make a Resumption of all those Abbies which his Ancestors had founded leaving the rest to continue according to the Intention of their Founders The Bishops of the new Learning were more pliable to the Kings Desires Only Latimer was dissenting earnestly urging that two Abbies at the least in every Diocess of considerable Revenues might be preserved for the Maintenance of Learned men therein Thus swimming a good while against the stream he was at last carried away with the Current Eminent Prelates before the Reformation GILBERT SEGRAVE Born at Segrave in this County was bred in Oxford where he attained to great Learning as the Books written by him do declare The first Preferment I find conferred on him was The Provosts place of St. Sepulchers in York and the occasion how he obtained it is remakable The Pope had formerly bestowed it on his near Kinsman which argueth the good value thereof seeing neither Eagles nor Eagles Birds do feed on Flyes This Kinsman of the Popes lying on his death bed was troubled in Conscience which speakâ—…eth loudest when men begin to be speechlesse and all Sores pain most when nere night that he had undertaken such a Cure of Souls upon him who never was in England nor understood English and therefore requested the Pope his Kinsman that after his Death the Place might be bestowed on some Learned English-man that so his own absence and negligence might in some sort be repaired by the Residence and diligence of his Successor And this Segrave to his great Credit was found the fittest Person for that Performance He was afterwards preferred Bishop of London sitting in that See not full four years dying Anno Dom. 1317. WALTER DE LANGTON was born at VVest-langton in this County He was highly in favour
which Alms-dish came afterwards into the possession of the Duke of Somerset who sent it to the Lord Rivers to sell the same to furnish himself for a Sea-voyage But after the Death of good Duke Humphrey when many of his former Alms-men were at a losse for a meals meat this Proverb did alter its Copy to Dine with Duke Humphrey importing to be Dinnerlesse A general mistake fixed this sense namely that Duke Humphrey was buryed in the Body of St. Pauls Church where many men chaw their meat with feet and walk away the want of a Dinner whereas indeed that noble person interred in St. Pauls was Sir John Beauchamp Constable of Dover Warden of the Cinque Ports Knight of the Garter Son to Guy Earl of Warwick and Brother to Thomas Earl of Warwick whilst Duke Humphrey was honourably buried in St. Albans I will use you as bad as a Jew I am sure I have carried the Child home and layed it at the Fathers House having traced this Proverb by the Tract from England in General to London thence to the Old Jury whence it had its first Original that poor Nation especially on Shrove-Tuesday being intollerably abused by the English whilst they lived in the Land I could wish that wheresoever the Jews live they may not find so much courtesie as to confirm them in their false yet not so much Cruelty as to discourage them from the true Religion till which time I can bemone their Misery condemn the Christians Cruelty and admire Gods justice in both See we it here now fulfilled which God long since frequently foretold and threatned namely that he would make the Jews become a Proverb if continuing Rebellious against him I passe not for the Flouts of prophane Pagans scoffing at the Jews Religion Credat Judaeus Apella but to behold them thus Proverbiascere for their Rebellions against God minds me of the performance of Gods Threatning unto them Good manners to except my Lord Maior of London This is a corrective for such whose expressions are of the largest size and too general in their extent parallel to the Logick Maxime Primum in unoquoque genere est excipiendum as too high to come under the Roof of comparison In some cases it is not civil to fill up all the room in our speeches of our selves but to leave an upper place voyd as a blank reserved for our betters I have dined as well as my Lord Maior of London That this Proverb may not crosse the former know that as well is not taken for as dubiously or daintily on Variety of Costly Dishes in which kinds the Lord Maior is Paramount for Magnificence For not to speak of his solemn Invitations as when Henry Pickard Lord Maior 1357. did in one day entertain a Messe of Kings Edward King of England John King of France David King of Scots and the King of Cyprus besides Edward Prince of Wales and many prime Noble-men of the Land his daily Dinners are Feasts both for Plenty Guests and Attendants But the Proverb hath its modest meaning I haue dined as well that is as comfortable as contentedly according to the Rule Satis est quod sufficit enough is as good as a Feast and better then a Surfeit and indeed Nature is contented with a little and Grace with lesse As old as Pauls Steeple Different are the Dates of the Age thereof because it had two births or beginnings For if we count it from the time wherein it was originally co-founded by K. Ethelbert with the Body of the Church Anno six hundred and ten then it is above a thousand and forty years of Age. But if we reckon it from the year 1087. when burnt with Lightning from Heaven and afterwards rebuilt by the Bishops of London it is not above five hundred years old And though this Proverb falls far short of the Latine ones Antiquius Arcadibus Antiquius Saturno yet serveth it sufficiently to be returned to such who pretend those things to be Novell which are known to be stale old and almost antiquated He is only fit for Ruffians-Hall A Ruffian is the same with a Swaggerer so called because endevouring to make that Side to swag or weigh down whereon he ingageth The same also with Swash-Buckler from swashing or making a noise on Bucklers West-Smith-field now the Horse-Market was formerly called Ruffians-Hall where such men met casually and otherwise to try Masteries with Sword and Buckler Moe were frighted then hurt hurt then killed therewith it being accounted unmanly to strike beneath the Knee because in effect it was as one armed against a naked man But since that desperate Traitor Rowland Yorke first used thrusting with Rapiers Swords and Bucklers are disused and the Proverb only appliable to quarrelsome people not tame but wild Barretters who delight in brawls and blows A Loyal heart may be landed under Traitors Bridge This is a Bridge under which is an Entrance into the Tower over against Pink Gate formerly fatal to those who landed there there being a muttering that such never came forth alive as dying to say no worse therein without any Legal Tryal The Proverb importeth that passive Innocence overpower'd with Adversaries may be accused without cause and disposed at the pleasure of others it being true of all Prisoners what our Saviour said to and of St. Peter Another shall carry thee whither thou wouldst not Queen Elizabeth may be a proofe hereof who in the Reign of Queen Mary her Sister first stayed and denyed to Land at those Stairs where all Traytors and Offenders customably used to Land till a Lord which my Author would not and I cannot name told her she should not choose and so she was forced accordingly To cast water into the Thames That is to give to them wâ—…o had plenty before which notwithstanding is the dole general of the World Yet let not Thames be proud of his full and fair stream seeing Water may be wanting therein as it was Anno 1158. the Fourth of William Rufus when men might walk over dryshod and again Anno 1582. a strong Wind lying West and by South which forced out the Fresh and kept back the Salt-water He must take him a House in Turn-again Lane This in old Records is called Wind-again Lane and lyeth in the Parish of St. Sepulchres going down to Fleet-Dike which men must turn again the same way they came for there it is stopped The Proverb is applied to those who sensible that they embrace destructive courses must seasonably alter their manners which they may do without any shame to themselves it is better to come back through Turn-again though a narrow and obscure Lane then to go on an ill account straight forwards in a fair street hard by whence Vestigia nulla retrorsum as leading Westward to Execution He may whet his Knife on the Threshold of the Fleet. The Fleet is a place notoriouslâ—… known for a
any cause they should undergoe the punishment of death Whereas henceforward in England many were brought to the fire by the Bishops and others of the Clergy whose opinions were neither so blasphemous nor deportment so inhumane as ancient Hereticks I confesse not onely simple heresie was charged on this Sautre but also a relapse thereinto after abjuration in which case such is the charity of the Canon-Law that such a person is seculari judicio sine ulla penitus audientia relinquendus not affording any audience to one relapsed though he should revoke his opinions Quite contrary to the charitable Judgement of St. Chrysostome who sticked not to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou fall a thousand times and repent thee of thy folly come boldly into the Church There is some difference amongst Authors about the legal proceedings against this Sautre by what power he was condemned to dye Walsingham will have him die during the sitting of the Parliament secundo Henrici quarti by vertue of the Law then made against Hereticks Others will have him put to death not by any Statute-Law then made but as convicted in a Provincial Councel of the Archbishop of Canterbury The latter seemeth most true because the Writ De Haeretico comburendo sent down by the advice of the Lords Temporal to the Mayor of London to cause his execution bare date the 26 of February whereas it was ordered in that Parliament that the penal Statutes made therein should not take effect till after VVhitsontide But by what power soever it was done poor Sautre was burnt in Smithfield about the 28 of February 1400. One criticisme of cruelty and hypocrisie is most remarkable The close of the Archbishops sentence of degradation when Sautre was committed over to the Secular Court endeth with this expression Beseeching the Court aforesaid that they will receive favourably the said William unto them thus recommitted We are much beholding to Baronius for the better understanding this passage informing us that it was ever fashionable with their Clergy to this day that when they consigne an Heretick over to the Secular for execution they effectually intercede that he may not be punished with death For it appeareth in Prosper that 4 Bishops were excommunicated An. 392. for being accusers of Priscilian the first Heretick who was confuted with steel that age conceiving all tendency to cruelty utterly inconsistent with Clerical profession And hence it was thinks the aforesaid Baronius that this custome was taken up of the Clergie's mock-mercy in their dissembled mediation for condemned Hereticks I say dissembled for if the Lay having them in his power shall defer the doing of it more than ordinary it is the constant tenet of the Canonists relying on a Bull of Alexander the 4th 1260. he is to be compell'd unto it by spiritual censures We have been the larger upon this Sautre's death because he was the English Protestant pardon the Prolepsis Proto-martyr But every son must not look to be an heir we will be shorter on the rest in this City contenting our selves with their bare names except some extraordinary matter present it self to our observation JOHN BADBY was an Artificer in Black Friars in London condemned and burned in Smithfield about 1401. Henry Prince of VVales afterwards King Henry the 5th happened to be present at his execution who not onely promised him pardon on his recantation but also a stipend out of the Kings Treasury sufficient for his support all which Badby refused He was put into an empty Tun a ceremony of cruelty peculiar to him alone and the fire put therein At the first feeling thereof he cryed Mercy Mercy begging it of the God of heaven which Noble Prince Henry mistook for a kind of Revocation of his Opinions and presently caused the fire round about him to be quenched renewing his promises unto him with advantage which Badby refused the second time and was Martyred But Reader I will engage no deeper in this copious subject lest I lose my self in the Labyrinth thereof * Joseph left off to Number the Corn in Egypt for it was without number the cause alone of my desisting in this subject Yea Bloudy Bonner had murdered many more had not that Hydropical Humor which quenched the life of Queen Mary extinguished also the Fires in Smithfield Prelates Here in this City we are at a greater losse as to this Topick than in any Shire in England for in vain it is for any man to name himself Thomas of London John of London c. such Sirnames not reaching their end nor attaining their intention viz. 〈◊〉 diversifie the Person the laxity of so populous a place leaving them as unspecified as it found them We therefore have cause to believe that many Clergy-men both Bishops and Writers born in this City did not follow suit with others of their Coat to be named from the Place of their Nativity but from their Fathers the Reason why we can give so slender an account of them as followeth SIMON OF GAUNT was born in this City his Mother being an English Woman his Father a Flemming and being bred in good literature became so famous that by King Edward the first he was preferred Bishop of Salisbury 1298. He gave the first leave to the Citizens thereof to fortifie that place with a deed Ditch partly remaining and a strong wall wholly demolished at this day Now seeing good Laws are the best walls of any foundation no lesse was his care for the Church than City of Salisbury making good Statutes whereby it was ordered even unto our age He dyed about the year 1315. JOHN KITE was born in London bred in Oxford sent Embassadour into Spain made a Grecian titulary Arch bishop receiving thence as much profit as men shear wool from hogs and at last the real Bishop of Carlisle yet is his Epitaph in the Church of Stepney neither good English Latine Spanish or Greek but a barbarous confusion as followeth Under this Stone closyd marmorate Lveth John 〈◊〉 Londoner naciste Encreasing invirtues rose to hyghestate In the fourth Edwards chappel by his yong life Sith which the Seuinth Henries service primatife Proceeding still in virtuous efficase To be in favour with this our Kings grase With Witt endewyed chosen to be Legate Sent into Spain where he right joyfully Combined both Princes in pease most amate In Grece Archbishop elected worthely And last of Carlyel ruling postorally Kepyng nobyl houshold with great hospitality On thousand fyve hundred thirty and seuyn Inuyterate with carys consumed with Age The nineteeth of Jun reckonyd full euyn Passed to Heauyn from worldly Pylgramage Of whose Soul good peopul of Cherite Prey as ye wold be preyd for for thus must you lye Ieâ—…u mercy Lady help These if made 300 years ago had been excusable but such midnight verses are abominable made as it appears in the dawning of good learning and pure language Yet
could not enter except going sidelong at any ordinary door which gave the occasion to this Proverb But these Verdingales have been disused this fourty years whether because Women were convinced in their consciences of the va◅ity of this or allured in their fancies with the novelty of other fashions I will not determine Chronica si penses cum pugnent Oxonienses Post aliquot mēses volat ira per Angliginenses Mark the Chronicles aright When Oxford Scholars fall to fight Before many months expir'd England will with wa◅ be fir'd I confesse Oxoniensis may import the broils betwixt the Townsmen of Oxford or Towns men and Scholars but I conceive it properly to intend the contests betwixt Scholars and Scholars which were observed predictional as if their animosities were the Index of the Volume of the Land Such who have time may exactly trace the truth hereof through our English Histories Sure I am there were shrewd bickerings betwixt the Southern and Northern men in Oxford in the reign of King Henry the third not long before the bloody War of the Barons did begin The like happened twice under King Richard the second which seemed to be the Van-curreer of the fatal fights betwixt Lancaster and York However this observation holds not negatively all being peaceable in that place and no broils at Oxford sounding the al◅rum to our late civil dissentions Princes RICHARD Son to King Henry the second and Queen Eleanor was the sixth King since the Conquest but second Native of England born in the City of Oxford Anno 1157. Whilest a Prince he was undutiful to his Father or to qualifie the matter over-dutiful to his Mother whose domestick quarrels he always espoused To expia◅e his offence when King he with Philip King of France undertook a voyage to the Holy Land where thorough the Treachery of Templary cowardize of the Greeks diversity of the Climate distance of the place and differences betwixt Christian Princes much time was spent a mass of money expended many lives lost some honour atchieved but little profit produced Going to Palestine he suffered ship-wrack and many mischiefs on the coasts of Cyprus coming for England thorow Germany he was tost with a worse Land-Tempest being in pursuance of an old grudge betwixt them taken prisoner by Leopaldu◅ Duke of Austria Yet this Coeur de Lion or Lion-hearted King for so was he commonly called was no less Lion though now in a Grate than when at liberty abating nothing of his high spirit in his behaviour The Duke did not undervalue this his Royal Prisoner prizing his person at ten years purchase according to the then yearly revenue of the English Crown This ransome of an hundred thousand pounds being paid he came home first reformed himself and then mended many abuses in the Land and had done more had not an unfortunate Arrow shot out of a besieged Castle in France put a period to his life Anno Dom. 1199. EDMUND youngest Son to King Edward the first by Queen Margaret was born at Woodstock Aug. 5. 1301. he was afterwards created Earl of Kent and was Tutor to his Nephew King Edward the third In whose raign falling into the tempest of false injurious and wicked envy he was beheaded for that he never dissembled his natural brotherly affection toward his Brother deposed and went about when he was God wot murdered before not knowing so much to enlarge him out of prison perswaded thereunto by such as covertly practised his destruction He suffered at Winchester the ninteenth of March in the fourth of Edward the third EDWARD Eldest Son of King Edward the third was born at Woodstock in this County and bred under his Father never abler Teacher met with an apter Scholar in Marshal Discipline He was afterwards termed the Black Prince not so called from his complexion which was fair enough save when Sun-burnt in his Spanish expedition nor from his conditions which were courteous the constant attender of Valour but from his atchievements dismal and black as they appeared to the eyes of his enemies whom he constantly overcame But grant him black in himself he had the fairest Lady to his Wife this Land and that age did afford viz. Joane Countess of Salisbury and Kent which though formerly twice a Widow was the third time married unto him This is she whose Ga◅ter which now flourisheth again hath lasted longer than all the Wardrobes of the Kings and Queens in England since the Conquest continued in the Knighthood of that Order This Prince died before his Father at Canterbury in the 46. year of his age Anno Dom. 1376. whose Maiden success attended him to the grave as never foyled in any undertakings Had he survived to old age in all probabilities the Wars between York and Lancaster had been ended before begun I mean prevented in him being a person of merit and spirit and in Seniority before any suspicion of such divisions He left two Sons Edward who died at seven years of age and Richard afterwards King second of that name both born in France and therefore not coming within the compass of our Catalogue THOMAS of Woodstock youngest Son of King Edward the third and Queen Philippa was sirnamed of Woodstock from the place of his Nativity He was afterward Earl of Buckingham and Duke of Gloucester created by his Nephew King Richard the second who summoned him to the Parliament by the Title of the Kings loving Uncle He married Isabel one of the Co-heirs of Humphrey Bohun Earl of Essex in whose right he became Constable of England a dangerous place when it met with an unruly manager thereof But this Thomas was only guilty of ill tempered Loyalty loving the King well but his own humors better rather wilful than hurtful and presuming on the old maxime Patruus est loco Parentis An Uncle is in the place of a Father He observed the King too nearly and checked him too sharply whereupon he was conveyed to Calis and there strangled By whose death King Richard being freed from the causeless fear of an Uncle became exposed to the cunning Plots of his Cousin German Henry Duke of Lancaster who at last deposed him This Thomas founded a fair Colledge at Playsie in Essex where his body was first buried with all Solemnity and afterward translated to Westminster ANNE BEAUCHAMP was born at Cavesham in this County Let her pass for a Princess though not formally reductively seeing so much of History dependeth on her as Elevated Depressed 1. Being Daughter and in fine sole Heir to Richard Beaucamp that most Martial Earl of Warwick 2. Married to Richard Nevil Earl of Sarisbury and Warwick commonly called the Make-King and may not she then by a courteous proportion be termed the Make-Queen 3. In her own and Husbands right she was possessed of one hundred and fourteen Manors in several Shires 4. Isabell her eldest daughter was married to George Duke of Clarence and Anne her younger to Edward Prince of Wales son of
much abused by the avarice and mis-imployment of the Governors thereof and charitably do presume that such faults if any are since or will be suddenly amended Since the Reformation JOHN HARINGTON the elder son to Sir James Harington was born at Exton in this County where their ancient Family had long flourished A bountiful House-keeper dividing his hospitality between Rutland and Warwick-shire where he had a fair habitation He was one of the Executors to the Lady Frances Sidney and a grand Benefactor to the College of her founding in Cambridge King James created him Baron of Exton and his Lady a prudent woman had the Princess Elizabeth committed to her government When the said Princess was married to Frederick Prince Palatine this Lord with Henry Martin Doctor of the Laws was sent over to the Palatinate to see her Highness setled at Hidleburgh and some formalities about her Dowry and Joynture performed This done as if God had designed this for his last work he sickned on the first day of his return and dyed at Wormes in Germany on St. Bartholomews day Anno Dom. 1613. The Lord John his son of whom in Warwick-shire did not survive him a year both of them signally eminent the one a pattern for all good fathers th' other for all gracious sons and pity it is the last had not issue to be a president to all grand-children but God thought it fit that here the Male-issue of that honourable Family should expire Memorable Persons JEFFEREY was born in the Parish of Okeham in this County where his father was a very proper man broad-shouldered and chested though his son never arived at a full Ell in stature And here we may observe Pliny his observation not true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In plenum autem cuncto mortalium generi â—…inorem staturam indies fieri propemodum observatur rarosque patribus proceriores c. It seems that Families sometimes are chequered as in brains so in bulk that no certainty can be concluded from such alternations His father who kept and ordered the baiting Bulls for George Duke of Buckingham a place you will say requiring a robustious body to manage it presented him at Burleigh on the Hill to the Duchesse of Buckingham being then nine years of age and scarce a foot and half in height as I am informed by credible persons then and there present and still alive Instantly Jefferey was heightned not in stature but in condition from one degree above rags into Silk and Sattin and two tall men to attend him He was without any deformity wholly proportionable whereas often Dwarfs Pigmâ—…es in one part are Giants in another And yet though the least that England ever saw he was a proper person compared to him of whom Sabinus doth write in his Comment upon the Metamorphosis Vidit Italia nuper virum justa aetate non majorem cubito circumferri in caveâ Psittaci cujus viri meminit in suis scriptis Hieronymus Cardanus There was lately to be seen in Italy a man of a ripe age not above a cubit high carried about in a Parrets cage of whom Hierome Cardan in his Writings makes mention It was not long before he was presented in a cold baked Pye to King Charles and Queen Mary at an entertainment and ever after lived whiles the Court lived in great plenty therein wanting nothing but humility high mind in a low body which made him that he did not know himself and would not know his father and which by the Kings command caused justly his sound correction He was though a Dwarf no Dastard a Captain of horse in the Kings Army in these late civil wars and afterwards went over to wait on the Queen in France Here being provoked by Mr. Crofts who accounted him the object not of his anger but contempt he shewed to all that Habet musca suum splenum and they must be little indeed that cannot do mischief especially seeing a Pistol is a pure leveller and puts both Dwarf and Giant into equal capacity to kill and to be killd For the shooting the same Mr. Crofts he was imprisoned And so I take my leave of Jefferey the least man of the least County in England The Names of the Gentry of this County returned by the Commissioners in the twelfth year of King Henry the sixth William Bishop of Lincoln Commissioners to take the Oaths William de Souche de Harringworth chiv  Thomas Grenham Knights for the Shire  William Beaufo Knights for the Shire  Iohannes Basinges de Empyngham mil. Iohannes Colepepar de Exton mil. Henricus Plesington de Burley mil. Robertus Browne de Wodehead ar Robertus Davis de Tykencoat ar Iohannes Browne de Tygh ar Iohannes Plesington de Wissenden ar Thomas Flore de Oakham ar Franciscus Clerke de Stoke-dry ar Iohannes Chycelden de Brameston ar Iohannes Sapcoat de Keton merchant Robertus Whitwell de eadem gentleman Iohannes Clerk de Wissenden merch Willielmus Lewis de Oakham merch Iohannes Brigge de eadem merch Ioh. Basset de North Luffenham gent. Iacobus Palmer de eadem gent. Iohannes Palmer de eadem gent. Willielmi Sheffeild de Seyton gent. Iohannes Sadington de eadem gent. Rob. Sousex de Market Overton gent. Iohannes Vowe de Whitwell gent. Willielmus Pochon de Wissenden gent. Williâ—…lmus Swafeld de Braunston gent. Henricus Breton de Keton gent. Williâ—…lmus Uffingâ—…on de Pilton gent. Thomas Luffenham de Winge Sheriffs It remaineth now that we give in a List of the Sheriffs of this Shire and here Rutland conceiveth it to sound to her credit that whereas other Shires ten times bigger than this viz. Norfolk and Suffolk had but one Sheriff betwixt them this little County never took-hands to hold with a partner but had alwayes an entire Sheriff to it self though anciently the same person generally honourable discharged the Office for many years together as by the ensuing Catalogue will appear SHERIFFS From the year of King To the year of King Richard de Humet Tenth of Henry 2. Six and twenty of Henry 2. William Molduit six and twentieth of Henry 2. first of Richard 1. Anna Brigg dispensat first of Richard 1. second of Richard 1. William Albeney William Fresney second of Richard 1. nineth of Richard 1. William Albevine solus nineth of Richard 1. first of King John Benedic de Haversham first of King John second of King John Robert Malduit second of King John fifth of King John Ralph Normanvill fifth of King John twelfth of King John Robert de Braibro Henry filius ejus twelfth of King John second of Henry 3. Alan Basset second of Henry 3. twelfth of Henry 3. Jeffrey de Rokingham twelfth of Henry 3. thirty eight of Henry 3. Ralph de Greneham thirty eight of Henry 3. forty third of Henry 3. Anketyn de Markinall forty third of Henry 3. first of Edward 1. Peter Wakervill William Bovile first of Edward 1. nineth of Edward 1. Alberic de Whitleber
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
County hath been much greater and those of that Trade far richer I perswade my self heretofore than in these times or else the Heirs and Executors of the deceased were more careful that the Testators dead Corps should be interred in more decent manner than they are now a-dayes Otherwise I should not find so many Marbles richly inlaid with Brass to the memory of Cloathiers in fore-going Ages and not one in these later seasons All the Monuments in the Church of Neyland which bare any face of comliness and Antiquity are erected to the memory of Cloathiers and such as belong to that Mystery Some perchance would assign another reason viz. Because Monuments formerly were conceived to conduce much to the happiness of the deceased as bespeaking in their Epitaphs the Suffrages of the living in their behalf which errour is vanished away since the Reformation all which being fully beleeved weakneth not the observation but that Suffâ—…lk Clothiers were Wealthier in former than in our Age. Buildings This County hath no Cathedral therein and the Parochial Churches generally fair no one of transcendent eminency But formerly it had so magnificent an Abbey-Church in Bury the Sun shined not on a fairer with three lesser Churches waiting thereon in the same Church-yard Of these but two are extant at this day and those right stately structures And if the Servants we so much commend What was the Mistriss whom they did attend Here I meet with a passage affected me with wonder though I know not how the Reader will resent it It is avouuched by all Authors That Mary youngest sister to King Henry the Eighth Relict to Lewis the Twelfth King of France afterwards married to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk died on Mid-summer Eve 1533 and was buried in the Abbey Church in Bury But it seems her Corps could not protect that Church from demolishing which in few years after was levelled to the ground I read not that the Body of this Princess was removed to any other place nor doth any monument here remain to her memory though her King-Brother and second Husband survived the destruction of that Church A strange thing save that nothing was strange in those dayes of confusion As for the Town of Bury it is sweetly seated and fairely built especially since the year 1608. About which time it was lamentably defaced with a casual Fire though since God hath given them Beauty for Ashes And may the following Distich set up therein prove Prophetical unto the place Burgus ut antiquus violento corruit igne Hic stet dum flammis terra polusque flagrent Though furious fire the old Town did consume Stand This till all the World shall flaming fume Noris the School a small Ornament to this Town founded by King Edward the Sixth being itself a Corporation now as well as ever flourishing under Mr. Stephens the able Master thereof Amongst the many fair houses of the Gentry in this County Long Melford must not be forgotten late the house of the Countess Rivers and the FIRST FRUITS of PLUNDERING in England and Sommerley Hall nigh Yarmouth belonging to the Lady Wentworth well answering the Name thereof For here Sommer is to be seen in the depth of Winter in the pleasant walks beset on both sides with Firr-trees green all the year long besides other curiosities As for Merchants houses Ipswich Town corrival with some Cities for neatness and greatness affordeth many of equal handsomness Proverbs Suffolk Milk This was one of the Staple-Commodities of the Land of Canaan and certainly most wholesome for Mans Body because of Gods own chosing for his own People No County in England affords better and sweeter of this kind lying opposite to Holland in the Netherlands where is the best Dairy in Christendom which mindeth me of a passage betwixt Spinola and Grave Maurice The Spanish General being invited to an entertainment by the afore-said Prince at Breda as I take it when Lemons and Oranges were brought in for sauce at the first Courâ—…e What a brave Country is my Masters quoth de Don affording this fair fruit all the year long But when Cream was brought up to close the Feast Grave Maurice returned What a brave Country is ours that yeildeth this fruit twice every day Suffolk fair Maids It seems the God of Nature hath been bountiful in giving them beautiful complexions which I am willing to believe so far forth as it fixeth not a comparative disparagement on the same Sex in other Counties I hope they will labour to joyn gracious hearts to fair faces otherwise I am sure there is a Divine Proverb of infallible truth As a Jewel of gold in a Swines snout so is a fair Woman which is without discretion Suffolk sâ—…iles It is a measuring cast whether this Proverb pertaineth to Essex or this County and I believe it belongeth to both which being inclosed Countries into petty quillets abound with high stiles troublesome to be clambred over But the owners grudge not the pains in climbing them sensible that such severals redound much to their own advantage You are in the high way to Needham Needham is a Market-Town in this County well stokt if I mistake not with poor People though I believe this in no degree did occasion the first denomination thereof They are said to be in the high way to Needham who do hasten to poverty However these fall under a distinction some go others are sent thither Such as go embrace several wayes some if Poor of Idleness if Rich of Carelesness or else of Prodigality Others are sent thither against their wills by the powerful oppression of such who either detain or devour their Estates And it is possible some may be sent thither by no Default of their own or visible cause from others but meerly from Divine Justice insensibly dwingling their Estates chiefly for trial of their Patience Wherefore so many wayes leading to Needham from divers quarters I mean from different causes It is unjust to condemn all persons meeting there under the Censure of the same guiltness Princes EDMUND MORTIMER son to Roger Mortimer Earl of March Grand-child of Edmund Mortimer Earl of March and of Philippa sole daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence may passe with the charitable Reader for a Prince since he paid so dear for the same as will appear I confess it impossible to fix his Nativity with assurance having not hitherto read any record which reached it the rather because of the vastness of his patrimony and several habitations In England In the Marches of VVales whence he had his honour In Ireland Clare-Casâ—…le with many other Mannors in Suffolk VVigmore in Hereford-shire Trim Conaught with large Lands in Ulsier  Ludlow in Shrop-shire  But most probable it is that he was born where he was buried at Clare After the death of King Richard the Second he was the next heir to the Crown Happy had he been if either nearer to it so as to
Stutvile 〈◊〉 Dallam 〈◊〉 Argent and Gules a Lion rampant Sable Nicol. Bacon miles ut prius  Reg. JACO   Anno   1 〈◊〉 Bacon miles ut prius  2 Edm. Bokemham armiger   〈◊〉 Tho. Playters arm 〈◊〉 Bendy Wavy of six Argent and Azure 4 Antho. Penning ar   Iâ—…oho Wentworth armiger  Sable a Cheveron between 3 Leopaâ—…ds heads Or. 6 Lionel Talmarsh ar ut prius  7 Geo. le Hunt miles   8 Thom. Tilney arm ut prius  9 Calthorp Parker mil. ut prius  10 Martin Stutevil ut prius  11 Rob. Brook miles  AMP. 12 Rob. Barker mil.  Perfess embatt'led Or and Azure 3 martlets counterchanged 13 Tho. Clench arm   14 Lio. Ialmarsh m. B. ut prius Azure a Cheveron Argent 15 Edw. Lewkenor m.   16 Io. Wentworth m. ut prius  17 Hen. North miles  Azure a Lion passant Or between 3 Flower de 〈◊〉 Ar. 18 Will. Spring miles ut prius  19 Will. Wetle arm   20 Rob. Brook arm   21 Nâ—… Bernardiston m ut prius  22 Galf. Pittman arm   Reg. CAROL   1 Sam. Aylemer arm Cleydon Argent a Cross Sable betwixt 4 Cornish 〈◊〉 proper 2 Joha Prescot mil.  S. a Chev. betwixt 3 〈◊〉 Ar. 3 Maur. Barrowe ar  S. 2 swords in Saltire Ar. 〈◊〉 betw 4 flowers de luce Or within a Bordure compone of the second and 〈◊〉 4 Brampt Gourden a. ut prius  5 Hen Hookenham a.   6 Iohan Acton arm   7 Rob. Crane miles Chyston Ar. a Fess betw 3 Cross 〈◊〉 fitchee Gu. 8 Will. * Some miles   9 Edw. Bacon miles ut prius Gules a Cheveron betwixt 3 Mallets Or. 10 Ioha Barker arm ut prius  11 Ioha Rouse miles ut prius  12 Phil. Parker mil. ut prius  13 Ed. Duke armiger Brampton Az a Cheveron betwixt 3 〈◊〉 Argent membred Gules 14 Ioh. Clench arm   15 Sim. Dewes miles Stow-Hall Or 3 Quatersoilâ—…s Gules 16 VVill. Spring arm ut prius  17 Will. 〈◊〉 aâ—…   18 Maur. Barrowe arâ—… ut prius  19   20 Ioha Cotton arm   21   22 Tho. Blosse arm   Queen ELIZABETH 18 JOHN HIGHAM Arm. I find this passage in the Ingenious Michael Lord Montaigne in France in his Essay * of Glory I have no name which is sufficiently mine Of two I have the one common to all my Race yea and also to others There is a Family at Paris and another at Montpellier called Montaigne another in Brittanny and one in Zantoigne surnamed de la Montaigne The removing of one only syllable may so confound our Web as I shall have a share in their Glory and they perhaps a part of my shame And my Ancestors have heretofore been surnamed HEIGHAM or HIQUEM a surname which also belongs to an House well known in England Indeed the Highams so * named from a Village in this County were for I suspect them extinct a right Ancient Family and Sr Clement Heigham Ancestor to this John our Sheriff who was a Potent Knight in his Generation lies buried under a fair Tomb in Thorning-Church in Northfolk 20 ROBERT JERMIN Miles He was a Person of singular Piety a bountiful Benefactor to Emanuel-Colledge and a man of great command in this County He was Father to Sir Tho. Jermin Privy Concellour and Vice-Chamberlain to King Charles the First Grandfather to Thomas and Henry Jermin Esquires The younger of these being Lord Chamberlain to our present Queen Mary and sharing in her Majesties sufferings during her long Exile in France was by King Charles the Second deservedly advanced Baron and Earl of St. Albans 23 NICHOLAS BACON Miles He was son to Sir Nicholas and elder Brother to Sir Francis Bacon both Lord Chancellors of England and afterward by King James in the ninth of his reign on the 22 of May created the first Baronet of England 36 THOMAS CROFTS Armiger He was a Man of Remark in his generation Father to Sir John Crofts Grand-father to .... Crofts who for his Fidelity to his Sovereign during his suffering condition and for several Embassies worthily performed to the King of Poland and other Princes was created Baron Crofts by King Charles the Second CHARLES the First 15 SIMONDS DEWES Miles This Sir Simonds was Grand-child unto Adrian Dâ—…wes descended of the Ancient Stem of Des Ewes Dynasts or Lords of the Dition of Kessel in the Dutchy of Gelderland who came first thence when that Province was wasted with Civil War in the beginning of King Henry the Eighth He was bred in Cambridge as appeared by his printed speech made in the long Parliament wherein he indeavoured to prove it more Ancient than Oxford His Genious addicted him to the study of Antiquity Preferring Rust before Brightness and more conforming his mind to the Garbe of the former than mode of the moderne times He was studious in Roman Coin to discriminate true ones from such as were cast and counterfeit He passed not for Price to procure a choice piece and was no less careful in conserving than curious in culling many rare Records He had plenty of pretious Medals out of which a methodical Architect might contrive a fair Fabrick for the benefit of posterity His Treasury afforded things as well new as old on the token that he much admired that the Ordinances and Orders of the late Long Parliament did in Bulks and number exceed all the Statutes made since the Conquest He was loving to Learned Men to whom he desired to do all good offices and died about the year of our Lord 1653. The Fare-wel To conclude our description of Suffolk I wish that therein Grain of all kinds may be had at so reasonable rates that rich and poor may be contented therewith But if a Famine should happen here let the poor not distrust Divine providence whereof their Grand-fathers had so admirable a testimony 15. When in a general dearth all over England plenty of Pease did grow on the Sea-shore near Dunwiâ—…h never set or sown by humane industry which being gathered in full ripeness much abated the high prices in the Markets and preserved many hundreds of hungry Families from famishing SURREY hath Middlesex divided by the Thames on the North Kent on the East Sussex on the South â—…ant Bark-shires on the West It may be allowed to be a Square besides its Angular expatiation in the South-west of two and twenty miles and is not unproperly compared to a Cynamon-tree whose Bark is far better than the Body thereof For the skirts and borders bounding this Shire are rich and fruitful whilst the ground in the inward parts thereof is very hungry and barren though by reason of the clear Air and clean wayes full of many gentile habitations Naturall Commodities Fullers-Earth The most and best of this
Majestie who will build their Name a Story Higher to Posterity HENRY the Sixth 29. JOHN LEWKENOR He was afterwards knighted by this King and was a Cordial Zealote for the Lancastrian Title at last paying dear for his Affections thereunto For in the Raign of King Edward the Fourth Anno 1471. He with three Thousand others was slain in the Battle at Teuksbury valiantly fighting under Prince Edward Son to King Henry the sixth HENRY the Seventh 12 MATTHEW BROWN Armiger I would be highly thankfull to him Gratitude is the Gold wherewith Schollars honestly discharge their Debts in this kinde who would inform me how Sr. Anthony Brown a younger Branch of this Family stood related to this Sheriffe I mean that Sr. Anthony Standard-bearer of England second Husband to Lucy fourth Daughter to John Nevell Marquess Montacute and Grandfather to Sr. Anthony Brown whom Queen Mary created Viscount Montacute He was a zealous Romanist for which Queen Mary loved him much the more and Queen Elizabeth no whit the less trusting and employing him in Embassies of High Consequence as knowing he embraced his Religion not out of politick Designe but pure Devotion He was direct Ancestour to the Right Honourable the present Viscount Mountacute This Viscount is eminently but not formally a Baron of the Land having a Place and Vote in Parliament by an express clause in his Patent but otherwise no particular Title of a Baron This I observe for the unparallel'd rarity thereof and also to confute the peremptory Position of such who maintain that only actual Barons sit as Peers in Parliament HENRY the Eighth 10 NICHOLAS CAREW Miles He was a jolly Gentleman fit for the favour of King Henry the Eighth who loved active Spirits as could keep pace with him in all Atchievements and made him Knight of the Garter and Master of his Horse This Sr. Nicholas built the fair House or Palaâ—…e rather at Beddington in this County which by the advantage of the Water is a Paradice of Pleasure Tradition in this Family reporteth how King HENRY then at Bowles gave this Knight opprobrious Language betwixt jest and earnest to which the other returned an Answer rather True than Discreet as more consulting therein his own Animosity than Allegiance The King who in this kind would give and not take being no Good Fellow in tart Repartees was so highly offended thereat that Sr. Nicholas fell from the top of his Favour to the bottome of his Displeasure and was bruised to Death thereby This was the true Cause of his Execution though in our Chronicles all is scored on his complying in a Plot with HENRY Marquess of Exeter and HENRY Lord Mountague We must not forget how in the Memory of our Fathers the last of this Surname adopted his near Kinsman a Throck-morton to be his Heir on condition to assume the Name and Armes of Câ—…rew From him is lineally descended Sr. Nicholas Carew Knight who I confidently hope will continue and encrease the Honour of his Ancient Family EDWARD the Sixth 1 THOMAS CARDEN Miles Some five Years before this Knight was improbable to be Sheriffe of this or any other County when cunning Gardiner got him into his clutches within the compass of the six Articles being with a Lady and some others of the Kings Privy Chamber indited for Heresie and for aiding and abetting Anthony Persons burnt at WINSOR as is above mentioned But King HENRY coming to the notice hereof of his special Goodness without the suit of any man defeated their Foes preserved their Lives and confirmed their Pardon ELIZABETHA Regina 20 GEORGE GORING He would do me an High Favour who would satisfie me how Sr. George Goring Knight bred in Sydney Colledge in Cambridge to which he was a Benefactor referred in kindred to this present Sheriffe This our Sr. George was by King Charles the first created Baron of Hurst Per-point in Sussex and after the death of his Mothers Brother Edward Lord Denny Earle of Norwich He is a Phaenix sole and single by himself vestigia sola retrorsum the onely Instance in a Person of Honour who found Pardon for no Offence his Loyalty to his Soveraign Afterwards going beyond the Seas He was happily instrumental in advancing the Peace betwixt Spain and Holland I remember how the Nobility of Bohemia who fided with Frederick Prince Palatine gave for their Motto COMPASSI CONREGNAâ—…IMUS meaning that such who had suffered with him in his Adversity should share with him in his Prosperity when settled in his Kingdome But alas their hopes failed them But blessed be God this Worthy Lord as he patiently bare his part in his Majesties Afflictions so he now partaketh in his Restitution being Captain of his Guard To the Reader May â—…e be pleased to behold this my bâ—…ief Description of 〈◊〉 as a Running Collation to stay his Stomack no set meal to Satiâ—…fie his hunger But to tell him good News I hear that a Plentifull Feast in this kinde is providing for his Entertainment by Edward Bish Esq. a Native of SVRREY intending a particular Survey thereof Now as when the Sun aâ—…iseth the Moon 〈◊〉 down obscurely without any observation so when the pains of this worthy Gentleman shall be publick I am not only contented but desirous that my weak Endeavours without further Noise or Notice should sink in Silence The Farewell I have been credibly 〈◊〉 that one Mr. CLARKE some seven score Years since built at his Charges the Market-House of Faâ—…nham in this County Once repâ—…oving his Workmen for going on so slowly they excused themselves that they were hindred with much people pressing upon them some liking some disliking the Model of the Fabriâ—…k Hereupon Mr. Clarke caused this Distich hardly extant at this day to be written in that House You who do like me give 〈◊〉 to end me You who dislike me give mony to mend me I wish this Advice practised all over this County by those who vent their various Verdicts in praising or reproving 〈◊〉 erected gratis for the General Good SUSSEX SUSSEX hath Surrey on the North Kent on the East the Sea on the South and Hant-shire on the West It is extended along the Sea-side threescore miles in length but is contented with a third of those miles in the breadth thereof A fruitfull County though very durty for the travellers therein so that it may be better measured to its advantage by days-journeys then by miles Hence it is that in the late Order for regulating the wages of Coach-men at such a price a day and distance from London Sussex alone was excepted as wherein shorter way or better pay was allowed Yet the Gentry of this County well content themselves 〈◊〉 the very badness of passage therein as which secureth their provisions at 〈◊〉 prices which if mended Higglers would mount as bajulating them to London It is peculiar to this County that all the rivers and those I assure you are very many have their fountains and falls
Brachyography was not then nor many years after invented But he though a quick Scribe is but a dull one who is good only at fac simile to transcribe out of an original whereas our Robert left many Books of his own making to posterity He flourished Anno Dom. 1180. and lleth buried before the Doors of the Cloyster of his Convent PETER of Rippon was Canon of that Colledge built antiently therein by Saint Wilfred purposely omitted by us in our Catalogue of Saints to expiate our former tediousnesse concerning him in our Church History Jeoffry Archbishop of York not only delighted in but doted on our Peter He wrote a Book of the life and miracles of Saint Wilfred How many suspected persons did prick their credits who could not thread his Needle This was a narrow place in his Church and kind of Purgatory save that no fire therein through which chaste Persons might easily passe whilest the Incontinent did stick therein beheld generally as a piece of Monkish Legerdemain I am sorry to hear that this Collegiate Church one of the most ancient and famous Churches in the North of England hath the means and allowance appointed for the repair thereof deteined and more â—…orry that on the eighth of December 1660. a violent wind blew down the great Steeple thereof which with its fall beaâ—… down the Chancel the onely place where the people could assemble for Divine Worship and much shattered and weakened the rest of the Fabrick and I hope that His Majesties Letters Patents will meet with such bountiful contributions as will make convenient Reparation Our Peter flourished Anno 1190. under King Richard the first WILLIAM of NEWBOROUGH was born at Bridlington in this County but named of Newborough not far off in which Monastery he became a Canon Regular He also was called Petit or Little from his low stature in him the observation was verified that little men in whom their heat is most contracted are soon angry flying so fiercely on the memory of Geffrey of Monmouth taxing his British Chronicle as a continuâ—…d fiction translated by him indeed but whence from his own Brain to his own Pen by his own Invention Yea he denieth that there was ever a King Arthur and in effect overthroweth all the Welsh History But learned Leland conceives this William Little greatly guilty in his ill language which to any Author was uncivil to a Bishop unreverent to a dead Bishop uncharitable Some resolve all his passion on a point of meer revenge heartily offended because David Prince of Wales denied him to succeed G. Monmouth in the See of St. Asaph and therefore fell he so soul on the whose Welsh Nation Sure I am that this angry William so censorious of G. Monmouth his falsehoods hath most foul slips of his own Pen as when he affirmeth That in the place of the slaughter of the English nigh Battaile in Sussex if peradventure it be wet with any small showre presently the ground thereabouts sweateth forth very blood though indeed it be no more than what is daily seen in Rutland after any sudden rain where the ground floweth with a reddish moisture He flourished Anno 1200. under King John ROGER HOVEDEN was born in this County of the Illustrious Family of the Hovedens saith my Author bred first in the study of the Civil then of the Canon-Law and at last being servant to King Henry the second he became a most accomplished Courtier He is the chiefest if not sole Lay-Historian of his age who being neither Priest nor Monk wrote a Chronicle of England beginning where Bede ended and continuing the same until the fourth of King John When King Edward the first layed claim to the Crown of Scotland he caused the Chronicles of thâ—…s Roger to be diligently searched and carefully kept many Authentical passages therein tending to his present advantage This Roger flourished in the year of our Lord 1204. JOHN of HALIFAX commonly called De SACRO BOSCO was born in that Town so famous for Cloathing bred first in Oxford then in Paris being the prime Mathematician of his age All Students of Astronomy enter into that Art through the Door of his Book De â—…phaerâ He lived much beloved died more lamented and was buried with a solemn Funeral on the publick cost of the University of Paris Anno 1256. ROBERTUS PERSCRUTATOR or ROBERT the SEARCHER was born in this County bred a Dominican great Mathematician and Philosopher He got the sirname of Searcher because he was in the constant quest and pursuit of the Mysteries of Nature A thing very commendable if the matters we seek for and means we seek with be warrantable Yea Solomon himself on the same account might be entituled Searcher who by his own confession Applyed his heart to know and to Search and to seek out wisdome and the reason of things But curiosity is a kernel of the forbidden fruit which still sticketh in the throat of a natural man sometimes to the danger of his choaking it is heavily laid to the charge of our Robert that he did light his Candle from the Devils Torch to seek after such secrets as he did desire witnesse his Work of Ceremonial Magick which a conscientious Christian would send the same way with the Ephesian conjuring Books and make them fuel for the fire However in that age he obtained the reputation of a great Scholar flourishing under King Edward the second 1326. THOMAS CASTLEFORD born in this County was bred a Benedictine in Pâ—…mfraict whereof he wrote a History from ASK a Saxon first owner thereof to the Lacies from whom that large Lordship descended to the Earls of Lancaster I could wish some able Pen in Pomfraict would continue this Chronicle to our time and give us the particulars of the late memorable siege that though the Castle be demolished the Fame thereof may remain Leland freely confesseth that he learnt more then he looked for by reading Castlefords History promising to give a larger account thereof in a Book he intended to write of Civil History and which I suspect he never set forth prevented by death Our Castleford flourished about the year of our Lord 1326. JOHN GOWER was born saith Leland at Stitenham in the North Riding in Bulmore Wapentake of a Knightly Family He was bred in London a Student of the Laws till prizing his pleasure above his profit he quitted Pleading to follow Poetry He was the first refiner of our English Tongue effecting much but endeavouring more therein Thus he who sees the Whelp of a Bear but half lickt will commend it for a comely Creature in comparison of what it was when first brought forth Indeed Gower left our English Tongue very bad but â—…ound it very very bad Bale makes him Equitem auratâ—…m Poetam Laureatum proving both from his Ornaments on his monumental Statue in Saint Mary Overies Southwark Yet he appeareth there neither laureated nor hederated Poet except
VVales want them To conclude some will wonder how Perfect coming from Perficere to do throughly and Perfunctorie derived from Perfungi throughly to discharge should have so Opposite Senses My Motto in the description of this Principality is betwixt them both Nec Perfectè Nec Perfunctorie For as I will not pretend to the Credit of the former so may I defend my self from the shame of the latter having done the utmost which the Strength of my Weakness could perform WALES THIS PRINCIPALITY hath the Severn Sea on the South Irish-Ocean on the West and North England on the East antiently divided from it by the River Severn since by a Ditch drawn with much Art and Industry from the Mouth of Dee to the Mouth of Wie From East to West Wie to Saint Davids is an hundred from North to South Carâ—…ion to Hollihead is an hundred and twenty miles The Ditch or Trench lately mentioned is called Clauhd-Offa because made by King Offa who cruelly enacted that what Welch-man soever was found on the East-side of this Ditch should forfeit his Right-hand A Law long since Cancelled and for many ages past the Welch have come peaceably over that Place and good reason bringing with them both their Right-hands and Right-hearts no less Loyally then Valiantly to defend England against alâ—… enemies being themselves under the same Soveraign United thereunto It consisteth of three parts the partition being made by â—…oderick the great about the year 877. dividing it betwixt his three sons 1. North-Wales Whose Princes chiefly Resided at 1. Aberfrow 2. Mathravall 3. Dynefar 2. Powis 3. south-South-Wales This division in fine proved the Confusion of Wales whose Princes were always at War not onely against the English their Common Foe but mutually with themselves to enlarge or defend their Dominions Of these three north-North-wales was the chief as doth plainly appear first because Roderick left it Mervin his Eldest Son Secondly because the Princes thereof were by way of Eminency stiled the Princes of Wales and sometimes Kings of Aberfrow Thirdly because as the King of Aberfrow paid to the King of London yearly Threescore and three pounds by way of Tribute so the same summe was paid to him by the Princes of Powis and south-South-wales However South-wales was of the three the Larger Richer Fruitfuller therefore called by the Welsh Deheubarth that is The Right-side because nearer the Sun But that Country being constantly infested with the Invasions of the English and Flemings had North-wales preferred before it as more intire and better secured from such annoyances Hence it was that whilst the Welsh-tongue in the South is so much mingled and corrupted in North-wales it still retaineth the purity thereof The Soil It is not so Champion and Levell and by consequence not so fruitfull as England mostly rising up into Hills and Mountains of a lean and hungry nature yet so that the ill quality of the ground is recompenced by the good quantity thereof A right worshipfull Knight in Wales who had a fair Estate therein his rents resulting from much Barren-ground heard an English Gentleman perchance out of intended opposition to brag that he had in England so much ground worth forty shillings an Acre you said he have ten yards of Velvet and I have teâ—… score of Frize I will not exchange with you This is generally true of all Wales that much ground doth make up the Rent and yet in proportion they may lose nothing thereby compared to Estates in other Countries However there are in Wales most pleasant Meadows along the sides of Rivers and as the sweetest flesh is said to be nearest the bones so most delicious vallies aâ—…e interposed betwixt these Mountains But now how much these very Mountains advantage the Natives thereof in their Health Strength Swiftness Wit and other naturall Perfections Give me leave to stand by silent whilst a great Master of Language and Reason entertaineth the Reader with this most excellent and pertinent discourse Carpenters Geography second Book chap. 15. pag. 258. This conceit of Mounsieur Bodin I admit without any great contradiction were he not over-peremptory in over-much censuring all Mountainous people of Blockishness and Barbarisme against the opinion of Averroes a great Writer who finding these People nearer Heaven suspected in them a more Heavenly Nature Neither want there many reasons drawn from Nature and Experiment to prove Mountainous People more pregnant in Wit and Gifts of understanding then others inhabiting in low and plain Countries For however Wit and Valour are many times divided as we have shewn in the Northern and Southern people yet were they never so much at variance but they would sometimes meet First therefore what can speak more for the witty temper of the Mountain People then their clear and subtile Aire being far more purged and rarified then that in Lower countries For holding the Vital spirits to be the chiefest Instruments in the Souls Operation no man can deny but that they sympathize with the Aire especially their chiefest foment Every man may by experience find his Intellectuall Operations more Vigorous in a Clear day and on the contrary most Dull and Heavy when the Aire is any way affected with foggy vapours What we find in our selves in the same place at divers seasons may we much more expect of places diversly affected in Constitution A second reason for the proof of our assertion may be drawn from the Thin and spare Diet in respect of those others For people living of Plains have commonly all Commodities in such plenty that they are subject to surfeiting and luxury the greatest Enemy and Underminer of all Intellectuall Operations For a fat Belly commonly begets a gross Head and a lean Brain But want and scarcity the Mother of Frugality invites the Mountain-dwellers to a more sparing and wholesome Diet. Neither grows this conveniency only out of the scarcity of Viands but also out of the Dyet Birds Fowls Beasts which are bred upon higher places are esteemed of a more Cleanly and wholsome feeding then others living in Fens and Foggy Places And how far the Quality of our Dyet prevails in the Alteration of our Organs and Dispositions every Naturalist will easily resolve us A third reason may be drawn from the cold Aire of these Mountainous Regions which by an Antiperistasis keeps in and strengthens the Internall heat the chief instrument in Natural and Vital Operations For who perceives not his Vital and by consequence his Intellectuall Parts in cold frosty weather to be more strong and vigorous then in hot and soultry seasons wherein the spirits be dâ—…faced and weakned This disparity in the same region at divers times in regard of the disposition of the Aire may easily declare the disparity of divers Regions being in this sort diversly affected A fourth reason may be taken from the Custome and Hardness whereunto such people inure themselves from their infancy which as Huartus proves begets a better temper of the Brain in
soft supple and stretching whence the expression of Cheverelconsciences which will stretch any way for advantage Course Coverings are made of their shag God himself not despising the present of Goats-hair which made the outward case of the Tabernacle Their milk is accounted cordiall against consumptions yea their very stench is used for a perfume in Arabia the Happy where they might surfeit of the sweetness of spices if not hereby allayed In a word Goats are beâ—… for food where Sheep cannot be had Plenty of these are bred in Wales especially in Montgomery-shire which mindeth me of a pleasant passage during the restraint of the Lady Elizabeth When she was so strictly watched by Sir Henry Benefield that none were admitted access unto Her a Goat was espied by a merry Fellow one of the Warders walking along with her Whereupon taking the Goat on his Shoulders he in all hast hurried him to Sir Henry I pray Sir said he examine this fellow whom I found walking with her Grace but what talk they had I know not not understanding his Language He seems to me a stranger and I believe a Welsh-man by his frieze Coat To return to our subject I am not so knowing in Goats as either to confirme or confute what Plinie reports that Adhuc lactantes generant They 〈◊〉 young ones whilst they themselves as yet suck their Dams He addeth that they are great enemies to the Olive-trees which they embarren with licking it and therefore are never sacrificed to Minerva Sure I am a true Deity accepted them for his service as many kids well nigh as lambs being offered in the Old Testament The Manufactures The Brittish generally bearing themselves high on the account of their gentile extraction have spiriâ—… which can better comport with designes of suddain danger then long difficulty and are better pleased in the imploying of their valour then their labour Indeed some souls are over-lovers of liberty so that they mistake all industry to be degrees of slavery I doubt not but posterity may see the Welsh Commodities improved by art far more then the present Age doth behold the English as yet as far excelling the Welsh as the Dutch exceed the English in Manufactures But let us instance in such as this Country doth afford Frieze This is a course kind of Cloath then which none warmer to be worn in Winter and the finest sort thereof very fashionable and gentile Prince Henry had a frieze sute by which he was known many weeks together and when a bold Courtier checkt him for appearing so often in one Suit Would said he that the Cloath of my Country being Prince of Wales would last always Indeed it will daily grow more into use especially since the Gentry of the Land being generally much impoverisht abate much of their gallantry and lately resigned rich cloaths to be worn by those not whose persons may best become them but whose purses can best pay for the price thereof Cheese This is milk by Art so consolidated that it will keep uncorrupted for some years It was antiently and is still the Staple food for Armies in their marching witness when David was sent with Ten Cheeses to recruit the provisions of his Brethren and when Barzillai with Cheeses amongst other food victualled the Army of K. David Such as are made in this Country are very tender and palatable and once one merrily without offence I hope thus derived the Pedigree thereof Adams nawn Cusson was her by her birth Ap Curds ap Milk ap Cow ap Grasse ap Earth Foxes are said to be the best Tasters of the fineness of Flesh Flies of the sweetest Grapes and Mice of the tenderest Cheese and the last when they could Compass 〈◊〉 in that kind have given their Verdict for the goodness of the Welch What should be the reason that so many people should have such an Antipathie against Cheese more then any one manner of meat I leave to the skilfull in the Mysteries of Nature to decide Metheglen Some will have this word of Greek extraction from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contracted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the British will not so let go their none Countriman MATHEW GLIN but will have it purum potum Cambricum wholly of Welsh originall Whencesoever the word is made the liquor is compounded of water honey and other ingredients being most wholesome for mans body Pollio Romulus who was an hundred years old being asked of Augustus Cesar by what means especially he had so long preserved his vigour both of mind and body made answer Intus mulso foris oleo by taking Metheglen inward and oyle outward It differeth from Mede ut vinum à lora as wine from that weak stuffe which is the last running from the grapes pressed before It is a most generous liquor as it is made in this Country in so much that had Mercator who so highly praised the Mede of Egra for the best in the world I say had he tasted of this Welch Hydromel he would have confined his commendation to Germany alone and allowed ours the precedency Queen Elizabeth who by the Tudors was of Welch-descent much loved this Her native liquor recruiting an annual stock thereof for Her own use and here take if you please The Receit thereof First gather a Bushell of Sweet-briar leaves and a Bushell of Time half a Bushell of Rosemary and a Peck of Bay-leaves Seeth all these being well washed in a Furnace of fair water let them boil the space of half an Hour or better and then pour out all the water and herbs into a Vat and let it stand till it be but milk-warme then strain the water from the herbs and take to every six Gallons of water one Gallon of the finest Honey and put it into the Boorn and labour it together half an hour then let it stand two days stirring it well twice or thrice each day Then take the Liquor and boil it anew and when it doth seeth skim it as long as there remaineth any dross When it is clear put it into the Vat as before and there let it be cooled You must then have in readiness a kind of new Ale or Beer which as soon as you have emptied suddenly whelme it upside down and set it up again and presently put in the Metheglen and let it stand three days a working And then tun it up in Barrells tying at every Tap-hole by a Pack-thred a little bag of beaten Cloves and Mace to the value of an Ounce It must stand half a year before it be drunk The Buildings The Holy Spirit complaineth that great men build Desolate places for themselves therein taxing their Avarice Ambition or both Avarice they joyn House to House by Match Purchase or Oppression that they may be alone in the Land that their Covetousness may have Elbow-room to lye down at full length and wallow it self round about These love not
because they need not Neighbours whose numerous Families can subsist of themselves Or else their Ambition is therein reproved singling out Desolate Places for themselves because scorning to take that Fruitfulness which Nature doth tender and desireing as it were to be Petty-Creators enforcing Artificiall Fertility on a place where they found none before I* well knew that wealthy Man who being a great improves of ground was wont to say that he would never come into that place which might not be made better On the same token that one tartly returned that then he would never go to Heaven for that place was at the best But the truth is Fertilizing of barren ground may be termed a Charitable Curiosity employing many poor people therein It is confessed that Wales affordeth plenty of barren places yielding the benefit of the best Aire but the Italian humor of building hath not affected not to say infected the British Nation I say the Italian-humor who have a merry Proverb Let him that would be happy for a Day go to the Barber for a Week marry a Wife for a Month buy him a New-horse for a Year build him a New-house for all his Life-time be an Honest-man But it seems that the Welsh are not tempted to enjoy such short happiness for a years continuance For their Buildings generally they are like those of the old Britains neither big nor beautifull but such as their Ancestors in this Isle formerly lived in For when Cataracus that valiant British Generall who for nine years resisted here the Romans puissance after his Captivity and Imprisonment was inlarged and carried about to see the Magnificence of Rome Why do you said he fo greedily desire our poor Cottages whereas you have such stately and magnificent Palaces of your own The simplicity of their common building for private persons may be conjectured by the Palaces of their Princes For Hoelldha Prince of Wales about the year 800. built a house for his own residence of White-hurdells or Watling therefore called Ty Gwin that is the White-house or Whitehall if you please However there are brave buildings in Wales though not Welsh buildings many stately Castles which the English erected therein And though such of them as survive at this day may now be beheld as Beauties they were first intended as bridles to their Country Otherwise their private houses are very mean indeed Probably they have read what Master Camden writes that the building of great houses was the bane of good house-keeping in England and therefore they are contented with the worse habitations as loath to lose their beloved hospitality The rather because it hath been observed that such Welsh buildings as conforme to the English mode have their Chimneys though more Convenient less Charitable seeing as fewer eyes are offended fewer bellies are fed with the smoaking thereof But though the Lone-houses in Wales be worse then those in England their Market-towns generally are built better then ours the Gentry it seems having many of their habitations therein The Proverbs These are twofold 1. Such as the English pass on the Welsh 2. Such as the Welsh make on the English The latter come not under my cognizance as being in the British Tongue to me altogether unknown Besides my friend Master James Howel in a Treatise on that Subject hath so feasted his Reader that he hath starved such as shall come after him for want of New Provisions As for the former sort of Proverbs we insist on one or two of them His Welsh Blood is up A double reason may be rendred why the Welsh are subject to anger 1. Moral Give losers leave to speak and that passionately too They have lost their land and we Englishmen have driven their Ancestors out of a fruitfull Country and pend them up in Barren Mountains 2. Naturall Choler having a Predominancy in their Constitution which soundeth nothing to their disgrace Impiger Iracundus is the beginning of the Character of Achilles himself Yea Valour would want an Edge if Anger were not a Whetstone unto it And as it is an Increaser of Courage it is an Attendantâ—…n â—…n Wit Ingeniosi sunt Cholerici The best is the anger of the Welsh doth soon arise and soon abate as if it were an Embleme of their Country up down chequered with Elevations and Depressions As long as a Welsh pedigree Men who are made Heralds in other Countries are born Heralds in Wales so naturally are all there inclined to know and keep their descents which they derive from great antiquity so that any Welsh-gentleman if this be not a Tautology can presently clime up by the stairs of his pedigree into princely extraction I confess some English-men make a mock of their long pedigree whose own perchance are short enough if well examined I cannot but commend their care in preserving the memory of their Ancestors conformable herein to the custome of the Hebrews The worst I wish their long pedigree is broad possessions that so there may be the better symmetry betwixt their extractions and estates Give your horse a Welch-bait It seems it is the custome of the Welsh travailers when they have climed up a hill whereof plenty in these parts to rain their horses backward and stand still a while taking a prospect or respect rather of the Country they have passed This they call a bait and though a Peck of Oates would doe the palfrey more good such a stop doth though not feed refresh Others call this a Scotish-bait and I believe the horses of both mountainous Countries eat the same provender out of the same manger on the same occasion Proceed we now to our Description and must make use in the first place of a generall Catalogue of such who were undoubtedly Welsh yet we cannot with any certainty refer them to their respective Counties and no wonder 1. Because they carry not in their Sur names any directions to their nativities as the antient English generally and especially the Clergy did till lately when conquered by the English some conformed themselves to the English custome 2. Because Wales was antiently divided but into three great Provinces Northwales Powis and South-wales and was not modelled into Shires according to the modern division till the raign of K. Henry the eighth Of such therefore who succeed herein though no County of Wales perchance can say this man is mine Wales may avouch all these are ours Yet I doe not despair but that in due time this my Common may God willing be inclosed and fair Inclosures I assure you is an inriching to a Country I mean that having gained better intelligence from some Welsh Antiquaries whereof that Principality affordeth many these persons may be Un-general'd and impaled in their particular Counties Princes I confess there were many in this Principality but I crave leave to be excused from giving a list of their nativities They are so antient I know not where to begin and so many I
know not where to end Besides having in the fundamentalls of this Book confined Princes to the children of Soveraigns it is safest for me not to sally forth but to intrench my self within the aforesaid restrictions Onely I cannot but insert the following note found in so Authentick an Author for the rarity thereof in my apprehension Camdens Remains pag. 181. As for the Britains or Welsh whatsoever Jura Majestatis their Princes had I cannot understand that they ever had any Coin of their own for no Learned of that Nation have at any time seen any found in Wales or elsewhere Strange that having so much Silver digged out they should have none Coined in their Country so that Trading was driven on either by the bartery or change of Wares and Commodities or else by money Imported out of England and other Countries Confessors WALTER BRUTE was born in Wales and if any doubt thereof let them peruse the ensuing protestation drawn up with his own hand I Walter Brute Sinner Layman Husbandman and a Christian having mine of-spring of the Britains both by Fathers and Mothers side have been accused to the Bishop of Hereford that I did err in many matters concerning the Catholick Christian faith by whom I am required that I should write an answer in Latine to all those matters whose desire I will satisfie to my power c. Observe herein a double instance of his Humility that being a Welch-man with which Gentleman is reciprocall and a Scholar graduated in Oxford contented himself with the plain addition of husbandman He was often examined by the aforesaid Bishop by whom he was much molested and imprisoned the particulars whereof are in Master Fox most largely related At last he escaped not creeping out of the window by any cowardly compliance but going forth at the door fairly set open for him by Divine Providence For he onely made such a generall subscription which no Christian man need to decline in form following I Walter Brute submit my self principally to the Evangely of Jesus Christ and to the determination of holy Kirk and to the General Councels of Holy Kirk And to the sentence and determination of the four Doctors of holy writ that is Austin Ambrose Jerome and Gregory And I meekly submit me to your correction as a Subject ought to his Bishop It seems the Popish Prelates were not as yet perfect in their art of persecution Brute being one of the first who was vexed for Wickliffisme so that as yet they were loose and favourable in their language of Subscription But soon after they grew so punctuall in their expressions and so particular in penning abjurations and recantations that the persons to whom they were tendered must either strangle their consciences with acceptance or lose their lives for refusall thereof NICHOLAS HEREFORD I have presumptions to perswade my self though possibly not to prevail with the Reader to believe him of British extraction He was bred Doctor of Divinity in Oxford and a Secular Priest betwixt whose Profession and Fryery there was an ancient Antipathy But our Hereford went higher to defie most Popish Principles and maintain That 1. In the Eucharist after the Consecration of the Elements Bread and Wine still remained 2. That Bishops and all Clergy-men ought to be subject to their Respective Princes 3. That Monks and Fryers ought to maintain themselves by their own labour 4. All ought to regle their lives not by the Popes Decrees but Word of God From these his four Cardinall Positions many Hereticall Opinions were by his Adversaries deduced or rather detracted and no wonder they did Wrack his Words who did desire to torture his Person From Oxford he was brought to London and there with Philip Repington was made to Recant his Opinions publiquely at Saint Pauls Cross 1382. See their severall success REPINTON like a violent Renegado proved a Persecutor of his Party for which he was rewarded first with the Bishoprick of Lincoln then with a Cardinals Cap. HEREFORD did too much to displease his Conscience and yet not enough to please his enemies For the jealousie of Archbishop Arundel persecuted and continued him always a Prisoner The same with the later was the success of John Purvey his partner in opinions whom T. Walden termeth the Lollards Library But they lock'd up this Library that none might have access unto it keeping him and Hereford in constant durance I will say nothing in excuse of their Recantation nor will I revile them for the same knowing there is more requisite to make one valiant under a Temptation then only to call him coward who is foiled therewith Yet I must observe that such as consult Carnall Councills to avoid afflictions getting out by the window of their own plotting not the door of Divine Providence seldome injoy their own deliverance In such Cases our Saviours words are always without the parties Repentance spiritually and often literally true He that findeth his life shall lose it And although we read not that this Hereford was put to death he lost the life of his life his liberty and lustre dwindling away in obscurity as to the time and place of his death REGINALD PEACOCK was born in Wales bred in Kings commonly saith Bale called Orial Colleâ—…ge in Oxford where for his learning and eloquence he proceeded Doctor in Divinity Bishop first of Saint Asaph then of Chichester For twenty years together he favoured â—…he opinions of Wicliffe and wrot many books in defence thereof untill in a Synod held at Lambeth by T. Bourcher Arch-bishop of Canterbury 1457. he was made to recant at Pauls Cross his books being burnt before his eyes confuted with seven solid arguments thus reckoned up Authoritate Vi Arte Fraude Metu Terrore Tyrannide Charitable men behold this his Recantation as his suffering and the act of his enemies some account it rather a slip then a fall others a fall whence afterwards he did arise It seems his recanting was little satisfactory to his adversaries being never restored to his Bishoprick but confinâ—…d to a poor pension in a mean Monastery where he died obscurely though others say he was privily made away in prison He is omitted by Pitzeus in his Catalogue of Writers a presumption that he apprehended him finally dissenting from the Popish perswasion Popes I find none bred in this Principality and the wonder is not great For before the time of Austin the Monk his coming over into England Wales acknowledged no Pope but depended meerly on their own Arch-bishop of Carlyon Yea afterwards it was some hundreds of years before they yielded the Pope free and full obedience besides the inhabitants of Wales being depressed in their condition had small accommodations for their travels to Rome and those at Rome had lesse list to chuse persons of so great distance into the Papasie Cardinals SERTOR of WALES was so called from his Native Country By some he is named Fontanerius Valassus
Wales is therefore placed in this because the first County thereof Prelates GUIDO de MONA was so sir-named from his Birth-place in Anglesey Some suspect that Filius insulae may be as bad as Filius populi no place being particularized for his birth whiles others conceive this sounding to his greater dignity to be denominated from a whole Island the Village of his nativity being probably obscure long and hard to be pronounced He was afterwards Bishop of Saint Davids and Lord Treasurer of England under King Henry the fourth who highly honoâ—…ed him for when the Parliament moved that no Welsh-man should be a State Officer in England the King excepted the Bishops as confident of their faithful service Indeed T. Wallingham makes this Gui the Author of much trouble but is the lesse to be believed therein because of the known Antipathy betwixt Fryers and Secular 〈◊〉 the former being as faulty in their lafie speculation as the other often offending in the practical over-activity This Bishop died â—…nno 1407. ARTHUR BULKLEY Bishop of Bangor was born either in Cheshire or more probably in this County But it matters not much had he never been born who being bred Doctor of the Laws had either never read or wholly forgotten or wilfully would not remember the Chapter De sacrilegio for he spoyled the Bishoprick and sold the five Bells being so over-officious that he would go down to the Sea to see them shipped which in my mind amounted to a second selling of them We have an English Proverb of him who maketh a detrimental bargain to himself That he may put all the gains gotten thereby into his eye and see nothing the worse But Bishop Bulkley saw much more the worse by what he had gotten being himself suddenly deprived of his sight who had deprived the Tower of Bangor of the tongue thereof Thus having ended his credit before his days and his days before his life and having sate in that See fourteen years he died 1555. WILLIAM GLYN D. D. Was boâ—…n at 〈◊〉 in this County bred in Queens Colledge in Cambridge whereof he was Master until in the second of Queen Mary he was preferred Bishop of Bangor An excellent Scholar and I have been assured by judicious Persons who have seriously perused the solemn Disputations printed in Master Fox betwixt the Papists and Protestants that of the former none pressed his Arguments with more strength and lesse passion than Doctor Glyn though constâ—…t to his own he was not cruel to opposite judgements as appeareth by the appearing of no persecution in his Diocesse and his mild Nature must be allowed at least Causa socia or the fellow-cause thereof He died in the first of Queen Elizabeth and I have been informed that Jeoffry Glyn his Brother Doctor of Laws built and endowed a Free-Schoole at Bangor Since the Reformation ROULAND MERRICK Doctor of Laws was born at Boding án in this County bred in Oxford where he became Principal of New Inne-Hall and afterwards a Dignitary in the Church of Saint Davids Here he with others in the reign of King Edward the sixth violently prosecuted Robert Farrar his Diocesan with intention as they made their boast to pull him from his Bishoprick and bring him into a premunire and prevailed so far that he was imprisâ—…ned This Bishop Farrar was afterwards martyred in the raign of Queen Mary I find not the least appearance that his former adversaries violented any thing against him under that Queen But it is suspicious that advantage against him I say not with their will was grafted on the stock of his former accusation However it is my judgement that they ought to have been I can be so charitable to believe that Dr. Merrick was penitent for his causelesse vexing so good a person Otherwise many more besides my self will proclaim him unworthy to be who had been a Persecutor of a Bishop He was consecrated Bishop of Bangor December 21. in the second of Qâ—…een Elizabeth 1559. and sate six years in his See I have nothing to adde save that he was Father to Sir Gilly Merrick Knight who lost his life for engaging with the Earl of Essex 1600. LANCELOT BULKLEY was born in this County of a then right Worshipful since Honourable Family who have a fair habitation besides others near Beumaris He was bred in Brasen nose Colledg in Oxford and afterwards became first Arch-Deacon then Archbishop in Dublin He was consecrated the third of October 1619. by Christopher Archbishop of Armagh Soon after he was made by King James one of his Privy Councel in Ireland where he lived in good reputation till the day of his death which happened some ten years since Seamen MADOC Son to Owen Gwineth ap Gruffyth ap Conan and brother to David ap Owen Gwineth Prince of North Wales was born probably at Aberfraw in this County now a mean Town then the principal Palace of their royal Residence He made a Sea-voyage westward and by all probability those names of Cape de Breton in Noruinberg Pengwin in part of the northern America for a white Rock and a white headed bird according to the British were reliques of this discovery If so then let the Genoveses and Spaniards demean themselves as younger Brethren and get their Portions in Pensions in those parts paid as well as they may owning us Britons so may the Welsh and English as an united Nation style themselves for the Heirs to whom the solid inheritance of America doth belong for the first discovery thereof The truth is a good Navy with a strong Land-Army therein will make these probabilities of Madoc evident Demonstrations and without these in cases of this kind the strongest Arguments are of no validity This Sea voyage was undertaken by Madoc about the year 1170. The Sheriffs Expect not my description should conform this Principality to England in presenting the respective Sheriffs with their Arms. For as to Heraldry I confesse my self Luscum in Anglia Caecum in Walliâ Besides I question whether out Rules in Blazonry calculated for the East will serve on the West of Severne and suspect that my venial mistakes may meet with mortal anger I am also sensible of the prodigious Antiquity of Welsh Pedegrees so that what Zalmana said of the Israelites slain by him at Tabor Each of them resembleth the children of a King all the Gentry here derive themselves from a Prince at least I quit therefore the Catalogue os Sheriffs to abler Pens and proceed to The Farewell I understand there is in this Island a kind of Allumenous Earth out of which some fifty years since began to make Allum and Copperess until they to use my Authors phrase like unflesht Souldiers gave over their enterprise without further hope because at first they saw it not answer their over-hasty expectations If this Project was sirst founded on rational probability which I have cause to believe I desire the seasonable
the Water is this That whether Husband or VVife come first to drink thereof they get the mastery thereby St. CLINTANKE was King of Brecknock a small Kingdom for an obscure King though eminent with some for his Sanctity Now it happened that a noble Virgin gave it out that she would never marry any man except the said King who was so zealous a Christian. Such as commend her good choice dislike her publick profession thereof which with more Maiden-like modesty might have been concealed But see the sad successe thereof A Pagan Souldier purposely to defeat her desire kild this King as he was one day a hunting who though he lost his life got the reputation of a Saint and so we leave him The rather because we find no date fixed unto him so that the Reader may believe him to have lived even when he thinks best himself Prelates GILES de BRUSE born at Brecknock was Son to William de Bruse Baron of Brecknock and a prime Peer in his Generation This Giles became afterwards Bishop of Hereford and in the Civil Wars sided with the Nobility against King John on which account he was banished but at length returned and recovered the Kings favour His Paternal Inheritance by death it seems of his elder Brother was devolved unto him being together Bishop and Baron by descent and from him after his death transmitted to his Brother Reginald who married the Daughter of Leoline Prince of Wales If all this will not recover this Prelate into our Catalogue of Worthies then know that his Effigies on his Tomb in Hereford Church holdeth a Steeple in his hand whence it is concluded that he built the Belfree of that Cathedral as well he might having so vast an estate His death happened Anno 1215. Since the Reformation THOMAS HOWEL was born at Nangamarch in this County within few miles of Brecknock bred Fellow of Jesus Colledge in Oxford and became afterwards a meek man and most excellent Preacher His Sermons like the waters of Siloah did run softly gliding on with a smooth stream So that his matter by a lawful and laudable felony did stâ—…al secretly into the hearts of his hearers King Charls made him the last Bishop of Bristol being consecrated at Oxford He died Anno Dom. 1646. leaving many Orphan children behind him I have been told that the honourable City of Bristol hath taken care for their comfortable education and am loath to pry too much into the truth thereof lest so good a report should be confuted States-Men HENRY STAFFORD Duke of Buckingham Though Humphrey his Father had a fair Castle at and large lands about Stafford whereof he was Earl yet his Nativity is most probably placed in this County where he had Brecknock-Castle and a Principality about it This was he who with both his hands set up Richard the third on the Throne endeavouring afterwards with his hands and teeth too to take him down but in vain He was an excellent Spoaks-man though I cannot believe that his long Oration to perswade the Londoners to side with the Usurper was ever uttered by him in terminis as it lieth in Sir Thomas Mores History Thus the Roman Generals provided themselves of Valour and Livy as he represented them stocked them with Eloquence Yet we may be well assured that this our Duke either did or would have said the same and he is the Orator who effects that he aimeth at this Duke being unhappily happy therein Soon after not remorse for what he had done but revenge for what King Richard would not do denying his desire put him on the project of unravelling what he had woven before But his fingers were entangled in the threads of his former Web the King compassing him into his clutches betrayed by Humphrey Banister his Servant The Sheriff seised this Duke in Shropshire where he was digging a ditch in a Disguise How well he managed the Mattock and Spade I know not this I know that in a higher sense He had made a Pit to disinherit his Soveraign and digged it and is fallen into the Ditch which he had made being beheaded at Sarisbury without any legal Tryal Anno 1484. Memorable Persons NESTA Hunger maketh men eat what otherwise they would let alone not to say cast away The cause I confesse wanting matter to furnish out our Description inviting me to meddle with this Memorable not Commendable Person 1. She was Daughter to Grâ—…ffin Prince of Wales 2. VVife to Bernard de Neumarch a Noble Norman and Lord by Conquest of this County 3. Mother to Mahel an hopeful Gentleman and Sibyl his Sister 4. Harlot to a young man whose name I neither do nor desire to know It happened Mahel having got this Stallion into his power used him very hardly yet not worse than he deserved Nesta madded hereat came in open Court and on her Oath before King Henry the second publickly protested no Manna like revenge to malicious minds not caring to wound their Foes though through themselves that Mahel was â—…e of Neumarch his Son but begotten on her in Adultery This if true spake her dishonesty if false her perjury true or false her peerless impudency Hereby she disinherited her Son and setled a vast Territory on Sibyl her sole Daughter married afterwards to Milo Earl of Hereford The Farewell When Mr. Speed in pursuance of his Description of England passed this County no fewer than Eight who had been Bayliffs of Brecknock gave him courteous entertainment This doth confirm the Character I have so often heard of the Welsh Hospitality Thus giving them their due praise on just occasion I hope that the British Reader will the better digest it if he find some passages altogether as true as this though nothing so pleasing to Him in our following Farewells CARDIGAN-SHIRE CARDIGAN-SHIRE is washed on the West with the Irish Sea and parted from the neighbouring Shires by Rivers and the Reader will be careful that the similitude of their sounds betray him not to a mistake herein 1. Dovi severing it on the North from Merioneth-shire 2. Tovy on the East from Brecknock-shire 3. Tyvy on the South from Carmarthen and Pembroke-shlre My Author saith the form thereof is Horn-like wider towards the North and I may say it hath a Cornâ—…-Copia therein of all things for mans sustenance especially if industry be used This County though remotest from England was soonest reduced to the English Dominion whilest the Countries interposed maintained their liberty The reason whereof was this The English being far more potent in shipping than the Welsh found it more facile to saile over the Mountains of Water so the Surges of the Sea are termed by the Poet than march over the Mountains of Earth and by their Fleet invaded and conquered this County in the reign of Rufus and Henry the first bestowed the same entirely upon Gilbert de Clare Natural Commodities Bevers Plenty of these formerly did breed in the
River Tyvy which saith Giraldus Cambrensis was the only place afforded them in all Britain A cunning Creature yet reported by some men more crafty than he is who relate that being hunted and in danger to be taken he biteth off his Stones as useful in Physick for which only his life was then sought and so escapeth Hence some will have him called Castro à Castrando seipsum And others adde that having formerly bitten off his Stones he standeth upright and sheweth the Hunters that he hath none that so they may surcease their pursuit of an unprofitable Quâ—…re Hence it was that amongst the Egyptians the Bever passeth for an Hieroglyphick of him who hurteth himself though by Alciate the great Emblematist he is turned to another purpose to teach men rather to part with their purses than their lives and by their wealth to redeem themselves out of danger The plain truth is all those reports of â—…he Bever are no better than vulgar errours and are disproved both by sense and experience For his Stones are so placed in his body as those of the Boar that it is impossible for himself with his teeth to touch them And some maintain they cleave so fast to his back they cannot be taken away without loss of his life However grant the story true the gelding of himself would not serve his turn or excuse the Bever from Hunters now adays except he could also flea off his skin the wooll whereof is so commonly used for the making of Hats All that I will add is this that what plenty soever there was of Bevers in this County in the days of Giraldus the breed of them now is quite destroyed and neither fore-foot of a Bever which is like a Dogs nor hind-foot which is like a Goose to be seen therein Proverbs Being well at leisure in this little County we will observe what indeed is generall to all Wales something Proverbial and conducing to our necessary information Talaeth Talaeth In effect the same in English with Finâ—… Fine when Mothers and Nurses are disposed to please their little Ones in dressing them take the original thereof When Roderick the Great divided Wales betwixt his three Sons into three Dominions North Wales South VVales and Powis He ordered that each of them should wear upon his Bonnet or Helmet a Coronet of Gold being a broad lace or head-band indented upwards set and wrought with precious stones called in the British Talaeth and they from thence Ytri twysoc Talaethioc that is the three crowned Princes But now either the number of Princes is well multiplied in Wales or which is truer the Honour of Talaeth is much diminished that being so called wherewith a Childs head is bound uppermost upon some other linnen cloaths Thus the English have that which they call the Crown of a Cap. Bu Arthur ond tra fu That is Arthur was not but whilest he was It is sad to say Nos fuimus Trojes the greatest eminency when not extant is extinct The Fryer never loved what was good Ne thorres Arthur Nawdd gwraig That is King Arthur did never violate the refuge of a Woman Arthur is notoriously known for the mirrour of manhood By the Womans Refuge many understand her Tongue and no valiant man will revenge her words with his blows Nullum memorabile Nomen Fâ—…minii in Paena Caleny Sais wrah Gymro That is the heart of a Englishman whom they call Saxons towards a Welsh-man It is either applied to such who are possessed with prejudice or only carry an outward compliance without cordial affection We must remember this Proverb was origined whilest England and wales were at deadly Feude there being better love betwixt them since the union of the Nations Ni Châ—…itw Cymbro oni Gollo That is the welshman keeps nothing until he hath lost it The historical truth thereof is plain in the British Chronicles that when the British recovered the lost Castles from the English they doubled their diligence and valour keeping them more tenaciously than before A fo Pen bid Bont That is he that will be a Head let him be a Bridge It is founded on a Fictitious tradition thus commonly told Benigridran a Britain is said to have carried an Army over into Ireland his men came to a River over which neither was Bridg nor Ferrey hereupon he was fain to carry all his men over the River on his own back To lesson men not to affect the empty title of a General except they can supply their Souldiers with all necessaries be their wardrobe in want of Cloaths Kitching in want of Meat c. Thus Honour hath ever a great burden attending it We will conclude these General Proverbs of wales with a Custom which was ancient in this Nation they had a kind of Play wherein the stronger who prevailed put the the weaker into a Sack and hence we have borrowed our English By-word to express such betwixt whom there is apparent odds of strength he is able to put him up in a bagge The Farewell It is observable what a credible Author reporteth that there was in this County a City once an Episcopal See called Llan-Badern-Vaure that is Llan-Baderne the great Which City is now dwindled to nothing Reader by the way I observe that Cities surnamed the Great come to Little at last as if God were offended with so ambitious an Epithete Sidon the Great Ninive the Great Babylon the Great it is fallen c. But the cause of the ruine of this City was for their cruel killing of their Bishop which provoked Divine Justice against them I hope the welsh warned herewith will for the future demean themselves with due respect to such persons and am confirmed in my confidence from their commendable Proverb Na difanco y Beriglawr vilifie not thy Parish-Priest and then much more ought the Bishop to be respected CARMARTHEN-SHIRE CARMARTHEN-SHIRE hath Pembroke shire on the Wâ—…st the Severn-Sea on the South Cardigan-shire on the North Brecknock and Glamorgan-shires on the East The mountains therein are neither so many nor high as in the neighbouring Counties affording plenty of Grass Grain Wood Fish and what not Besides nature here giveth the Inhabitants both meat and stomach the sharpness of the air breeding an appetite in them There is a place in this County called Golden-grove which I confess is no Ophir or Land of Havilah yielding Gold in specie but plentifully affording those rich Commodities which quickly may be converted thereunto and the pleasure is no less than the profit thereof It is the Possession of the right Honourable Richard Vaughan Baron of Emelor in England and Earl of Carbery in Ireland He well deserveth to be owner of Golden-grove who so often hath used a Golden hand in plentiful relieving many eminent Dâ—…vines during the late Sequestration This county affording no peculiar Commodities let us proceed to Wonders Giraldus Cambrensis reporteth a Fountain to be in this County let he himself
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
straitly forbidding any other of what Degree or Quality soever to be interred therein But only the Will of the King of Heaven doth stand inviolable whilest those of the most Potent earthly Princes are subject to be infringed Saints JUSTINIAN was a Noble Briton by birth who with his own inheritance built a Monastery in the Island of Ramsey in this County where many Monks lived happily under his discipline until three of them by the Devils instigation slew this Justinian in haâ—…red of his sanctity about the year of Christ 486. His body was brought with great veneration to Menevia and there interred by Saint David himself and since much famed with supposed Miracles Writers GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS whose Sir-name say some was Fitz-Girald say others was Barry and I believe the latter because he saith so himself in his Book De vita sua and was born at Tenby in this County His Father His Mother William de Barry an Englishman Angaâ—…eth the daughter of Nesta daughter of Rhese Prince of south-South-Wales He was Nephew to David the second Bishop of St. Davids by whom he was made Arch-Deacon of Brecknock He was wont to complain that the English did not love him because his Mother was a Welsh-woman and the Welsh did hate him because his Father was an English-man though by his excellent writings he deserved of England well of Wales better and of Ireland best of all making a Topographical description of all three But acting in the last as a Secretary under King John with great industry and expence Yea he was a great Traveller as far as Jerusalem it self and wrote De mirabilibus terrae Sanctae so that he might be styled Geraldus Anglicus Hibernicus Hierosolymitanus though it was his mind and modesty only to be Cambrensis One may justly wonder that having all Dimensions requisite to preferment his birth broad acquaintance deep learning long life living above seventy years he never attained to any considerable Dignity Hear how betwixt grief and anger he expresseth him self concerning his ill success at Court Irreparabili damno duo ferè lustra consumens nihil ab illis preter inanes vexationes 〈◊〉 veris promissa suscepi Indeed for a long timè no Preferment was proffered him above a beggerly Bishoprick in Ireland and at last the See of S. Davids was the highest place he attained Whilest some impute this to His Planet the malignant influence whereof hath blasted men of the most merit Pride some men counting it their due for preferment to court them and that it is enough for them to recive too much to reach after it Profitableness to be employed in meaner places Some having gotten an useful Servant love to wear him out in working and as Gardiners keep their hedges close cut that they may spread the broader maintain them mean that they may be the more industrious Giraldus himself tells us the true reason that he was ever beheld oculo novercali because being a Welsh-man by the surer side and then such the Antipathy of the English they thought no good could come out of Wales Sad that so worthy a man should poenas dare Patriae Matris suae Being at last as we have said made Bishop of Saint Davids he went to Rome and there stickled for an exemption of that his See from Canterbury whereby he highly offended Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury But Giraldus after long debates being rather over-born with Bribes than over-come in Cause returned re infecta died and was buried in his own Cathedral about the year 1215. The Farewell I know not what better to wish this County than that the Marle a great fertilizer of barren ground which it affordeth be daily encreased especially since Corn is in all probability likely to grow scarcer and scarcer that their land through Gods blessing being put in heart therewith may plentifully answer the desires of the Husbandman and hereafter repair the Penury of this with the Abundance for many succeeding years RADNOR-SHIRE RADNOR-SHIRE in British Sire Maiseveth in form three square is bounded on the North-West with Hereford-shire and on the South side separated by the River Wye with Breckneck-shire and on the North part thereof with Montgomery-shire Nature may seem to have chequered this County the East and South parts being fruitful whilest the North and West thereof lying rough and uneven with Mountains can hardly be bettered by the greatest pains and industry of the Husband man Yet is it indifferently well stored with woods and conveniently watered with running Rivers and in some places with standing Meers Mr. Cambden telleth us that there is a place therein termed Melienith from the Mountains thereof being of a Yellowish colour which stretcheth from Offa Dike unto the River Wye which cutteth overthwart the West corner of this Shire where meeting with some stones which impede its motion on a sudden for want of ground to glide on hath a violent downfall which place is termed Raihader Gowy that is the Fall or Flood-gates of Wye Hereupon he supposeth it not improbable that the English men forged that word for the name of this Shire terming it Radnor-shire Princes HENRY of MONMOUTH so called from that well known Town wherein he was born hath his Character fixed here because formerly passed over in its proper place through the posting speed of the Press He was Son to King Henry the fourth by Mary one of the Daughters and Heirs of Humfrey de Bohun Earl of Herefoâ—…d and whom he succeeded on the Throne being the fifth of that name and began his raign March 20. Anno 1413. He cannot be excused from extravagancies in his Youth seeing the King his Father expelled him his Council substituting his younger Brother the Duke of Clarence President in his steed for the same Yet as those bodies prove most healthful which break out in their youth so was his soul the sounder for venting it self in its younger days For no sooner was his Father dead but he reclaimed himself and became a glory to his Country and a constant terror to his Enemies Yea he banished all his idle Companions from Court allowing them a competency for their subsistence When the Lord Chiefe Justice who had secured him when Prince for striking him for the commitment of some of his lewd Companions begg'd his Pardon for the same he not only forgave him but rewarded his Justice for distributing it without fear or partiality In his raign a Supplication was preferred that the Temporal Lands given to pious uses but abusively spent might have been seized to the King This was wisely awarded by Chichley Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by putting the King on the design of recovering France Yea this King by his valour reduced Charles the sixth King of France to such a condition that he in a manner resigned his Kingdom into his hand And here the French men found him as good or rather worse as his promise which he made to
that is Give all kind kind signifying a Child in the low Dutch This practice as it appeares in Tacitus was derived to our Saxons from the ancient Germans Teutonibus priscis patrios succedit in agros Mascula stirps omnis ne foret ulla potens 'Mongst the old Teuch lest one o'retop his breed To his Sire's land doth every son succeed It appeareth that in the eighteenth year of King Henry the sixth there were not above fourty persons in Kent but all their land was held in this tenure But on the petition of divers Gentlemen this custome was altered by Act of Parliament in the 31. of King Henry the eighth and Kentish-lands for the most part reduced to an uniformitie with the rest in England DOVER-COURT All speakers and no hearers There is a Village in Essex not far from Harwich called Dover-Court formerly famous for a Rood burnt in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth But I take it here to be taken for some Tumultuous Court kept at Dover the Consluence of many Blustering Sea-men who are not easily ordered into awful attention The Proverb is applyed to such irregular conferences wherein the People are all Tongue and no Eares parallel to the Latine Proverb Cyclopum Respublica being thus charactered that therein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father to the Bough The Son to the Plough That is though the Father be executed for his Offence the Son shall neverthelesse succeed to his Inheritance In this County if a Tenant in Fee-simple of Lands in Gavel-kind commit Felony and suffer the judgement of Death therefore the Prince shall have all his Chattels for a forfeiture But as touching the Land he shall neither have the Escheat of it though it be immediately holden of himself nor the Day year and Wast if it be holden of any other for in that case the Heir notwithstanding the offence of his Ancestor shall enter immediately and enjoy the lands after the same Customes and services by which they were holden before In assurance whereof the former Proverb is become Currant in this County But this Rule holdeth in case of Felony and of Murther onely and not in case of Treason nor peradventure in Piracy and other Felonies made by Statutes of later times because the custome cannot take hold of that which then was not in being It holdeth moreover in case where the offender is justiced by Order of Law and not where he withdraws himself after the fault coÌ„mitted and will not abide his lawful trial TENTERDENS Steeple is the Cause of the Breacâ—… in Goodwyn Sands It is used Commonly in derision of such who being demanded to render a reason of some inportant Accident assign Non causam pro causa or a Ridiculous and improbable cause thereof and hereon a story depends When the Vicinage in Kent met to consult about the Inundation of Goodwyn sands and what might be the Cause thereof an Old man imputed it to the building of Tenterden Steeple in this County for those sands said he were firme Lands before that steeple was built which ever since were overflown with Sea-water Hereupon all heartily laughed at his unlogical Reason making that the effect in Nature which was only the consequent in time not flowing from but following after the building of that steeple But One story is good till another is heard Though this be all whereon this Proverb is generally grounded I met since with a * supplement thereunto It is this Time out of mind mony was constantly collected out of this County to fence the East bancks thereof against the eruption of the Seas And such Sums were deposited in the hands of the Bishop of Rochester But because the Sea had been very quiet for many years without any encroachings The Bishop commuted that money to the building of a Steeple and endowing of a Church in Tenterden By this diversion of the Collection for the maintenance of the Banks the Sea afterwards brake in upon Goodwyn Sands And now the old man had told a rational tale had he found but the due favour to finish it And thus sometimes that is causelesly accounted ignorance in the speaker which is nothing but impatience in the Auditors unwilling to attend the end of the discourse A Jack of Dover I find the first mention of this Proverb in our English Ennius Chaucer in his Proeme to the Cook And many a Jack of Dover he had sold Which had been two times hot and two times cold This is no Fallacy but good Policy in an houshould to lengthen out the Provision thereof and though lesse toothsome may be wholsome enough But what is no false Logick in a Family is false Ethicks in an Inn or Cooks-shop to make the abused Guest to pay after the rate of New and Fresh for meat at the second and third hand Parallel to this is the Latine Proverb crambe bis cocta crambe being a kind of Colewort which with vinegar being raw is good boiled better twice boiled noysome to the Palat and nauceous to the stomach Both Proverbs are appliable to such who grate the ears of their Auditors with ungratefull Tautologies of what is worthlesse in it selse tolerable as once uttered in the notion of Novelty but abominable if repeated for the tediousnesse thereof Princes JOHN of ELTHAM Second Son to King Edward the Second by Isabell his Queen was born at Eltham in this County He was afterwards created Earle of Cornwal A spritely Gentleman and who would have given greater evidence of abilities if not prevented by death in the prime of his age He dyed in Scotland in the tenth yeare of the reign of King Edward the Third Be it observed that hitherto the younger Sons to our English Kings were never advanced Higher than Earls Thus Richard Second son to King Iohn never had higher English Honour then the Earle of Cornwel though at the same time he were King of the Romans But this Iohn of Eltham was the last Son of an English King who dyed a plain Earl the Title of Duke coming aâ—…erwards into fashion Hence it was that all the younger Sons of Kings were from this time forwards Created Dukes except expiring in their infancy BRIDGET of ELTHAM fourth Daughter of K Edward the fourth and Elizabeth his Q. was born at Eltham in this County Observing her three eldest Sisters not over happy in their husbands she resolved to wed a Monastical life and no whit ambitious of the place of an Abbess became an ordinary votary in the Nunnery at Dartford in this County founded by K. Edward the 3. The time of her death is uncertain but this is certain that her dissolution hapned some competent time before the dissolution of that Nunnerie EDMUND youngest Son to King Henry the 7. and Elizabeth his Queen bearing the name of his Grand-father Edmund of Haddam was born at Greenwich in this County 1495. He was by his Father created Duke of Somerset and he dyed before he was full
five years of age at Bishops Hatfield in Hartford shire which then was the Nursery for the Kings Children Little notice generally is taken of this Prince and no wonder for Who onely act short parts in Infant age Are soon forgot they e're came on the Stage He died Anno Dom. 1500. in the 15. year of his Fathers Reign and lieth buried without any Monument in Westminster HENRY the Eighth second son of King Henry the Seventh was born at Greenwich A Prince who some praise to the Skies others depresse to the Pit whilest the third and truer sort embrace a middle way betwixt both Extream Mean Extream Some carry him up as the Paragon of Princes The great advancer of Gods Glory and true Religion and the most Magnificent that ever sate on the Throne Master Fox in his Acts and Monuments is sometimes very superlative in his Commendation And so are most Protestant Authours who wrote under his Reign Polidor Virgil hath an Expression of him to this Effect Princeps in quo aequali quasi temperamento magnae inerantVirtutes ac non minora vitia A Prince in whom great Virtues and no less Vices were in a manner equally contemperated Sir Walter Rawleigh in his Preface to his great History whose words may better be read there than Transcribed thence makes him the truest Map of Tyranny Insomuch that King James who could not abide that any under a King should speak against a King was much offended thereat And those words worst became the writer so much advanced by the daughter of the said K. Henry For mine own part I humbly conceive God effected more by his work as the Instrument than he was directed by Gods Word as the Principal Indeed he was a Man of an Uncomptrolable spirit carrying a MANDAMUs in his mouth sufficiently sealed when he put his hand to his Hilt He awed all into Obedience which some impute to his skilfulnesse to Rule others ascribe to his Subjects ignorance to resist Let one pleasant passage for Recreation have its Pass amongst much serious Matter A company of little boyes were by their School-Master not many years since appointed to act the Play of King Henry the Eighth and one who had no presence but an absence rather as of a whyning voice puiling spirit Consumptionish body was appointed to personate K. Henry himself only because he had the richest Cloaths and his parents the best people of the parish but when he had spoke his speech rather like a Mouse then a Man one of his fellow Actors told him If you speak not HOH with a better spirit your Parliament will not grant you a penny of Money But it is vain to Glean in the stubble seeing the Lord Herbert hath so largely wrote the life of this King that nothing of moment can be added thereunto He dyed January 28 1546. MARY eldest Daughter to King Henry the Eighth and Q. Katharine of Spain was born at Greenwich the 18. of February 1518. She did partake of both her parents in her person and properties having from her Father a broad face big voyce and undaunted spirit from her Mother a swarthy complexion and a mind wholy devoted to the Romish Religion She attained the crown by complying with the Gentry of Norfolk and Suffolk promising them to continue Religion as established by K. Edward the 6. after the breach of which promise she never prospered For first she lost the hearts of her subjects then her hopes of a Child then the company not to say affection of her husband then the City of Calais then her mirth then her health then her life which ended on the. 17. of November 1558. Queen ELIZABETH Second Daughter to King Henry the Eighth was born at Greenwich Septemb. 7. 1533. She was Heire only to the eminences of her Father his Learning Bounty Courage and Success Besides Grace and true goodness wherein she was Daughter to her Mother Her Learning appears in her two Latine speeches to the University and a third little better then Ex tempore to the Poland Ambassador Her bounty was better then her Fathers less flowing from Humour and more founded on Merit and ordered with Moderation seeing that s the best Liberality that so enricheth the Receiver that it doth not impoverish the Giver Her Courage was undaunted never making her self so cheap to her Favorites but that she still valued her own Authority whereof this an eminent instance A prime Officer with a White staffe whose name I purposely forbear coming into her presence the Queen willed him to confer such a place now voyd on one of her servants whom she commended unto him Pleaseth your Highness Madam saith the Lord The disposal thereof pertaineth to me by vertue of this white staffe conferred upon me True said the Queen yet I never gave you your office so absolutely but I still reserved my self of the Quorum But of the Quarum Madam returned the Lord presuming on the favour of her Highnesse Hereat the Queen in some passion snatching the staff out of his hand you shall acknowledge me said She of the Quorum Quarum Quorum before you have it again The Lord waited Stafflesse almost a day which seemed â—…o long unto him as if the Sun stood still before the same was reconferred upon him Her success was admirable keeping the King of Spain at Armes End all her Reign She was well skilled in the Queen-craft and by her policy and prosperity she was much beloved by her people insomuch that since it hath been said That Queen Elizabeth might lawfully doe that which King James might not For although the Laws were equally the rule to them both yet her popularity sugared many bitter things her subjects thanking her for taking those Taxes which they refused to pay to her Successor She died at Richmond March 24. Anno Domini 1602. MARY Daughter to King James and Anne of Denmark his Queen was born at Greenwich April 8. about eleven a clock at night and soon after baptized with greater state than the memory of any then alive in England could recover King James was wont pleasantly to say that he would not pray to the Virgin Mary but he would pray for the Virgin Mary meaning his own Daughter But it seems his prayers prevailed not Divine Providence having otherwise determined it for her long life who expired in her infancy and lies buried at Westminster SOPHIA youngest daughter to King James and Queen Anne was born at Greenwich the 22. day of June 1606. and departed this life three dayes after This Royal Babe lieth buried nigh Queen Elizabeth in the North part of the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh represented sleeping in her Cradle wherewith vulgar eyes especially of the Weaker sex are more affected as level to their Cognizance more capable of what is prety than what is pompous than with all the magnificent Monuments in Westminster CHARLES eldest Son of King Charles and Q. Mary was born at Greenwich Anno 1629.
Ioh. Palmer arm ut prius  36 Ioh. Thetcher arm   37 Ioh. Dawtree mil. ut prius  38 Ioh. Sackvile arm ut prius  EDVV. VI.   Anno   1 Thom Carden mil.   2 Ioh. Scott armig ut prius  3 Nich. Pelham mil. ut prius  4 VVill. Goring m. ut prius  5 Rob. Oxenbrigg â—… ut prius  6 Anthon. Brown m. ut prius  Rex PHIL. MAR. Reg   Anno   1 Tho. Saunders mil. chartwood Sable a Cheveron between 3 Bulls heads Aâ—…g 2 Ioh. Covert arm ut prius  3 VVill. Saunders ar ut prius  4 Edw. Gage mil.  Gyronne of four Az. and Arg a Saltire Gules 5 Ioh. Ashburnham ut prius  6 VVill. Moore arm ut prius  Regin ELIZ.   Anno   1 Tho. Palmer mil. ut prius  2 Ioh. Colepeper ar  â—…rg a Bend engrailâ—…d Gules 3 Joh. Stidolf arm  Arg. Or a Chief Sable 2 Wolves heads Erased Or. 4 Hen. Goring arm ut prius  5 Will. Gresham   6 Rich. Covert arm ut prius  7 Antho. Pelham ar ut prius  8 Will. Dawtree arm ut prius  This year the 2 Counties were divided Sheriffs of Surrey alone Name Place Amreâ—… 9 Franc. Carew ar ut prius  10 Hen. Weâ—…on mil. ut prius  11 Thom. Lifeld ar ut prius  12 Tho. Brown arm ut prius  This year the two Counties were again united under one Sheriff Name Place Amreâ—… 13 Ioh. Pelham arm ut prius  14 Tho Palmer mil. ut prius  15 Fran. Shirley arm ut prius  16 Ioh. Rede arm Rich. Polsted   17 Hen Pelham arm ut prius  18 Will. Gresham ar ut prius  19 Tho. Shirley mil ut prius  20 Georg. Goring ar ut prius  21 Will. Moore mil. ut prius  22 Will. Morley arm ut prius  23 Edw. Slifeld arm   24 Tho. Brown mil. ut prius  25 Walt. Covert arm ut prius  26 Tho. Bishop arm Parham Argent on a Bend cottised Gules 3 Bezauts 27 Rich. Bostock ar  Sable a Fesse Humet Aâ—…g 28 Nich. Parker ar   29 Rich. Brown arm ut prius  30 Ioh. Carrell arm Harting Argent 3 Bars and as many Martlets in Chief Sable 31 Thom. Pelham a. ut prius  32 Hen. Pelham arm ut prius  33 Robâ—… Linsey arm  Or an Eagle displayed Sable beaked and membred Az. a Chief Varry 34 Walt. Covert mil. ut prius  35 Nich. Parker mil.   36 Will. Gardeux a.   37 Rich. Leech arm   38 Edm. Culpeper a. ut prius  39 Georg. Moore arm ut prius  40 Jam. Colebrand a. Botham Az. 3 Levels with Plummets O. 41 Tho. Eversfeld a. Den Erm. on a Bend S. 3 Mullets O. 42 Edm. Boier arm Camberwel Sur. O. a Bend varry betwixt 2 Cottises Gules 43 Thom. Bishop arm ut prius  44 Ioh. Ashburnham ut prius  45 Rob. Lynsey ut prius  JAC. Rex   Anno   1 Rob. Linsey arm ut prius  2 Hen. Goring mil. ut prius  3 Edw. Culpeper mil ut prius  4 Tho. Hoskings mil.   5 Hen. Morley arm ut prius  6 Georg. Gunter mil.  Sable 3 Gantlets within a Border Or. 7 Thom. Hunt miles   8 Ioh. Lountesford  Az. a Cheveron betwixt 3 Boares Or Coupe Gules 9 Edw. Bellingham 〈◊〉 prins  10 Wil. Wignall a Tandrigde Sur. Azure on a Cheveron Or betwixt 3 Ostriges 3 Mullets Gules 11 Edw. Goring arm ut prius  12 Ioh. Willdigos m.   13 Rola Tropps Mor Ioh. Morgan m.   14 Ioh. Shirley mile ut prius  15 Ioh. Middleton a.   16 Ioh. Howland mil. Shatham Arg. 2 Bars and 3 Lions Ramp in Chief Sable 17 Nich. Eversfeld a. ut prius  18 Rich. Michelborne   19 Franc. Leigh mil. ut prius  20 Tho. Springet m.   21 Ben. Pelham mil. ut prius  22 Amb. Browne arm ut prius  CAROLUS Rex   Anno   1 Edr. Alford arm  G. 6 Pears 3 2 1 a chief O. 2 Tho. Bowyer arm Leghthorn Suss. Or a Bend Vary betw 2 Cotises G 3 Edw. Jourden arm Gatwik S. an Eagle displaied betw 2 Bendlets Ar. a Canton siâ—…ster Or. 4 Steph. Boord mil.   5 Anth. May armâ—…ger  G. a Fesse between 8 Billets Or. 6 Will. Walter mil. Wimblâ—… Az. a Fesse indented Or between 3 Eagles Argent 7   8 Iohâ—… Chapman m.   9 Rich. Evelyn arm Wotton Az. a Gâ—…yphon passant Chief O. 10 Will Culpeper ar ut prius  11 Will. Morley mil. ut prius  When I look upon these two Counties it puts me in mind of the Epigram in the Poet. Nec cum te possum vivere nec sine te Neither with thee can I well Nor without thee can I dwell For these two Shires of Surrey and Sussex generally had distinct Sheriffs until the Reign of King Edward the Second when they were united under One. Then again divided in the ninth of Queen Elizabeth united in the thirteenth divided again in the twelfth of King Charles and so remain at this day but how long this condition will continue is to me unknown seeing neither conjunctim nor divisim they seem very well satisfied Sheriffs of this Connty alone Name Place Amreâ—… King CHARLES   Anno   12 Antho. Vincent mil. Stock'd Azure 3 Quarterfoils Argent 13 Abernn  14 Iohan Gresham mil   15 Ioh. Howland mil. ut prius  16 Tho. Smith armig   17 Georg. Price arm   18   19 Edru Jorden arm ut prius  20 Mathe. Brand mi   21   22 Will. VVymondsal mil. Putnie  RICHARD the Second 19 JOHN ASHBURNHAM My poor and plain Pen is willing though unable to add any lustre to this Family of stupendious Antiquity The Chief of this name was High Sheriffe of Sussex and Surrey Anno 1066. when WILLIAM Duke of Normandy invaded England to whom King Harauld wrote to assemble the Posse Comitatunm to make effectuall resistance against that Foreigner The Original hereof an Honourable Heir-Loome worth as much as the Owners thereof would value it at was lately in the Possession of this Family A Family wherein the Eminency hath equalled the Antiquity thereof having been Barons of England in the Reign of King Henry the Third The Last Sr. John Ashburnham of Ashburnham married Elizabeth Beaumont Daughter of Sr. Tho. Beaumont afterwards by especiall Grace created Viscountess Crawmount in Scotland and bare unto him two Sons John of the Bed-chamber to King CHARLES the first and second and William Cofferer to his