Skip to main content

Full text of ""Brief lives", chiefly of contemporaries, set down by John Aubrey, between the years 1669 & 1696;"

See other formats 


FRAGILE DOES NOT 
CIRCULATE 



fyxull ^nivmii^ § 


)'x\ixm^ 


BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
FROM THE 

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND 

THE GIFT OF 

Benrg M. Sage 
1891 


A-/5.33^4> 


TH'W 



CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 




3 1924 088 005 628 




Cornell University 
Library 



The original of tiiis book is in 
the Cornell University Library. 

There are no known copyright restrictions in 
the United States on the use of the text. 



http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924088005628 



AUBRETS 'BRIEF LIVES 

ANDREW CLARK 



VOL. I. 



HENRY FROWDE, M.A. 

PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 




LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK 




JOHN AUBREY : AETAT. 40 

From a pen-and-ink drawing in the Bodleian 



^ Brief Lives ^^ chiefly of Con- 
temporaries^ set down by 
John Aubrey^ between 

the Years i66g & i6g6 



EDITED FROM THE AUTHOR'S MSS. 

BY 

ANDREW CLARK 

M.A., LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD; M.A. AND LL.D., ST. ANDREWS 



WITH FACSIMILES 



VOLUME I. (A - H) 



O;trfori 
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 
1898 



PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 

BY HORACE HART, M.A. 

PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY 



PREFACE 



The rules laid down for this edition have been 
fully stated in the Introduction. It need only be 
said here that these have been scrupulously followed. 

I may take this opportunity of saying that the 
text gives Aubrey's quotations, English and Latin 
alike, in the form in which they are found in his 
MSS. They are plainly cited from memory, not 
from book : they frequently do not scan, and at 
times do not even construe. A few are incorrect 
cementings of odd half lines. 

The necessary excisions have not been numerous. 
They suggest two reflections. The turbulence 
attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh seems to have made 
his name in the next age the centre of aggregation 
of quite a number of coarse stories. In the same 
way, Aubrey is generally nasty when he mentions 
the noble house of Herbert, earl of Pembroke, and 
the allied family of Sydney. There may be personal 
pique in this, for Aubrey thinks he had a narrow 



vi Preface 

escape from assassination by a Herbert (i. 48) ; 
perhaps also there may be the after-glow of a 
Wiltshire 'feud' (i. 316). 

The Index gives all references to persons men- 
tioned in the text, except to a few found only in 
pedigrees, or otherwise quite insignificant ; also to 
all places of which anything distinctive is said. 

Andrew Clark. 

January 4, 1898. 



CONTENTS 



VOLUME I 
P'rontispiece : John Aubrey, aetat. 40. 

PAGE 

Synopsis of the Lives . , . . ix-xv 

Introduction . ... 1-23 

Lives: — Abbot to Hyde . . 24-427 



VOLUME II 

Frontispiece : Aubrey's book-plate. 

Lives: — Ingelbert to York 1-316 

Appendix I: — Aubrey's Notes of Antiquities . . 317-332 

Appendix II : — Aubrey's Comedy The Countrey Ri'vell 333-339 

Index 341-370 

Facsimiles . . . . . . . Af end. 

I. Castle Mound, Oxford. Riding at the Quintin. 

II. Veiulam House. 

III. Horoscope and cottage of Thomas Hobbes. 

\Y. Plans of Malmsbury and district. 

V. Horoscope and arms of Sir William Petty. 

VI. Wolsey's Chapel at Christ Church. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE 'LIVES' 



In the text the Lives have been given in alphabetical order 
of the names. This was necessary, not only on account of their 
number — more than 400 — but because Aubrey, in compiling 
them, followed more than one principle of selection, writing, 
first, lives of authors, then, lives of mathematicians, but bringing 
in also lives of statesmen, soldiers, people of fashion, and 
personal friends. 

The following synopsis of the lives may serve to show (i) the 
heads under which they naturally fall, (ii) their chronological 
sequence. 

The mark f indicates the year or approximate year of death ; 
t denotes a life which Aubrey said he would write, but which 
has not been found ; § is attached to the few names of 
foreigners. 



BEFORE HENRY VIII. 



Writers. 
Poets. 

Geoffrey Chancer (ti4°°)- 
John Gower (ti4o8). 

Prose. 
Sir John Maudeville 

(ti372). 



Mathematics. 
John Holywood (f 1256). 
Roger Bacon (+1294). 
John Ashindon (ti3 . . ). 

Alchemy. 
George Ripley (+1490). 



Church and State. 

S. Dnnstan (+988). 
S. Edmund Rich (ti24o). 
Owen Glendower (fi4i5). 
William Canynges(ti474). 
John Morton (fisoo). 



HENRY VIII— MARY (ti558). 



Writers. 

Sir Thomas More (fiSSS)- 
§Desiderius Erasmus 

(ti536). 



Mathematics. 

Richard Benese (■j-1546). 
Robert Record (fiSSS). 



Church and State. 

John Colet (fisig). 
Thomas Wolsey (ti63o). 
John Innocent (tl546). 
Sir Thomas Pope (ti6S9)- 
Edmnnd Bonner (+1569). 

Sir Erasmus Dryden 

(ti632). 



Synopsis of the 'Lives ' 



Writers. 
Poets. 
Thomas Tusser (f 1580). 
Edmund Spenser (ti599)- 
Sir Edward Dyer (+1607). 
William Shakespear 

(ti6i6). 



Prose. 
§t Petrus Ramus (tiS72). 
John Twyne (fisSi). 
Sir Philip Sydney (ti586). 
John Foxe (fisS?). 
Robert Glover (flsSS). 
Thomas Cooper (f 1594). 
Thomas Stapleton (f 1598). 
Thomas North (ti6oi). 
William Watson (ti6o3). 
John Stowe (f 1605). 
Thomas Brightman 

(ti6o7). 
John David Rhese 

(tifiop). 
Nicholas Hill (ti6io). 



ELIZABETH {■\i6o^). 

Mathematics. 

James Peele (fiS . . ). 
Leonard Digges (fisyi). 
Thomas Digges (tiS95)- 
John Secnris (f . . . ). 
Evans Lloyd (f . . . ). 
Cyprian Lucar (f . . . ). 
Thomas Hoode (f . . . ). 
% Thomas Blundeville 

(ti6..). 
Henry Billingsley (ti6o6). 
§ Ludolph van Keulen 

(ti6io). 
John Blagrave (ti6ii). 
Edward Wright (fifiis). 
Thomas Hariot (f 1621). 
Sir Henry Savile (ti622). 



Chemistry. 
Adrian Gilbert (t • • • )• 



Zoology. 
Thomas Mouffet (ti6o4). 



Alchemy and Astro- 
logy. 
Thomas Charnocke 

(ti580- 
John Dee (fiSoS). 
Arthur Dee (fiSsi). 



State. 
William Herbert, ist earl 

of Pembroke (ti57o)- 
William Cecil, lord Burgh- 
ley (tiS98)- 
Robert Devereux, earl of 

Essex (f 1601). 
Sir Charles Danvers 

(ti6oi). 
George Clifford, earl of 

Cumberland (tl6o5). 
Thomas Sackville, earl of 

Dorset (ti6o8). 
?Sir Thomas Penruddock 
(t . . . )• 
Law. 
Sir William Fleetwood 

(ti594)- 
William Aubrey (fJSgs). 
Sir John Popham (ti6o7). 

Commerce, etc. 
Sir Thomas Gresham 

(ti579)- 
John Davys, capt. (ti6o5). 
Richard Staper (ti6o8). 

Society. 
? . . . Robartes (t . . . )• 
Elizabeth Dan vers (f . . .). 
Sir John Danvers (tiS94). 
Richard Herbert (ti596). 
Edward de Vere, 1 7th earl 

of Oxford (ti6o4). 
Sir Henry Lee (fifiii). 
Silvanus Scory (f 1617). 
Mary Herbert, countess of 

Pembroke (ti62i). 



Writers. 
Poets. 
Francis Beaumont (ti6i6). 
John Fletcher (11625). 
Arthur Gorges (flfizs). 



JAMES I (ti625). 

Mathematics. 

Edward Brerewood 

(ti6i3). 
John Norden (f 1625). 
Edmund Gunter (ti626). 
Thomas Allen (11632). 



Church. 

Richard Bancroft (ti6io). 
John Overall (f 1619). 
Lancelot Andrewes(ti626). 
George Abbot (fiSsj). 
John Davenant (11641). 



Synopsis of the 'Lives' 



XI 



JAMES I (ti6a5) continued. 



Writers. 



Poets. 
Fulk Greville, lord Brooke 
(ti628). 
Michael Drayton (f 1631). 
George Chapman (■)"i634). 
Ben Jonson (ti637). 
George Feriby (fiS . . ). 
JBenjamin Rndyerd (+16..). 



Prose. 

Henry Lyte (ti6o7). 
Richard KnoUes (fidio). 
JRichard White (tl6i3). 
Thomas Twyne (ti6i3). 
Thomas Coryat (ti6i7). 
Sir Walter Raleigh(ti6i8). 
John Barclay (ti63i). 
William Camden (ti623). 
Nicholas Fuller (ti624). 
John P'lorio (ti625). 
Francis Bacon (■(■1626). 
John Speed (11629). 
Thomas Archer (f 1630). 
John Rider (ti632). 
Isaac Wake (ti632). 
William Sutton (ti632). 
Philemon Holland(ti637). 
John Willis (+16..). 



Mathematics. 

Robert Hues (+1632). 
JohnSpeidcU (+16..). 
JThomasFale (fiS..)- 
JThoraas Lydiat (+1646). 



Astrology. 
Dr. Richard Napier 

(ti634^- 



State. 



Everard Digby (f 1606). 
Thomas Overbnry (f 1613). 
tjames I (ti626). 
William Herbert, 3rd earl 
of Pembroke (ti63o). 

Law. 
Sir Thomas Egerton, lord 

Ellesmere (f 1617). 
Richard Martin (fiSiS). 

Medicine. 
. . . Jaquinto (ti6. .). 
William Butler (ti6i8). 
Francis Anthony (flS^s). 

Commerce, etc. 
Thomas Sutton (fiSii). 
John Guy (ti628). 
John Whitson (i'i629). 
Sir Hugh Middleton 

(ti63i). 
William de 'Visscher 

(ti6..). 
Edward Davenant (f 1 6 . . ). 

Inventors. 

William Lee (ti6io). 
. . . Gregory (fiS . . ). 
. . . Ingelbert (ti6..). 
. . . Robson(ti6..). 

Seamen. 

Walter Raleigh (flSi?). 
JThomas Stumpe (ti6 . . ). 
Roger North (ti652). 

Schoolmasters. 

Alexander Gill (fiSss)- 
Martin Billingsley (+16 . . ). 

Miscellaneous. 
Charles Hoskyns (+1609). 
Richard Sackville, 3rd earl 

of Dorset (■t-i624). 
Sir Henry Lee (ti63i). 
Simon Furbisher (ti6 . . ) 



Xll 



Synopsis of the 'Lives ' 



\\ RITERS. 

Poets. 
Hugh Holland (ti633). 
George Herbert (ti633). 
Richard Corbet (11635). 
Thomas Randolph (f 1635). 
John Sherburne (ti635)- 
Sir Robert Alton (ti638). 
John Hoskyns (ti638). 
Philip Massinger (+1640). 
Charles Aleyn (-1-1640). 
Sir John Suckling (ti64i). 
\\'iUiain Cartwright (ti643). 
Henry Clifford, earl of 

Cumberland (ti643). 
George Sandys (f 1644). 
Francis Quarles (ti644). 
William Bro-wne (f 1645). 
ThomasGoodwyn(ti6 . . ). 
William Habington (f 1654). 
John Taylor (f 1654). 
Sir Robert Harley (+1656). 
Richard Lovelace (-1-1658). 
John Cleveland (fiSsS). 
Gideon de Laune (i-1659). 
James Shirley (ti666). 

Prose. 
Gers'ase Markham (ti637). 
Robert Burton (ti64o). 
Sir Henry Spelman(ti64i). 
W. Chillingvi'oi-th (11644^ 
Rob. Stafford (1644). 
William Twisse (11646). 
Degory Wheare (ti647). 
Edward, lord Herbert of 

Chirbury (11648). 
§Joh. Ger. Vossius (ti649). 
Abraham Wheloc (ti6 . . ). 
Theoph. Wodenote, sen. 

(ti6..). 
§Rene des Cartes (1651). 
. . . Gerard (ti6 . . ). 
JSamuel Collins (fi65i). 
§Jean L. de Balzac (ti6s5). 
John Hales (ti656). 
James Usher (11656). 
Joseph Hall (ti656). 
William Harvey (fiSs^). 
Robert Sanderson (ti663). 
Sir Kenelm Digby (-f-iees). 



CHARLES I (ti649). 
Mathematics. 
Henry Briggs (11631). 
William Bedwell (+1632). 
Nathaniel Torporley 

(ti632). 
Henry Gellibrand (i-l637). 
Walter Warner (ti64o). 
William Gascoigne 

(ti644). 
Charles Cavendish (11652). 
Henry Isaacson (+1654). 
Edmund Wingate (f 1656). 
William Oughtred (ti66o). 
Franciscus Linus (-|-i6 .). 
John Tap (f 16. . ). 
John Wells (ti6..). 



Church. 

Richard Neile (ti64o). 
George Webb (f 1641). 

State. 

George Villiers, duke of 
Buckingham (ti628). 

Sir Edward Coke (ti633". 

William Noy (ti634). 

Richard Boyle, ist earl of 
Cork (ti643)- 

Lucius Cary, earl of Falk- 
land (ti643). 

Henry Danvers, earl of 
Danby (■i'i644). 

Robert Dalzell, earl of 
Carnwarth (f 1654). 

Law. 
Sir Henry Martin (•i-i64i). 
David Jenkins (ti663). 

Medicine. 
Sir Matthew Lister (11656). 

Art. 
Inigo Jones (+1652). 

Soldiers. 
CharlesCavendish (f 1643). 
Sir James Long (fiSsg). 
Sir Robert Harley (ti673). 
Sir William Neale (ti69i). 

School and College. 
Alexander Gill (ti642). 
Ralph Kettell (ti643). 
Hannibal Potter (+1664). 
Thomas Batchcroft(f 1670). 

Society. 

Elizabeth Broughton 

(ti6..). 
Venetia Digby (ti633). 

Miscellaneous. 
Elize Hele (ti633). 
John Clavell (ti642). 
? . . , Cradock (-f-iQ . . ). 



Synopsis of the 'Lives ' 



XIU 



Writers. 
Faets. 
Thomas May (fiejo). 
Katharine Philips (ti664). 
George Withers (ti667). 
John Milton (tl674). 
Andrew Marvell (+1678). 

J'rose. 
Clement Walker (f 1651). 
John Selden (ti654)- 
Walter Rnmsey (ti66o). 
Thomas Fuller (f 1661). 
William Prynne (ti669). 



COMMONWEALTH. 

Mathematics. 

Richard Billingsley 

(ti6..). 
Samuel Foster (■t'i653). 
Lawrence Rooke (ti662). 



Science. 
John Wilkins (tifi?^'. 



Astrology. 
Nicholas Fiske (+16 . . ). 



State. 

Sir John Danvers (ti655). 
Thomas Chaloner (ti66l). 
Sir William Platers 

(ti6 . . ). 
James Harrington (ti677). 
Henry Martin (ti68o). 
Sir Henry Blount (tl682). 

Soldiers and Sailors. 
Robert Grevill, lord Brooke 

(ti643). 
Robert Blake (+1657). 
George Monk (f 1671). 
Thomas, lord Fairfax 

(ti67i). 
Law. 
Henry Rolle (11656), 

Medicine. 
Jonathan Goddard (-1-1675). 

School. 
Thomas Triplett (ti67o). 



CHARLES n (ti685) and JAMES II. 



Writers. 

I'aets. 

Alexander Brome (ti666). 

Abraham Cowley (ti667). 

Sir William Davenant 

(tl668). 
Sir John Denham (-[166^). 
Samuel Butler (ti68o). 
John Wilmot, earl of 

Rochester (-|-i68o). 
John Lacy (ti68i). 
Martin Lluelyn (ti682). 
Edmund Waller (ti687). 
Thomas Flatman (ti688). 
JSir George Etherege 

(ti6..). 
Henry Vaughan (flCps)- 
John Dryden (•t-i7oo). 



Mathematics. 

Christopher Brookes 

(ti665). 

William Neile (ti67o). 

Lancelot Morehouse 

(ti672). 

Richard Norwood (+1675). 

Isaac Barrow (ti677). 

John Newton (ti678). 

Francis Potter (11678). 

Sir Jonas Moore (+1679). 

JRichard Alcorne (ti6 . .). 

JHenry Bond (ti6 . . ). 

Michael Dary (ti679). 

William, lord Brereton 

(-1-1680) 

Edward Davenant (ti68o). 

Richard Stokes (ti68i). 



Church. 

Herbert Thorndyke 

(ti672). 
William Outram (ti679). 
Peter Gunning (ti684). 
Thomas Pittis (ti687). 

State. 
Sir Robert Moray (ti673). 
Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey 

(ti678). 
Sir Thomas Morgan 

(+1679). 
John Birkenhead (-I-1679). 
William Harcourt(ti679) 
Robert Pugh (ti679). 
§Jean Baptiste Colbert 

(ti683). 



XIV 



Synopsis of the 'Lives' 



CHARLES II (ti685) and JAMES II [coniimced). 



Writers. 
Prose. 
Peter Heylyn (ti662). 
James Heath (ti664). 
Sir Robert Poyntz 

(ti666). 
Thomas Vaughan (ti667). 
George Bate (ti668). 
John Davenport (ti67o). 
Vavasor Powell (ti67o). 
Samuel Hartlib (-1-1670). 
Edward Bagshawe (-1-1671). 
Edward Hyde, earl of 

Clarendon (ti674). 
Sir William Saunderson 

(ti676) 
John Ogilby (ti676). 
John Tombes (ti676). 
Thomas Whyte (ti676). 
Silas Taylor (ti678). 
Thomas Stanley (ti678). 
John Cecil, 4th earl of 

Exeter (ti678). 
Thomas Hobbes (f 1679). 
. . . Barrow (-t-i6S .). 
. . . Monday (tl6. . ). 
Joseph Glanville (ti68o). 
Thomas Jones (-t-i683). 
William Stafford(ti684). 
Edward Lane (fifiSs). 
Thomas Pigot (ti686). 
Richard Head (ti686?). 
Sir William Dugdale 

(ti686). 
Isaac Vossius (ti688). 
Robert Barclay (f 1690). 
John Rushworth (ti69o). 
Fabian Philips (ti69o). 
.Samuel Pordage (ti69i). 
Elias Ashmole (f 1692). 
Anthony Wood (f 1695). 
Henry Birkhead (fidgd). 
John Aubrey (11697). 
William Holder (fiegS). 
Richard Blackburne 

(ti7..?). 
Thomas Gale (-(-1702). 



Mathematics. 

Sir George Wharton 

(ti68i). 

Thomas Merry (+1682). 

John Collins (-f-1683). 

William, lord Brouncker 
(ti684). 

John Pell (ti685). 

Nicholas Mercator (+1687). 

Thomas Street (+1689). 

Seth Ward (fieSg). 

John Kersey (11690). 

John Wallis (ti703). 

tjohn Flamsted (f 1719). 

Jlsaac Newton (f 1737). 

Edmund Halley (fi742'). 



Science. 
John Willis (-fie..). 
John Graunt (ti674). 
Robert Boyle (ti69i). 
Sir Edward Harley (fi 7oo\ 
Robert Hooke (ti703). 
Sir John Hoskyns (ti705). 



State. 
Anthony Cooper, earl of 

Shaftesbury (ti683). 
Sir Leoline Jenkins 

(ti686). 

JJames, duke of Monmouth 

(ti686). 

Sir William Petty (tl687)- 

Thomas Osborne, earl of 

Danby (-t-1712). 

Law. 
Sir Matthew Hale (ti676). 
George Johnson (f 1683). 

Medicine. 
Thomas Willis (ti676). 
Baldwin Hamey (ti676). 
Sir Richard Napier (-1-1676). 
Henry Stubbe (f 1676). 
Thomas Shirley (+1678). 
Sir Edward Greaves 

(+1680). 
Sir Robert Talbot (ti68i). 
William Croone (ti684). 
Daniel Whistler (ti684). 
Christopher Merret 

(ti696)- 
Walter Charleton (i-i7o7). 

Art. 
Samuel Cooper (fi672). 
Wenceslaus Hollar 

(+1677). 
Sir Christopher Wren 

(ti723)- 
SCHOOL. 

. . . Webb (+16 . . ). 
Thomas Stephens (ti6 . . ). 
Arthur Brett (ti677). 
Ezerel Tonge (tl68o). 

Commerce, etc. 
Sir Edward Ford (ti67o). 
Thomas Bushell (f 1674V 
William Marshall (ti6 . . ). 
Robert Murray (ti725). 
James Bovey (f . . . . ). 



Synopsis of the 'Lives' 



XV 



CHARLES II (ti685) and JAMES II {continued) 



Writers. 
Prose. 
JSir Edward Sherburne 

(+1702). 
John Evelyn (ti7o6). 
John Philips (ti7o6). 
John Hawles (ti7i6). 
William Penn (ti7l8). 



Astrology. 
John Heydon (ti66 .). 
John Booker (ti667). 
William Lilly (ti68i). 
Henry Coley (f 1695). 
Charles Snell (ti6 . . ). 
John Gadbury (ti704). 
John Partridge (fi^iS)- 



Society, etc. 
Lucy Walters (ti6 . . ). 
Sir Walter Raleigh (t 1 663) . 
Eleanor Ratcliffe, countess 

of Sussex (-t-1666). 
. . . Berkeley (ti6..). 
. . . Curtin (fiS..). 
Dorothy Selby (fiS..). 
Anne, duchess of York 

Cecil Calvert, lord Balti- 
more (ti675)- 

Sir Thomas Billingsley 

(ti67.). 

Richard Sackville, 5th earl 
of Dorset (ti677)- 

Charles Pamphlin (fiGyS). 

Sir Francis Stuart (ti6 . . ). 

X. ■ . Aldsworth (fiS..). 

Sir Robert Henley (ti68o). 

Sir Thomas Badd (fiSSs). 

. . . Ralphson (+1684). 

Charles Howard {fi'j . .). 

Willoughby Bertie (fi 760). 



AUBREY'S PERSONAL FRIENDS. 



I. Of the Old School. 

Isaac Lyte (i577-ti66o). 
Thomas Tyndale (1588-1167^). 
James Whitney (i593-ti66 . ). 
William Beeston (. . . .-ti682). 
Deborah Aubrey (i6io-ti68|). 
Edmund Wyld (i6i6-ti6 . . ). 



II. Contemporaries. 

Anthony Ettrick (i622-ti703). 
William Morgan (1622-f. . . . ). 
Ralph Sheldon (i623-ti684). 
William Radford (1623-f 1673). 
Theophilus Wodenoth (1625-. . . . ). 
George Ent (. . . .-ti679). 
John Sloper (. . . .-f. . . . ). 

Richard Kitson ( -f. . • • )• 

Sir John Dunstable (. . . -f. . . .). 
Thomas Gore (i632-i-i684). 
Jane Smyth (i639-ti6 . . ). 
Thomas Deere (i639-ti6. ■)• 
...Gwyn(....-t. ...). 
. . . Yarrington (. . . .-11684). 



AUBREY'S 'BRIEF LIVES' 



INTRODUCTION 

I. Origin of the 'Lives.' 

Aubrey sought and obtained an introduction to Anthony 
Wood in August 1667. He was keenly interested in 
antiquarian studies, and had the warmest love for Oxford ; 
he had been a contemporary in Trinity College with 
Wood's brother, Edward ; and so was drawn to Wood 
on hearing that he was busy with researches into the 
History of the University of Oxford. 

Aubrey was one of those eminently good-natured men, 
who are very slothful in their own affairs, but spare no 
pains to work for a friend. He offered his help to Wood ; 
and, when it was decided to include in Wood's book short 
notices of writers connected with Oxford, that help proved 
most valuable. Aubrey, through his family and family- 
connexions, and by reason of his restless goings-to-and- 
fro, had a wide circle of acquaintance among squires and 
parsons, lawyers and doctors, merchants and politicians, 
men of letters and persons of quality, both in town and 
country. He had been, until his estate was squandered, an 
extensive and curious buyer of books and MSS. And 
above all, being a good gossip, he had used to the 
utmost those opportunities of inquiry about men and 
things which had been afforded him by societies grave. 



Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



like the Royal Society, and frivolous, as coffee-house 
gatherings and tavern clubs. The scanty excerpts, given 
in these volumes, from letters written by him between 
1668 and 1673, supply a hint of how deeply Wood's 
Historia et Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis, published 
in 1674, was indebted to the multifarious memory and 
unwearying inquiries of the enthusiastic Aubrey. 

Dean Fell's request that Wood should notice Oxford 
writers and bishops in his Historia had suggested to Wood 
the plan of, and set him to work upon, the larger and 
happier scheme of the Athenae Oxonienses, an 'exact 
history of all the writers and bishops that have had their 
education in . . . Oxford ' since 1500. He engaged his 
friend Aubrey to help him in his undertaking, by com- 
mitting to writing in a more systematic way, for Wood's 
benefit, his multitudinous recollections of men and books. 
He was dexterous enough to supply the additional motive, 
that, after serving his friend's turn, Aubrey's collections 
might be gathered together, preserved for a while in some 
safe and secret place, and, when personal feelings were 
saved by lapse of time, be published and secure their 
writer a niche in the Temple of Fame. 

It was now by no means easy for Aubrey to undertake 
any extensive, and especially any connected work. Being 
by this time bankrupt, and a hanger-on at the tables of 
kindred and acquaintances, he had to fall in with his 
patrons' habits, at the houses where he visited ; to sit with 
them till they wearied of their carousings in the small 
hours of the morning ; and to do his writing next forenoon, 
before they had slept off their wine. 

Still, his interest in the subject, and his desire to help 
his friend prevailed ; and we soon find him thanking Wood 
J for setting him to work. March 27, 1680*: — "Twill be 
a pretty thing, and I am glad you putt me on it. I doe 
it playingly. This morning being up by 10, I writt two 
<lives> : one was Sir John Suckling'', of whom I wrote 

» Letter of Aubrey to Wood : MS. Ballard 14, fol. 131. 
^ MS. Anbr. 6, fol. no, no'. 



Condition of the Text 



a leafe and \ in folio.' May 22, 1680*: — 'My memoires 
of lives ' (is now) ' a booke of 2 quires, close written : and 
after I had began it, I had such an impulse on my spirit 
that I could not be at quiet till I had donne it.' Sept. 8, 
1680*: — 'My booke of lives . . . they will be in all about 
six-score, and I beleeve never any in England were 
delivered so faithfully and with so good authority.' 

Aubrey, therefore, began these lives " on the suggestion 
of, and with a desire to help Anthony Wood. 

Among the lives so written were several of mathema- 
ticians and men of science. And another friend of 
Aubrey's, Dr. Richard Blackburne, advised him to collect 
these by themselves, and add others to them, with a view 
to a biographical history of mathematical studies in 
England. To this suggestion Aubrey was predisposed 
through his pride at being ' Fellow of the Royal Society,' 
and for some time he busied himself in that direction ^. 

In the same way, although the bulky life of Thomas 
Hobbes " was partly undertaken in fulfilment of a promise 
to Hobbes himself, an old personal friend, the motive 
which induced Aubrey to go on with it was a desire to 
supply Dr. Blackburne with material for a Latin biography, 
Vitae Hobbianae Auctarium, published in 1681. 

These matters will be found more fully explained in the 
notices which Aubrey has prefixed to the several MSS. of 
his biographical collections, as described below. 

II. Condition of the Text of the 'Lives.' 

Few of the 'Lives' are found in a fair copy^ Again 
and again, in his letters to Anthony Wood, Aubrey makes 
confession of the deficiencies of his copy, but puts off the 
heavy task of reducing it to shape. 

» Aubrey to Wood, in MS. Wood ^ Writing MS. Aubr. 8 (part ii.). 

F. 39, fol. 340. " MS. Aubr. 9. 

b Yd\&. fol. 347. ' The lives of Isaac Barrow, and of 

" Composing MSS. Aubr. 6, 7, and (Serjeant-at-Law) John Hoskyns, may 

8 (part i.). serve as specimens of a fair copy. 

B 2 



Aubrey's 'BiHef Lives' 



His method of composition was as follows. He had 
a folio MS. book, and wrote at the top of a page here and 
there the name of a poet, or statesman, or the like, whose 
life he thought of committing to paper. Then, selecting 
a page and a name, he wrote down hastily, without notes 
or books, his recollections of the man, his personal ap- 
pearance, his friendships, his actions or his books. If 
a date, a name, a title of a book, did not occur to him on 
the spur of the moment, he just left a blank, or put a mark 

of omission (generally, ... or ), and went on. If the 

matter which came to him was too much for the page, he 
made an effort to get it in somehow, in the margins (top, 
bottom, or sides), between the paragraphs, or on the 
opposite page. 

When he read over what he had written in the first glow 
of composition, he erased, wrote alternatives to words and 
phrases, marked words, sentences, and paragraphs for 
transposition, inserted queries : unsettled everything. 

If later on, from books or persons, he got further in- 
formation, he was reckless as to how he put in the new 
matter: sometimes he put it in the margin, sometimes 
at a wrong place in the text, or on a wrong leaf, or in the 
middle even of another life, and often, of course, in a 
different volume. 

And there, as has been said, the copy was left. Very 
seldom was a revised copy made. 

To the confusions unavoidable in composing after this 
fashion, must be added the unsteadiness consequent on 
writing in the midst of morning sickness after a night's 
debauch. One passage, in which he describes his difficulties 
in composing, explains, in a way nothing else could, the 
frequent erasures, repetitions, half-made or inconsistent 
corrections, and dropping of letters, syllables, and words, 
which abound in his MSS. March 19, i68f " ; ' if I had but 
either one to come to me in a morning with a good scourge, 
or did not sitt-up till one or two with Mr. (Edmund) Wyld, 
I could doe a great deal of businesse.' 

" Aubrey to Wood, MS. Ballard 14, fol. 129'. 



Aim of this Edition 



III. Aim of this Edition. 

In presenting a text of Aubrey's ' Lives,' an editor, on 
more than one important point, has to decide between 
alternatives. 

1. Shall all, or some only, of the lives be given? 

It is plain, from a glance over the MSS., that many of 
the lives are of little interest ; in some cases, because they 
contain more marks of omission than statements of fact ; in 
other cases, because they give mainly excerpts from prefaces 
of books ; and so on. A much more interesting, as well as 
handier, book would be produced, if the editor were to 
reject all lives in which Aubrey has nothing of intrinsic 
value to show. 

2. In the lives selected, shall the whole, or parts only, of 
what Aubrey has written be given ? 

Many sentences occur, which declare only Aubrey's 
ignorance of a date, or a place, or the title of a book. In 
other cases, dull and imperfect catalogues of writings are 
given. The omission of these would be a service to the 
whole, like the cutting of dead branches out of a shrub. 

3. In constituting the text, how much, or how little, 
notice is to be taken of the imperfections of Aubrey's 
copy? 

The simplest, and, from some points of view, the most 
effective, course would be to treat Aubrey's rough draft as 
if it were one's own, rejecting (without comment) one or 
other of two alternatives, supplying (without mark) a 
missing word or date, omitting a second version (though 
having some minor peculiarities) of a statement, and so on. 
In this way, with a minimum of trouble to the editor, 
a smooth text would be produced, which would spare the 
reader much irritation. 

4. How far is the text to be annotated, the editor 
supplying Aubrey's abundant omissions, and correcting his 
many mistakes ? 



Aubrey^ s 'Brief Lives' 



In respect of all these questions, the aim of the present 
edition, and the reasons for the decision taken in each case, 
can be stated very briefily and decidedly. 

I, and 2. This edition seeks to give in full all that 
Aubrey has written in his four chief MSS. of biographies, 
MSS. Aubrey 6, 7, 8, and 9. 

The entire contents of these MSS. will thus be placed 
beyond that risk of perishing, to which they must have 
remained liable so long as they were found only in MS., 
and they will, for what they are worth, henceforth be 
accessible to all. 

Some things in Aubrey's writing offend not merely 
against our present canons of good taste, but against good 
morals. The conversation of the people among whom 
Aubrey moved, although they were gentry both in position 
and in education, was often vulgar, and occasionally foul, 
as judged by us. I have dealt with these lives as historical 
documents, leaving them, with a very few excisions, to 
bear, unchecked, their testimony as to the manners and 
morals of Restoration England. 

3. This edition seeks to present faithfully Aubrey's 
text as he wrote it, neglecting only absolute minutiae. 

{a) A plain text is given of what Aubrey wrote, taking, 
as seemed most convenient, sometimes his first version of 
a sentence or a word, sometimes his alternative version. 
The rejected alternatives are given in the textual notes, as 
' duplicate with ' ; and occasionally the erasures, as ' substi- 
tuted for.^ Many of these notes are very trivial; but 
their presence, which after all gives little trouble, provides 
a complete view of the MS. text. I believe also that in 
this way I have preserved for the collector of words some 
quaint forms and expressions for which he will thank me, 
and provided the student of English style with some apt 
instances of the way in which terse native words have been 
replaced in our written language by feebler latinisms. 

{6} I have been careful to give, in every case, Aubrey's 
own spelling, with or without final or medial 'e,' with single 



Aim of this Edition 



or double letters, 'ie' or other diphthong where we write 
' ei,' and the like. The English of Aubrey's age is so like 
our own that it is not unimportant to mark even its minor 
differences. 

All merely artificial tricks of writing (w"'' for which, and 
the like) have been neglected. 

{c) Where a date, a word, or a name has been inserted, 
the insertion is enclosed in angular brackets ( ). 
Where it seemed requisite to mark that a word or phrase 
was added at a later date, or by another hand, square | 
brackets have been used [ ]. The use of these symbols, ' 
borrowed from Vahlen's edition of Aristotle's Poetics, has 
been censured as pedantic, but I know of no clearer or 
shorter way of making plain in a printed text just what is, 
and what is not, in the MS. text. 

{d) Punctuation is generally absent in Aubrey's text, as 
might be expected, and where it is found, it is often mis- 
leading. The points and marks in this edition are therefore 
such as seemed to make the meaning clear to myself, and 
therefore, I hope, to others. 

{e) As regards the order of the paragraphs, Aubrey's 
text has been given, where convenient, sentence by sen- 
tence, and page by page. But I have taken full liberty to 
bring into their proper place marginalia, interlinear notes, 
addenda on opposite pages, &c. In some cases, indeed, to 
give in print the MS. text sentence by sentence is to do it 
injustice. In the MS., the difference of inks between 
earlier and later notes, the difference of pen-strokes (on one 
day with a firm pen, on another with a scratchy quill), and 
similar nuances, impress the eye with a sequence of para- 
graphs which in print can be shown only by redistribution. 
For example, I claim that the life of Milton, in this edition^ 
is, from its bolder treatment, truer to the MS., than the 
servile version in the old edition. 

4. As regards notes and explanations. Aubrey's lives 
supply an inviting field for comment, correction, and 
addition. But, even so treated, they will never be a 



8 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

biographical dictionary. Their value lies not in statement 
of bibliographical or other facts, but in their remarkably 
vivid personal touches, in what Aubrey had seen himself 
and what his friends had told him. The notes therefore 
seek to supply no more than indications of outstanding 
features of the text, identifications of Aubrey's informants, 
or necessary parallels from his letters. 

IV. Description or the MSS. 

MS. Aubr. 6 : a volume chiefly of folio leaves ; written 
mostly in February i6g-§ ; now marked as containing 122 
leaves (some pages blank), but having also a few unfoliated 
slips. Aubrey's own short title to it was : — 

' 'S.y^ihi.aa-jj.aTa. Brief Lives, part i.,' 

and, in his pagination, it contained eighty-six leaves. 
A rough index of its contents, by him, is found as foil. 8-10 : 
and there he gives the names of several persons whose lives 
he intended to write, but has not included in this volume. 
Some of these are found elsewhere, especially in MS. 
Aubrey 8 ; but a few " are not discoverable in any MS. of his 
biographical collections — e.g., Richard Alcorne ; (Samuel) 
Collins, D.D. ; Richard Blackbourne, M.D.; (John) 
Flamsted ^ ; Sir John Hoskins ; James Rex ; James, duke 
of Monmouth"^; Peter Ramus; Benjamin Ruddier; captain 
(Edward) Sherburne; captaine Thomas Stump "^ ; Richard 
White. Possibly Aubrey never wrote the missing lives ; but 
it must be remembered (i) that he cut some leaves out 
of his MS. himself (see in a note to the life of Richard 
Boyle, earl of Cork) ; (2) that Anthony Wood cut out of 
MS. Aubr. 7 forty pages at least, containing matters 'to 
cut Aubrey's throat,' i.e. reflections on politics, where the 
lives of James R. and Monmouth may well have been. 

" In this edition, some notes about Flamsted. 
some of them have been brought in " Aubrey adds the reference 'vide 

from Aubrey's letters, and his 'Col- libr.B.': seeMacray's.g»i/&M«,p.366. 
lectio Genituramra.' d The adventures of Captain Thomas 

' Aubrey notes 'Mr. (Edmund) Stump in Guiana are recorded in 

Halley' as the person to ask about ha^Kf^ Natural History of Wilts. 



Description of the MSS. 



One point about this MS. which deserves mention is 
that, in these lives, Aubrey, in his hope to supply data for 
crucial instances in astrology, is careful to give the exact 
nativity wherever he can. His rule is thus laid down by 
himself in MS. Aubr. 6, fol. la^ in a note attached to the 
nativity of his friend Sir William Petty : — 

' Italian proverb — 

" E astrologia, ma non e Astrologo," 
i.e. we have not that science yet perfect; 'tis one 
of the desiderata. The way to make it perfect is to gett 
a supellex of true genitures ; in order wherunto I have with 
much care collected these ensuing", which the astrologers 
may rely on, for I have sett doune none on randome, or doubt- 
full, information, but from their owne mouthes : quod N. B.' 
Another point is, that Aubrey very frequently gives the 
coat of arms, in trick or colour. In some cases, no doubt, 
he did this from having seen the arms actually borne in 
some way by the person he is writing about ; but in other 
cases he merely looked up the name in a ' Dictionary of 
Arms,' and took the coat from thence, thus nullifying his 
testimony as to the actual pretensions to arms of those he 
writes about. All coats he mentions have, however, been 
given in the text or notes. 

Prefixed to the volume * are two notes in which Aubrey 
explains its origin and destination. 

(A)— MS. Aubr. 6, fol." 2 :— 

' Tanquam tabtdata naufragii, 

Sum Johannis Aubrii, R.S.S. 
Febr. 24, i6|^. 

My will and humble desire is that these minutes, 

* i. e. the schemes of nativity given contribution to the ' supellex.' 

at the beginning of many of the lives '' In fol. ii' Aubrey's book-plate is 

in MS. Aubr. 6. MS. Aubr. 23, ' Col- pasted on. 

lectio geniturarum,' drawn up by " In the top left comer, ' Js. 4^. ' is 

Aubrey in 1674 to be deposited in written. Possibly the price of the 

the Ashmolean Museum, is an earlier original paper-book. 



lo Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

which I have hastily and scriblingly here sett downe, 
be delivered carefully to my deare and honoured friend 
Mr. Anthony a Wood, antiquary, of Oxford. — 

Ita obnixe obtestor, 

Jo. Aubrey. 

Ascenscione Domini, 

correptus lipothymii, circiter 3 P.M. 
1680.' 

(B)— MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 12:— 

' To my worthy friend Mr. ANTHONIE a WOOD, 
Antiquarie of Oxford. 

Sir! 

I have, according to your desire, putt in writing 
these minutes of lives tumultuarily, as they occurr'd to my 
thoughts or as occasionally I had information of them. 
They may easily be reduced into order at your leisure by 
numbring them with red figures, according to time and 
place, &c. 'Tis a taske that I never thought to have 
undertaken till you imposed it upon m&, sayeing that I was 
fitt for it by reason of my generall acquaintance, having 
now not only lived above halfe a centurie of yeares in the 
world, but have also been much tumbled up and downe 
in it which hath made me much " knowne ; besides the 
moderne advantage of coffee-howses in this great citie, 
before which men knew not how to be acquainted, but 
with their owne relations, or societies. I might add that 
I come of a longaevous race, by which meanes I have 
imped some feathers of the wings of time, for severall 
generations ; which does reach high. When I first began, 
I did not thinke I could have drawne it out to so long 
a thread. 

I here lay-downe to you (out of the conjunct friend- 

" ' Much ' substituted for ' so well.' 



Description of the MSS. ii 

ship " between us) the trueth, and, as neer as I can and that 
rehgiously as a poenitent to his confessor, nothing but the 
trueth : the naked and plaine trueth, which is here exposed 
so bare that the very pudenda are not covered '', and affords 
many passages that would raise a blush in a young 
virgin's ° cheeke. So that after your perusall, I must 
desire you to make a castration (as Raderus '^ to Martial) 
and to sowe-on some figge-leaves — i. e., to be my Index 
expurgatorius. 

What uncertainty doe we find in printed histories? 
they either treading too neer on the heeles of trueth 
that they dare not speake plaine, or els for want of in- 
telligence (things being antiquated) become too obscure and 
darke ! I doe not here repeat any thing already published 
(to the best of my remembrance) and I fancy my selfe 
all along discourseing with you ; alledgeing those of my 
relations and acquaintance (as either you knew or have 
heerd of) ad faciendam fidem : so that you make me to 
renew my acquaintance with my old and deceased friends, 
and to rejuvenescere (as it were) which is the pleasure of old 
men. 'Tis pitty that such minutes had not been taken 
lOO yeares since or more : for want wherof many worthy 
men's names and notions" are swallowd-up in oblivion; 
as much of these also would [have*^ been], had it not been 
through your instigation : and perhaps this is one of the 
usefuUest pieces « that I have scribbeld. 

I remember one sayeing of generall Lambert's, that " the 

" Aubrey cites in the margin : — 

'Utrumque nostrum admirabili modo 
Consentit astrum. 

HORAT. lib. 2, ode 17; 

Nescio quod certe est, quod me tibi temperet, astrum. 

Pers. Sat. V. V. 50 ' ; 

and adds the date in the margin ^ Matth. Raderi 'novi commentt.' 

' 1665 ' ; but according to Wood, were published in 1602, and later 

1667 was the date of their first editions. 

acquaintance (Clark's Wood's Life s> Dupl. with ' inventions.' 

and Times, ii. 116). ' 'Have been' is scored out. 

"^ Dupl. with ' hid.' e Subst. for ' things.' 

■> Subst. for 'girle's.' 



12 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

best of men are but men at the best '' : of this, you will 
meet with divers examples in this rude and hastie collec- 
tion. Now these arca7ta are not fitt to lett flic abroad, till 
about 30 yeares hence ; for the author and the persons 
(like medlars) ought to be first rotten. But in whose hands 
must they be deposited in the mean time? advise me, 
who am. 

Sir, 
Your very affectionate friend 
to serve you, 

John Aubrey. 

London, 

June 15, 

1680.' 

MS. Aubr. 7: a folio volume of twenty-one leaves 
(several pages blank), of which two" only belong to the 
original MS. 

The original title may be conjectured to have been : 
' SxeSiacTjiiara. Brief Lives, part ii.,' 
and it possibly contained some letters, like those in the 
preceding volume, which made Wood think it was given 
to him. 

On fol. r, is a note describing the make-up of the 
volume : — 

' Aubrey's Lives : fragments of part ii. — These scattered 
fragments collected and arranged by E. M. Sep. 179a.' 
A note (in Dr. Philip Bliss's hand ?) says that E. M. is 
Edmund Malone. 

In this, as in the other Aubrey MSS., Dr. Bliss has 
made several slight notes, both in pencil and ink, with 
a view to his edition. 

The mutilation of the MS. was the crime of Anthony 
Wood, to whom it had been sent. Two conjectures may 
be hazarded — either that Wood did this in order to paste 
the cuttings into his rough copy of his projected Athenae, 
and so save transcription ; or, more probably, that he was 

" Foil. 47, 48, in the original (foil. scraps : fol. 8 is a paper, bearing date 
10, II, as now foliated). The rest are 'London, March 12, i68|.' 



Description of the MSS. 13 

so thoroughly alarmed by the threat of Lord Clarendon's 
prosecution of himself (Clark's Wood's Life and Times, iv. 
1-46), that he destroyed the papers containing Aubrey's 
sharp reflections on various prominent personages". But 
whatever the pretext, Aubrey was, naturally, very grieved 
at his unjustifiable conduct. In a letter to Wood, dated 
Sept. 2, 1694 (MS. Ballard 14, fol. 155), he writes:— 

' You have cutt out a matter of 40 pages out of one of 
my volumnes, as also the index. Was ever any body so 
unkind? — And I remember you told me comeing from 
Hedington that there were some things in it that " would 
cutt my throat." I thought you so deare a friend that 
I might have entrusted my life in your hands and now 
your unkindnes doth almost break my heart.' 

When Aubrey had the volume back in his own hands, 
he wrote in it^ the following censure : — 

' Ingratitude ! This part the second Mr. Wood haz 
gelded from page 1 to page 44 and other pages " too are 
wanting wherein are contained trueths, but such as I 
entrusted nobody with the sight of but himselfe (whom 
I thought I might have entrusted with my hfe). There 
are severall papers that may cutt my throate. I find too 
late Memento diffidere was a saying worthy one of the 
sages. He hath also embezill'd the index of it— quod N. B. 
It was stitch't up when I sent it to him. 
Novemb. 39, 1692.' 

MS. Aubr. 8 : a folio volume, containing 105 leaves : it 
contains two distinct MSS., bound together. 

The first part of the MS. (foil. 1-68 in the present 
marking) might have been entitled : — 

' Sx€8ta(r/iora. Brief Lives, part iii.' 

» See, e. g. in the life of David " I liave little doubt tliat the snb- 

Jenliins, from a letter of Aubrey's, stance of all the missing pages is 

the expressions which brought Wood incorporated into the Athenae: cf., 

into court and expelled him from the e.g. William Penn's life here by 

University. Aubrey, and the notice of Penn in 

i> Fol. 2, in the present marking. Wood's Athenae. 



14 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

On fol. 1 and fol. 3, the short title actually written by 
Aubrey is : — 

Pars '' iii"^ 
1681 

i.e. the symbol for Saturn, the patron of antiquarian 
studies, and Aubrey's monogram. On fol. 4 Aubrey has 
a very elaborate title, showing the destination of the 
MS. .— 

'Auctarium vitarum a A collectarum, anno Domini 
1681. 

Tanquam tabulata naufragii. 

John Aubrey, R.S.S. 

Le mal est que la vive voix meurt en naissant et ne laisse rien qui 
reste apres elle, ni formant point de corps qui subsiste en I'air. Les 
paroles ont des aisles ; vous scavez I'epithete* qu'Hom&re leur donne, 
et un poete Syrien en a fait un espece parmy les oiseaux; de sorte que, 
si on n'arreste pas ces fugitives par I'ecriture, elles eschappent fort 
vistement \ la memoire. 

Les Oeuvres diverses du sieur de Balzac, page 43. 

Omari res ipsa nolit contenta doceri. — HoRAT 

For Mr. Anthony Wood 

at 

Oxford.' 

A slip by Anthony Wood, pasted here, shows that 
Aubrey recalled the MS., probably to make additions 
to it :— 

' Mr. Aubrey, 

I beseech you as you have been civill in giving this 

book to me at Oxon in Sept. 168 1, so I hope when you 

have done with it you'l returne every part of it againe to 

your servant, 

^ ' Ant. WooD.'y.^ 

As originally made up, this 'Auctarium' contained 

" Aubrey quotes in the margin: — evea irrepoa'Ta.— HoM. 



Description of the MSS. 15 

four leaves at the beginning (for an index "), and leaves 
foliated 1-38 (of which la and 13 are now* missing). 

The second part" of the MS. extends over foil. 69-103 
in the present marking. 

Aubre)', on fol. 69, writes the title : — 

' An Apparatus for the lives 

of our English mathematical writers 

by 

Mr. John Aubrey, R.S.S. 

March 35, 1690.' 

As originally made up, this treatise consisted of one leaf (for 
an index '^) and pages marked 1-46 (of which pp. 31-38 
are now missing). 

The history of this treatise is fully set out by Aubrey in 
some notes in it and in the other MSS. : — 

I. It was suggested by Richard Blackburne. 

MS. Aubr. 7, fol. S'':— 'Dr. (Richard) Blackbourn 
would have me putt out in print the lives of our English 
mathematicians together.' 

a. It had been partly anticipated by Selden and 
Sherburne. 

MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 70 : — ' My purpose is, if God give me 
life, to make an apparatus, for" the lives of our English 
Mathematicians ; which when I have ended, I would then 
desire Mr. Anthony Wood to find out one that is master 

" Dated 'July i"", 1681' — MS. ' G. 10" of his Alhenae Collections 

Aubr. 8, fol. 5. In this index the (see Clark's Wood's Life and Times, 

names of some persons occur for iv. 232), thus showing that he looked 

notice, of whom no account is found on it as his own property, 

here or elsewhere : — e.g. ' . . . Aids- * In this index or on blank pages in 

worth ; Richard Blackboume, M.D. ; the treatise, some are mentioned for 

Sir George Etheridge; Isaac Newton.' their lives to be written, of whom no 

•> There are now several inserted account is found here or elsewhere 

papers and slips. The two last leaves in the biographical collections : — e. g. 

of the MS. as now made up (foil. 104, Mr. (Thomas) Blundeville; (Henry) 

105), belong to neither section of it. Bond; Mr. Robert Hues ;Mr.(Thomas) 

but have been brought in from else- Lidyate ; Mr Phale (i.e. Thomas 

where, possibly from loose Rawlinson Fale); Edmund Wingate. 

papers. " ' For ' subst. for ' in order to the 

" Anthony Wood has marked it as writing.' 



i6 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

of a good Latin stile, and to adde what is * already in his 
printed booke ^ to these following ■-' minutes. 

'I will not meddle with our own writers'^ in the mathe- 
maticks before the reigne of king Henry VIII, but prefix 
those excellent verses of Mr. John Selden (with a learned 
commentary to them) which are printed before a booke in- 
tituled {Arthur) Hopton's Concordance ofyeares", scilicet: — 

MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 69 : — ' Sir Edward Shirbourn, some- 
where in his translation and notes upon Manilius, has 
enumerated our English mathematicians, and hath given 
short touches of their lives — which see.' 

3. The first step towards it would be to pick out the 
mathematicians from the lives already written by Aubrey. 

MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 51"':— 'I would have the lives of 
John Dee, Sir Henry Billingsley, the two Digges (father 
and Sonne), Mr. Thomas Hariot, Mr. (Walter) Warner, 
Mr. (Henry) Brigges, and Dr. (John) Pell's, to be putt 
together. — As to the account of Mr. Hariot, Mr. Warner, 
and Mr. Brigges, I recieved it from Dr. Pell.' 

MS. Aubr. 9 : a folio, containing fifty-five leaves, and in 
addition several printed papers. 

The title is found on fol. 38 (as now marked) of the MS. : — 
' Supplementum vitae Thomae Hobbes, 
Malmesburiensis, 



HOBBi ' jucunda senectus, 
Cujus erant mores qualis facundia, mite 
Ingenium.— Juvenal, Saf. iv. v. 81. 

Extinctus amabitur. — 

HORAT. Epist. I. lib. 2. 
LA.' 
I. A. = Aubrey's initials. 

» ' Is ' subst. for ' Mr. Wood haz.' ^ Aubrey queries 'Is John Escuidus 

^ Hist, et Antiq. Univ. Oxon., mentioned among them ?' 

1674- « Lond. 1616. 

" 'These following' subst. for 'my.' ' Written at first ' Venit et Hobbi.' 



Description of the MSS. 17 

The reason for this title was that Aubrey intended his 
Collections to be a sort of commentary on Hobbes' short 
Latin autobiography, which was in the press in Febr. i6|^, 
and was published in Nov. 1680 (Clark's Wood's Life and 
Times, ii. 480, 500). 

But Anthony Wood (MS. Aubr. 9, fol. aS) objected :— 
' What need you say Supplimentum ? ' sic ' pray say the 
life of Thomas Hobbs.' And Aubrey, in obedience to this, 
changed the short title on fol. 30 (see the beginning of the 
life) ; and on the parchment cover of the MS. (now fol. 1) 
wrote : — 

' The life of 

Mr. Thomas Hobbes, 

of Malmsbury, 

by 

Mr. John Aubrey, 

Fellow of the Royall Societie, 

Aubrey set about this Life of Hobbes immediately 
after Hobbes' death, partly as a tribute of respect to his 
friend's memory, but apparently also in fulfilment of 
a promise to the deceased. The preface * is as follows: — 

' Lectori. 

'Tis religion to performe the will of the dead ; which 
I here'' dischardge, with my promise (1667) to my old 
friend Mr. T<homas> H<obbes>, in publishing = his life 
and performing the last office to my old'^ friend 
Mr. Thomas Hobbes, whom I have had the honour to 
know (from) my child-hood ^ being his countreyman and 
borne in Malmesbury hundred and taught my grammar 
by his schoolmaster ^. 

Since nobody knew so many particulars of his life as 

" MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 29. Aubrey '' Subst. for ' now.' 

notes in the margin :— ' The vKr^ of the " Subst. for ' setting forth.' 

preface to the life written by Mr. H. " Subst. for 'honoured.' 

him selfe in (the) third person'; » Dupl. with 'pueritia mea.' 

intending I suppose to consult it in re- ' Dupl. with ' having both the same 

modelling his own draft preface. schoolmaster.' 
I. C 



i8 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

myselfe, he was willing" that if I survived him, it should 
be handed to posterity by my hands, which I declare and 
avow to do ingenuously and impartially, to prevent mis- 
reports and undecieve those who are scandalized by . . . 

One sayes *• that when a learned man dyes, a great 
deal of learning dyes with him. He was ' flumen ingenii,' 
never dry. The recrementa " of so learned a person are ^ 
t We read that valucablef. Amongst innumerable observables 
uin^S^l" of him which had deserved to be sett downe, 
[li'uLCTTnoLen) thcsc fcw (that have not scap'f my memory) 
fbr'!'?^™"'''^ I humbly offer' to the present age and 
lida^w'lnT" posterity, tanquam tabulam naufragii %, and 
?SaJd'> as plankes and lighter things swimme, and are 
Bi<ackbume>. preserved, where the more weighty sinke and 
are lost. And s as with the light after sun-sett — at which 
time, clear *" ; by and by ', comes the crepusculum ; then, 
totall darkenes — in like manner is it with matters of 
antiquitie. Men thinke, because every body remembers 
a memorable accident shortly after 'tis donne, 'twill never 
be forgotten, which for want of registring '', at last is 
drowned in oblivion. Which' reflection haz been a hint, 
that by my meanes many antiquities have been reskued "", 
and preserved (I myselfe now inclining" to be ancient") — 
or els utterly lost and forgotten. 

For that I am so minute^ I declare I never intended it, 
but setting downe in my first ^ draught every particular', 
(with purpose, upon review, to retrench ' what was super- 

* Dupl. with ' desired.' It is with matters of antiquity as with 

'' See in the life of Selden. the sett . . .' 

■= In a marginal note Aubrey re- " Subst. for ' good light.' 

marks ' meliorate this word." Another ' Dupl. with ' so many degrees, etc' 

note is ' Quaere of the preface of this ■■ Dupl. with ' entring.' 

Supplement,' i. c, I suppose, ask some ' Subst. for ' This.' 

one's opinion whether it will do or "> ' from oblivion' followed ; scored 

not. out. 

^ Dupl. with 'will (be).' - Dupl. with 'growing.' 

" Dupl. with 'slipt.' " Dupl. with ' senescens.' 

' Dupl. with ' Sit' i. e. dedicate. f Dupl. with ' rude.' 

E Subst. for ' But for that the ncre- « Dupl. with ' thing.' 

nienta of such a person are valueable, ' Dupl. with 'cutt off.' 



Description of the MSS. 19 

fluous and triviall), I shewed it to some friends of mine 
(who also were of Mr. Hobbes's acquaintance) whose 
judgments I much value, who gave their opinion: and 
'twas clearly their judgement % to let all stand ; for though 
to soome at present it might appeare too triviall ; yet 
hereafter 'twould not be scorned *• but passe " for antiquity. 
And besides I have precedents of reverend writers to 
t Dean Fell plead, who have in some lives f recited things 
hfs mm'ws'* as triviall *, nay, the sayings and actions of 
Jald'actfor^' good woemcn. 

rema'rquei'of ^ ^m also to bcg pardon of the reader for 

P'f,",™"™^ two long digressions, viz. Malmesbury and 
written bir him. Qorambcry ; but this also was advised, as the 
only way to preserve them, and which I have donne for 
the sake of the lovers of antiquity. I hope its novelty and 
pleasantness will make compensation for its length. 

Yours ", 

LA.' 

In MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 28^ are two letters by Aubrey, 
asking advice in connexion with this life. 

i. Aubrey to Ajtthony Wood. 
'To his honoured friend Mr. Anthony a Wood, Master 
of Arts, at Merton College in Oxon. 

Deare friend ! 

I have hastily writt this third draught, which 
I hope is legible : I have not time to read it over. 
Pray peruse it as soon as you can, for time drawes on. 
Dr. Blackburne and I will be diligent in it and will doe 
you all the right ^ your heart can wish. I thought together 
with this to have sent you the transcript of Mr. Hobbes' 
life revised by himselfe but am prevented by hast, and 'tis 
the last day of the terme. I will send it suddenly. 

» Dupl. with 'sense,' ' opinion.' ' In connexion with the controversy 

>> Dupl. with ' slighted.' originated by Dr. Fell's excisions in 

" Dupl. with • goe.' Wood's notice of Hobbes in his Hist. 

* Dupl. with 'meane.' et Antiq. Univ. Oxon., 1674, see 

• Subst. for ' Tuus^ Cla.r^s'^ooi's Life and Times, ii. 291. 

C a 



20 Aubrey's 'Brie/ Lives' 

My service to Mr. Pigot. I am, Sir, your affectionate 

friend and servant, 

Jo : Aubrey. 
London Feb. 12, 

Why might not his two sheetes 0/ heresie be bound up 
with this to preserve it and propagate trueth ? 

I know here be severall tautologies ; but I putt them 
downe thus here, that upon reviewe I should judge where 
such or such a thing would most aptly stand. 

Why should not Dr. Blackbourne in the life of Mr. H. 
written by him selfe quote that of A. Wood in the margent 
for a blindation, because there are in great part the very 
same words ? ' 

ii. Aubrey to Richard Blackburne. 

' Dr. Blackbourne ! 

Pray advise me whether 'twould not shew hand- 
somest to begin with a description of Malmesbury, and 
then to place Mr. H. pedigre? 

But, with all, should not 

"Thomas Hobbes was borne at Malmesbury, Apr. . . . 
1588 a" 
be the initiall and, as it were, textuall, line ? 

Shall I in the first place putt Mr. H. life donne by 
himselfe ? (If so, whether in Latin, or English, or both ?) 
Or else, shall I intersperse it with these animadversions ? 

I could begin with a pleasant description of Malmesbury, 
etc., (all new and untoucht) 14 leaves in 8vo, which his verses 
will lead me to, and which Ant. Wood seemes to desire. 

Pray be my Aristarchus, and correct and marke what 
you thinke fitt. First draughts'" ought to be rude as those 
of paynters, for he that in his first essay will be curious in 
refining will certainly be unhappy in inventing. 

Doctor, I am your affectionate and humble servant. 

J. A. 

" MS. has ' 16S8,' by a slip. i" Dupl. with ' sketches.' 



The Old Edition 21 

I will speake to Fleetwood Shepherd to engage the 
earl of Dorset to write in the old gentleman's praise. 

Should mine be in Latin or English or both? (And 
by whome the Latin, if so?) Is my English style well 
enough *?' 

Other MSS. A few additional lives, and portions of lives, 
of persons mentioned in these four biographical volumes, 
have been brought in from letters by Aubrey in MS. 
Ballard 14 and in MS. Wood F 39 and F 49. 

Three lives, in fair copy, by Aubrey, are found in MS. 
Rawlinson D. 727, foil. 93-96, and have been given here. 
They were formerly in Anthony Wood's hands : see 
Clark's Wood's Life and Times, iv. 192, note. 

MS. Aubr. 21, a volume made up in the Ashmolean 
library from siftings out of Aubrey MSS. and papers ; MS. 
Aubr. 22, a collection of grammatical tracts, brought 
together by Aubrey with a view to a treatise on education ; 
MS. Aubr. 23, a volume of 125 leaves, dated on fol. 8 as 
' Collectio geniturarum, made London May 29, 1674,' but 
on the title as ' 1677 : for the (Ashmolean) Musaeum ' ; 
MS. Aubr. a6, ' Faber fortunae,' i. e. projects for retrieving 
Aubrey's fortunes have yielded additional matter. 

V. The Old Edition. 

The pith of these lives was extracted by Anthony Wood, 
and incorporated in his Athenae, vol. i. in 1691, vol. ii. in 
1692, and the 'appendix' left in MS. at his death 
(published in the second edition of the Athenae in 1721). 

The MSS. of Aubrey's 'Lives' were placed in the library 
of the Ashmolean Museum, in the personal custody of the 
Keeper, Edward Lhwyd, in 1693. Aubrey, writing^' to 
Thomas Tanner, intimates that his MSS. will show how 
greatly Wood's Athenae was indebted to his help, and 

<" Anthony Wood has jotted here 1693, is found in MS. Tanner 25, 
' 'Tis well.' fo>- 59- 

" Aubrey's letter, dated June i, 



22 Aubrey''s ^ Brief Lives' 

makes a special request that Wood shall not know that 
they have been placed in the Museum. 

Beginning'' on Sept. 16, 1793, Edmund Malone made 
a transcript of 174 lives from the three MSS. (MS. Aubr. 
6, 7, 8), with notes, with a view to publication. The first 
volume of this contained folios 1-152, forty-four lives of 
poets and sixty-eight of prose writers. It is now in the 
Bodleian, by the gift of C. E. Doble, Esq. ; but mutilated, 
folios 126-152 having been torn off from the end of the 
volume. The second volume, containing folios 153-385, 
sixty-two lives, was MS. 9405 in Sir Thomas Phillipps' 
library, was mentioned in Notes and Queries (8 S. vii. 
375), and has recently been bought by the Bodleian. 

Some years later, James Caulfield, of London, publisher, 
arranged for the issue of a select number of biographies 
from Aubrey's MSS., illustrated by engravings from 
originals in the Ashmolean and elsewhere. They were 
to appear under the title of ' The Oxford Cabinet ' ; and 
one part, 32 pp., a very pretty book, was published at 
London in 1797. This part contains the lives of William 
Aubrey, Francis Bacon, John Barclay, and Francis Beau- 
mont, with engravings (inter alia) of Aubrey's drawings 
of Verulam House, and Bacon's fishponds. At this point 
the Keeper of the Ashmolean, at Malone's instance, with- 
drew the permission which had been granted to Curtis 
to transcribe for Caulfield. The reason given was that 
Curtis had taken away papers and title-pages from Oxford 
libraries, and was not to be trusted in the Ashmolean — 
see Macray's Annals of the Bodleian, p. 273. 

The dates, however, suggest that Malone's action may 
have been in part inspired by a wish to keep the course 
clear for his own project. The transcription made for 
Caulfield, although not always accurate in point of spelling, 
is by no means badly done : certainly it is much better 
than that which was made for the later issue. 

In 18 13 appeared ^Letters written by Eminent Persons 
. . and Lives of Eminent Men by John Aubrey, Esq. . . , 
" Malone's note in Mr. Doble's MS. 



The Old Edition 23 

from the originals in the Bodleian Library and Ash- 
molean Museum : in two volumes.' The editors are said to 
have been Dr. Philip Bliss and the Rev. John Walker, 
Fellow of New College. 

TheZ/z'^j by Aubrey occupy pp. 197-637 of Volume II. 

Dr. Bliss's interests were bibliographical, and he was not 
careful * to collate with original MSS. either the printed 
text of earlier editions or transcripts made for himself. 
As a result, that issue of Aubrey's Lives, although making 
accessible the greater portion of what is interesting in 
the originals, is marred by many grave blunders and 
arbitrary omissions. 

A comparison of a few pages of Dr. Bliss's edition with 
Aubrey's MS. copy suggests a troublesome question in 
English textual criticism. If two eminent Oxford scholars 
in the beginning of the nineteenth century could thus 
pervert their author's meaning, can we have trust in the 
earlier redaction of greater texts, such as Shakespeare ? 

" I have shown this as regards the much more important matter of the 
text of Anthony Wood's Life ; and text of the Athenae. 
I hope some day to show it in the 



THE 'LIVES' 



George Abbot (i 562-1 633). 

* Archbishop Abbot was borne in the howse of old 
Flemish building, timber and brick, now an alehouse, 
the signe ' Three Mariners,' by the river's side by the 
bridge on the north side of the street in St. Nicholas 
parish on the right hand as you goe out of the towne 
northwards. 

** Old Nightingale was his servant, and weepes when he 
talkes of him. Every one that knew, loved him. He was 
sometimes cholerique. 

He was borne the first howse over the bridge on the 
right hand in St. Nicholas parish (Guildford). He was 
the Sonne of a sherman". His mother, with child of 
him, longed for a jack, and dream't that if shee could 
eate a jack, her son should be a great man. The next 
morning, goeing to the river, which runs by the howse 
(which is by the bridge), with her payle, to take up some 
water, a good jack came into her payle. Which shee 
eat up, all, her selfe. This is generally recieved for 
a trueth. 

His godfather and godmothers sent him to the Uni- 
versity, his father not being able. 

* Aubrey, in M.S. Wood F. 39, fol. 223; Sept. 16, 1673. 
** Idem, ibid., fol. 221; Aug. 10, 1673. 
" Sic, substituted for ' cloth-worker.' 



Str Robert Alton 25 

Sir Robert Alton (1570-1638). 

* Sir Robert Alton ^, knight ; — he lies buried in the south 
aisle of the choire of Westminster abbey, where there is 
erected to his memory an elegant marble and copper 
monument and inscription — viz. 

This long inscription is in copper : — 

M. S. 
Clarissimi, omnigenaque virtute et eruditione (presertim poesi) 
ornatissimi equitis, Domini Roberti Aitoni, ex antiqua et illustri gente 
Aitona ad Castrum Kinnadinum apud Scotos oriundi : qui a serenissimo 
rege Jacobo in cubicula interiora admissus ; in Germaniam ad impera- 
torem imperiique principes, cum libello regio regiae authoritatis vindice, 
legatus ; ac primum Annae, demum Mariae, serenissimis Britanniarum 
reginis, ab epistolis, consiliis, et libellis supplicibus ; necnon Xeno- 
dochio S'*** Catharinae praefectus ; anima Creatori reddita, hie, depo- 
sitis mortalibus exuviis, secundum redemptoris adventum expectat. 

Carolum linquens, repetit Pareniem ; 

Et valedicens Mariae, revisit 

Annam; et Aulaei A&cas alto Olympi 
Mutat honore. 
Obiit coelebs in Regii Albania, non sine maximo bonorum omnium 
luctu et moerore : 

Aetat. suae LXVIII, Salut. humanae MDCXXXVIII. 
Hoc devoti gratique animi testimonium optimo patruo, Jo. Aitonus, 
M.L.P. 

In white marble at the bottome of the monument : — 
Musarum decus hie, patriaeque, aulaeque, domique 
Et foris exemplar, sed non imitabile, honesti. 

His bust is of copper, curiously cast, with a laurell held 
over it by two figures of white marble. 

That Sir Robert was one of the best poets of his time- 
Mr. John Dreyden sayes he has seen verses of his, some 
of the best of that age, printed with some other verses- 
quaere. 

He was acquainted with all the witts of his time in 
England. He was a great acquaintance of Mr. Thomas 
Hobbes of Malmesbury, whom Mr. Hobbes told me he 
made use of (together with Ben Johnson) for an Aris- 

» MS. Aubr. 6, fol. Ii6. 



26 Aubrey^s 'Brief Lives' 

tarchus, when he made his Epistle Dedicatory to his 
translation of Thucydides. I have been told (I think by 
Sir John himself) that he was eldest brother to Sir John 
Ayton, Master of the Black Rod, who was also an excellent 

scholar. 

Note. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' . . . , on a cross engrailed between 4 
crescents a rose,' with the motto 

' Et decerpta dabnnt odorem.' 
He encircles the coat of arms with a laurel wreath, as is his custom when it is 
a poet whose life he is writing. 

Aldsworth. 

* . . . Aldsworth, mathematical boyes. 

** Memorandum : — the patent for the mathematicall 
blew-coate boyes at Christ Church in London was dated 
'19th August in the a5th yeare of the reigne of king 
Charles the second' (1673). 

Thomas Allen (1542-1632). 

*** Thomas Allen, Trin. Coll. Oxon. — Elias Ashmole, 
esqr., (has) the MSS. of Thomas Allen's commentary on 
the second and third bookes of Ptolomey's Quadripartite " 

**** Thomas Allen — vide Anthony Wood's {Hist, et) 
Antiq. {Univ.y Oxon. 

Mr. Thomas Allen ' was borne in Staffordshire. 

Mr. Theodore Haak, a German, Regiae Societatis Socius, 
was of Glocester Hall, 1636, and knew this learned worthy 
old gentleman, whom he takes to have been about ninety- 
six yeares old when he dyed, which was about 1630 (vide). 

The learned (Edmund) Reynolds, who was turned Catho- 
+ Memorandum lique f by his brother the learned Dr. (John) 

the Latin verses i i ti . i <• /— -ir • /-. n , 

made on their Reynolds, rrcsidcnt of Corpus Xti Colledge, 

mutuall conver- r /-■i tt n i .t^i 

sions-which was of (jrloccster Hall then too. They were 
Bella inter . . . both nccr of an age, and they dyed both within 

plusquam civilia 

fratres. 12 monethcs one of th other ^. He was at both 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 5 : in the index, *** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 14'. 
as a life to be written. " MS. Ashmole, 388. 

** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 6. **** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 95'. 



Thomas Allen 



27 



their funeralls. Mr. Allen came into the hall to commons, 
but Mr. Reynolds had his brought to his chamber. 

He sayes that Mr. Allen was a very cheerful!, facetious 
man, and that every body loved his company, and every 
howse on their Gaudie-dayes were wont to invite him. 

His picture was drawne at the request of Dr. Ralph 
Kettle, and hangs in the dining roome of the President of 
Trin. Coll. Oxon. (of which house he first was, and had 
his education there) by which it appeares that he was 
a handsome sanguine man, and of an excellent habit 
of bodie. 

There is mention of him in Leicester's Commonwealth^ 
that the great Dudley, earle of Leicester, made use of 
him for casting nativities, for he was the best astrologer 
of his time. He hath written a large and learned com- 
mentary, in folio, on the Quadripartite of Ptolemie, which 
EHas Ashmole hath in MS. fairly written, and I hope will 
one day be printed. 

In those darke times astrologer, mathematician, and 

conjurer, were accounted the same things ; and the vulgar 

did verily beleeve him to be a conjurer. He had a great 

many mathematical! instruments and glasses in his 

chamber, which did also confirme the ignorant in their 

opinion, and his servitor (to impose on freshmen and 

simple people) would tell them that sometimes he should 

Power' '"^^^ ^'^^ spirits comeing up his staires like bees. 

Is iSfihrei Onef of our parish J was of Glocester Hall about 

Wilts). ' yQ yeares and more since, and told me this 

from his servitor. Now there is to some men a great 

lechery in lying, and imposing on the understandings of 

beleeving people, and he thought it for his credit to serve 

such a master. 

He was generally acquainted, and every long vacation, 
he rode into the countrey to visitt his old acquaintance 
and patrones, to whom his great learning, mixt with much 
sweetnes of humour, rendred him very welcome. One 
time being at Horn Lacy" in Herefordshire, at Mr. John 
» By Robert Parsons, S.J. " i. c. Holm Lacy. 



28 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Scudamore's (grandfather to the lord Scudamor), he 
happened to leave" his watch in the chamber windowe — 
(watches were then rarities) — The maydes came in to 
make the bed, and hearing a thing in a case cry Tick, 
Tick, Tick, presently concluded that that was his Devill, 
and tooke it by the string with the tongues '', and threw it 
out of the windowe into the mote (to " drowne the Devill.) 
It so happened that the string hung on a sprig of an elder 
that grew out of the mote, and this confirmed them that 
'twas the Devill. So the good old gentleman gott his 
watch again. 

Sir Kenelm Digby loved him much (vide Sir K. Digby's 
Life (p.) 69"^), and bought his excellent library of him, 
which he gave to the University. I have a Stifelius' 
Arithmetique that was his, which I find he had much 
perused, and no doubt mastered. He was interred in 
Trinity College Chapell, (quaere where : as I take it, 
the outer Chapell.) George Bathurst * B.D. made his 
funerall oration in Latin, which was printed. 'Tis pitty 
there had not been his name on a " stone over him. 

*) Thomas Allen. . . . left the house ^ because he would 
not take orders. 

Queen Elizabeth sent for him to have his advice about 
the new star that appeared in the Swan or Cassiopeia (but 
I think the Swan), to which he gave his judgment very 
learnedly. 

He was great-uncle to Mr. (Henry) Dudley, the 
minister of Broadhinton in Wilts (1665). 

Notes. 

' Thomas Allen, of Staffordshire, aged 17, was elected Scholar of Trinity, 
June 4, 1561, and Fellow, June 19, 1564. His retirement to Gloucester Hall 
was no doubt to avoid the Oath of Supremacy imposed by Elizabeth on members 
on the foundation of the Colleges. Edmund Reynolds, in the same way, retired 
to Gloucester Hall, vacating his fellowship in Corpus Christi College. 

* Edmund Reynolds died Nov. 21, 1630; Thomas Allen died Sept. 30, 1632. 

"■ Dupl. with ' forgett.' « Subst. for ' the.' 

" i. e. tongs. * Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, 

" Subst. for ' to have drowned.' fol. 142": Oct. 27, 1671. 

^ i. c. fol. 99, of MS. Aubr. 6. ' Trinity College. 



Charles Alleyn. Lancelot Andrewes 29 

' This will serve to show how imperfectly the names in the Matriculation- 
register represent those who actually studied in Oxford. The Matric. register 
gives ' Zachary Power, e com. Wilts.,' as matriculating at Gloucester Hall, 
Nov. 3, 1609; but omits his elder brother John Power (mentioned in MS. 
Aubr. 3, fol. 48, as being 40 in 1624, when Zachary was 32). 

' George Bathurst, of Ga(r)sington, Oxon, aged 16, was elected Scholar 
of Trinity June 6, 1626, and Fellow June 8, 1631 ; B. D. 1640. His Oratio 
funebris on Allen was publ. London 1632. 

Charles Alleyn (obiit 1640?). 

* Charles Alleyn, who wrote the Battailes of Agencourt, 
Poitiers, and Crescy, was usher to Mr. Thomas Farnaby. 

Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626). 

** Lancelot Andrewes^, lord bishop of Winton, was 
borne in London ; went to schoole at Merchant Taylors 
schoole. Mr. Mulcaster^ was his schoolemaster, whose 
picture he hung in his studie (as Mr. Thomas Fuller, 
Holy State). 

Old Mr. Sutton, a very learned man of those dayes, 
of Blandford St. Maries, Dorset, was his school fellowe, 
and sayd that Lancelot Andrewes was a great long boy 
of 18 yeares old at least before he went to the university. 

He was a fellowe* of Pembroke-hall, in Cambridge 
(called Collegium Episcoporum, for that, at one time, in 
those dayes, there were of that house . . . bishops). 

The Puritan faction did begin to increase in those dayes, 
and especially at Emanuel College. That party had 
a great mind to drawe in this learned young man, whom 
if they could make theirs, they knew would be a great 
honour to them. They carried themselves outwardly with 
great sanctity and strictnesse, so that 'twas very hard matter 

to as to their lives. They preached up very strict 

keeping and observing the Lord's day; m.ade, upon the 
matter, damnation to breake it, and that 'twas lesse sin 
to kill a man then . . . Yet these hypocrites did bowle 
in a private green at their colledge every Sunday after 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 42'. ** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 27. 

" Elected Fellow in 1576. 



30 Aubrey^s 'Brief Lives' 

sermon ; and one of the colledge (a loving friend to 
Mr. L. Andrewes) to satisfie him one time lent him the 
key of a private back dore to the bowling green, on 
a Sunday evening, which he opening, discovered these 
zealous preachers, with their gownes off, earnest at play. 
But they were strangely surprized to see the entrey of 
one that was not of the brotherhood. 

There was then at Cambridge a good fatt alderman 
that was wont to sleep at church, which the alderman 
endeavoui'ed to prevent but could not. Well ! this was 
preached against as a signe of reprobation. The good 
man was exceedingly troubled at it, and went to Andrewes 
his chamber to be satisfied in point of conscience. 
Mr. Andrewes told him that (it) was an ill habit of body 
not of mind, and that it was against his will ; advised him 
on Sundays to make a more sparing meale, and to mend 
it at supper. The alderman did so, but sleepe comes 
upon (him) again for all that, and was preached at, 
(He) comes againe to be resolved, with tears in his eies ; 
Andrewes then told him he would have him make a good 
heartie meale as he was wont to doe, and presently take 
out his full sleep. He did so*; came to St. Marie's'', 
where the preacher was prepared with a sermon to damne 
all who slept at sermon, a certaine signe of reprobatioTi. 
The good alderman having taken his full nap before, 
lookes on the preacher all sermon time, and spoyled the 
designe. — But I should have sayd that Andrewes was 
most extremely spoken against and preached against for 
offering to assoile or excuse a sleeper in sermon time. 
But he had learning and witt enough to* defend himselfe. 

His great learning quickly made him known in the 
university, and also to King James, who much valued 
him for it, and advanced him, and at last"^ made him 
bishop of Winchester, which bishoprick he ordered with 
great prudence as to government of the parsons, pre- 

" Subst. for ' he followed his advice.' 

•" ' To St. Marie's' subst. for ' to church.' * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 27'. 

•^ In i6i|. 



Lancelot Andrewes 31 

ferring of ingeniose persons that were staked to poore 
livings and did delitescere. He made it his enquiry to 
find out such men. Amongst severall others (whose names 
have escaped my memorie) Nicholas Fuller (he wrote 
Critica Sacra), minister of Allington neer Amesbury 
in Wilts, was one. The bishop sent for him, and the 
poor man was afrayd and knew not what hurt he had 
donne. <He) makes him sitt downe to dinner; and, 
after the desert, was brought in in a dish his institution 
and induction, or the donation, of a prebend : which was 
his way. He chose out alwayes able men to his chaplaines, 
whom he advanced. Among others, (Christopher) Wren, 
of St. John's in Oxon, was his chaplaine, a good generall 
scholar and good orator, afterwards deane of Winsore, 
from whom (by his son in lawe. Dr. William Holder) 
I have taken this exact account of that excellent prelate. 

His Life is before his Sermons, and also his epitaph, 
which see. He dyed at Winchester house, in Southwark, 
and lies buried in a chapell at St. Mary Overies, where 
his executors . . . Salmon M. D. and Mr. John Saint- 
lowe, merchant of London, have erected (but I beleeve 
according to his lordship's will, els they would not have 
layed out 1000 li.) a sumptuose monument for him. 

He had not that smooth way of oratory as now. It 
was a shrewd and severe animadversion of a Scotish lord, 
who, when king James asked him how he liked bp. A.'s 
sermon, sayd that he was learned, but he did play with 
his text, as a Jack-an-apes does, who takes up a thing and 
tosses and playes with it, and then he takes up another, 
and playes a little with it. Here's a pretty thing, and 
there's a pretty thing ! 

* Bishop Andrews : vide the inscription before his 

Sermons. 

Notes. 

■ Anbrey gives tlie coat :— ' See of Winchester ; impaling . . ., 3 mullets on 
a bend engrailed and cottised . . .,' ensigned with a mitre or, and encircled by 
the Garter motto. 

» Richard Mulcaster, Head Master of Merchant Taylors' School, i56i-:586. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 9. 



32 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Francis Anthony (1550-1623). 

* Dr. [Francis =] Anthony, the chymist, Londinensis, 
natus 16 Aprilis, 1550, i""- P.M., Virgo 0° 3' ascend. 

Quaere A (nthony) W (ood) if of Oxon or Cam- 
bridge ''. 

Scripsit a libros, viz. : — Auruin potabile, and his Defense 
against Dr. (Matthew) Gwyn (who wrote a booke called 
Aiirum non Aurum). This is all that Mr. Littlebury, 
bookeseller, remembers. 

He lived in St. Bartholomew's close, London, where he 
dyed, and is, I suppose, buried there, about 30 yeares since ^, 
scil. 1653. 

Vide his nativity in Catalogue ^. 

He had a sonne who wrote something, I thinke (quaere 
Mr. Littlebury) ; and a daughter maried to . . . Montague, 
a bookeseller in Duck-lane, who in Oliver's time was 
a soldier in Scotland. 

Notes. 

^ Wood notes here 'so that by this reckoning,' i.e. if bom in 1550 ut supra, 
'he was 102.' 

^ i. c, I suppose, in MS. Aubrey 23 (Aubrey's Collectio Genituraruni), where 
at fol. 121, among nativities from Dr. Richard Napier's papers, is: — 'Dr. 
Anthony, Londinensis, who made aurum potabile at London, natus 16 April, 
1550, i"" P.M.' 

Thomas Archer (1554-1630?). 

** Mr. Archer, rector of Houghton Conquest, was a good 
scholar in King James's (the ist) dayes, and one (of) his 
majestie's chaplains. 

He had two thick 4to MSS. of his own collection ; one, 
joci and tales etc., and discourses at dinners ; the other, 
of the weather. I have desired parson Poynter", his 
successor, to enquire after them, but I find him slow 
in it. No doubt there are delicate things to be found 
there. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 21'. ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 1'. 

" Added by Anthony Wood. •= Thomas Poynter, rector of Hough- 

^ He was M.A., Cambridge, 1574. ton Conquest, Beds., 1676-1700. 



John Ashindon. Deborah Aubrey 33 

John Ashindon (obiit 13 — ?). 

* Johannes Escuidus", Merton College : — Elias Ashmole, 
esq., hath the corrected booke by the originall MSS. of 
Merton College library, now lost, which is mentioned in 
Mr. William Lilly's almanack 1674, a folio. 

Amongst many other rarities he haz a thin folio MS. 
of Alkindus in Latin. 

** Johannes Escuidus: — Summa astrologiae judicialis, 
in folio, Venetiis, 1489. — It is miserably printed, he sayes 
there ; and that he was a student of Merton College 
Oxford. — Mr. Elias Ashmole has the booke. 

Elias Ashmole (1617-1692). 

*** Memorandum— the lives of John Dee, Dr. (Richard) 
Nepier, Sir William Dugdale, William Lilly, Elias Ash- 
mole '°, esq., — Mr. Ashmole haz and will doe those himselfe : 
as ° he told me formerly but nowe he seemes to faile. 

Deborah Aubrey (i6^f-i68f). 

**** Mris. Deborah Aubrey, my honoured mother, was 
borne at Yatton-Kaynes, vulgo West-Yatton, in the parish 
of Yatton-Keynel in com. Wilts., January 39* 1609 ■*, 
mane. 

In a letter from my mother, dated Febru. 3*, i6|f, she 
tells me she was seaventie yeares old the last Thursday 
[29 Januarii] — quod N. B. 

Her accidents. 

My mother was maried at 15 yeares old. 

She fell sick of a burning feaver at Langford, Somerset. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 14'. " In MS. Ballard 14, fol. 19, 20 is 
"John Ashindon (or Eastwood): an autobiography dictated by Ashmole 

see Brodrick's Memorials of Merton to Robert Plot, to be sent to Anthony 
College (O. H. S.), p. 200. Wood, Dec. 29, 16S3. 

** Aubrey, in MS. Wood, F. 39, " Added later by Aubrey to his note. 

fol. 229: Sept. 22, 1673. **** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 81', 82. 

*** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 10'. ^ t6i|. 

T D 



34 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

She was taken on the 6"^ June 1675 ; feaver there againe in 
July 1675. 

She was borne Jan. 29*, morning, scil. the day before 
the anniversary-day of the king's decollation. She was 
15 yeares old and as much as from January to June when 
she was maried. 

She fell from her horse and brake her . . . arme the last 
day of Aprill (1649 or 5°) when I was a suitor to Mris 
Jane Codrington. 

Lettre, Aug. 8, 1681 : — she was lately ill three weekes 
and now her eies are a little sore. 

Memorandum : 6 Januarie i68|, my mother writes to 
me that she is 73 yeares of age. 

NoU. 

She died at Chalk in Jan. i68f , and was buried at Kingston S. Michael ; so 
in a letter by Aubrey to Anthony Wood, May ii, 1686, in MS. Ballard 14, 
fol. 139. 

John Aubrey (1626-1697). 

(These autobiographical jottings are found in MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 3-5. 
They have been printed, with a few slips and slight omissions, in John 
Britton's Memoir of J. Aubrey^ London, 1845, pp. 12-17. Aubrey 
(fol. 3) directs that the paper is ' to be interposed as a sheet of wast 
paper only in the binding of a booke ' ; and appends to this direction 
the motto : — 

'I presse not to the choire" . . . 
Thus devout penitents of old were wont, 
Some without dore, and some beneath the font. 

Mr. Thomas Carew.' 

Aubrey gives (fol. 3) an (incomplete) drawing of his own horoscope, 
on the scheme : — 

'A natus i62f, March nth, i"]"^ 14' 44" P.M. . . .^ (tempus 
verum), sub latitudine 51° 30'.' 

In MS. Aubr. 21, fol. no, is Charles Snell's calculation of Aubrey's 
nativity, on the scheme 

'Sunday, 12 Martii 1626, ^ 13' 40" A.M., natus Johannes Aubreius, 
armiger, sub polo 5 1° 06.' The astrologers of the time used sometimes 
the English, and sometimes the Italian, enumeration of the hours.) 

" 'Nor dare I' followed, scored out. *■ Astronomical symbols omitted. 



John Aubrey 35 



* I. A^- 

His life * is more remarqueable in an astrologicall respect ' 
then for any advancement of learning ^, having '' from his 
birth (till of late yeares) been labouring under a crowd of 
ill directions : for his escapes of many dangers ^, in journeys 
both by land and virater, 40 yeares. 

He was borne (longaevous, healthy kindred *) at Easton 
Pierse®, a hamlet in the parish of Kington Saint Michael 
in the hundred of Malmesbury in the countie of Wilts, his 
mother's ^ (daughter and heir of Mr. Isaac Lyte) inherit- 
ance, March the 12 (St. Gregorie's day'), A. D. 1625 ^ 
about sun-riseing, being very weake and like to dye that 
he was christned before morning prayer. 

I gott not strength till I was 11 or 12 yeares old ; but 
had sicknesse" of vomiting ^ for 12 houres every fortnight 
for . . - yeares, then about monethly, then quarterly, and at 
last once in halfe a yeare. About 12 it ceased. 

When a boy, bred at Eston, an^ eremiticall solitude. 
Was 8 very curious ; his greatest delight to be continually 
with the artificers that came there (e. g. joyners, carpenters, 
coupers, masons), and understood their trades. 

I634^ was entred in his Latin grammar by Mr. R<obert> 
Latimer ^ rector of Leigh de-la-mere, a mile's fine walke, 
who had an easie way of teaching : and every time we askt 
leave to goe forth, we had a Latin word from him which 
at our returne we were ^ to tell him again— which in a little 
■while amounted to a good number of words. 'Twas my 
unhappinesse in half a yeare to loose this good enformer 
by his death, and afterwards was under severall dull 
ignorant rest '^-in "^-house teachers 1° till 1638 (la^), at 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 3. ' Subst. for ' a place for solitude 

^ Aubrey's favourite way of writing like an . . .' 

, \ ■ ■.. r •,„ „„ s The notes slide from 1st to 3rd 

his initials. A. is his favourite mono- 

J person. 

^^^^^ , ■, , -,.!,■ • i;f„' h Subst. for 'at 9,' scil. years of age. 

" Dupl. wth ' This person s life. "t ^ ^ , ^' , .\-. 

7, y r ,, . . 1 Subst. for 'must re(peat). 

\ Subst. for being. ^ ^^^^^.^^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^j^^^j_ 

i. c. 162-J. 1 i.e. at 12 years of age. 

"> Explained m the margin as being ' 

' the belly-ake : paine in the side.' 

D 2 



36 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

which time I was sent to Blaiidford schole in Dorset 
(William Sutton ", B.D., who was ill-natured). 

Here I recovered my health, and gott my Latin and 
Greeke, best of any of my contemporaries. The '' usher " 
had (by chance) a Cowper's Dictionary, which I had never 
seen before. I was then in Terence. Percieving his 
method, I read all in the booke where Terence was, and 
then Cicero — which was the way'' by which I gott my 
Latin. ' Twas a wonderfull helpe to my phansie, my 
reading of Ovid's Metmnorphy in English by Sandys, 
which made me understand the Latin the better. Also, 
I mett accidentally a booke of my mother's, Lord Bacon's 
'' Essaies, which first opened my understanding as to moralls 
(for TuUie's Offices was too crabbed for my young yeares) 
and the excellence ® of the style, or hints and transitions. 

I ' was alwayes enquiring ^^ of my grandfather s of the 
old time, the rood-loft, etc., ceremonies, of the priory, etc. 
At 8, I was a kind of engineer ; and I fell then to drawing, 
beginning first with plaine outlines, e.g. in draughts of 
curtaines. Then at 9 (crossed herein by father and school- 
master), to colours, having no body to instruct me '' ; 
copied pictures in the parlour in a table booke like ■'^- 

Blandfordiae, horis vacuis, I drew and painted Bates's .... 
(quaere nomen libri ^'). 

I was wont (I remember) much to lament with my selfe 
that I lived not in a city, e. g. Bristoll, where I might have 
accesse to watchmakers, locksmiths, etc. (I did) not very 
much care for grammar. (I had) apprehension enough, 
but my memorie not tenacious. So that then ' was 
a promising morne enough of an inventive and philoso- 
phicall head. (I had a) musicall head, inventive, (wrote) 
1/ blanke verse, (had) a strong and early impulse to anti- 

" Supra, p. 29. first words are scored out. 

' Dupl. with ' our.' * Isaac Lyte. 

" Thomas Stephens : see sub no- ^ Dupl. with ' being only my owne 

mine. instructor.' 

'^ Dupl. with ' meanes.' ' Dupl. with ' (when) a boy.' For 

" Dupl. with ' cleamesse.' ' was ' he began to write ' I (had) ' 
' • At 8 y(ears of age) I,' but the but struck it out. 



John Aubrey 37 



quitie (strong impulse to 1^"). (My) witt was alwaies 
working, but not adroict for verse. (I was) ex(ceeding'') 
mild of spirit ; migh(tily) susceptible of fascination. 
* My idea very cleer"; phansie like^ a mirrour, pure 
chrystal water which the least wind does disorder and 
unsmooth — so noise or etc. would °. 

** My uncle Anthony Browne's bay nag threw me 
dangerously the Monday after Easter^, 1639. Just before 
it I had an impulse of the briar under which I rode, which 
tickled him, at the gap at the upper end of Berylane. 
Deo gratias ! 

*** 1643, May %^, I went" to Oxford. 

Peace «. 

Lookt through Logique and some Ethiques. 

1642, Religio Medici printed, which first opened my 
understanding, which I carryed to Eston, with Sir K. D. ^ 

But now' Bellona thundered, and as a cleare skie is 
sometimes suddenly overstretch(ed) with a dismalP cloud 
and thunder, so was this serene peace' by the civill 
warres through the factions of those times ; vide Homer's 
Odyssey. 

In August" following my father sent for me home, 
for feare. 

In February . . . following, with much adoe ° I gott my 
father to lett me to beloved Oxon againe, then a garrison 
pro rege. 

" i. c. to Saturn, patron of anti- ^ Aubrey intended to write a fine 

quities. sentence, parallel to what follows, 

'" Margin frayed. describing the quiet of Oxford before 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 3'. the outbreak of the great war. 

c In the margin Aubrey writes '^ Sir Kenelm Digby's ' Observa- 

' Tacitus and Juvenal,' perhaps mean- tions on Religio Medici,' publ. in 

ing that he read these authors now, 1643. 

before going up to Oxford. ' Dupl. with 'now did Bel- 

^ The sentence stood at first : — lona . . . .' 

' Phansie like a pure christall mirrour.' "^ Dupl. with ' black.' 

6 Scil. ' disorder my phansy.' ' Dupl. with ' one.' 

** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 2. " Dupl. begun, but scored through 

' i.e. Monday, April 15. ' J.' i- e. July. 

*** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 3'. ° Dupl. with ' importunity.' 



38 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

I gott Mr. Hesketh, Mr. Dobson's man, a priest, to 
drawe the ruines of Osney 2 or 3 wayes before ' twas 
puUd downe ^°. Now the very foundation is digged-up. 

In Aprill I fell sick of the small pox at Trinity College ; 
and when I recovered, after Trinity weeke*, my father 
sent for me into the country again : where I conversed '' 
with none but servants and rustiques and soldiers quartred, 
to my great griefe [Odi propliaiiiim vtilgits et arceo), for in 
those dayes fathers were not acquainted with their children. 
It was a most sad life to me, then in the prime of my 
youth, not to have the benefitt of an ingeniose conversation 
and scarce any good bookes — almost a consumption. This 
sad life I did lead in the country till 1646, at which time 
I gott (with much adoe) leave of my father to lett me goe 
to the Middle Temple, April the 6"^ 1646 ; admitted . . . 

%\ June following, Oxon was surrendred, and then came 
to London many of the king's party, with whom I ° grew 
acquainted (many of them I knew before). I loved not 
debauches '', but their martiall conversation was not so fitt 
for the muses. 

Novemb. 6, I returned to Trinity College in Oxon 
again to my great joy ; was much made of by the fellowes ; 
had their learned conversation, lookt on bookes, musique. 
Here and at Middle Temple (off and on) I (for the most 
part) enjoyd the greatest felicity of my life (ingeniose 
youths, as* rosebudds, imbibe the morning dew'') till 
Dec. 1648 (Christmas Eve's eve) I was sent for from 
Oxon home again to my sick father, who never recovered. 
Where I was engaged to looke after his country businesse 
and solicite a lawe-suite. 

Anno 165- Octob. . . . , my father dyed, leaving me 
debts 1800 li. and breathers' ) portions loco li. 

" Trinity Sunday, 1643, was June 4. was not improving. For the low 

"" Subst. for ' was faine ' (to con- tone whicii grew up among Oxford 

verse). scholars from contact with the garri- 

' Dupl. with ' renewed ' (acquaint- son, see Clark's Wood's Life and 

ance). Times, i. 129. 

'' i.e. though my friends were not « Subst. for 'lilce.' 

debauchees, yet their conversation ' ' Dew' is subst. for 'and sp(irit). 



John Aubrey 39 

Quid digni feci, hic process, viam ? Truly nothing ; only 
umbrages, so. Osney abbey ruines, etc., antiquities. Cos, 
a wheatstone, exors ipse secandi, e. g. {my) universall 
character" {:that) which was neglected and quite forgott 
and had sunk had not I engaged * in the worke, to carry 
on the worke — name them "- 

He began to enter into pocket memorandum bookes 
philosophicall and antiquarian remarques. Anno Domini 
1654, at Llantrithid. 

Anno 16 — I began my lawe-suite on the entaile in 
Brecon^*, which lasted till . . • , and it cost me 1200 li. 

Anno 1 was to have maried Mris K. Ryves, who 

died when to be maried, 2000 li. + ^, besides counting care 
of her brother, 1000 li. per annum. 

Anno I made my will ^'^ and settled my estate on 

trustees, intending to have seen the antiquities of Rome 
and Italy for . . . (years), and then to have returned and 
maried, but — 

Diis aliter visum est superis, 

my mother, to my inexpressible griefe and ruine, hindred 
this " designe, which was '' my ruine. 

* My estate (was of) value 100 li. fere + Brecon. 

Then debts and lawe-suites, opus et usus, borrowing of 
money and perpetuall riding. To my prayse, (I had) 
wonderfuU credit in the countrey for money. Anno . . . 
sold manor of Bushelton in Herefordshire to Dr. T<homas) 
Willis. Anno . . . sold the manor of Stratford in the same 
county to Herbert (Croft) lord bishop of Hereford. 

Then anno 1664, June 11, went into France. Oct. . . . 
returned. Then Joan Sumner. 

" i.e. my character throughout my than ;£'2000, and her husband was to 

life was that I discharged the function be guardian of her brother's estate 

of a whetstone. (during minority?) which was worth 

''Perhaps scil. 'others.' He set ;^iooo a year, 
other people to work to record " Subst. for ' my.' 

matters and so rescued them from ' Dupl. with 'was procatraclique 

oblivion. cause ' (of my ruine). 

« The people he set to work. '^ MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 4. 

<* i. c. her portion was to be more 



40 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

* Memorandum. J. Aubrey in the yeare 1666, wayting 
then upon Joane Sumner to her brother at Seen in Wihs, 
there made a discovery of a chalybiate waters and those 
more impregnated than any waters yet heard of in 
England. I sent some bottles to the Royal Society in 
June 1667, which were tryed with galles before a great 
assembly there. It turnes so black that you may write 
legibly with it, and did there, after so long a carriage, 
turne as deepe as a deepe claret. The physitians were 
wonderfully surprized at it, and spake to me to recommend 
it to the doctors of the Bath (from whence it is but about 
10 miles) for that in some cases 'tis best to begin with 
such waters and end with the Bath, and in some vice versd. 
I wrote severall times, but to no purpose, for at last I found 
that, though they were satisfied of the excellency of the 
waters and what the London doctors sayd was true, they 
did not care to have company goe from the Bath. So 
I inserted it last yeare in Mr. Lilly's almanac, and towards 
the later end of summer there came so much company 
that the village could not containe them, and they are now 
preparing for building of houses against the next summer. 
Jo<hn> Sumner sayth (whose well is the best) that it will 
be worth to him aoo //. per annum. Dr. (Nehemiah) 
Grew in his History of the Repository of the Royal Society 
mentions this discovery, as also of the iron oare there not 
taken notice of before 'tis in part iii, cap. a, pag. 331. 

** Then lawe-suite with her^ Then sold Easton- 

Peirse ", and the farme at Broad Chalke. Lost 500 li. 

(Fr. H.) + 200 li. + goods + timber. Absconded as a 

banishd man. 

Then , ^ . . ^ , . 

In monte Dei videbitur °. 

I was in as much affliction as a mortall could bee, and 
never quiet till all was gone, (and I> wholly " cast myselfe 
on God's providence. 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 5'. ' Gen. xxii. 14. 

** MS. Anbr. 7, fol. 4. " Dupl. with ' submitted myselfe to 

" Joan Sumner. God's will.' 



John Aubrey 41 



Monastery *. 

I wished monastrys had not been putt downe, that the 
reformers would have been more moderate as to that 
point. Nay, the Turkes have monasteries. Why should 
our reformers be so severe? Convenience of religious 
houses — Sir Christopher Wren — fitt there should be re- 
ceptacles and provision for contemplative men ; if of 500, 
but one or two**- 'Tis compensated". What a pleasure 
'twould have been to have travelled from monastery to 
monastery. The reformers in the Lutheran countrys were 
more prudent then to destroy them (e. g. in Holsatia, etc.) ; 
(they) only altered the religion. 

But notwithstanding all these embarasments I did plan 
piano (as they occur'd) take"* notes of antiquity; and 
having a quick draught, have drawne landskips on horse- 
back symbolically, e. g. (on my) journey to Ireland in 
July, Anno Domini 166-. 

(The) earl of Thanet" (gave me) otitim at Hethe- 
field. 

(I^ had) never quiett, nor anything of happinesse tills 
divested of all, 1670, 1671 ^' : at what time providence 
raysed me (unexpectedly) good friends — the right honour- 
able Nicholas, earl of Thanet, with whom I was delites- 
cent at Hethfield in Kent^" neer a yeare, and then was 
invited . . . ; anno . . . , Sarney ; Sir Christopher Wren ; 
Mr. Ogilby ; then Edmund Wyld, esq., R(egiae) S(ocie- 
tatis) S(ocius), of Glasely-hall, Salop (sed in margine), 
tooke me into his armes, with whom I most commonly take 
my diet and sweet otium's. 

Anno 1 67 1, having sold all and disappointed as afore- 

" i. c. Aubrey then wished he could MS. Ballard 14, fol. 99, April 23, 

have withdrawn into a monastery. 1674, Aubrey mentions », project for 

•> i. e. had been left. his advantage : — ' The earl of Thanet 

" ? i. e. the advantages of the Re- would have me goe to his estate in the 

formation in England have drawbacks Bermudas.' 

in the disadvantages of losing monas- ' The paragraphs following repeat, 

teries. with some enlargement, the statements 

* ' tooke ' in MS. already made. 

= Nicholas Tufton, 3rd earl. In - Dupl. with ' till all was sold.' 



42 



Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



<My> 



said of moneys I received, I had so strong " an impulse '' 
to (in good part) finish my° Description of Wilts, two 
volumes in folio, that I could not be quiet till I had donne 
it, and that with danger enough, tanquam canis e Nilo, 

for feare of the crocodiles, i. e. catchpolls.- And indeed 

all that I have donne and that little that I have studied 
have been just after that fashion, so that had I not lived 
long my want of leisure would have afforded but a slender 
harvest of . . . 

A man's spirit rises and falls with his '^ ^ : makes me 
lethargique. 

stomach (was) so tender that I could not 
drinke claret without sugar, nor white wine, 
but would disgorge. (It was) not well ordered 
till 1670. 

^^ A strange fate that I have laboured 
under never" in my life to enjoy one entire 
monethe f or 6 weekes otiuin for contemplation. 
My studies (geometry) were on horse back f, 
and (in) the house of office : (my father 
discouraged me). My head was alwaies working; 
never idle, and even travelling (which from 1649 till 1670 
was never off my horsback) did gleane som observations, 
of which I have a collection in folio of 3 quiers of paper + a 
dust basket, some wherof are to be valued. 
His*" chiefe vertue, gratitude. 

Tacit, lib. IV § xx : — Cneus Lentulus ', outre 1' honneur 
du consulat et le triumphes de Getules, avoit la gloire 
d'avoir vescu sans reproche dans sa pauverte, et sans 



t Once at 
Chalke in my 
absconding 
Oct. anno . . . ; 
at Weston f 
anno . . . 
t So I got my 
Algebra, 
Oughtred in my 
pocKet, with 
someff informa- 
tion from 
Edward 
Davenant, D.D., 
of Gillingham, 
Dorset. 



" Dupl. with ' great.' 

^ Aubrey adds a reference; — 'vide 
Camden's divinum instr.' 

" One volume is now MS. Aubr. 3 ; 
the second is lost. 

'' Aubrey's symbol for ' fortune ' 
or * wealth.' 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 4". 

" The marginal note names two 
exceptions. 



f i.e. Ralph Sheldon's (Anthony 
Wood's friend) ; Aubrey was there in 
1678, Clark's Wood's Life and Times, 
iii. 420. 

' Dupl. with 'a little.' 

■> In these paragraphs Aubrey jots 
down his opinions as to his own 
character. 

' Tag. Ann. iv. 44. 



John Aubrey 43 



orgueil dans son opulence oii il estoit parvenu de puis par 
de voyfes legitimes. 

(I was) never riotous or prodigall ; but (as Sir E. Leech 
said) sloath and carelesnesse ^ (^^re) equivalent to all 
other vices. 

My fancy lay most to geometric. If ever I had been 
good for anything, 'twould have been a painter, I could 
fancy a thing so strongly and had so cleare an idaea 
of it. 

When a boy, he did ever love to converse with old men, 
as living histories. He cared not for play, but on play- 
dayes '' he gave himselfe to drawing and painting. At 9, 
a pourtraiter " ; and soon was . . . 

Reall character, (things'^ that) lay dead, I caused to 
revive by engaging 6 or 7 . . . fungor vice cotis, etc. 

Wheras very sickly in youth ; Deo gratias, healthy 
from i6. 

Amici. 

A{nthony) Ettrick, Trin. Coll. 

M.T.'^— John Lydall. 

Fr<ancis) Potter, of 666 f, C lettres". 

Sir J(ohn) Hoskyns, baronet. 

Ed<mund) Wyld, esq. of Glasley Hall, quem summae 

gratitudinis ergo nomino. 
Mr. Robert Hooke, Gresham College. 
Mr. (Thomas) Hobbes, 165—. 
A<nthony) Wood, 1665. 
1^ Sir WiUiam Petty, my singular friend. 
Sir James Long, baronet, of Draycot, xpovoypa(t>l.a etc. 
Mr. Ch<arles) Seymour, father'' of the d(uke) of 

S(omerset). 

» Dupl. with' negligence (lachesse).' ' i.e. who discovered (in his own 

" i.e. school holidays. opinion) ' the number of the beast.' 

<i Snbst. for ' drawer.' See sufra, s i. e. Aubrey had a hundred letters 



P- 36 

d < 

e 2 

Temple. 



of his. 



See sup-a, p. 39. " ' father ' is written, as frequently 

acquaintance begunat theMiddle in Aubrey, in a symbol, viz. C_^ 



44 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Sir Jo<hn) Stawell, M.T. * 
Bishop of Sarum (Seth Ward). 
Dr. W(illiam) Holder. 

Scripsit^. 

' Tiie'^ Naturall History of Wiltshire.' 

These ' Lives ' (pro AV ^ i6^). 

' Idea " of education of the noblesse,' in Mr. Ashmole's 

hands. 
item, ' Remaynders of Gentilisme,' being observations 

on Ovid's Fastorum. 
memorandum, ' Villare Anglicanum interpreted.' 
item, Faber Fortimae (for his own private use). 

I. A. lived most at Broad-chalke in com. Wilts ; some- 
times at Easton Piers ; at London every terme. Much of 
his time spent in journeying to South Wales (entaile^) 
and Hereff(ordshire). I now indulge my genius with my 
friends and pray for the young angels. Rest at Mris More's 
neer Gresham College (Mrs More's in Hammond Alley 
in Bishopgate Street farthest house ^^ old Jairer (?) 
taverne). 

(I) expect preferment (through) Sir LI. Jenkins^. 

* It was I. A. that did putt Mr. Hobbes upon writing his 
treatise De Legibus, vi'hich is bound up with his Rhetorique 
that one cannot find it but by chance ; no mention of it 
in the first title. 

** I have writt ' a?i Idea of the education of the Noblesse 
from the age of lo (or 1 1) till 1 8 ' : left with Elias Ashmole, 
esquire. 

*** 1673', die Jovis'', 5'° Martii, 9'' 15' + ?. M. J. A. 

° See note on p. 43. e This symbol is for ' opposite to.' 

' See Clark's Wood's Life and •> Sir Llewelyn {or Leoline, from 

Times, iv. 191. the Latin form) Jenkins, Secretary of 

° Now MS. Anbr. i and 2. State 1680-1684. 

* The monogram of Anthony * MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 5. 

Wood. ** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 5'. 

» This is now MS. Aubr. 10. *** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 97'. 

' i.e. on business of the suit con- ' 167I. 

ceming the entail: stipra, p 39. ^ i.e. Thursday. 



John Aubrey 45 



arrested (by) . . . Gardiner, serjeantj a lusty faire-haired 
solar fellow, prowd, insolent, et omnia id genus. 

* March a5, 1675, my nose bled at the left nostril! 
about 4^ P. M. I doe not remember any event ^^. 

** July 31, 1677, I sold my bokes to Mr. Littlebury, 
scilicet when my impostume in my heade did breake. 

About 50 annos (aetatis) (I had) impostume in 
capite. 

*** Captain . . . Poyntz (for service that I did him to 
the earle of Pembroke and the earl of Abingdon ^^) did very 
kindly make me a grant of a thousand acres of land in the 
island of Tobago, anno Domini i68|, Febr. i^. He advised 
me to send over people to plant ^^ and to gett subscribers 
to come in for a share of these 1000 acres, for 200 acres 
he sayes would be enough for me. In this delicate island 
is lac lunae (the mother of silver). 

William Penn, Lord Proprietor of Pennsylvania, did, ex 
mero motu et ex gratia speciali, give me, (16 — ) a graunt, 
under his scale, of six hundred acres in Pennsylvania 2^ 
without my seeking or dreaming of it. He adviseth me to 
plant it with French protestants for seaven yeares gratis 
and afterwards {they are) to pay such a rent. Also he 
tells me, for 200 acres ten pounds per annum rent for ever, 
after three yeares. 

**** John Aubrey 2^ March 20, 169^ about 11 at night 
robbed and 15 wounds in my head. 

January 5*^ 169I, an apoplectick fitt, circiter 4''. P. M. 

***** Accidents of John Aubrey"^^- 
Borne at Easton-Piers, March 12, 162I, about sun-rising : 
very weake and like to dye, and therfore Christned that 
morning before Prayer. I thinke I have heard my mother 
say I had an ague shortly after I was borne. 

1629: about 3 or 4 yeares old, I had a grievous ague. 

* MS. Aubr. n, fol. - **** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 103'. 

** MS. Aubr. 23, a slip at fol. ***** Aubrey in MS. Rawl. J. fol. 

, 6 (No. 1 5041 in Summary Catal. of 

*** MS. Aubr. 26, pp. 9, 10. Bodl. MSS.), fol. 30. 



46 Atcbrcys 'Brief Lives' 

I can remember it. I gott not health till 11, or 12: but 
had sicknesse of vomiting for 13 howres every fortnight for 
. . . yeares ; then, it came monethly for ... ; then, 
quarterly ; and then, halfe-yearly ; the last was in June 
1642. This sicknesse nipt my strength in the bud. 

1633 : 8 yeares old, I had an issue (naturall) in the 
coronall suture of my head, which continued running 
till 31. 

1634: October": I had a violent fever that was like to 
have carried me off. 'Twas the most dangerous sicknesse 
that ever I had. 

About 1639 (or 1640) I had the measills, but that was 
nothing : I was hardly sick. 

1639: Monday after Easter weeke my uncle's nag ranne 
away with me, and gave a very dangerous fall. 

1643 : May 3, entred at Trinity College, Oxon. 

1643 : April and May, the small-pox at Oxon ; and 
shortly after, left that ingeniouse place ; and for three 
yeares led a sad life in the countrey. 

1646 : April , admitted of the Middle Temple. But 

my father's sicknesse, and businesses never permitted me 
to make any settlement to my studie. 

1651 : about the 16 or 18 of April, I sawe that incom- 
parable good conditioned gentlewoman, Mris M. Wiseman, 
with whom at first sight I was in love — haeret lateri ''. 

1653 : October 21 : my father died. 

1655: (I thinke) June 14, I had a fall at Epsam, and 
brake one of my ribbes and was afrayd it might cause an 
apostumation. 

1656 : September 1655, or rather (I thinke) 1656, I 
began my chargeable and taedious lawe-suite about the 
entaile in Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire. 

This yeare, and the last, was a strange year to me, and° 
of contradictions ; — scilicet love M. W."^ and lawe-suites. 

1656: December: Veneris morbus, 

" Subst. for ' Mich: ' (aelmastide). " i.e. a year. 

^ Letalis arundo : Verg.W«z. iv. 73. '' i.e. Wiseman, ut supra. 



John Aubrey 47 



* 1657 : Novemb. 37, obiit domina Katherina Ryves, 
with whom I was to marry ; to my great losse. 

1658: . . .■' 

1659 : March or Aprill, like to breake my neck in Ely 
minster, and the next day, riding a gallop there, my horse 
tumbled over and over, and yet (I thanke God) no hurt. 

1660: July, August, I accompanied A. Ettrick into 
Ireland for a moneth ; and returning were like to be ship- 
wrackt at Holy-head, but no hurt donne. 

1661, 1663, 1663 : about these yeares I sold my estate 
in Herefordshire. 

...'': Janu., had the honour to be elected fellow of the 
Royal Society. 

1664: June II, landed at Calais. In August following, 
had a terrible fit of the spleen, and piles, at Orleans. I 
returned in October. 

1664, or 1665 : Munday after Christmas, was in danger 
to be spoiled by my horse, and the same day received 
laesio in testiculo which was like to have been fatall. 
Quaere R. Wiseman quando — I beleeve 1664. 

1665: November i ; I made my first addresse (in an ill 
howre) to Joane Sumner. 

1666: this yeare all my businesses and affaires ran 
kim kam. Nothing tooke effect, as if I had been under 
an ill tongue. Treacheries and enmities in abundance 
against me. 

1667: December — : arrested in Chancery lane, at Mrs. 
Sumner's suite. 

(i66^> : Febr. 24, a.m. about 8 or 9, triall with her at 
Savum. Victory and 600 li. dammage, though divelish 
opposition against me. 

1668: July 6, was arrested by Peter Gale's malicious 
contrivance, the day before I was to goe to Winton for my 
second triall, but it did not retain me above two howres ; 
but did not then goe to triall. 

1669'^: March 5, was my triall at Winton, from 8 to 9, 

» Ibid., fol. 30'. " ' i6^l- 

» Two initials obliterated. " i.e. i6fi 



48 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

the judge being exceedingly made against me, by my lady 
Hungerford. But 4 of the Venue (?) appearing, and with 
much adoe, gott the moeity of Sarum, verdict viz. 300 li. 

1669 and 1670 : I sold all my estate in Wilts. 

From 1670, to this very day (I thanke God), I have 
enjoyed a happy delitescency. 

1671 : danger of arrests. 

1677 : later end of June, an imposthume brake in my 
head. 

Laus Deo. 

* Memorandum :— St. John's night, 1673, in danger of 
being run through with a sword by a young : . . "* at Mr. 
Burges' chamber in the Middle Temple. 

Quaere the yeare'' that I lay at Mris Neve's; for that 
time I was in great danger of being killed by a drunkard 
in the street opposite Grayes-Inne gate — a gentleman 
whom I never sawe before, but (Deo gratias) one of his 
companions hindred his thrust. (Memorandum : horo- 
scope • . .') 

Danger of being killed by William, earl of Pembroke, 
then lord Herbert, at the election of Sir William Salkeld 
for New Sarum. 

I see Mars in . . . "^ threatnes danger to me from falls. 

I have been twice in danger of drowning. 

Notes. 

' This beginning of Aubrey's autobiography is explained by Henry Coley's 
judgment on his nativity, found in MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 104, on the scheme 'J. A. 
natus 162I, March nth, ly"" 14' 44" P.M., sub latitudine 51° 30'.' 

' The nativity,' Coley says, ' is a most remarkable opposition, and 'tis much 
pitty the starres were not more favourable to the native.' Coley goes on to 
state that the stars ' threaten ruin to land and estate ; give superlative vexations 
in matters relating to marriag, and wondrous contests in law-suits — of all which 
vexations I suppose the native hath had a greater portion than ever was desired.' 
Aubrey must have been only too glad to have authority for attributing his 
failure in life to the stars, and not to his own ill-conduct. 

* Ibid., fol. 31. '' Aubrey adds: 'vide Almanac: 

* ii ; a symbol I have not found 'twas that yeare I went to Heth- 
elsewhere in Aubrey, as indicating field.' 

a person. <^ Some astrological symbols follow. 



John Aubrey 49 



^ In MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 3, in jottings at the side of his horoscope, Aubrey 
suggests that his failure in this respect was due to defects of his upbringing, not 
of natural ability. 

' 'Edi' ps i^iAo/ia9*js, cffj) TroXu/iaSi/s. By pian piano I might have (attained 
to learning) ; though (my) memory (was) not tenacious, (yet I had) zeale to 

learning, and ..." extraordinary, ^•, (but I was) bred ignorant at 

Eston.' 

' Henry Coley, in his 'Observations upon the genitore' of Aubrey, MS. 
Aubr. 23, fol. 105', finds that the stars show that he 'will be in great danger 
between the years of 40 and 50.' — On this Anbrey remarks : — 

' Much about that time the native was several times in danger of expiration, 
as, 

first, by the e(arl) of P(embroke) ; 

2, a bruise of the left side ; 

3, a narrow escape of falling downe stayres ; and, 
lastly, as dangerous a fall from a horse ; 
besides the accident of sowneing, cum multis aliis. 

1668 : the native was in no small trouble, at least received disparagement, 
by an arrest, and other untoward transactions.' 

* In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 62 sqq., is a notice of Aubrey's family and of Kington 
St. Michael. 

The pedigree is : — 

William Aubrey, LL.D. 
John Aubrey (3rd son) 
Richard Aubrey m. Deborah, 



(only son) 



daughter of 
Isaac Lyte 



John William Thomas 

(our author) 

See in ' Wiltshire : the Topographical Collections of John Aubrey, corrected 
and enlarged by John Edward Jackson,' Devizes, 1862. 

In MS. Aubr. 23, on a slip at fol. 47, Aubrey notes his father's christening :— 
'Richard Aubrey, July 26, St. Anne's day, christened A.D. 1603.' 

MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 83, notices Aubrey's brother William:— 'My brother 
William Aubrey's scheme by Henry Coley.— Natus Mr. W. A. March 20, 
164!, at 11" 30' P.M.' 

MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 119', is the back of an envelope (seal, a pelican feeding 
her young) addressed to Aubrey's third brother:— 'to his very loving freind 
Mr. Thomas Awbrey at Broad Chalke give these.' 

= In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 8, Aubrey notes : — 

' John Aubrey (was) borne in the chamber where are on the chimney painted 
the armes of Isaac Lyte and Israel Browne.' 

MS. Aubr. 17 contains several of Aubrey's drawings, in pencil and water- 
colours, of the house and grounds at Easton-Piers. 

In MS. Anbr. 3 (his 'Hypomnemata Antiquaria'), fol. 55 sqq., is Aubrey's 

» One word I cannot decipher. " Two words I cannot decipher. 

I. E 



50 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

description of Easton-Piers. It is printed in J. E. Jackson's Aubrey's Wiltshire 
Collections (Devizes, 1862), pp. 235 sqq. 

' In MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 8, Aubrey notes:— '^.a; registro Kington St. Michael 
in com. Wilts : June 15, Richard Aubrey and Debora Lyght maried, 1625.' 

' Aubrey in a marginal note seeks to bring his birth-day into connexion 
with the Roman Quinquatria (March 19). The note is: ' Quinquatria : feast 
dedicated to Minerva ' ^dupl. with ' Pallas '). 

» In MS. Aubr. 23 (his ' CoUectio geniturarum '), fol. 116, 117, are letters 
from Charles Snell about Aubrey's nativity and accidents. Snell there 
enumerates Aubrey's : — 

' Sicknesse att birth ; ague and vomittings aboute 5 or 6 yeares old ; issue in 
his head ; small-pox ; amours with madam Wiseman " ; selling away the 
mannor of Stratford, etc. ; haesitating in his speech.' 

Snell gives this advice : — 

' If the haesitation in your speech doth hinder, gett a parsonage of 4 or 500 li. 
per annum, and give a curat 100 li. per annum to officiate for you.' 

The letter is dated from ' Fordingbridge ; 12 August, 1676.' 

Aubrey, in his letters to Anthony Wood, several times touches on the idea 
of his taking Orders. MS. Ballard 14, fol. 98 : — ' I am like to be spirited away 
to Jamaica by my lord (John) Vaughan, who is newly made governor there, 
and mighty earnest to have me goe with him and will looke out some em- 
ployment worthy a gentleman for me. Fough ! the cassock stinkes: it would 
be ridiculous.' — April 9, 1674. MS. Ballard 14, fol. 119: — ' I am stormed by 
my chiefest friends afresh, viz. Baron Bertie', Sir William Petty, Sir John 
Hoskyns, bishop of Sarum", etc., to turne ecclesiastique ; "but the king of 
France growes stronger and stronger, and what if the Roman religion should 
come-in againel" "Why then!" say they, " cannot you turne too?'' You, 

1 say, know well that I am no puritan, nor an enimy to the old gentle- 
man on the other side of the Alpes. Truly, if I had a good parsonage of 

2 or 300/2'. per annum, (as you told me) it would be a shrewd temptation.' — 
Aug. 29, 1676. 

'' Aubrey notes in the margin, (i) ' T. H.' (in a monogram), i.e. that this 
Latimer had been schoolmaster to Thomas Hobbes, and (2), 'delicate little 
horse,' to indicate that he did not walk the mile to Leigh-de-la-mere like a poor 
boy, but rode his pony there like a fine gentleman. John Britton has mis-read 
the note, and made it a description of Mr. Latimer's appearance, 'delicate littl? 
person' 

In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 109, Aubrey gives this inscription as on a stone ' under 
the communion-table ' in the church of Leigh-de-la-mere : — 

' Here lieth Mr. Robert Latymer, sometime rector and pastor of this church, 
who deceased this life the second day of November, anno domini 1634.' 

And then Aubrey notes : — 

' This Mr. Latimer was schoolmaster at Malmsbury ■* to Mr. Thomas Hobbes. 

" See inf7-a, p. 52. and the following substituted : — ' In 

" Vere Bertie, Baron of the Ex- a private schoole at Westport, next to 

chequer, 1675-78. the Smyth's shop as is (now, 1666) 

" Seth Ward. opposite to the . . . (an inne).' 

^ ' At Malmsbury ' is scored out. 



John Aubrey 51 



He afterwards taught children here*. He entred me into my accedence. 
Before Mr. Latimer, one Mr. Taverner was rector here, who was the parson 
that maried my grand-father and grandmother Lyte.' 

'" In a marginal note (MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 3), Aubrey excuses his father's 
neglect of his education on the plea that he himself grew up illiterate. The 
note is :— 

' My grandfather A(ubrey) dyed, leaving' my father, who was not educated 
to learning, but to hawking.' See in the life of Alderman John Whitson. 

" In the margin Aubrey notes ; — 

' ri : strong impulse to Ti .' This means I suppose that the position of Saturn 

at his nativity gave him a bias to the study of antiquities. 

'' This means, I suppose, that the copies he made sufficiently resembled the 
pictures on the parlour wall. A note in MS. Aubr. 8, fol, 6", perhaps refers to 
his ovni skill in drawing, 'As Mr. Walter Waller's picture drawne after his 
death ; e contra, I have done severall by the life.' Walter Waller was vicar of 
Chalk, where Aubrey lived : see in the life of Edmund Waller. 

" Possibly ' The mysteries of nature and art, viz. . . drawing, colour- 
ing . . . ," by J[ohn] B[ate], Lond. 1634, 4to. 

" Here (fol. 3') in the margin is written : — • Vide Pond,' referring perhaps 
to a pocket almanac, in which Aubrey had marked the date of his going up to 
Oxford. See Clark's Wood's Life and Times, i. 11, 12. In a letter from 
Aubrey to Anthony Wood, of date Feb. 21, i6|g, in MS. Ballard 14, fol. 127, 
is this interesting note : — ' At Trinity College we writt our names in the 
Buttery-booke, when we were entred.' 

Aubrey cites in the margin (MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 3') ; — ' HoRAT. Epist. 2'*.' 
(i.e. Epist. ii. 2. 45) : — 

' Atque inter sylvas Academi quaerere verum. 
Dura sed emovere loco me tempora grato.' 

^^ In MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 183, Aubrey, writing on Oct. 19, 1672, tells 
Anthony Wood, ' you must not forgett that I have 3 other faces or prospects 
of Osney abbey, as good as that now in the Monasticon. They are in my 
trunke yet at Easton Piers.' Ibid., fol. 190', on Oct. 22, 1672, he says, 
' I will bring you about March my two other draughts of Osney ruines, 
one by Mr. Dobson himselfe, the other by his man, one Mr. Hesketh, but 
was a priest.' 

Note that in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 200, is a drawing (from memory) by 
Aubrey of the stone-work which crowned the great earth-mound of Oxford 
Castle. 

" In a slip at the end of MS. Aubr. 26 (Aubrey's Faber Fortunae, in 
which he entered schemes by which he hoped to 'make his fortune'), 
is this note : — 

' I have the deed of entaile of the lands in South Wales, Brecon, and Mon- 
mouthshire,by my grandfather, William Aubrey LL.D., which lands now of right 
belong to me. Memorandum :— Mr. David Powell, who liveth at . . . (neer 
Llanverarbrin neer Llandvery, as I remember), can helpe me to the counterpart 
of this deed of entaile in Wales— quod N. B." 

" i. c. at Leigh-de-la-mere. 
E 3 



52 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives^ 

" In MS. Aubr. 21, at fol. 75 is part of a draft of a will by Aubrey, probably 
the one mentioned here (Ralph Bathurst became ' Dr.' in 1654) : — 

'Item, my will is that my executors buy for Trinity CoUedge in Oxon 
a coUedge pott of the value of ten pounds, with my armes theron inscribed ; 
and ten pounds which I shall desire my honoured friends Mr. Ralph Bathurst 
of Trinity College and Mr. John Lydall to lay out upon mathematical! and 
philosophicall books. 

Item, I give to the library of Jesus CoUedge in Oxon my Greeke Crysoslomus, 
Bede's 2 tomes, and all the rest of my bookes that are fitt for a library, as 
Mr. Anthony Ettrick" or Mr. John Lydall shall think fitt, excepting those 
bookes that were my father's which I bequeath to my heire. 

Item, I bequeath to John Davenant of the Middle Temple, esq., a ring of 
the value of 50J'., with a stone in it. 

Item, to Mr. William Hawes >> of Trinity College aforsaid a ring of the like 
value. 

Item, to Mr. John Lydall " of the CoUedge aforesaid a ring of the like value. 

Item, to Mr. Ralf Bathurst * of Trinity College aforesaid a ring of the like 
value. 

Item, to Mris Mary Wiseman of Westminster, my best diamond ring.' 

" On a slip at fol. loi of MS. Aubr. 23 is the jotting : — ' Eston-pierse : 
possession given, 25 March, 1671, P. M." 

" In his retirement daring this year at Chalk, Aubrey tried his hand at 
play-making. Writing to Anthony Wood on Oct. 26, 1671, MS. Wood, 
F. 39, fol. 141', he says: — 

' I am writing a comedy for Thomas Shadwell, which I have now almost 
finished since I came here, et quorum pars magna fui. And I shall fit him 
with another. The Countrey Revell, both humours untoucht, but of this, mum ! 
for 'tis very satyricall against some of my mischievous enemies which I in my 
tumbling up and downe have collected.' 

Of the first of these comedies, the autobiographical one, I have found no 
trace : of the second, satirizing the men and manners of Wiltshire, a very rude 
draft is found in MS. Aubr. 21. 

™ In MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 113 is a note (dated i67f) from Henry Coley, 
addressed : — 

' For his much honoured friend Mr. John Aubrey, at the right honourable the 
earle of Thanet's house at Hethfield in Kent, these present.' 

The letter states that the writer has forwarded letters to and from Aubrey ; 
and concludes: 'you are much wanted at London, and dayly expected, and 
therefore I hope you will not be long absent. Interest calls for your ap- 
pearance.' 

" i. c. which followed after this bleeding. Bleeding at the nose was thought 
ominous : see Clark's Wood's Life and Times, iii. 289, note i. 

" Anthony Ettrick, 'ofBerford, co. Monday) 1640; President in 1658. 

Dorset': matric. at Trinity College " Of Uxmore, Oxon, aged 15, elected 

in 1640, and was afterwards called at Scholar of Trinity, June 4, 1640. 

the Middle Temple. ^ Of Hoothorpe,Northants., elected 

" William Hawes, of Byssam, Berks, Scholar of Trinity, June 5, 1637; 

aged 1 6, was elected Scholar of Trinity Fellow, June 4, 1640; President, 

College, Oxford, June 5, (Trinity 1664. 



John Aubrey. William Aubrey 53 

'" In MS. Aubr. 26, p. 17 is this note: — 'The earle of Abington to buy 
of Captain Poyntz the propriety of the island of Tobago, now regnante 
Gulielmo III.' 

''^ Aubrey before this time had planned to retrieve his ruined fortunes by 
colonial schemes : e g., MS. Aubr. 26, p. 46 : — ' 1676 : from Sir William Petty — 
(in) Jamaica 500//. gives 100 per annum : take a chymist with me, for brandy, 
suger, etc., and goe halfe with him.' 

-* In consequence of this grant, Aubrey seriously thought of emigrating. 
MS. Aubr. 26, p. 14: — 

' Mr. Robert Welsted, goldsmith and banquier, sales that Mr. John Evelyn's 
bookes are the most proper for a plantation. Also Markham's husbandry and 
huswifry, etc. This is in order for Mr. W. Penn and myselfe. — Also let him 
carry with him Mr. Haines booke of Cydar Royall, which method will likewise 
serve for other fruites — it is by distillation. Quaere of Mr. Tyndale's at 
Bunhill, who makes severall sorts of English wines and cydars. Memorandum 
the great knack and criticism is to know when it comes to its sowrenesse ; it 
must not be vinegar for then nothing will come — quod N. B.' 

^^ This is noticed on a slip (fragment of a letter, ' 8 March, 1 69I ' from 
Edward Harley) at fol. 113 of MS. Aubr. 33 : — ' J. A. vulneratus die 20 Martii 
inter 10 et 11 horas Londini. Deo gratias.' 

^* This paper was acquired by Rawlinson in July . . . 1746 (ibid. fol. 31'). 
There is an inaccur te copy of it in MS. Ballard 14, foil. 158, 159, which has 
the note: — '1754, June 11, transcribed from a MS. in Mr. Aubrey's own 
writing in the possession of Dr. Richard Rawlinson.' 

William Aubrey (1529-1595). 

* William Aubrey^, Doctor of Lawes : — extracted from 
a MS. ^ of funeralls, and other good notes, in the hands 
of Sir Henry St. George, . . -^ marked thus ^. I guesse 
it to be the hand-writing of Sir Daniel Dun, knight, LL. 
Dr., who maried Joane, third daughter of Dr. William 
Aubrey : — 

William Aubrey (the second son of Thomas Aubrey, 
the 4th son of Hopkin Aubrey, of Abercunvrig in the 
countie of Brecon, esqre) in the 66th yeare of his age or 
thereabouts, and on the 25th of June, in the yeare of 
our Lord 1595, departed this life, and was buried in the 
Cathedrall-church of St. Paul ia London, on the north 
side of the chancell, over against the tombe of Sir John 
Mason, knight, at the base or foot of a great pillar 
standing upon the highest step of certain degrees or 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 19^. 

» The blank is left for his official title, viz. Clarencieux King of Arms. 



54 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

staires rising into the quire eastward from tiie same 
pillar towards the tombe of the right honble the lord 
William, earle of Pembroke, and his funeralls were per- 
formed the 23d of July, 1595. This gentleman in his 
tender yeares learned the first grounds of grammar in 
the College of Brecon, in Brecknock towne, and from 
thence about his age of fourteen yeares he was sent by 
his parents to the University of Oxford, where, under the 
tuition and instruction of one Mr. Morgan, a great learned 
man, in a few yeares he so much profited in humanity 
and other recommendable knowledge, especially in 
Rhetorique and Histories, as that he was found to be 
fitt for the studie of the Civill Law, and thereupon was 
also elected into the fellowship" of All-soules Colledge 
in Oxford (where the same Lawe'' hath alwayes much 
flourished). In which Colledge he ernestly studied and 
diligently applied himselfe to the lectures and exercise of 
the house, as that he there attained the degree of a Doctor 
of the Law Civill at his age of 35 yeares, and immediately 
after, he had bestowed on him the Queen's Publique 
Lecture of Law in the university, the which he read with 
so great a commendation as that his fame for learning 
and knowledge was spred far abroad and he also es- 
teemed worthy to be called to action in the common- 
wealth. Wherefor, shortly after, he was made Judge 
Marshall of the Queen's armies at St. Quintins in France. 
Which warrs finished, he returned into England, and 
determining with himselfe, in more peaceable manner 
and according to his former education, to passe on the 
course of his life in the exercise of law, he became an 
advocate of the Arches, and so rested many yeares, but 
with such fame and credit as well for his rare skill and 
science in the* law, as also for his sound judgment and 
good experience therein, as that, of men of best judgment, 
he was generally accounted peerlesse in that facultie. 

' William Aubre was elected into a Fellowships were set aside for 'legists,' 
Law Fellowship at All Souls in 1547. i.e. students of Civil Law. 
•> i.e. a number of the All Souls * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 20. 



IVilliam Aubrey 55 

Wherupon, as occasion fell out for imployment of a civilian, 
his service was often used as well within the realme as in 
forrein countries. In which imployments, he alwaies used 
such care and diligence and good circumspection, as that 
his valour and vertues dayly more appearing ministred 
means to his further advancement. In soe much that he 
was preferi'ed to be one of the Councell of the Marches of 
Wales, and shortly after placed Master of the Chancery, 
and the appointed Judge of the Audience, and constituted 
Vicar Generall to the Lord Archbishop of (Canterbury) 
through the whole province, and last, by the especiall 
grace of the queene's most excellent majestic, queen 
Elizabeth, he was taken to her highnesse nearer service 
and made one of the Masters of Request in ordinarie. All 
which titles and offices (the Mastership of Chancery, 
which seemed not competible with the office of Master of 
Requestes, only excepted) he by her princely favour pos- 
sessed and enjoyed untill the time of his death. Besides 
the great learning and wisdome that this gentleman was 
plentifully endowed withall, Nature had also framed him 
so courteous of disposition and affable of speech, so sweet 
of conversation and amiable behaviour, that there was 
never any in his place better beloved all his life, nor he 
himselfe more especially favoured of her majestic and the 
greatest personages in the realme in any part of his life 
then he was when he drew nearest his death. He was of 
stature not taull, nor yet over-low; not grosse in bodie, 
and yet of good habit ; somewhat inclining to fatnesse of 
visage in his youth; round, well favoured, well coloured 
and lovely ; and albeit in his latter yeares sicknesse had 
much* impaired his strength and the freshnesse of his hew, 
yet there remained there still to the last in his countenance 
such comely and decent gravity, as that the change rather 
added unto them then ought diminished his former dignitie. 
He left behind him when he died, by a vertuouse gentle- 
woman Wilgiford his wife (the first daughter of Mr. John 
Williams of Tainton in the countie of Oxford, whom he 
* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 20'. 



56 Aubrey'' s 'Brief Lives' 

maried very young a maiden, and enjoyed to his death, 
that both having lived together in great love and kindnesse 
by the space of 40 yeares) three sons and six daughters, 
t videpedesre. all of them marled, and having issue, as 
iribbiLhop'of '"' followeth f. 

wrgutrfLT^' His eldest son Edward, maried unto Joane, 
peat' frS"'? daughter and one of the heires of William 
grIndmoAer™'' Havard, in the countie of Brecon, esqre. 
husband told her His sccond son Thomas maried Mary the 
kept a nlSr daughter and heire of Anthony Maunsell of 

house, and that .-,, , r r-^t 

with admirable Llautrithed, in the com. of Cjlamorgan, esqre. 
oeconomie ; and His 3d son John, J being then of the age 

that there was ^ n / 1 1 1 \ • j 

not one woman of 1 8 ycarcs (or much thereabouts), was maried 

in the family. — r t-» • 1 j 

Vide the arch- to Rachel, One of the daughters of Richard 

bishop of Can- tt7-*i 

terbuivscase Danvcrs of Tockenham, in com. Wilts, esqre. 

in Sir Edward 

Cooke's His eldest daughter Elizabeth, maried to 

Reportes where ° 

he is mentioned, jhomas Norton of Noi^wood in the countie of 
Kent, esqre. 

His 2d daughter Mary maried William Herbert of 
Krickhowell, in the countie of Brecknock, esqre. 

His 3d daughter Joane maried with Sir Daniel Dun, 
knight, and Doctor of the Civill Lawe. 

His 4th daughter Wilgiford maried to Rise Kemis of 
Llanvay, in the county of Monmouth, esqre. 

His 5th daughter Lucie maried to Hugh Powell, gent. 

His 6th and youngest daughter Anne, maried to John 
Partridge, of Wishanger, in the countie of Glocester, esqre. 

Of every of the which since his death there hath pro- 
ceeded a plentifull issue. 

(^Additions by Aubrey.) 

Memorandum : — he was one of the delegates (together 
with Dr. Dale, &c.) for the tryall of Mary, queen of Scots, and 
was a great stickler for the saving of her life, which kind- 
nesse was remembred by King James att his comeing-in 
to England, who asked after"' him, and probably* would 

" Dupl. with ' for.' ^ Dupl. with ' some thought.' 



William Aubrey 57 



have made him Lord Keeper, but he dyed, as appeares, 
a little* before that good opportunity happened. His 
majestic sent for his sonnes ^ and knighted the two eldest, 
and invited them to court, which they modestly and 
perhaps prudently, declined. They preferred a country 
life. 

You may find him mentioned in the History of Mary, 
queen of Scotts, 8vo, written, I thinke, by (John) Hayward ; 
as also in Thuanus's Annales, which be pleased to see'' and 
insert his words here in honour to the Doctor's Manes. 
Dr. . . . Zouch mentions him with respect in his De 
Jure Faeciali, pag. . . . ; and as I remember, he is quoted 
by Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of the King's 
t Memorandum: Bcnch, in his Rcports, about the legitimacy 
Sn't'idme of the earle of Hertford.f Quaere if it was 
ap'peikd^o'"" Edward the father*, or els his son -William, 
^aTe'cfnart-""' about the manage with the ladie Arbella 

ford's suite, Ctnort? 

tempore regmae OLUditr 

EUzabethae. * [Johannes<= David Rhesus M.D. makes an 

honourable mention of him in his Welsh grammar in 
folio, pag. . . . ; as also in his preface.] 

** \Lingiiae Cymraecae instittitiones acciiratae, J. David 
Rhoesus, folio, London, 1593, pag. i8a (quaere if he is 
not mentioned in the Welsh preface) : — 

Caeterum nunc et propter eorum authoritatem et quod huic loco 
inter alia maxime quadrant, non pigebit antiquissima Taliessini^ 
Cambrobrytannica carmina subjungere, furtim (quae mea est audacia) 
et eo nesciente, a me surrepta, et clanculum calamo commissa, ex ore, 
vesperi fortuit6 juxta proprium ignem pro solito in sua cathedra con- 
sidentis, et haec una cum aliis carminibus memoriter, et non sine 
delectatione quadam decora, proferentis, ornatissimi et doctissimi viri 
domini Gulielmi Aubraei, Cambrobrytanni ab illustrissima Aubraeo- 
rum familia oriundi, linguae Cambrobrytannicae peritissimi eximiique 
patriae suae decoris et ornament!. Juris utriusque Doctoris celeberrimi, 
ac regiae majestati k Supplicum Libellis constituti Domini, et amici 

» He died more than seven years fol. 21 ; perhaps that the following 

before James's accession. paragraph, on fol. 21', may be 

>> ' 2 eldest ' is written over as a inserted, 

correction. * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 21. 

" This sentence is scored out on ** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 2i\ 



58 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

optimi perpetuoque colendi, nobisque amicis jam strenuas et auxiliatrices 
manus porrigentis, qua citius et magis prospere elucubrationes hae ad 
nostratium et aliorum utilitatem proelo conimittebantur. 
Carmina vero sunt hujusmodi. 

* Memorandum:— old Judge Atkins" (the father) told 
me that the Portugal! ambassador was tryed for his life for 
killing Mr. Greenway in the New Exchange (Oliver's time), 
upon the precedent of the bishop of Rosse (Scotch) by 
Dr. W. Aubrey's advice. Memorandum: — Dr. Cruzo'' of 
Doctors Commons hath the MSS. of this bishop's tryall. 

** De legati deliqtmitis judice competente dissertatio, 
autore Richardo Zoucheo, Juris Civilis professore Oxoniae, 
Oxon 1657, 12"°, pag. 89 : — 

Quarto, quod cum episcopus Rossensis, legatus reginae Scotorum, 
multa turbulenter in Anglia fecisset ad rebellionem excitandam et ad 
Anglos in Belgio profugos ad Angliam invadendam inducendos, 
Davidi Lewiso, Valentino Dale, Gulielmo Drurio, Gulielmo Awbreio, 
et Henrico Jones, Juris Caesarei consultissimis, quaestio proposita fuit 
A71 legatus, qui rebellione7n contra frindpem ad qiiem legatus est 
concitat, legati privilegiis gaudeat et An, ut hostis, poenae subjaceat, 
eidem responderunt, ejusmodi legatum, jure gentium et civili Romano- 
rum, omnibus legati privilegiis excidisse et poenae subjiciendum. 

*** He was a good statesman ; and queen Elizabeth 
loved him and was wont to call him ' her little Doctor.' 
Sir Joseph Williamson, Principall Secretary of Estate (first, 
Under-Secretary), haz told me that in the Letter-office are 
a great many letters of his to the queen and councell ". 

He sate many times as Lord Keeper, durante bene 
placito, and made ^ many decrees, which Mr. Shuter, etc., 
told me they had seen. 

Vide Anthony Wood's Hist, et Antiq. : he was principal 
of New Inne. 

Memorandum : — the Penketiol, i.e. chiefe of the family, 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 20". *** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 21. 

" Sir Edward Atkins, Puisne Justice " Here followed, ' which Mr. Shuter 

of the Common Pleas, 1649. ^'c. told me they had seen': scored 

'' John Cruso, LL.D., Caius Coll., out, as belonging infra. 

Cambr. 1652. * Subst. for 'gave.' 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 22. 



IVilHam Aubrey 59 

is my cosen Aubrey of Llannelly in Brecknockshire, of 
about 60 or 80 li. per annum inheritance ; and the Doctor 
should have given a distinction ; for want of which in a 
badge on one of his servants' blew-coates, his cosen 
William Aubrey ", also LL. Dr., who was the chiefe, 
plucked it off. 

The learned John Dee was his great friend and kins- 
man, as I find by letters between them in the custody of 
Elias Ashmole, esqre, viz., John Dee wrote a booke The 
Soveraignty of the Sea, dedicated to queen Elizabeth^ which 
was printed, in folio. Mr. Ashmole hath it, and also the 
originall copie of John Dee's hand writing, and annexed 
to it is a lettre of his cosen Dr. William Aubrey *, whose 
advise he desired in his writing on that subject. 

He purchased Abercunvrig (the ancient seate of the 
famil)') of his cosen Aubrey. He built the great house at 
Brecknock, his studie lookes on the river Uske. He could 
ride nine miles together in his owne land in Breconshire. 
In Wales and England he left 2500 li. per annum wherof 
there is now none left in the family. He made one Hugh 
George (his chiefe dark) his executor, who ran away into 
Ireland and cosened all the legatees, and among others my 
grandfather (his youngest son) for the addition of whose 
estate he had contracted with .... for Pembridge castle 
in the com. of Hereford, which appeares by his will, and 
for which his executor was to have payed. He made 
a deed of entaile (36 Eliz., 15(94)) which is also mentioned 
in his willj wherby he entailes the Brecon estate on the 
issue male of his eldest son, and in defailer, to skip the 
2d son (for whom he had well provided, and had marled 
a great fortune) and to come to the third. Edward the 
eldest had seaven sonnes ; and his eldest son, Sir William, 
had also seaven sonnes ; and so I am heire, being the i8th 
man in remainder, which putts me in mind of Dr. Donne, 
For what doeth it availe 
To be the twentieth man in an entaile ? 

" William Aubrey, Student of Ch. Ch. in 1580; D.C.L. 1597. 
' See infra, p. 61. 



6o Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Old Judge Sir (Edward) Atkins remembred Dr. A. 
when he was a boy ; he lay at his father's house in 
Glocestershire : he kept his coach, which was rare in 
those dayes. The Judge told me they then (vulgarly) 
called it a Quitch. I have his originall picture. He had 
a delicate, quick, lively and piercing black eie, fresh 
complexion, and a severe eie browe. The figure in his 
monument at St. Paules is not like him, it is too big. 

Heroicvt filii noxae : he engrossed all the witt of the 
family, so that none descended from him can pretend to 
any. 'Twas pitty that Dr. Fuller had not mentioned 
him amongst his Worthys in that countie. 

When he lay dyeing, he desired them to send for a 
goodman ; they thought he meant Dr. Goodman, deane 
of St. Paules, but he meant a priest, as I have heard my 
cosen John Madock say. Capt. Pugh was wont to say 
that civilians (as most learned an(d) gent.) naturally 
incline to the church of Rome ; and the common lawyers, 
as more ignorant and clownish, to the church of Geneva. 

Wilgiford, his relict, maried Browne, of Willey, 

in com. Surrey. 

The inscription on his monument in St. Paul's church : — 

Gulielmo Aubreo clara familia in Breconia orto, LL. in Oxonia 
Doctori, ac Regio Professor!, Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis causarum 
Auditor! et Vicario in sp!r!tualibus General!, Exercitus Regi! ad St. 
Quentin Supremo Juridico, in L!m!taneum Walliae Consilium adscito, 
Cancellariae Magistro, et Reginae Elizabethae k supplicum libeliis : 
Viro exqu!s!ta eruditione, singular! prudentia, et moribus suavissimis 
qui (tribus filiis, et sex filiabus e Wilgiforda uxore susceptis), aeternam 
in Christo vitam expectans, animam Deo xxiii Julii 1595, aetatis suae 
66, placidfe reddidit ; 

Optimo patri Edvardus et Thomas, milites, ac Johannes, armiger, 
filii moestissimi, posuerunt. 

* This Dr. W. Aubrey was related to the first William, 
earl of Pembroke, two wayes (as appeares by comparing 
the old pedegre at Wilton with that of the Aubreys) ; by 
Melin and Philip ap Elider (the Welsh men are all kinne); 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 21". 



William Aubrey 6i 



and it is exceeding probable that the carle was instru- 
mentall in his rise. When the earl of Pembroke was 
generall at St. Quintins in France, Dr. Aubrey was his 
judge advocat. In the Doctor's will is mention of a great 
piece of silver plate, the bequest of the right hon'^^'^ the 
earle of Pembroke. 

.... Stephens, the clarke of St. Benets, Paules Wharfe, 
tells me that Dr. W. Aubrey gave xxj. per annum for ever 
to that parish. 

* Vide the register of St. Benet's, Paule's Wharfe — 
quaere. Stephens, the dark, sayeth that he gave xxj. per 
annum to the parish of St. Benet's, Paule's wharfe, for 
ever : quaere. 

** Sir Andrew Joyner of Bigods in Much Dunmow 
parish in Essex hath two folios, stitcht, of manuscript letters 
of state, wherin are two letters of Dr. William Aubrey's to 
secretary Walsingham, and also lettres of queen Elizabeth's 
owne handwriting to Cecill ; also Liber Sf^ Mariae de 
Reding, a MS.; and other MSS., — a long shelfe of them — 
one of them writt tempore Henr. IV. This I had from 
Mr. Andrew Paschal, rector of Chedzoy, Somerset. 

(^Letter by Dr. W. Aubrey : S2ipra,p. 59.) 

*** My good coosen, 

I HAVE sente unto you again my yonge coosen* 
inclosede in a bagge, as my wyiTe cariethe yet one of 
myne ; trustinge in God, that shortly both, in theyr severall 
kyndes, shall come to lyght and live long, and your's 
having genittm, for ever. I knowe not, for lack of suffici- 
encie of witte and learninge, how to judge of it at all. But 
in that shadowe of judgemente that I have, truste me 
beinge vearie farre from meanynge to yelde any thyng, 
to your owne eares, of yourselfe. The matter dothe so 
strive with the manner of the handlinge that I am in 
dowpte whyther I shall preferre the matter for the sub- 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 19'. * i-e. John Dee's book, the 'child 

** • MS. Aubr. 8, fol. i'. of his invention.' 

*** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 23. 



62 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

stance, vveyght, and pythines of the multitude of argumentes 
and reasones, or the manner for the methode, order, per- 
spicuitie, and elocution, in that height and loftynesse that 
I did nott beleve our tonge (I meane the Englyshe) to be 
capable of. Marie, our Brittishe, for the riches of the 
tonge, in my affectionate opinion, is more copious and more 
advawntageable to utter any thinge by a skillfull artificer. 
This navie which you aptlie, accordinge to the nature and 
meaninge of your platt, call pettie, is so sette furthe by 
you, thos principall and royall navies of the Grecianes and 
Trojanes described by Homer and Vergill are no more 
bownde to them, then it is to you. 

You argue or rather thoondre so thicke and so strong 
for the necessitie and commoditie of your navie, that you 
leade or rather drawe me obtorto collo to be of opinion with 
you, the benefitte therofe to be suche as it wilbe a brydle 
and restreynte for conspiracies of foreyne nationes, and of 
owre owne a salfegarde to merchants from infestationes 
of pyrates ; a readie meane to breed and augmente 
noombers of skillfull marryners and sowldiers for the 
sea, a mayntynawnce in proces of tyme for multitudes 
of woorthie men that otherwise wolde be ydle. Who 
can denie, as you handle the matter, and as it is in trothe, 
but that it will be a terror to all princes for attemptinge 
of any soodeyne invasions,* and hable readilie to with- 
stande any attempte foreyne or domesticall by sea? And 
where this noble realme hath ben long defamede for 
suffringe of pyrates disturbers of the common trafifyke 
upon these seas, yt will, as you trulye prove, utterlie 
extingwishe the incorrigible, and occupie the reformed 
in that honourable service. 

The indignitie that this realme hath long borne in the 
fyshinge rownde aboute yt, with the intolerable injuries that 
owre nation hath indurede and doe still, at strangers 
handes, besides the greatnes of the commoditie that they 
take owte of our mowthes, hath ben, and is suche, that the 
same almoste alone were cause sufficiente to furnishe your 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 23'. 



William Aubrey 63 

navie if it may have that successe and consideration that it 
deserveth, it will be a better wache for the securitie of the 
state than all the intelligencers or becones that may be 
devisede : and a stronger wall and bulwarke than either 
Galleys was, or a brase of such townes placed in the most 
convenient parte of any continente of France, or the Lowe- 
countrey. As her majestic of right is totius or bis Britannici 
domiiia, et lex maris, whiche is given in the reste of the 
worlde by Labro in our learning to Antoninus the Emperor, 
so she showlde have the execution and effect therof in 
our worlde, yf your navie were as well setled as you have 
plottede it. But what doe I by this bare recitall deface 
your reasones so eloquentlie garnishede by you with the 
furniture of so much and so sundrie lernynge? I will of 
purpose omitt howe fully and howe substantially you 
confute the stronge objectiones and argumentes that you 
inforce and presse againste your selfe. I wolde God all 
men wolde as willinglie beare the light burdynes that you 
lay upon them for the supportation of the chardges as you 
have wiselie and reasonablie devisede the same. And so 
the dearthe and scarsitie that curiouse or covetouse men 
may pretende to * feare, you so sowndlie satisfie, that it is 
harde with any probabilitie to replie. As for the sincere 
handlinge and govermente it is not to be disperede yf the 
charge shall be with good ordinawnces and instructiones 
placede carefullie in chosen persones of good credite and 
integritie. See howe boldlie upon one soodeyne readinge 
I powre my opinion to your bosome of this your notable 
and strange discowrse. And yet I will make bold to 
censure it also as he dyd in the poore slipper when he was 
nott able to fynd any faulte in any one parte of the 
workemanship of the noble picture of that goddes. I 
pray you. Sir, seyinge you meane that your navie shall 
contynewe in time of peace furnishede with your noombre 
of men, what provision or ordre make you, howe they shall 
occupie and exercise themselves all the while? Assure 
your selfe those whelpes of yours neyther can nor will be 
* MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 24- 



64 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

ydle, and excepte it may please you to prescribe unto 
them some good occupation and exercise, they will occupie 
themselves in occupationes of their owne choice, wherof 
few shall be to your lykinge or meanynge. Peradventure 
you meane of purpose to reserve that to the consideration 
of the state. And where you in vearie good proportion, 
lawierlike, share goodes taken by pyrates amonge sundrie 
persones of your navie, and some portion to itselfe, reserv- 
inge the moytie to the prince, you are to remembre that 
the same are challenged holly to belong to her highnesse 
by prerogative. Let me be also bold to offer to your 
consideration whether it be expedient for you so freely 
to deale with the carryinge of ordinawnces out of the 
realme beinge a matter lately pecuted " by the knowledge 
et convenientia of, etc. You doe, to veary great purpose 
inserte the two orationes of Georgius Gemistus Plethon, 
the one to Emanuel by fragments, and the other to his 
Sonne Theodore ad verbum, for the worthynes and varietye 
of many wise and sownd advises given by him to those 
princes in a hard tyme, when they were in feare of that 
Turkish conquest, that did after followe to the ruine of 
that empire of Constantinople. However well doeth he 
handle the differences and rates of customes and tributes, 
the moderate and sober use of apparell m ipsis principibus ! 
How wisely doethe* he condemne the takeinge up of all 
the newe attires and apparell of strange nations, as though 
he had written to us at this tyme, who doe offende as 
deepely therein as the Greekes then dyd ! How franke 
is he to his prince in useinge the comparisone between 
the Eagle that hath no varietie of colours of feathers, 
and yet of a princelie nature and estimation, and the 
Peocock, a bird of no regall propertie nor credit yet 
glisteringe angelically with varietie of feathers of all 
lively colours. There is one sentence in the later oration 
which I have thought to note because in apparence it 
dothe oppugne in a maner your treatise. The wordes 

" Anthony Wood has put dots under this word, and noted in the margin ' sic' 
* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 24^ 



IVilltam Aubrey 65 

are these, Prestat longk terrestribus copiis ac viilihmi et 
diiatni virtiite, qtcam nautariim et similiitm homimtm vilmnt 
arte, fiduciam ponere. 

Good coosen, pardoa my boldnes. I doe this .bicause 
you may understande that I have roone over it. And yet 
was I abrode all the fowle day yesterday. I pray you 
pardon me agayne for nott sendinge of it to you accordinge 
to promisse. And for that your man is come, and for that 
I have spente all my paper, I will no longer trowble you at 
this tyme, savinge with my right heartie commendations to 
your selfe and to my coosen your good mother from me 
and from my woman. From Kewe this Soonday in the 
morninge, the 28 of July. 

Yours assuredlie at commawndement, 

W. Aubrey. 

To his verie lovinge coosen and assured 
freende Mr. John Dee, at Mortelake. 

N.oUs. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' in the i and 6, gules ", a chevron bet-ween 
3 eagles heads erased or [Aubrey] ; in the 2, . . ., a lion ranipanf . . . ; in the 
3, . . ., a chevron between 3 (lions' ?) paws . . .; in the 4, . . ., three cocks 
gules ; and in the 5, parted per pale . . . and . . . , 3 fleur-de-lys counter-changed.' 
The crest is ' an eagle's he.id erased or [Aubrey].' 

2 In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 7, is the memorandum : — ' Insert ^ to Liber B.' — 
' Liber B.' was a volume of antiquarian notes, collected by Aubrey, now lost 
(Macray's Annals of the Bodleian, p. 367). Aubrey wanted to copy into it 
something from this MS. '^ . Two other memoranda in the same place are ■: — 
(a) 'William Aubrey, LL.D. : extract out ol De jure feciali, and De legati deli- 
quenlis judice competente, by Dr. Zouch,' as is done supra, p. 58 ; iji) ' Memor- 
andum the XX s. per annum bread at St. Benet's, Paul's wharf ; see supra, p. 61. 

Aubrey, in MS. Ballard 14, fol. 119, writing to Anthony Wood on Aug. 29, 
1676, says :— ' This day accidentally Mr. St. George shewed me my grandfather, 
Dr. William Aubrey's, life in their office' (i.e. the College of Arms), ' written, 
I suppose, by Sir Daniel Dun, his son-in-lawe. He came to Oxon at 14, and 
was LL. Dr. at 25.' 

^ Aubrey was very enthusiastic about these notices of his grandfather. 
Writing to Anthony Wood, on May 19, 1668 (MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 118), he 
says :— ' My grandfather Dr. William Aubrey— Thuanus in his Annales makes 
an honourable mention of him, and also it is set downe in the life of Mary, 
queen of Scotts (he being one of the commissioners) that he was very jealous of 
her being putt to death— which the chroniclers mention too I'nie sure, and Stow. 
If you would be pleased to turne to Thuanus and the life aforesaid you (would) 
very much oblige me, and you shall have a payre of gloves, for his sake.' 
" It should be ' azure.' 
T. F 



66 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

' Edward Seymour, created earl of Hertford in 1559, had in 1553 married 
secretly Katherine, daughter of Henry Grey, duke of Suffolk. In 1561 
Elizabeth sent them prisoners to the Tower, and the marriage was disputed 
in the law-courts. William Seymour, his grandson, who succeeded as 2nd 
earl in 1621, married in 1610 Arabella Stuart. She was sent prisoner to the 
Tower by James I: but Dr. W. Aubrey had died in 1595. 

° Aubrey, m MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6", has a note : — ' Meiedith Lloyd respondet 
that Telesinus (Teliessen) was a British priest to whom Gildas writes.' 

Francis Bacon (1561-1626). 
{His coat of ai'7Jis.) 

* Quarterly, on the i and 4, gules on a chief argent 
two mullets sable [Bacon], on the 2 and 3, barry of six 
or and azure, over all a bend gules [...], a crescent on 
the fesse point for difference ; impaling, sable, a cross 
engrailed between 4 crescents argent, a crescent sable on 
the fesse point [Barnham]. 

( Miscellaneous No tes . ) 

** Chancellor Bacon : — The learned and great cardinal 
Richelieu was a great admirer of the lord Bacon. 

So was Monsieur Balzac : e.g. les Oeuvres diver ses, disser- 
tation sur un tragedie, a Monsieur Huygens de Zuylichen, 
p. 158 — ' Croyons, pour I'amour du chancilier Bacon, que 
toutes les folies des anciens sont sages et tous leur songes 
mysteries.' 

Quaere if I have inserted" his irrigation in the spring 
showres. 

Vide Court of King James by Sir Anthony Welden, 
where is an account of his being viceroy here when the 
king was in Scotland, and gave audience to ambassadors 
in the banquetting-house. 

*** Lord Chancellor Bacon : — Memorandum, this Oct. 
1681, it rang over all St. Albans that Sir Harbottle Grim- 
ston, Master of the Rolles, had removed the coffin of this 
most renowned Lord Chancellour to make roome for his 
owne to lye-in in the vault there at St. Michael's church. 

**** Sir Francis Bacon, knight^ baron of Verulam and 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fo). 67. see infra, p. 84. 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 15". *** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. i6\ 

" i. e. in the life in MS. Aubr. 6 ; **** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 67. 



Francis Bacon 67 



viscount of St. Albans, and Lord High Chancellor of 
England : — vide his life writt by Dr. William Rawley 
before Baconi Resiiscitatio, in folio. 

(^His admirers and acquaintances.^ 

It appeares by this following inscription that Mr. Jeremiah 
Betenham of Graye's Inne was his lordship's intimate 
and dearely beloved friend. This inscription is on the 
freeze of the summer house on the mount in the upper 
garden of Grayes Inne, built by the Lord Chancellor 
Bacon. The north side of the inscription is now perished " 
The fane was a Cupid drawing his bowe. 

Franciscus Bacon, Regis Solicitator Generalis, executor testamenti 
Jeremie Betenham nuper lectoris hujus hospitii, viri innocentis et 
abstinentis et contemplativi, banc sedem in memoriam ejusdem Jeremie 
extruxit, anno Domini, 1609. 

In his lordship's prosperity Sir Fulke Grevil, lord 
Brookes, was his great friend and acquaintance ; but when 
he was in disgrace and want, he was so unworthy as to 
forbid his butler to let him have any more small beer, which 
he had often sent for, his stomach being nice, and the small 
beere of Grayes Inne not liking his pallet. This has donne 
his memorie more dishonour then Sir Philip Sydney's friend- 
ship engraven on his monument hath donne him honour. 
Vide . . . History, and (I thinke) Sir Anthony Weldon. 

. . . Faucet, of Marybon in the county of Middlesex, 
esqr., was his friend and acquaintance, as appeares by this 
letter which I copied from his owne handwriting (an elegant 
Roman hand). 'Tis in the hands of Walter Charlton, M.D., 
who begged it not long since of Mr. Faucet's grandsonne. 

* Richard", earle of Dorset, was a great admirer and 
friend of the lord chancellor Bacon, and was wont to have 
Sir Thomas' Billingsley "^ along with him to remember and 
to putt-down in writing my lord's sayings at table. 

» Dupl. with ' lost.' " Richard Sackville, 3rd earl, ob. 

i" Part of the page left blank for 1624. 
insertion of the letter. ^ See infra, sub nomine. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fob 67'. 



68 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Edward, lord Herbert of Cherbery. 

John Dun% dean of Paul's. 

George Herbert. 

Mr. Ben: Johnson was one of his friends and acquaintance, 
as doeth appeare by his excellent verses on his lordship's 
birth-day in his second volume, and in his Unda-woods, 
where he gives him a character and concludes that ' about 
his time, and within his view were borne all the witts that 
could honour a nation or help studie.' 

* Lord Bacon's birth-day: Underwoods, p. 222. 

Haile, happy genius of this ancient pile, 

How comes it all things so about thee smile? 

The fire, the wine, the men ! and in the midst 

Thou stand'st as if some mysterie thou didst ! 

Pardon, I read it in thy face, the day. 

For whose returnes, and many, all these pray : 

And so doe I. This is the sixtieth yeare 

Since Bacon, and my lord, was borne, and here, 

Sonne to the grave wise Keeper of the Seale, 

Fame and foundation of the English weale. 

What then his father was, that since is he. 

Now with a title more to the degree, 

England's High Chancellour, the destin'd heir 

In his soft cradle of his father's chaire, 

Whose even thred the Fates spinne round and full 

Out of their choysest and their whitest wooll. 

'Tis a brave cause of joy ; let it be knowne, 
For 'twere a narrow gladnesse, kept thine owne. 
Give me a deep-crown'd bowle, that I may sing 
In raysing him the wisdome of my king. 

Discoveries, p. 101. 

Yet there happened in my time one noble speaker t who was full 

t Dominus of gravity in his speaking. His language (where he could 

Verulanus. spare Or passe-by n jest) was nobly censorious. No man 

ever'''* spake more neatly, more pres(ent)Iy, more weightily, or suffered 

lesse emptinesse, lesse idlenesse, in what he utter'd. No member of his 

speech but consisted of the owne graces : his hearers could not cough, 

or looke aside from him, without losse. He commanded where he 

spoke ; and had his judges angry, and pleased, at his devotion. No 

» Donne. '* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. fig. ** M.S. Aubr. 6, fol. ey". 



Frmicis Bacon 69 



man had their affections more in his power. The feare of every man 
tliat htjard him was lest he should make an end. 

Cicero is sayd to be the only wit that the people of Rome had, 
equall'd to their empire, htgeniwn par imperio. We had many, and in 
their severall ages (to take in but the former seculum) Sir Thomas 
Moore, the elder Wiat, Henry, earle of Surrey, Chaloner, Smith, Eliot, 
bishop Gardiner, were for their times admirable ; Sir Nicholas Facon 
was singular and almost alone in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's 
times ; Sir Philip Sydney and Mr. Hooker (in different matter) grew 
great masters of wit and language and in whom all vigour of invention 
and strength of judgment met ; the earle of Essex, noble and high ; 
and Sir Walter Rawleigh, not to be contemn'd either for judgement or 
stile ; Sir Henry Savile, grave and truly letter'd ; Sir Edwin Sandys, 
excellent in both ; lord Egerton, the Chancellour, a grave and great 
orator, and best when he was provoked ; but his learned and able 
(though unfortunate) successor is he who hath fiU'd up all numbers, 
and performed that in our tongue which may be compar'd or preferr'd 
either to insolent Greece or haughty Rome. In short, within his view, 
and about his times, were all the wits borne that could honour 
a language or helpe study. Now things dayly fall, wits grow downe- 
_ward and eloquence growes backward, so that he may be nam'd and 
stand as the marke and aK/iiJ of our language. 

I have ever observ'd it to have been the office of a wise patriot 
among the greatest affaires of the state to take care of the common- 
wealth of learning *, for schooles they are the seminaries of state and 
nothing is worthier the study of a statesman then that part of the 
republick which wee call the advancement of letters. Witnesse the care 
of Julius Caesar, who in the heate of the civill warre writ his bookes of 
analogic and dedicated them to TuUy. This made the lord St. Albans 
entitle his worke Novum Organum, which though by the most of 
superficia 1 men who cannot gett beyond the title of nominalls, it is 
not penetrated nor understood, it really openeth all defects of learning 
whatsoever, and is a booke 

Qui longum noto scriptori porriget aevum*. 

My conceit of his person was never increased towards him by his 
place or honour, but I have and doe reverence him for the greatnesse 
that was only proper to himselfe in that he seem'd to me ever by his 
worke one of the greatest men and most worthy of admiration that 
have been in many ages. In his adversity I ever prayed that God 
would give him strength ; for greatnes he could not want. Neither 
could I condole in a word or syllable for him, as knowing no accident 
could doe harme to vertue but rather helpe to make it manifest. 

* MS. Aiibr. 6, fol. 70. " HoRAT., Ars Poet. 346. 



70 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

* He came often to Sir John Danvers at Chelsey. 
Sir John told me that when his lordship had wrote the 
History of Henry 7, he sent the manuscript copie to him 
to desire his opinion of it before 'twas printed. Qd. Sir 
John 'Your lordship knowes that I am no scholar.' ' 'Tis 
no matter.' said my lord, 'I know what a schollar can say ; 
I would know v/hat yoti can" say.' Sir John read it, and 
gave his opinion what he misliked which Tacitus did not 
omitt (which I am sorry I have forgott) which my lord 
acknowledged to be true, and mended it : ' Why,' said he, 
' a scholar would never have told me this.' 

Mr. Thomas Hobbes (Malmesburiensis) was beloved by 
his lordship, who was wont to have him waike with him 
in his delicate groves where he did meditate : and when 
a notion darted into his mind, Mr. Hpbbs was presently 
to write it downe, and his lordship was wont to say that 
he did it better then any one els about him ; for that 
many times, when he read their notes he scarce under- 
stood what they writt, because they understood it not 
clearly themselves. 

In short, all that -were, great and good loved and honoured 
him. 

Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chiefe Justice, alvvayes envyed 
him, and would be undervalueing his lawe, as you may 
find in my lord's lettres, and I knew old lawyers that 
rcmembred it. 

(^Personal characteristics.") 

He was Lord Protector during King James's progresse 
into Scotland, and gave audience in great state to am- 
bassadors in the banquetting-house at Whitehall. 

His lordship would many times have musique in the 
next roome where he meditated. 

The aviary at Yorke-house was built by his lordship ; 
it did cost 300/2. 

At every meale, according to the season of the yeare, 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 67'. « Siibst. for ' will.' 



Francis Bacon 71 



he had his table strewed with sweet herbes and flowers, 
which he sayd did refresh his spirits and memorie. 

When his lordship was at his country house at Gor- 
hambery, St. Albans seemed as if the court were" there, 
so nobly did he live. His servants had liveries with his 
crest (a boare . . . ) ; his watermen were more imployed 
by gentlemen then any other, even the king's. 

King James sent a buck to him, and he gave the keeper 
fifty pounds. 

He was wont to say to his servant Hunt, (who was 
a notable thrifty man, and loved this world, and the only 
servant he had that he could never gett to become bound for 
him) ' The world was made for man, Hunt ; and not man 
for the world.' Hunt left an estate of loco/z. per annum 
in Somerset. 

None of his servants durst appeare before him without 
Spanish leather bootes : for he would smell the neates- 
leather, which offended him. 

The East India merchants presented his lordship with 
a cabinet of Jewells, which his page, Mr. Cockaine, recieved, 
and decieved his lord. 

Three of his lordship's servants! kept their 
Mfaujs"""^^ coaches, and some kept race-horses — vide Sir 
Bus4Ti!'Mn!^ Anthony Welden's Court of King James. 
""''*'■ * He was ^ a TratSepaor^s. His Ganimeds 

and favourites tooke bribes ; but his lordship alwayes gave 
judgement secundum aequum et bonum. His decrees in 
Chancery stand firme, i.e. there are fewer of his decrees 
reverst then of any other Chancellor. 

His dowager" maried her gentleman-usher. Sir (Thomas, 
I thinke) Underbill, whom she made deafe and blind with 
too much of Venus. ^^ She was living since the be- 
heading of the late King.— Quaere where and when she 
died. 

" Subst. for ' had been.' executed on this charge, May 14, 

* MS. Aiibr. 6, fol. 68. 1631. 

" His brother-in-law, Mervyn Ton- " Alice, daughter and co-heir of 

chet, second earl of Castlehaven, was Bennet Barnham. 



72 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

He had a delicate % lively hazel eie ; Dr. Harvey told me 
it was like the eie of a viper. 

I have now forgott what Mr. Bush ell sayd, whether his 
lordship enjoyed his Muse best at night, or in the morning. 

{His poems'). 
His lordship was a good poet, but conceal'd, as appeares 
by his letters. See excellent verses of his lordship's which 
Mr. Farnaby translated into Greeke, and printed both'' in 
his ' AvdoXoy'ia, scil. 

The world's a bubble, and the life of man 
Less then a span, etc. 
* 'AvOoXoyia : Florilegium epigrammatum selectorum ; 
Thomas Farnaby, London, 1629, pag. 8. — ' Hue elegantem 
viri clarissimi domini Verulamii irapuihiav adjicere ad- 
lubuit ' — opposit to it on the other page — ' quam irapt^hiav 
e nostrati bona nos Graecam qualemcunque sic fecimus, et 
rhythmice.' 

The world's a bubble, and the life of man 

Lesse then a span ; 
In his conception wretched, from the wombe 

So to the tombe ; 
Curst from his cradle, and brought up to yeares 

With cares and feares. 
Who then to fraile mortality shall trust 
But limmes in water or but writes in dust. 

Yet since with sorrow here we live opprest, 

What life is best ? 
Courts are but onely superficial! scholes 

To dandle fooles ; 
The rurall parts are turn'd into a den 

Of savage men ; 
And wher's a city from all vice so free, 
But may be term'd the worst of all the three? 

' Over 'delicate,' Aubrey has written were ' hazell ' and ' ful of life.' 
' T. Hobbes,' either as his authority *> i.e. the original, and the Greek 

for the statement, or comfaring version. 
Bacon's eyes with Hobbes', which * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 71'. 



Francis Bacon 73 



Domestick cares afflict the husband's bed 

Or paines his hed ; 
Those that live single take it for a curse, 

Or doe things" worse; 
Some would have children ; those that have them mone, 

Or wish them gone. 
What is it then to have, or have no wife, 
But single thraldome or a double strife ? 

Our owne affections still at home to please 

Is a disease ; 
To crosse the sea to any foreine soyle, 

Perills and toyle; 
Warres with their noise affright us ; when they cease 

Ware worse in peace. 
What then remaines? but that we still should cry 
Not to be borne, or, being borne, to dye. 

{His 'Li'ritings.^ 

* His reading of Treason. 

His reading of Usurie. 

Decrees in Chancery. 

Cogitata et Visa : printed in Holland by Sir William 
Boswell, Resident there : who also there printed Dr. Gilbert's 
Magnetique Philosophie. 

Speech in Parliament of naturalization of the Scottish 
nation: printed 1641. 

His apothegmes, fivo 



Essaies 



Advancement of learning. 
History of King Henry the 7th. 

Novum Organon. — At the end of his Novum Organon 
Hugh Holland wrote these verses : — 

Hie liber est qualis potuit non scribere Stultus, 
Nee voluit Sapiens : sic cogitavit Hugo. 

" 'doethings'subst. for 'live much.' * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 74. 



74 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Natural! Historic. 

Of ambassadors : published by Francis Thynne out 
of Sir Robert Cotton's library, 1650. 

Speech touching duells, in the Starre-chamber : in the 
Bodleian library at Oxford. Reprint it. 

All the rest of his lordship's workes you will find in 
Dr. William Rawley's Resuscitatio. 

A piece of philosophy halfe as thick as the grammar 
set forth by Dr. Rawley, 1660. 



. . . . , 167-. 

* Apothegmata. 

His lordship being in Yorke-house garden lookeing on 
fishers as they were throwing their nett, asked them what 
they would take for their draught ; they answered so 7nuch : 
his lordship would offer them no more but so much. They 
drew-up their nett, and (in) it were only 2 or 3 little 
fishes : his lordship then told them it had been better for 
them to have taken his offer. They replied, they hoped 
to have had a better draught ; ' but! sayd his lordship, 
' Hope is a good breakfast, but an ill supper! 

When his lordship was in dis-favour, his neighbours 
hearing how much he was indebted, came to him with 
a motion to buy Oake-wood of him. His lordship told 
them, ' He would not sell his feathers! 

The earle of Manchester being removed from his place 
of Lord Chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas" to be Lord 
President of the Councell, told my lord (upon his fall) 
that he was sorry to see him made such an example. 
Lord Bacon replied ' It did not trouble him since he was 
made a President! 

The bishop of London did cutt-downe a noble clowd 
of trees at Fulham. The Lord Chancellor told him that 
he was a good expounder of darke places. 

Upon his being in dis-favour his servants suddenly went 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 6S. » Rectius, of the King's Bench. 



Francis Bacon 75 



away ; he compared them to the flying of the vermin when 
the howse was falling. 

One told his Lordship it was now time to looke about 
him. He replyed, ' I doe not looke dboitt me, I looke 
above me.' 

Sir Julius Caesar (Master of the RoUes) sent to his 
t Most of these lordship in his necessity a hundred pounds for 
haveTro'm Sir' ^ present f ; quaere + de hoc of Michael Malet. 
johnDanvers. j^jg Lordship would oftcn drinke a good 

draught of strong beer (March beer) to-bedwards, to lay 
his working fancy asleep : which otherwise would keepe 
him from sleeping great part of the night. 

I remember Sir John Danvers told me, that his lordship 
much delighted in his curious '^ garden at Chelsey, and as 
he was walking there one time, he fell downe in a dead- 
sowne. My lady Danvers rubbed his face, temples, etc. 
and gave him cordiall water: as soon as he came to 
himselfe, sayd he, 'Madam, I am no good footman.' 

{His death and burial-) 

* Mr. Hobbs told me that the cause of his lordship's 
death was trying an experiment : viz., as he was taking 
the aire in a coach with Dr. Witherborne (a Scotchman, 
Physitian to the King) towards High-gate, snow lay on 
the ground, and it came into my lord's thoughts, why 
flesh might not be preserved in snow, as in salt. They 
were resolved they would try the experiment presently. 
They** alighted out of the coach, and went into a poore 
woman's howse at the bottome of Highgate hill, and 
bought a hen, and made the woman exenterate it, and 
then stuffed the bodie with snow, and my lord did help 
to doe it himselfe. The snow so chilled him, that he 
immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not returne 
to his lodgings (I suppose then at Graye's Inne), but 
went to the earle of Arundell's house at High-gate, where 
they putt him into a good bed warmed with a panne, but 

' Dupl. with ' pretty.' * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 68. 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 68". 



76 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

it was a damp bed that had not been layn-in in about 
a yeare before, which gave him such a cold that in 2 or 3 
dayeS; as I remember he * told me, he dyed of suffocation. 

Mr. George Herbert, Orator of the University of 
Cambridge, haz made excellent verses on this great 
man. So haz Mr. Abraham Cowley in his Pindariques. 
Mr. Thomas Randolph of Trin. Coll. in Cambr. haz 
in his poems verses on him. 

* In the north side of the chancell of St. Michael's 
church (which, as I remember, is within the walles of 
Verulam) is the Lord Chancellor Bacon's monument in 
white marble in a niech, as big as the life, sitting in his 
chaire in his gowne and hatt cock't, leaning his head on 
his right hand. Underneath is this inscription which they 
say was made by his friend Sir Henry Wotton 

Franciscus Bacon, Baro de Verulam, 

Sti Albani Vicecomes, seu, notioribus titulis, 

Scientiarum Lumen, Facundiae Lex, 

sic sedebat. 

Qui postquam omnia Naturalis sapientiae 

et Civilis arcana evolvisset, 

Naturae decretum explevit 

' Composita solvantur,' 

Anno Domini MDCXXVI 

aetatis LXVL 

Tanti viri 

mem. 

t His lordship's Thomas Meautys t 

secretane, who 

marird a kins- SUperStitis Cultor, 

woman {< Anne) , -. . , . 

BaconY who is defuncti admirator, 

now tlie wife of T4 P 

Sir Harboftle •"• '^■ 

Grimston, 

Master of the / tt 7 j* \ 

Roiies. (^His relatives.) 

\ His mother 

was<Anne> ** He had a uterine t brother ANTHONY 

Cooke, sister of ^ 

Giddy-hai'nn'^ Bacon, who was a very great statesman and 
wife"os'ii' much beyond his brother Francis for the 

Nicholas Bacon. poUtiqucs, a lame man, he was a pensioner 
to, and lived with . . . earle of Essex. And to him he 

" i.e. Hobbes. * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 71. 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 68". 



Francis Bacon 77 



dedicates the first edition of his Essayes, a little booke no 
bigger then a primer, which I have seen in the Bodlyan 
Library. 

His sisters were ingeniose and well-bred ; they well 
understood the use of the globes, as you may find in the 
preface of Mr. Blundevill of the Sphaere ; see if it is not 
dedicated to them. One of them was maried to Sir John 
Cunstable of Yorkshire. To this brother in lawe he 
dedicates his second edition of his Essayes, in 8vo ; his 
last, in 4to, to the duke of Bucks. 

* BlundeviU's Exercises, preface : — ' I began this arithmetiqu^ 
more then seven yeares since for that vertuous gentlewoman Mris 
Elizabeth Bacon, the daughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon, knight (a man 
of most excellent witt and of a most deep judgement and sometimes 
Lord Keeper of the great seale of England), and lately the loving and 
faithfull wife of my worshipfull friend Mr. Justice Windham, who for 
his integrity of life and for his wisdome and justice dayly shewed in 
government and also for his good hospitalitie deserved great com- 
mendation ; and though at her request I had made this arithmetique 
so plaine and easie as was possible (as to my seeming) yet her continuall 
sicknesse would not suffer her to exercise herself therin.' 

(^His residences.^ 

** I will write something of Verulam, and his house at 
Gorhambery. 

At Verulam is to be seen, in some few places, some 
. „ , . remaines of the wall of this citie t ; which 

T Verolamium, 

ci°sHTi'aT' ^^^ '" compass about . . . miles. This mag- 
oppidum. nanimous Lord Chancellor had a great mind 

to have made it a citie again : and he had designed it, 
to be built with great uniformity: but Fortune denyed 
it him, though she proved kinder <to> the great Cardinal 
Richelieu, who lived both to designe and finish that 
specious towne of Richelieu, where he was borne ; before, 
an obscure and small vilage. (The ichnographie, etc., 
of this towne and palais is nobly engraved). 

Within the bounds of the walls of this old citie of 
Verulam (his lordship's Baronry) was Verulam howse, 
* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 70'. ** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 68'. 



78 A iibrey's 'Brief L ives ' 

about \ a mile from St. Albans ; which his Lordship built, 

the most ingeniosely contrived little pilef, 

mea^ured"ot that evcr I sawc. No question but his lordship 

the front and , i-r i- 1 itiri* 

breadth ; hut t was the chicfest architcct ; but he had for his 
it would be assistant a favourite of his (a St. Albans man) 

pulled downe -i-^i /i i-iti-'-i 

for the sale of Mr. . . . DobsoH (vvho was his lordships right 

the materialls. , .v . . /--«- r 1 

hand) a very ingeniose person (Master of the 
Alienation Office) ; but he spending his estate upon 
woemen ", necessity forced his son William Dobson to 
be the most excellent painter that England hath yet bred, 
qui obiit Oct. 1648 ; sepult. S. Martin's in the fields *. 

** The view of this howse from the entrance into the 
gate by the high-way is thus. The parallel '' sides answer 
one another. I doe not well remember if on the east side 
were bay windowes, which his lordship much affected, as 
may be seen in his essay Of Building. Quaere whether 
the number of windowes on the east side were 5 or 7 : 
to my best remembrance but 5. This model I drew 
by memorie, 1656. 

Verulam Howse "=. 

This howse did cost nine or ten thousand the building, 
and was sold about 1665 or 1666 by Sir Harbottle 
Grimston, baronet, (now Master of the Rolles) to two 
carpenters for fower hundred poundes ; of which they 
made eight hundred poundes. Memorandum : — there were 
good chimney-pieces ; the roomes very loftie, and all 
were very well wainscotted. Memorandum : — there were 
two bathing-roomes or stuffes, whither his Lordship retired 
afternoons as he sawe cause. All the tunnells of the 
chimneys were carried into the middle of the howse, as 
in this draught; and round about them were seates. The 
top of the howse was well leaded. From the leads was 
a lovely prospect to the ponds, which were opposite to the 

" Dupl. with 'luxuriously.' " Aubrey's drawing will be found 

* Explicit MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 68*'. among the facsiniiles at the end of 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 72. this volume. 
*• Dupl. with ' respective.' 



Francis Bacon 79 



east side of the howse, and were on the other side of the 
stately walke of trees that leades to Gorhambery-howse : 
and also over that long walke of trees, whose topps afford 
a most pleasant * variegated verdure, resembling the 
workes in Irish-stitch. The kitchin, larder, cellars, &c., 
are under ground. In the middle of this howse was 
a delicate staire-case of wood, which was curiously carved, 
and on the posts of every interstice was some prettie 
figure, as of a grave divine with his booke and spectacles, 
a mendicant friar, &C. — (not one thing twice). Memo- 
randum : — on the dores of the upper storie on the outside 
(which were painted darke umber) were the figures of the 
gods of the Gentiles (viz. on the south dore, ad storie, 
was Apollo ; on another, Jupiter with his thunderbolt, 
etc.) bigger then the life, and donne by an excellent hand ; 
the heightnings were of hatchings of gold, which when the 
fixxn shone on them made a most glorious shew. 

Memorandum : — the upper part of the uppermost dore, 
on the east side, had inserted into it a large looking-glasse, 
with which the stranger was very gratefully decieved, for 
(after he had been entertained a pretty while, with the 
prospects of the ponds, walks, and countrey, which this 
dore faced) when you were about to returne into the 
roome ', one would have sworn prima intuitu, that he had 
beheld another prospect through the howse : for, as soon 
as the stranger was landed on the balconie, the conserge '' 
that shewed the howse would shutt the dore to putt this 
fallacy on him with the looking-glasse. This was his 
lordship's summer-howse : for he sayes (in his essay) one 
should have seates for summer and winter as well as 
cloathes. 

From hence to Gorhambery is about a little mile, the 
way easily ascending, hardly so acclive as a deske. 

From hence to Gorambury in a straite line leade three 
parallell walkes : in the middlemost three' coaches may 
passe abreast : in the wing-walkes two may. They consist 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 72'. shutt the dore' : scored out. 

» Here followed 'the servant would i" French ' concierge.' 



8o Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

of severall stately trees of the like groweth and heighth, 
viz. elme, chesnut, beach, hornebeame, Spanish-ash, cervice- 
tree, &c., whose topps (as aforesaid) doe afford from the 
walke on the howse the finest shew that I have seen, and 
I sawe it about Michaelmas, at which time of the yeare 
the colour of leaves are most varied. ' The manner of the 
walke is thus : — 



u 


u 


u 


u 


t 


t 


t 


t 


s 


s 


s 


s 


r 


r 


r 


r 





o 








n 


n 


n 


n 


m 


m 


m 


m 


X 


X 


X 


X 


u 


u 


u 


u 


t 


t 


t 


t 


s 


s 


s 


s 


r 


r 


r 


r 














n 


n 


n 


n 


m 


m 


m 


m 


X 


X 


X 


X 


u 


u 


u 


u 


t 


t 


t 


t 


s 


s 


s 


s 


r 


r 


r 


r 














n 


n 


n 


n 



* The figures of the ponds were thus : they were 
pitched at the bottomes with pebbles of severall colours, 
which were work't in to severall figures, as of fishes, &c. 
which in his lordship's time were plainly to be seen 
through the cleare water, now over-grown with flagges 
and rushe 

If a poor bodie had brought his lordship halfe a dozen 

pebbles of a curious colour, he would give them a shilling, 

so curious was he in perfecting his fish-ponds, which 

I guesse doe containe four acres. In the middle of the 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 73. 



Francis Bacon 



8i 



middlemost pond, in the island, is a curious banquetting- 
house of Roman architecture, paved with black and white 
marble; covered with Cornish slatt, and neatly wainscotted. 

(«) = cutt hedge about the island. 

l^b) = walke between the hedge and banquetting-howse. 




Memorandum : — about the mid-way from Verolam-house 
to Gorambery, on the right hand, on the side of a hill 
which faces the passer-by, are sett in artificiall manner 
the afore-named trees, whose diversity of greens on the 
side of the hill are exceeding pleasant. These delicate 
walkes and prospects entertaine the eie to Gorambery- 
howse, which is a large, well-built Gothique howse, built 
(I thinke) by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, father to 
this Lord Chancellor, to whom it descended by the death 
of Anthony Bacon, his middle brother, who died sans 
issue. *The Lord Chancellor made an addition of 
* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 73'. 

T G 



82 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

a noble portico, which fronts the garden to the south : 
opposite to every arch of this portico, and as big as the 
arch, are drawen, by an excellent hand (but the mischief 
of it is, in water-colours), curious pictures, all emble- 
maticall, with mottos under each : for example, one 
I remember is a ship tossed in a storme, the motto. Alter 
erit turn Tiphys. Enquire for the rest. 

Over this portico is a stately gallerie, whose glasse- 
windowes are all painted ; and every pane with severall 
figures of beast, bird, or flower : perhaps his lordship might 
use them as topiques for locall memory. The windowes 
looke into the garden, the side opposite to them no 
window, but that side is hung all with pictures at length, 
as of King James, his lordship, and severall illustrious 
persons of his time. At the end you enter is no windowe, 
but there is a very large picture, thus : — in the middle on 
a rock in the sea stands King James in armour, with his 
regall ornaments ; on his right hand stands (but whither or 
no on a rock I have forgott), King Henry 4 of France, in 
armour ; and on his left hand, the King of Spaine, in like 
manner. These figures are (at least) as big as the life, 
they are donne only with umbre and shell gold : all the 
heightning and illuminated part being burnisht gold, and 
the shadowed umbre, as in the pictures of the gods on the 
dores of Verolam-house. The roofe of this gallerie is 
semi-cylindrique, and painted by the same hand and same 
manner, with heads and busts of Greek and Roman 
emperours and heroes. 

In the hall (which is of the auncient building) is a large 
storie very well painted of the feastes of the gods, where 
Mars is caught in a nett by Vulcan. On the wall, over 
the chimney, is painted an oake with akornes falling from it ; 
the word, Nisi quid poti?is. And on the wall, over the table, 
is painted Ceres teaching the soweing of corne ; the word, 
Muniti meliora. 

The garden is large, which was (no doubt) rarely planted 
and kept in his lordship's time: vide vitam Peireskii de 
domino Bacon. Here is a handsome dore, which opens 



Francis Bacon 83 



into Oake-wood ; over this dore in golden letters on 
blew are these six verses ". 

* The cakes of this wood are very great and shadie. 
His lordship much delighted himselfe here: under every 
tree he planted some fine flower, or flowers, some wherof 
are there still (1656), viz. paeonies, tulips, . . . 

From this wood a dore opens into . . . , a place as big as 
an ordinary parke, the west part wherof is coppice-wood, 
where are walkes cutt-out as straight as a line, and broade 
enoug for a coach, a quarter of a mile long or better. — Here 
his lordship much'' meditated, his servant Mr. Bushell 
attending him with his pen and inke home to sett downe 
his present notions. — Mr. Thomas Hobbes told me, that 
his lordship would employ him often in this service 
whilest he was there, and was better pleased with his 
initmtes, or notes sett downe by him, then by others who 
did not well understand his lordship. He told me that he 
was employed in translating part of the Essayes, viz. three 
of them, one wherof was that of the Greatnesse of Cities, 
the other two I have now forgott. 

The east of this parquet (which extends to Veralam- 
howse) was heretofore, in his lordship's prosperitie, a 
paradise; now is a large ploughed field. This eastern 
division consisted of severall parts ; some thicketts of 
plumme-trees with delicate walkes ; some of rasberies. 
Here was all manner of fruit-trees that would grow in 
England ; and a great number of choice forest-trees ; as the 
whitti-tree, sorbe-, cervice-, etc., eugh ". The walke(s>, both 
in the coppices and other boscages, were most ingeniosely 
designed : at severall good viewes ^ were erected elegant 
sommer-howses well built of Roman architecture, well 
wainscotted and cieled ; yet standing, but defaced, so 
that one would have thought the Barbarians had made 
a conquest here. This place in his lordship's time was 

» A blank space is left in the MS. " i.e. yew. 

for their insertion. '^ ' Belvideri ' is written over ' good 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 74. viewes,' as an alternative. 

* Subst. for' was wont '(tomeditate). 

G a 



84 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

a sanctuary for phesants, partridges, etc. birds of severall 
kinds and countries, as wliite, speckled etc., partridges. In 
April, and the springtime, his lordship would, when it rayned, 
take his coach (open) to recieve the benefit of irrigation, 
which he was wont to say was very wholsome because of 
the nitre in the aire and the universall spirit of the world. 

His lordship was wont to say, / will lay iny ^nannor of 
Gorambery out, to which Judge .... made a spightfuU 
reply, saying he would not hold a wager against that, but 
against any other mannour of his lordship's he would. 
Now this illustrious Lord Chancellor had only this mannor 
of Gorambery. 

Eoger Bacon (1214-1294). 

* Roger Bacon, friar ordinis (S. Francisci) : — Memo- 
randum, in Mr. Selden's learned verses before Hopton's 
Concordance of year es, he speakes of friar Bacon, and sayes 
that he was a Dorsetshire gentleman. There are yet of 
that name in that countie, and some of pretty good estate. 
I find by - . . (which booke I have) that he understood the 
making of optique glasses ; where he also gives a perfect 
account of the making of gunpowder, vide pag. . . . 
ejusdem libri. 

** Friar Roger Bacon : — Dr. Gerard Langbain had a 
Catalogue 1 of all his workes, which Catalogue Dr. (Thomas) 
Gale, schoolmaster of Paule's, haz now. 

Note. 
^ The reference is probably to a list of pieces by Roger Bacon which were 
found among Thomas Allen's MSS. Langbaine's draft of it is found in MS. 
Langbaine 7, p. 393 : see Clark's Wood's Life and Times, iv. 253. 

Thomas Badd (1607-1683). 

*** The . . . happinesse a shoemaker haz in drawing on 
a fair lady's shoe. ... I know one that it was the hight of 
his ambition to be prentice to his mris('s) shoemaker 
upon that condicion. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 6'. ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 9^ 

*+* MS. Aubr. 21, p. II. 



Edward Bagshaw 85 

Sir Thomas Bad's" father, a shoemaker, married the 
brewer's widow of Portsmouth, worth 20,000 li. 

Edward Bagshaw (1629-1671). 

* Edward Bagshaw was borne at Broughton in North- 
amptonshire ; 42 when he dyed — from his widowe ^. 

** My old acquaintance, Mr. Edward Bagshawe, B.D., 
3rd son of Edward Bagshawe, esq., a bencher of the Middle 
Temple, was borne (the day nor moneth certaine to be 
knowne) November or December at Broughton in 
Northamptonshire, where Mr. Boldon'', quondam Coll. 
Aeneinas., was parson. 

He was a king's scholar at Westminster schole, then 
student of Christ Church. Scripsit severall treatises. 

Obiit on St. Innocents day, 28 Dec, 1671, in Tuttle 
street, Westminster, a prisoner to Newgate 22 weekes 
for running into a praemunire for refusing to take the 
oath of allegiance (he boggled at the word 'willingly' 
in the oath) : aetatis 42. Sepult., Newyeares day, in the 
fanatique burying-place by the Artillery-ground in Moor- 
fields, where his sorrowfull widdowe will place his epitaph. 

1500 or 2000 people were at his funerall. 

*** ' Here " lyes interred | the body of | Mr. Edward 
Bagshaw | minister of the Gospell | who recieved from 
God I faith to embrace it | courage to defend it | and 
patience to suffer for it | when by most despised and 
by many persecuted | esteeming the advantages of birth, 
education, and learning | as things of worth to be accounted 
losse for the knowledge | of Christ. | From the reproaches 
of pretended friends | and persecutions of professed adver- 
saries I he I took sanctuary | by the will of God | in 
eternall rest.' 

» Sir Thomas Badd, of' Games " Robert Bolton, obiit 1631. 

Oysells, created a baronet in 1642. *** Cited by Aubrey,in MS. Wood, 

* Aubrey, in MS. Wood, F. 39, F. 39, fol. 175'. 

fol ^IQ' ' Anthony Wood notes 'made, 

** Idem, ibid., fol. 163': Jan. 27, they say, by Dr. (John) Owen,' 

jg- 1_ Puritan dean of Christ Church, Oxford. 



86 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Note. 
' MS. Anbr. 27: — 'A review and conclusion of the Antidote against 
Mr. Baxter's palliated cure of Church Divisions,' by Edward Bagshaw, Lend. 
1671, has the note ' donum Margaretae, viduae autoris ; Jan. 27, 1671 (i.e. j), 
Jo. Awbrey.' 

Jean Loais Guez de Balzac (1594-1655). 

* Monsieur de Balzac ended his dayes in a Cappucine's 
cell, and was munificent to them : vide Entretiens de 
monsieur de Balzac, printed above 20 yeares since. 

Richard. Bancroft (1544-16 10). 

In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. iig'', is this jotting:— 

' Dr. Mat. Skinner. Resp. 'tis archbishop Bancroft's picture— quod 
N.B., and inscribe.' 

This is probably to be interpreted as meaning — ' Enquire whether 
the portrait,' in a certain place, ' is that of Dr. Matthew Skinner.' 
Finding that it is the portrait of Richard Bancroft, 'see that the name 
is inscribed on it,' for future identification. 

John Barclay (1582-162 1). 
Robert Barclay (1648-1690). 

** Johannes Barclaius, Scoto-Britannus: — from Sam. 
Butler — was in England some time tempore regis Jacobi. 
He was then an old man, white beard ; and wore a hatt 
and a feather, which gave some severe people offence. 

Dr. John Pell tells me, that his last employment was 
Library-Keeper of the Vatican, and that he was there 
poysoned. 

Memorandum: — this John Barclay haz a sonne", now 
(1688) an old man, and a learned quaker, who wrote 
a Systeme of the Quakers' Doctrine in Latine'', dedi- 
cated to King Charles II, now (to) King James II; now 

translated by him into English, in The Quakers 

mightily value him. The booke is common. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 2. "^ Tlieologiae verae Chiistianae 

*' MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 53''. apologia, Amstel. 1676 The English 

"• Robert Barclay was not son of version appeared in 167S. 
John Barclay ; see the dates supra. 



Isaac Barrow 87 



Isaac Barrow (1630-1677). 

* Isaac Barrow, D.D. — from his father, (who was borne 
Aprill 23, 1600, \ a yeare older then King Charles 1st), 
May 17, 1682. 

His father, Thomas Barrow, was the second son of Isaac 
Barrow of Spinney Abbey in the countie of Cambridge, 
esq., who was a Justice of the Peace there above fourtie 
yeares. The father of Thomas never designed him for 
a tradesman, but he was so severe to him (that) he could 
not endure to live with him and so came to London and 
was apprentice to a linnen-draper. He kept shop at the 
signe of the White-horse in Forster lane near St. Forsters 
church in St. Leonard's parish; and (his son") was 
christened at St. John Zacharie's in Forster lane, for 
at that time St. Leonard's church was pulled downe to 
be re-edified. He was borne anno Dni 1630 in October'' 
after King Charles II"''. Dr. Isaac Barrow had the exact 
day and hower of his father, which may be found amongst 
his papers. His father sett it downe in his English bible, 
a faire one, which they used at the king's chapell when he 
was in France and he could not get it again. His father 
travelled with the King, Charles 2'"', where ever he went ; 
he was sealer to the Lord Chancellor beyond sea, and 
so when he came into England. Amongst Dr. Barrowe's 
papers it may be found. Dr. Tillotson has all his papers — 
quaere for it, and for the names of all writings both in 
print and MSS. 

He went to schoole, first to Mr. Brookes at Charterhouse 
two yeares. His father gave to Mr. Brookes 4/2. per 
annum, wheras his pay was but 2 li., to be carefull of him ; 
but Mr. Brokes was negligent of him, which the captain 
of the school acquainted his father (his kinsman) and sayd 
that he would not have him stay there any longer than 
he " did, for that he " instructed him. 

Afterwards to one Mr. Holbitch, about fower years, at 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 99. " Subst. for ' November.' 

" Isaac Barrow. " i- £■ this ' captain of the school.' 



88 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Felton* in Essex ; from whence he was admitted of Peter- 
house College in Cambridge first, and went to schoole 
a yeare after. Then he was admitted of Trinity College 
in Cambridge at 13 yeares old. 

Quaere whose daughter his mother was. 

His mother was Anne, daughter of William Buggin of 
North Cray in Kent, esq. She died when her sonne Isaac 
was about fower yeares old. 

Anno Domini ... he travelled, and returned, anno 
Domini . . . 

He wrote What MSS. ? — quaere Dr. Tillotson, 

and quaere Mr. Brabazon Aylmer, bookseller, nere Ex- 
change Alley. 

His humour when a boy and after : — merry and cheerfull 
and beloved where ever he came. His grandfather kept 
him till he was 7 years old : his father was faine to force 
him away, for there he would have been good for nothing 
there. 

A good poet, English and Latin. He spake 8 severall 
languages. 

* His father dealt in his trade to Ireland where he 
had a great losse, neer 1000 It. \ upon which he wrote to 
Mr. Holbitch, a Puritan, to be pleased to take a little 
paines more than ordinary with him, because the times 
growing so bad, and such a losse then received, that he 
did not knowe how he might be able to provide for him, 
and so Mr. Holbitch tooke him away from the howse where 
he was boarded to his owne howse, and made him tutor 
to my lord viscount Fairfax, ward to the lord viscount 
Say and Seale, where he continued so long as my lord 
continued. 

This viscount Fairfax^' died a young man. This viscount 
Fairfax, being a schooleboy, maried a gentleman's daughter 

" sic, for Felsted. beth, daugliter of Alexander .Smith of 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 99'. Stulton co. Suffolk, and died 1648. 

* William Fairfax, born June 6, His son Thomas, 4th viscount, died 
1630, succeeded as 3rd viscount Fairfax 165^. 

of Emley, Sept. 1641, married Eliza- 



Isaac Barrow 89 



in the towne there, who had but a thousand pounds. So 
leaving the schoole, would needs have Mr. Isaac Barrow 
with him, and told him he would maintaine him. But 
the lord Say was so cruel to him that he would not allow 
anything that 'tis thought he dyed for want. The looo li. 
could not serve him long. 

During this time old Mr. Thomas Barrow was shutt-up 
at Oxford and could not heare of his sonne. But young 
Isaac's master, Holbitch, found him out in London and 
courted him to come to his schoole and that he would make 
him his heire. But he did not care to goe to schoole again. 

When my lord Fairfax faild and that he sawe he grew 
heavy upon him, he went to see one of his schoolfellowes, 
one Mr. Walpole, a Norfolke gent., who asked him ' What 
he would doe?' He replyed he 'knew not what to doe; 
he could not goe to his father at Oxford.' Mr. Walpole 
then told him ' I am goeing to Cambridge to Trinity College 
and I will maintaine you there ' ; and so he did for halfe 
a yeare till the surrender of Oxford ; and then his father 
enquired after him and found him at Cambridge. And 
the very next day after old Mr. Barrow came to Cambridge, 
Mr. Walpole was leaving the University and (hearing 
nothing of Isaac's father) resolved to take Isaac along with 
him to his howse. His father then asked him what pro- 
fession he would be of, a merchant or etc. ? He begd 
of his father to lett him continue in the University. His 
father then asked what would maintain him. He told 
him 20 li. per annum : ' I warrant you,' sayd he, ' I will 
maintaine myselfe with it.' His father replyed Tie make 
a shift to allow you that.' So his father then went to his 
tutor and acquainted him of, etc. His tutor. Dr. Duport, 
told him that he would take nothing for his reading to 
him, for that he was likely to make a brave scholar, and 
he would helpe him to halfe a chamber for nothing. And 
the next newes his father heard of him was that he was 
chosen in to the howse. * Dr. Hill » was then master of 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. loo. 

" Thomas Hill, intruded Master by the Parliamentary Visitors, 1645-1653. 



go Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

the college. He mett Isaac =■ one day and layd his hand 
upon his head and sayd ' thou art a good boy; 'tis pitty 
that thou art a cavalier.' 

He was a strong and a stowt man and feared not any man. 
He would fight with the butchers' boyes in St. Nicholas' 
shambles, and be hard enough for any of them. 

He went to travell 3 or 4 yeares after the king was 
beheaded, upon the colledge account ''. He was a candidate 
for the Greeke professor's place, and had the consent of 
the University but Oliver Cromwell putt in Dr. Widrington"; 
and then he travelled. 

He was abroad 5 yeares '', viz. in Italic, France, Germany, 
Constantinople. 

As he went to Constantinople, two men of warre 
(Turkish shippes) attacqued the vessell wherin he was. 
In which engagement he shewed much valour in defending 
the vessell ; which the men that were in that engagement 
often testifye, for he never told his father of it himselfe. 

Upon his returne, he came in (a) ship to Venice, which 
was stowed with cotton-wooU, and as soon as ever they 
came on shore the ship fell on fire, and was utterly con- 
sumed, and not a man lost, but not any goods saved — 
a wonderfull preservation. 

His personall valour — At Constantinople, being in com- 
pany with the English merchants, there was a Rhadamontade 
that would fight with any man and bragged of his valour, 
and dared any man there to try him. So no man accepting 
his challenge, said Isaac (not then a divine), ' Why, if none 
els will try you I will'; and fell upon him and chastised 
him handsomely that he vaunted no more amongst them. 

After he had been 3 years beyond sea, his correspondent 
dyed, so that he had no more supply ; yet he was so well 
beloved that he never wanted. 

At Constantinople he wayted on the consul Sir Thomas 
Bendish, who made him stay with him and kept him there 
a j'eare and a halfe, whether he would or no. 

" Dnpl. with ' the boy." ■: Ralph Widdrington, Reg. Prof. 

''? i. e. receiving his fellowship. Greek, 1654-1660. ''1655-59. 



Isaac Barrow 91 



At Constantinople, Mr. Dawes (afterwards Sir Jonathan 
Dawes, who dyed sherif of London), a Turkey merchant, 
desired Mr. Barrow to stay but such a time and he would 
returne with him, but when that time came he could not 
goe, some businesse stayd him. Mr. Barrow could stay 
no longer ; so Mr. Dawes would have had Mr. Barrow have 
C " pistolles. ' No,' said Mr. Barrow, ' I know not whether 
I shall be able to pay you.' "Tis no matter,' said 
Mr. Dawes. To be short, forced him to take fifty pistolls, 
which at his returne he payd him again. 

* Memorandum, his pill (an opiate, possibly Matthews 
his pil), which he was wont to take in Turkey, which was 
wont to doe him good, but he tooke it preposterously at 
Mr. Wilson's, the sadler's, neer Suffolke-house, where he 
was wont to lye and where he dyed, and 'twas the cause of 
his death — quaere + de hoc there. 

As he lay expiring'' in the agonie of death, the standers- 
by could heare him say softly ' I have seen the glories of 
the world' — (from) Mr. Wilson. 

I have heard Mr. Wilson say that when he was at study, 
was so intent at it that when the bed was made, or so, he 
heeded it not nor perceived it, was so iohis in hoc ; and 
would sometimes be goeing out without his hatt on. 

He was by no meanes a spruce man'', but most negligent 
in his dresse. As he was walking one day in St. James's 
parke, looking . . . , his hatt up, his cloake halfe on and 
halfe off, a gent, came behind him and clapt him on the 
shoulder and sayd ' Well, goe thy wayes for the veriest 
scholar that ever I ^ mett with.' 

He was a strong man but pale as the candle he 
studyed by. 

His stature was . . . 

The first booke he printed was Euclid's Elements in 
Latin, printed at Cambridge, impensis Gulielmi Nealand, 
bibliopolae. Anno Domini MDCLV. 

'• i.e. 100. ° Dupl. with 'he was not a Dr. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. ioo». Smirke '—in Andrew Marvell's satire. 
K Dupl. with ' unravelling.' "* Subst. for ' I sawe.' 



92 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Euclidis data succincte demonstrata, printed at Cam- 
bridge ex officina Joannis Field, impensis Gulielmi Nealand, 
bibliopolae, anno Domini 1657. 

Euclid's Elements in English. 

Euclid's Elements in Latin — in the last impressions of this 
is an appendix about the sphaere itselfe, it's segments and 
their surfaces, most admirably derived and demonstrated 
by the doctrine of infinite arithmetique and indivisibles. 

* Lectiones XVIII Cantabrigiae in scholis publicis 
habitae in quibus opticorum phaenomenmn genuinae rationes 
investigantur ac exponuntur. Annexae sunt lectiones 
aliquot geometricae. Londini, prostant venales apud 
Johannem Dunmore et Octavianum Pulleyn. MDCLXIX. 

Archimedes. 

Apollonius. 

Theodosius. 

Now printing, 22 initiating lectures about mathematics'', 
to which will be subjoined some lectures that he read about 
Archimedes, proving that he was an algebraist, and giving 
his owne thoughts by what method Archimedes came to 
fall on his theoremes. 

Bookes writ by the learned Dr. Isaac Barrow and printed 
for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pidgeons over against 
the Royall Exchange in Cornhill : — 

12 Sermons preached upon severall occasions; in 8vo, 
being the first volume. 

10 Sermons against evil speaking ; in 8vo, being the 
second volume. 

8 Sermons of the love of God and our neighbour ; in 
8vo, being the third volume. 

The duty and reward of bounty to the poor, in "a sermon, 
much enlarged, preached at the Spittall upon Wednesday 
in Easter weeke anno Domini 167 r, in 8vo. 

A sermon upon the Passion of our blessed Saviour 
preached at Guildhall chapell on Good Fryday the 13th 
day of April 1677, in 8vo. 

=• MS. Aubr. 8, fol. loi. 

" ' In geometrie' is written over 'about mathematics' in explanation. 



Isaac Barrow 93 



A learned treatise of the Pope's supremacy, to which is 
added a discourse concerning the unity of the church ; in 4to. 

The sayd discourse concerning the Unity of the Church 
is also printed alone in 8vo. 

An exposition of the Lord's Prayer, of the Ten Com- 
mandments, of the doctrine of the Sacraments ; in 8vo. 

All the sayd books of the learned Dr. Isaac Barrow 
(except the sermon of bounty to the poor) are since the 
author's death published by Dr. Tillotson, deane of 
Canterbury. 

' The true and lively effigies of Dr. Isaac Barrow' in 
a large print, ingraven from the life by the excellent artist 
D. Loggan ; price, without frame, 6d. 

* Thomas Barrow, (father of Isaac, S.T.D.) was brother 
to Isaac Barrow late lord bishop of St. Asaph, and sonne 
of Isaac Barrow of Spiney Abbey, who was sonne of 
Philip Barrow, who hath in print a method of Physick, 
and he had a brother Isaac Barrow, a Dr. of Physick, who 
was a benefactor to Trinity Colledge in Cambridge, and 
was there tutor to Robert Cecill that was earle of Salisbury 
and Lord Treasurer. 

** Isaac Barrow, D.D., ((a) Cambridge (man), borne 
in Essex), is buried in the south crosse aisle of Westminster 
Abbey with this inscription ^ : — 

Isaacus Barrow 
S.T.P. Regi Carolo 11° a sacris 
Vir prope divinus et vere magnus si quid magna habent 
Pietas, probitas, fides, summa eruditio, par modestia, 
Mores sanctissimi undiquaque et suavissimi. 
Geometriae professor Londini Greshamensis, 
Graecae linguae et Matheseos apud Cantabrigienses suos, 
Cathedras omnes, ecclesiam, gentem ornavit 
Collegium SS. Trinitatis praeses illustravit, 
Jactis bibliothecae vere regiae fundamentis auxit. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. loi". . de-lys . .' 

" See Cooper's Athenae Cant. ii. 96. " Anthony Wood notes :— ' This 

** MS. Aubr. 6. fol. 51. Aubrey was made for Dr. Barrow, Vicechan- 

gives in trick the coat: — 'sable, two cellor of Cambridge, vide part iii,' i. c. 

swoids in saltire between four fleur- MS. Aubr. 8, tU supra. 



94 Aubreys 'Brief Lives' 

Opes, honores, et universum vitae ambitum, 
Ad majora natus, non contempsit sed reliquit seculo. 
Deum quern a teneris coluit cum primis imitatus est, 
Paucissimis agendo, beneficiendo quam plurimis, 
Etiam posteris quibus vel mortuus concionari non desinit. 
Caetera et poene majora ex scriptis peti possunt. 
Abi lector et aemulare. 
Obiit IVto die Maii anno Domini MDCLXXVII 
aetatis suae XLVII. 
Monumentum hoc Amici posuere. 

This epitaph was contrived by Dr. John Mapletofi and 
perfected by Dr. (Thomas) Gale. 

He was the . . . son of . . . Barrow, (who) was a 
brewer at Lambith ; a King's Scholar at Westminster. 

Anno 1655 he printed at Cambridge Euclidis Elemen- 
torum libri XV breviter demonstrate 

Anno . . . , he travelled ; was at Constantinople ; sawe 
part of Graece, Italie, France. 

He was a good poet, of great modestie and humanity, 
careles of his dresse. 

. . . Barrow (16..- 168.). 

* Dr. . . . Barrow, M.D., secretary to the lord generall 
Monke in Scotland, and who wrote the life or history of 
the generall, was cosen-german to Thomas (father of Isaac, 
D.D.). He was a very good-humoured man. He much 
resembled and spake like Dr. Ezerel Tong. Obiit 3 yeares 
since : quaere ubi. 

Thomas Batcher oft (15.. -1670). 

** Memorandum : in Sir Charles Scarborough's time 
(he was of Caius College) Dr. . . . (the head of that 
house) would visit the boyes' chambers, and see what 
they were studying ; and Charles Scarborough's genius let 
him to the mathematics, and he was wont to be reading 
of Clavius upon Euclid. The old Dr. had found in the 
title ' , e Societate Jesii^ and was much scandalized 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. loo'. Batthcroft was Master of Gonville and 
** M.S. Aubr. 8, fol. 60'. Thomas Caius College, 1625-49, 1660-1670. 



Francis Beaumont 95 

at it. Sayd he, ' By all meanes leave-off this author, and 
read Protestant mathematical! bookes.' 

One sent this Doctor a pidgeon-pye from New-market or 
thereabout, and he askt the bearer whither 'twas hott, 
or cold ? He did out-doe Dr. Kettle. 

George Bate (j 608-1668). 

* Kingston super Thames; north aisle chap(el). 

Spe resurrectionis felicis 

heic juxta sita est 

Elizabetha 

conjux lectissima 

Georgii Bate, M.D., 

Car. 2 medici primarii. 

Qui cineres suos adjac^re curavit 

ut qui unanimes convixerant 

quasi unicorpores condormientes 

una resurgant. 

Mortem obiit 17 Apr., 1667, aet. 46 

ex hydro-pulmon., 

funesta Londini conflagratione 

acceleratam. 

Obiit ille 19 Apr., 1668 

aetatis suae 60. 

Francis Beaumont (1584-1616). 

** Mr. Francis Beaumont was the son of Judge Beau- 
mont \ There was a wonderfull consimility 
^'"TncrldibTmodo of phansey f between him and Mr. John 
Consent astmm. ^^ Fletcher, which caused that dearnesse of 
° ^ '■'' frendship between them. 

I thinke they were both of Queen's College in Cambridge. 

I have heard Dr. John Earles (since bishop of Sarum), 

* Note in pencil (partly inked a coat for Stephens. Aubrey gives in 
over) by Aubrey at end of MS. Rawl. trick, as on the monument, ' sable, a 
766. The slip is addressed (not by fesse engrailed argent, between 3 dexter 
Aubrey) ' To Mr. Thomas Awhrey at hands couped bendways or.' 

Broad Chalke-, to be left at the ** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 116'. 

Lambe in Katherine Streete in Salis- » Francis Beaumont, Justice of the 

bury.' The seal is ' party per chevron. Common Pleas, 1 593. 

.'and or(?), in chief 2 eagles (or * Subst. for ' illorum.' 
falcons) rising, a mullet for difference,' 



96 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

who knew them, say that his maine businesse was to correct 
the overflowings "^ of Mr. Fletcher's witt. 

They lived together on the Banke side, not far from 
the Play-house, both batchelors ; lay together^from Sir 
James Hales, etc. ; had one wench in the house between 
them, which they did so admire; the same cloathes and 
cloake, &c., betweene them. 

He writt (amongst many other) an admirable elegie on 
the countesse of Rutland, which is printed with verses 
before Sir Thomas Overburie's Characters. John Earles, 
in his verses on him, speaking of them, 

'A monument that will then lasting bee. 
When all her marble is more dust then shee.' 

Ex registro : — he was buryed at the entrance of 
St. Benedict's chapell where (is) the earl of Middlesex' 
tMemoran- monumcnt, in Westminster Abbey, March 9, 

dum:-Isaac l6l-i-t. 

Casaubon was ^ 

entranceofthe ^ Searched, severall yeares since, in the 
Hn/edT'iys, Register-booke of St. Mary Overies, for the 
"''+• obiit of Mr. John Fletcher, which I sent to 

Mr. Anthony a Wood. 

He hath a very good prefatory letter before Mr. Speghts 
edition of Sir Geofrey Chaucer^s Workes printed by 
Adam Islip, 1602, London, where he haz judicious ob- 
servations of his writing. 

"William Bedwell (15.. -163a). 

* . . . Bedwell, professor of ... at Gresham College, 
translated into English Pitisci Trigonometria. Published 
The titrnament of Totiiam. He was an Essex man — from 
his grand-niece. 

William Beeston (16.. -16 8 3). 
** Did I tell you that I have mett with old Mr. . . .'" 
who knew all the old English poets, whose lives I am 

" ' Super' is written above ' over.' fol. 357 : written Sept. i, 1681. 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 6. >> Blank in MS., Aubrey forgetting 
** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, tbe name at the moment. 



Richard Benese 97 

taking from him : his father was master of the . . . play- 
house. 

* The more to be admired, quaere — he was not 
a company keeper ; lived in Shorditch ; would not be 
debauched ; and if invited to court, was in paine. 

W. Shakespeare — quaere Mr. Beeston, who knowes most 
of him from Mr. Lacy. He lives in Shoreditch at Hoglane 
within 6 dores north of Folgate. Quaere etiam for Ben 
Joiison. 

** Old Mr. Beeston, whom Mr. (John) Dreyden 
calles 'the chronicle of the stage,' died at his house in 
Bishopsgate street without, about Bartholomew-tyde, 1682. 
Mr. Shipey in Somerset-house hath his papers. 

Richard Benese (14.. -1546). 
*=t=* I did gee^ many yeares since, in a countrey-man's 
house, a little booke in 8vo in English, called 

Arsmetrie, or the Art of numbring: 

printed in an old black letter about Henry VHI. The 
author's name I doe not remember— quaere in Duck lane. 



The next old mathematicall booke in English that I have 
seen hath this title, viz : — 

This booke sheweth the manner of measuring of all 
manner of land, as well of woodland as of lande in the 
felde, and comptinge the true nombre of acres of the same. 

Newlye invented and compiled by Syr Rycharde Benese, 
chanon of Marton Abbay besyde London. 

^ Printed in Southwarke in Saint Thomas hospital 
by me James Nicolson. 

' Tis a quarto. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 45'. The first a note of questions lo be put to him. 
part of the note seems to be a char- ** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 6. 

acter of Beeston ; the second part is *** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. ^r. 

I. H 



98 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

* This Sir Richard Benese was also author of a Httlc 
booke, in Hvo, called .... 

: quaere Absolom Leech for it — ' tis about physick. 

Berkeley. 

** Mris . . . Barckley, sister of the late lord Fitz- 
Harding", was cosen german to Mr. Sydney Godolphin, 
and also his mistresse. He loved her exceedingly. After 
Mr. Godolphin's death she maried one Mr. Davys who 
I thinke is now '' dead, and she lives at Twicknam — from 
Philip Packer, esq. 

Willoughby Bertie, 3rd earl of Abingdon (1692-1760). 

*** (Willoughby) Bertie, filius primus Jacobi Bertie, 
3"''' filii Jacobi, comitis de Abington, natus Westmonast. 
a8 die Novembris, a*", p.m. 1692. — The child is yet living, 
notwithstanding the 8"" house ° : mend the figure, but the 
time is right. 

**** I know not how to retreive the fashion or shape of 
the old engine of the battering-r amine, but from the coate 
of the Bertyes, which is ' or, 3 battering rammes barrewise,' 
as in the margent, the timber is proper, the head azure, 
the homes and ironworke gilded. 




***** Memorandum : — the battering ramme, the armes 

of Bertie, hung in equilibrio in an engine they call the 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 70'. ' January i68f .' 

** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 6. *** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 90. 

' Charles Berkeley, created viscount " i. e. in the scheme of the nativity, 

Fitz-hardinge 1663, killed in the sea- which portended immediate death, 

fight, June 3, 1665. **** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11. 

* MS. Aubr. 7 (fol. 5) is dated ***** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 5. 



Henry Billingsley 99 

triangles — from Mr. Nicolas M creator : vide Bertie's 
coate in primo volumine"- See'' the old -^ 

glassc windowes in Aldersgate street — from Mr. _y7\ 
(Edward) Bagshawe. 

Henry Billingsley (15.. -1606). 

* Sir Henry Billingsley', knight.— On the north side 
of the chancell of St. Katharine Coleman church London 
at the upper end is this inscription, viz : — • 

Here lieth buried the body of Elizabeth, late the wife of Heniy 
Billingsley, one of the Queene's majestie's customers of her port of 
London, who dyed the 29th day of July in the yeare of our Lord God 

1577. 

In obitum ejus. 

Stat sua cuique dies atque ultima funeris hora 

Cum Deus hinc et mors invidiosa vocant ; 
Nee tibi nee pietas tua vel forma, Elizabetha, 

Praesidium leto"= ne trahereris erat. 
Occidis exactis ternis cum conjuge lustris, 

At septera vitae lustra fuere tuae. 
Fecerat et proles jam te numerosa parentem, 

Filiolae trinae, caetera turba mares. 
Undecimo partu cum mors accessit et una 

Matrem te et partum sustulit undecimum — 
Scilicet ex mundo, terrena ex fece, malisque, 

Sustulit ; at superis reddidit atque Deo. 
Est testis sincera fides, testis tua virtus. 

Grata viro virtus, grata fidesque Deo. 



Quem posuit tumulum tibi conjux charus, eodem 
In tumulo condi mortuus ipse petit. 

(Vide) the Register book (of the church). 

Memorandum :— Billingsley (a village) is in the countie 
of Salop. 'Tis a Shropshire familie ; but the village now 
is one Mr. Norton's. 

This Sir Henry Billingsley was one of the learnedst 

" i. e. in MS. Aubr. 6, ut supra. 

* This sentence possibly refers to some other topic than the preceding. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 35'. " MS. ' laeto.' 

H 2 



loo Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

citizens that London has bred. This was he that putt forth 
all Euclid's Elements in English with learned notes and 
preface of Mr. John Dee, and learned men say 'tis the best 
Euclid. He had been sheriff and Lord Mayor of the 
city of London. His howse was the faire howse in Fen- 
church street where now Jacob Luce lives, a merchant, of 
of whom quaere + . Vide in Fuller's Worthies and Stowe's 
Survey. His Euclid was printed at London by John 
Day, 1570. 

' The Translator to the Reader — Wherfore considering 
the want and lack of such good authors hitherto in our 
English tongue, lamenting also the negligence and lacke 
of zeale to their countrey in those of our nation to whom 
God hath given both knowledge and also abilitie to translate 
into our tongue and to publish abroad such good authors 
and bookes : Seeing moreover that many good witts, both 
of gentlemen and others of all degrees, much desirous and 
studious of these artes, — -I have for their sakes with some 
chardge and great travaile faithfully translated into our 
vulgar tounge and set abroad in print this booke of Euclid 
wherunto I have added plaine declarations and examples, 
manifold additions, scholies, annotations, and inventions 
which I have gathered.' — He promises (here) some more 
translations and sayes that in religion he hath alreadie 
don, quaere. 

Memorandum P. Ramus in his Scholia's sayes that the 
reason why mathematiques did most flourish in Germanic 
was that the best authors were rendred into their mother 
tongue, and that publique lectures of it were also read in 
their owne tongue — quod nota bene. 

Memorandum when I was a boy, one Sir . . . Billingsley 
had a very pleasant seate with a faire'' oake-wood ad- 
joyning to it, about a mile \ ^ east of Bristol!— quaere if <=, etc. 

Vide de Sir Thomas Billingsley, pag. (44b) 'J; who was 
gentleman of the horse to Richard, earl of Dorset. He 

• ' faire ' is scored out. Henry Billingsley. 

»• i. c. ij mile. d i. e. MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 67'— in 

' 1. e. if descended fiotn Alderman Francis Bacon's life. 



Henry Billingsley loi 



managed the great horse best of any man in England. He 
taught the Prince Elector and brothers to ride. Quaere if 
descended hence. 

In those dayes" merchants travelled much abroad into 
Italie, Spaine, etc. Quaere Mr. Abraham Hill of v^hat 
company he was. Probably good memorialls may be there 
found of his generous and publique spirit. Respondet: — 
He was of the Goldsmiths' Company, where is a good 
picture of him. 

R. B., i.e. Robert'' Billingsley, teaches Arithmetique 
and Mathematiques at ... in ... . He hath printed a very 
pretty little booke of arithmetique and algebra, London 
(scilicet, {They Idea of Arithmetic) : was Sir Henry's great 
grandson — from Mr. Abraham Hill,Regiae Societatis Socius. 

* In the table of benefactors in the church of St. Catherine 

Colman, viz. — 

(■ Dame Elizabeth i „-ii- i j-j -n <. it, 
'1 60^ \ ,-, } Bilhngsley did will to the 

■^ ( Sir Henry ' 

poor IS. per weeke for ever and 200/?. which their heires 
etc. have not payd ' — 

The minister here, Mr. Dodson, sayes that it was not 
payd because the parish did not find-out in due time land 
to make a purchase of. 

Many yeares since Mr. Abraham Hill, Regiae Societatis 
Socius, citizen, told me that Sir Henry Billingsley was 
of the Goldsmiths' Company, and that his picture was 
in Goldsmiths' Hall, which I went lately to see. No 
picture of him, and besides the clarke of the Company 
told me that he is sure he was never of that Company. 
But Mr. Hill tells me since that in Stowe's Survey you 
may see of what Company all the Lord Mayers were, 
which see'' and tell me. 

** Sir H. Billingsley— Mr. Leeke, mathematician, saith 
that he was of the company of goldsmiths, quaere. Quaere 

» i. e. Henry Billingsley 's, to whom ' This injunction was addressed to 

in this paragraph Aubrey harks back. Anthony Wood. 

* ' Richard,' infra, p. 103. ** ^S. Anbr. 8, fol. 18. 

* MS. Anbr. 7, fol. 9. 



I02 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



the clarke of the company : vide register booke. Vide 
Heralds' Office (Salop, and neer Bristowe). Vide Fuller's 
Worthyes where he mentions the Lord Mayers. 

* Ex registro (of St. Catherine Coleman) : — Sir Henry 
BiUingsley, knight, buried in the vault under his pewe in 
the church of St. Catherine Coleman, London, December 
the iHth, 1606. I find by the register that he had two 
more wives besides Elizabeth mentioned in the inscription ; 
his second was the lady Trapps ; third, . . . 

Memorandum his house (which is a very faire one), 
which is neer the church, is still remayning untoucht by 
the fire. In the parlour windowe are scutchions of his 
family, which gett. There now lives Mr. Lucy% a great 
merchant. 

He was sheriff of the citie of London anno Domini 
(1584), reginae Elizabethae 26; he was Lord Mayor of 
the city of London anno Domini (1.596), reginae Eliza- 
bethae 38 — Sir Thomas Skinner served one part and 
Sir Henry Billingsley the other: — Baker's Chronicle, 
reigne queen Elizabeth. 

** Out of the visitation in the great booke'' of Wilts, 
Dorset, and Somerset : — 



Sir Henry Billingsley, maried . 
Lord Mayer I 



I. Sir Henry Billingsley, 
of Sysam in Glo- 
cestershire, filius 
et haeres. 


3. V 

r 

enry Bill 
' Graye's 

I. 

Luce, in 
)r. 6, fol. 


k'illiam Biliingsley, 


1 
3. Thomas ■= 
111. . . . 


I. Hi 

of 


ingsley, m. . 
Inne 




ibeth 

here : 

not 

mous 


2. Thomas 


* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 90. 

° Anthony Wood notes ' 
vol. i, p. .' i. e. MS. Aul 
35", lit supra, p. loo. 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 89'. 


1 1 
Blanch 2. Eliz; 

of Arms. 

" Aubrey notes 
this Thomas was 
Billingsley, the fa 
see supra, p. 100. 


— ' Quaere if 
Sir Thomas 
horseman ? ' ■ 



In the library of the College 



Martin Billingsley. Thomas Billingsley 103 

* Sir Henry Billingsley('s life is) already donne". 
Friar Whitehead ^, of Austin Friars (now Wadham College), 
did instruct him. He kept him at his house and there 
I thinke he dyed. 

Notes. 
' Aubrey gives in colour this very elaborate coat : — ' quarteily in the i and 4, 
gules, a fleur-de-lys or, a canton of the second; in the 2, . ., on a cross 
belwetn four lions rampant 5 mullets . . .; in the 3, per saltire or and azure 
two birds (? martlets); impaling, quarterly, in the i and 4, azure 2 lions 
passant in pale or; in the 2, or, a fess sable, 2 mullets in chief gules; in the 
3, barry of six argent and gules a bend sable and a canton gules.' 

See Clark's Wood's City of Oxford, ii. 454, 471. It is suggested that 
Billingsley in his Euclid published Whitehead's papers as his own. 

Martin Billingsley. 

** Mr. Martin Billingsley (captain (Edward) Shirburne 
knew him) was a writing master in London. He printed an 
excellent copie-booke (quaere if he descended from this '') : 
vide his scutcheon " above his picture before his booke. 

*** Martin Billingsley, who made the copie booke, 1623, 
port. ^ ut in margine, ' . . . , a cross between 4 lions rampant 
. . . , 5 mullets ... on the cross.' 

Richard BUlingsley. 

**** Richard Billingsley" scripsit : — 

'An Idea of Arithmetick, at first designed for the use 
of the free-schoole at Thurlow in Suffolk, by R. B. school- 
master there': stitch't 8vo, 3 sheetes, London, 'printed 
by J. Flesher, and are to be sold by W. Morden booke- 
seller in Cambridge, 1655.' 

Thomas Billingsley (obiit 167..). 
***** Sir Thomas Billingsley was the best horseman in 
England, and out of England no man exceeded him. 

* MS Anbr. 8 (Aubrey's volume of "= As given in next paragraph. 
Lives of the English Mathematicians), *** M.S. Aubr. 8, fol. 18. 

Jo] jc ^ ' Portavit,' bore to his arms. 

» i. c. written ; viz. in MS. Aubr. **** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 18. 

6, ut supra. ' Called ' Robert,' supra, p. 101. 

** MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 35'. ***** MS*- A"br. 6, fol. 67'. 

^ i. e. from Sir Henry Billingsley. 



I04 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

He taught this" earle {of Dorset) and his 30 gentlemen 
to ride the great horse. He taught this"^ Prince Elector 
Palatine of the Rhine and his brothers. 

He ended his dayes at the countesse of Tlpnet's 
(daughter and co-heire of Richard, earl of Dorset) . . . 
167- ; dyed praying on his knees. 

John Birkenhead (j 6 15-1679). 

* Sir John Birkenhead, knight, was borne at Nantwych " 
in Cheshire. His father was a sadler there, and he had a 
brother a sadler, a trooper in Sir Thomas Ashton's regiment, 
who was quartered at my father's, who told me so. 

He went to Oxford university at . . . old, and was 
first a servitor of Oriall coUedge : vide Antiq. Oxon. '' 
Mr. Gwin '', minister of Wilton, was his contemporary 
there, who told me he wrote an excellent hand, and, in 
]63[7 or 8] when William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, 
was last there, he had occasion to have some things well 
transcribed, and this Birkenhead was recommended to him, 
who performed ^ his businesse so well, that the archbishop 
recommended him to All Soules' college to be a fellow, 
and he was accordingly elected 8. He was scholar enough, 
and a poet. 

After Edgehill fight, when King Charles I first had his 
court at Oxford, he was pitched upon as one fitt to write 
the Newes, which Oxford Newes was called Merairius 
Aulicns, which he writt wittily enough, till the surrender 
of the towne (which was June 24, 1646). He left a 
collection of all his Merairius Aulicitss and all his other 
pamphletts, which his executors (Sir Richard Mason and 
Sir Muddiford Bramston) were ordered by the king to 
give to the Archbishop of Canterbury's library. 

" i.e. Richard Sackville, jth e.irl ; ■> i.e. Anthony Wood's Hisl. et 

obiiti677. Antiq. Univ. Oxon., 1674. Birken- 

i" i.e. Charles Louis, Elector Pala- head became servitor at Oriel in 1632, 

tine 1648-80 ; his brothers were aged 15. 

Prince Rupert and Prince Manrice. » Philip Gwyn, matr. at Oriel in 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 85. 1634. 

« Anthony Wood corrects this to ' Subst. for ' dischardged.' 

' Northwich.' 6 Jn 1639. 



John Birkenhead 105 

After the surrender of Oxford, he was putt out of his 
fellowship by the Visitors, and was faine to shift for him- 
selfe as well as he could. Most part of his time he spent 
at London, where he mett with severall persons of quality 
that loved his company, and made much of him. 

He went over into France, where he stayed some time, 
I thinke not ■ long. He received grace there from the 
dutches of Newcastle, I remember he tolde me. 

He gott many a fourty shillings (I beleeve) by pamphletts, 
such as that of ' Col. Pride,' and ' The Last Will and Tes- 
tament of Philip earle of Pembroke,' &c. 

At the restauration of his majestie he was made Master 
of the Facultees, and afterwards one of the Masters of 
Requests. He was exceedingly confident ", witty, not very 
grateful! to his benefactors, would lye damnably. He was 
of midling stature, great goggli eies, not of a sweet aspect. 

He was chosen a burghes of Parliament at Wilton in 
Wiltshire, anno Domini 166(1), i.e. of the King's long 
parliament. Anno 167(9) upon the choosing of this 
Parliament '', he went downe to be elected, and at Salisbury 
heard * how he was scorned and mocked at Wilton (whither 
he was goeing) and called Pensiojier, etc. — 

[Vendidit hie auro patriam, dominumque potentem 

Imposuit; leges fixit pretio atque refixit. 

ViRG. Aeneid, lib. vi. 631. 
— This was Curio : vide Servium dc hoc] — he went not 
t quaere to the borough where he intended to stand ; 

to"who"m I writt but returned to London, and tooke it so to 
delthtwhich^s heart that he insensibly decayed and pined 

1 remember was it-. i j. ^ j i ._ 

the same day away ; and so, December . . . Jj ^679, dyed at 

died. ' his lodgeings in Whitehall, and was buried 

was because he Saturday, December 6, in St. Martyn's church- 

rraioved^the yard ± in-the-Ficlds, neer the church, according 

bodies out of the "^ . 

church. to his wiU and testament. His executors intend 

to sett up an inscription for him against the church wall. 

» Subst. for 'bold': Aubrey writes Feb. i6Jf. 
here icvvunrr)^, in explanation. * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 85'. 

^ MS. Anbr. 6 was written in « For choosing a grave in the 



io6 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

He had the art of locall memory; and his topiques were 
the chambers, &c., in All Soules colledge (about loo), so 
that for lOO errands, &c., he would easily remember. 

* He was created Dr. of LL. ; had been with the king '. 
His liorary was sold to Sir Robert Atkins for 200 li. 

His MSS. (chiefly copies of records) for ^00 li. 

Henry Birkhead (1617-1696). 

** My old acquaintance. Dr. Henry Birkhed, formerly 
fellow of your college '' (but first was commoner of Trinity 
College Oxon) was an universally (belove)d man. 

He had his schoole education under Mr. Farnary" and 
(was his) beloved disciple. 

He died at the Bird-cage (at his sister's, Mris Knight, 
the famous singer) in St. James's parke, (on) Michaelmas- 
eve 1696, aged about 80. 

He was borne in London (at the) Paul-head tavern 
(which his father kept) ni Paule's chaine (in) St. Paul's 
church-yard anno 1617, baptized the 25 of September. 
John Gadbury haz his nativity from him. 

I will aske his sister (Mris Knight) for a very ingeniose 
diatribe that he wrote on Martialis epigram, lib. (xi. 94. 8), 

jura, verpe, per Anchialum, 
which he haz cleared beyond his master Farnaby, Scaliger, 
or any other. ' Scaliger,' he sayd, ' speakes the truth, but 
not the whole truth.' 'Tis pity it should be lost, and I would 
reposit it in the Museum. 

I gave my Holyoke's dictionary to the Museum. Pray 
looke on the blank leaves at the end of it, and you will 
find a thundering copie of verses that he gave me, in the 
praise of this king '^ of France. Novv he is dead, it may be 
look't-upon. 

churchyard, and not, as was usual mending him for D.C.L. 

with persons of substance, in the ** Aubrey in MS. Tanner 24, fol. 

church. 159: Nov. 21, 1696. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 85. " i. c. All Souls : the letter is 
■■ These words, added (? by Wood) written to Thomas Tanner. 

in pencil, probably give the reason " Thomas Farnaby, ut infra. 

assigned in the royal mandate recom- "i Louis XIV. 



Richard Blackbourne. Robert Blake 107 



Eichard Blackbourne (1652-17..?). 

* Richard Blackburne, Londinensis, was of Trinity 
College, Cambridge, M.A. Tooke his M.D. degree at 
Leyden about 5 or 6 yeares since. He practises but 
little ; studies much. A generall scholar, prodigious 
memorie, sound judgment ; but 30 yeares old now. 

John Blagrave (1550-161]). 

In MS. Aubr. 8 (Aubrey's Lives of English Matheinatic ans), fol. 76, 

' Mr. John Blagrave of Reding ' is noted as a life to be written, and 

the coat is gi\en in trick ' or, on a bend sable, 3 greaves argent.' In 

the Index (fol. 8) at the beginning of the same volume he is noted : — 

John Blagrave of Reding, vide his will, quaere Mr. Morden.' 

Robert Blake (1599-1657). 

** . . . Blake, admirall, was borne at .... in com. Somer- 
set ; was* of Albon-hall, in Oxford. He was there a young 
man of strong body, and good parts. He was an early riser 
and studyed well, but also tooke his robust pleasures of 
fishing, fowling, &c. He would steale swannes — from 
H. Norborne, B.D., his contemporary there'' 

He served in the House of Commons for .... <^ Anno 
Domini {1649) he was made admirall. He did the 
greatest actions at sea that ever were done, viz., . . . 

. . . Blake obiit anno Domini (1657) and was buried in 
King Henry 7th's chapell ; but upon the returne of the 
king, his body was taken up again and removed by 
Mr. Wells' occasion, and where it is now, I know not. 
Quaere Mr. Wells of Bridgewater. 

Vide Diurnalls, and Rushworth's History; vide Anthony 
Wood's Hist, {et Antiq. Oxo7z.). 



* Aubrey in MS. Wood, F. 39, fol. Wadham Feb. 10, 161 1. 
354': June 21, 1681. '' At St. Alban Hall. Norborne 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 33. matric. in Oct. 1620; and took B.D. in 

» Matric. at St. Alban Hall Jan. 163I. 
26, 161*, aged 17; took B.A. from " Bridgewater, 1640. 



io8 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Sir Henry Blount (1602-1682). 

* Sir Henry Blount, Tittinghanger, natus Dec. 15, 
1602, 9*' P.M. 

** Sir Henry Blount obiit 9th Oct. lasf in the morning. 

*** Sir Henry Blount \ knight: — he was borne (I 
presume) at Tittinghanger in the countie of Hertford. 
It was heretofore the summer seate of the Lord Abbot 
of St. Alban's. 

He was of Trinity College in Oxford'', where was 
a great acquaintance'' between him and Mr. Francis 
Potter. He stayed there about (four) yeares. From 
thence he went to Grayes Inne, where he stayd .... 
and then sold his chamber there to Mr. Thomas Bonham ^ 
(the poet) and travelled — voyage into the Levant. May 7, 
1634, he embarqued at Venice for Constantinople: vide 
his Voyage into the Levant, printed London 16 — , in 4to. 
He returned . . . 

He was pretty wild when young, especially addicted to 
common wenches. He was a 2d brother. 

He was a gentleman pensioner to King Charles I, on 
whom he wayted (as it was his turne) to Yorke (when the 
King deserted the Parliament) ; was with him at Edge-hill 
fight ; came with him to Oxford ; and so returned to 
London ; walkt ^ into Westminster hall with his sword by 
his side ; the Parliamentarians all stared upon him as 
a Cavaleer, knowing that he had been with the King : 
was called before the House of Commons, where he 
remonstrated to them he did but his duty, and so they 
acquitted him. 

In these dayes he dined most commonly at the Hey- 
cock's" ordinary, neer the Pallzgrave-head taverne, in the 
Strand, which was much frequented by Parliament-men 
and gallants. One time colonel Betridge being there 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 121. 18,1618. 

** MS. Anbr. 23, a slip at fol. 103'. " Subst. for ' friendship.' 

" i.e. Oct. 1682. ^ Dupl. with ' came.' 

*** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 102. « Dupl. with 'combe-makers.' 

* Matric. June3o, 1615; B.A.June 



Sir Henry Blount log 

(one" of the handsomest men about the towne) and 
bragged much how the woemen loved him; Sir H. Blount 
did lay a wager of ... . with him that let them two goe 
together to a bordello ; he only (without money) with his 
handsome person, and Sir Henry with a xxj. piece on his 
bald crowne, that the wenches should choose Sir Henry 
before Betridge ; and Sir H. won the wager. E(dmund) 
W(yld), esq., was one of the witnesses. 

Memorandum : — there was about 164 . . a pamphlet 
(writt by Henry Nevill, esq., avovvii&s) called The Parlia- 
ment of Ladies, 3 or 4 sheets in 4to, wherin Sir 
Henry Blount was first to be called to the barre for 
spreading abroad that abominable and dangerous doctrine 
that it was far cheaper and safer to lye with common 
wenches ^ then with ladies of quality ■'- 

S3° His estate left him by his father was 500/2. per 
annum, which he sold to ... . (quaere) for an annuitie 
of 1000/2. per annum in anno Domini 16..; and since 
his elder brother dyed. 

Anno Domini 165(1) he was made one of the comittee 
for regulating the lawes. He was severe against tythes, 
and for the abolishing them, and that every minister 
should have ico/z. per annum and no more. 

Since he was . . . year old he dranke nothing but 
water or coffee. 1647 or therabout, he maryed to Mris 
[Hester*] Wase, [daughter of Christopher Wase"*], who 
dyed 1679 ; by whom he haz two sonnes, ingeniose young 
gentlemen. Charles Blount (his second son) hath writt 
Aiiima Mutidi, 8vo, 167(9) (burnt by order of the bishop 
of London) and of Sacrifices, 8vo. 

I remember twenty yeares since he inveighed much 
against sending youths to the universities — quaere if his 
sons there — because they learnt there to be debaucht ; and 
that the learning that they learned there* they were to 

• Dupl. with ' who was an extra- "■ The words in square brackets are 

ordinary handsome man.' insertions by Anthony Wood. 

" Subst. for ' whores.' * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 102'. 
" Dupl. with ' honour.' 



no Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



unlearne againe, as a man that is buttond or laced too hard, 
must unbutton before he can be at his ease. Drunken- 
nesse he much exclaimed against, but he allowed wenching. 
When coffee first came-in he was a great upholder of it, 
and hath ever since been a constant frequenter of coffee 
houses, especially Mr. . . . Farre at the Rainbowe by Inner 
Temple Gate, and lately John's coffee house in Fuller's rents. 
QC^ The first coffee house in London f 

t Ar\'\ the next . ^ -r«-.i h ah ■ r^ i-ii 

wasMi. Farr's was m St. Micnacl s Alley m Lornehill, 

a barber, which . , ^, , , . ^ , 

was set up in oppositc to the Church ; which was sett up by 
one . . . Bowman (coachman to Mr. Hodges, 
a Turkey merchant, who putt him upon it) in or about 
the yeare 1652. 'Twas about 4 yeares before any other 
was sett up, and that was by Mr. Far. Jonathan Paynter, 
opposite to St. Michael's Church, was the first apprentice 
to the trade, viz. to Bowman. Memorandum : — the Bagneo, 
in Newgate Street, was built and first opened in Decemb. 
1679: built by . . . (Turkish merchants). 

He is a gentleman of a very clear judgement, great 
experience, much contemplation, not of very much reading, 
of great foresight into government. His conversation is 
admirable. When he was young, he was a great collector 
of bookes, as his sonne is now. 

He was heretofore a great shammer^ i. e. one that tells 
falsities not to doe any body any injury, but to impose 
on their understanding : — e.g. at Mr. Farre's ; that at an 
inne (nameing the signe) in St. Alban's, the inkeeper had 
made a hogs-trough of a free-stone coffin ; but the pigges, 
after that, grew leane, dancing and skipping, and would 
run up on the topps of the houses like goates. Two 
young gentlemen that heard Sir H. tell this sham so 
gravely, rode the next day to St. Alban's to enquire : 
comeing there, nobody had heard of any such thing, 'twas 
altogether false. The next night as soon as the(y) 
allighted, they came to the Rainbowe and found Sir H., 
looked louringly on him, and told him they wonderd he 
was not ashamed to tell such storys as, &c., ' Why, 
gentlemen,' (sayd Sir H.) ' have you been there to make 



Edmtind Bonner 



III 



enquiry ? ' ' Yea,' sayd they. ' Why truly, gentlemen,' 
sayd Sir H. ' I heard you tell strange things that I knew 
to be false. I would not have gonne over the threshold 
of the dore to have found you in a lye : ' at which all the 
company laught at the two young gentlemen. 

He was wont to say that he did not care to have his 
servants goe to church, for there servants infected one 
another to goe to the alehouse and learne debauchery ; 
but he did bid them goe to see the executions at Tyburnc. 
which worke more upon them then all, the oratory in the 
sermons. 

His motto over his printed picture is that which I have 
many yeares ago heard him speake of, viz. : — Logucndmii 
est cum vidgo, sentiendum cum sapientibus. 

He is now (1680) neer or altogether 80 yeares, his 
intellectualls good still, and body pretty strong. 

This last weeke" of Sept. 1682, he was taken very ill at 
London, and his feet swelled ; and removed to Titting- 

hanger. 

Noles. 

' Anbrey gives in colours the coats: — 'or, 2 bars nebnle sable [Blount]'; 
and ' or, 2 bars nebule sable [Blount] ; impaling, barry of six or and gules 
[Wase].' Also the references (a) 'vide Anthony Wood's {Hist, el) Aiitiq. 
Oxon.'' ; (b) 'vide Heralds' Office.' Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, writing on 
April 7, 1673, says of Blount, 'His father was Sir Thomas Pope Blount, and 
his grandmother (as I remember I have heard Dr. Hannibal Potter say) was 
our founder's daughter.' 

^ Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 199, speaks of him as ' Tom Bonham, 
of Essex, that haz made many a good song and epitaph — 
When the shrill scirocco blowes.' 

Edmund Bonner (1495-1569). 

* Mr. Steevens*, . . . whom I mett lately accidentally, 
informed me thus : — that bishop Bonner was of Broadgates 
hall ; that he came thither a poor boy, and was at first 
a skuUion boy in the kitchin, afterwards became a servitor, 
and so by his industry raysed to what he was. 

» A note added after the preceding 273" : May 30, 1674. 
life had been written. *" See iaiJ»i;OT«w, Thomas Stephens. 

* Aubrey in MS. Wood, F. 39, fol. 



112 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



When he came to his greatnes, in acknowledgement 
from whence he had his rise, he gave ^ to the kitchin there 
a great brasse-pott, called Bonner's pott, which was taken 
away in the parliament time. He has shewed the pott 
to me, I remember. It was the biggest, perhaps, in 
Oxford : quaere the old cooke how much it contayned. 

John Booker (160^-1667). 
* John Booker, astrologer, natus Manchester, March 23, 
1601, 20'' 10' P. M. 

James Bovey (j 622-16..). 
, ** James Bovey^ borne at London May 7th, 1622, 
6 a clock in the morning ''- 

James Bovey, esq., was the youngest son of Andrew 
Bovey, merchant, cash-keeper to Sir Peter Vanore, in 
London. 

He was borne in the middle of Mincing Lane, in the 
parish of Saint Dunstan's in the East, London, anno 1622, 
May 7th, at six a clock in the morning. Went to schoole 
at Mercers Chapell, under Mr. Augur. At 9 sent into the 
Lowe Countreys ; then returned, and perfected himselfe 
in the Latin and Greeke. (At) 14, travelled into France 
and Italic, Switzerland, Germany, and the Lowe Countreys. 
Returned into England at 19 ; then lived with one Hoste, 
a banquier, 8 yeares, was his cashier 8 or 9 yeares. Then 
traded for himselfe (27) till he was 31 ; then maried the 
only daughter of William de Vischer, a merchant ; lived 
18 yeares with her, then continued single. Left off trade 
at 32, and retired to a countrey life, by reason of his 
indisposition, the ayre of the citie not agreing with him. 
Then in these retirements he wrote Active" Philosophy, 
(a thing not donne before) wherin are enumerated all the 
Arts and Tricks practised in Negotiation, and how they 
were to be ballanced by counter-prudentiall rules. 

* Anthony Wood notes here, 'false'; * MS. Aubr. 33, fol. 121. 

i.e. having inquired at Pembroke (in ** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 12. 

1674), he found no trace of this ■> The horoscope is 1 ft blank, 

tradition. •'• Diipl. with ' Negoliative.' 



James Bovey 113 



Whilest he lived with Mr. Hoste, he kept the cash of 
the ambassadors of Spaine that were here ; and of the 
farmers, called by them Assentistes, that did furnish the 
Spanish and Imperiall armies of the Low-Countreys and 
Germany ; and also many other great cashes, as of 
Sir Theodore Mayern, etc. ; his dealing being altogether 
in money-matters : by which meanes he became acquainted 
with the ministers of state both here and abroad. 

When he was abroad, his chiefe employment was to 
observe the affaires of state and their judicatures, and 
to take the politique surveys in the countreys he travelled 
thorough, more especially in relation to trade. He 
speakes* the Low-Dutch, High-Dutch, French, Italian, 
Spanish and Lingua Franco, and Latin, besides his owne. 

When he retired from businesse he studied the Lawe- 
Merchant, and admitted himselfe of the Inner Temple, 
London, about 1660. His judgment haz been taken in 
most of the great causes of his time in points concerning 
the Lawe-Merchant. As to his person he is about 5 foot 
high, slender *>, strait, haire exceeding black and curling 
at the end, a dark hazell" eie, of a m idling size, but the 
most sprightly that I have beheld. Browes and beard 
of the colour as his haire. A person of great temper- 
ance, and deepe thoughts, and a working head, never 
idle. From* 14 he had a candle burning by him all 
night, with pen, inke, and paper, to write downe thoughts 
as they came into his head ; that so he might not loose 
a thought. Was ever a great lover of Naturall Philosophie. 
His whole life has been perplex't in lawe-suites, (which haz 
made him expert in humane affaires), in which he alwaies 
over-came. He had many lawe-suites with powerfuU 
adversaries ; one lasted 18 yeares. Red-haired men never 
had any kindnesse for him. He used to say : — 

In rufa pelle non est animus sine felle. 

In all his travells he was never robbed. 

* Subst. for ' understands.' " Subst. for ' a very black eie.' 

" Subst. for ' spare body.' * Dupl. with ' From his youth he.' 

I. I 



114 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

He has one son, and one daughter who resembles him. 

From 14 he began to take notice of all prudential! rules 
as came in his way, and wrote them downe, and so con- 
tinued till this day, Sept. 28, [680, being now in his 
59th yeare. 

For his health he never had it very well, but indififerently, 
alwaies a weake stomach, which proceeded from the 
agitation of the braine. His dyet was alwayes fine diet : 
much chicken *. 

He wrote a Table of all the Exchanges in Europe. 

* He hath writt (which is in his custodie, and which 
I have seen, and many of them read) these treatises, viz. 

I. The Characters, or Index Rerum (etc.'^) 

** A Catalogue of the treatises written of Active 
Philosophy by James Bovey, of the Inner Temple, 
esquire, 1677. 

I. The Characters, or Index Rerum : in 4 tomes, 
a. The Introduction to Active Philosophy. 

3. The Art of Building a Man : or Education. 

4. The Art of Conversation. 

5. The Art of Complyance. 

6. The Art of Governing the Tongue. 

7. The Art of Governing the Penn. 

8. The Government of Action. 

9. The Government of Resolution. 
10. The Government of Reputation. 

II. The Government of Power : in a tomes. 

1 2. The Government of Servients. 

13. The Government of Subserviency. 

14. The Government of Friendshipp. 

15. The Government of Enmities. 

16. The Government of Law-suites. 

17. The Art of Gaining Wealth. 

* Dupl. with ' fowle.' slight changes of spelling, etc.) from 

* M.S. Aubr. 7, fol. 1 2^ Bovey's own list, given infra. 

^ Aubrey, on fol. 12', gives the full ** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 13', Bovey's 

list of 32 titles copied (with some autograph. 



Richard Boyle J15 

18. The Art of Buying and Selling" 

19. The Art of Preserving Wealth. 

20. The Art of Expending Wealth, 
ai. The Government of Secresy. 

22. The Government of Amor Conjugalis : in 2 tomes. 

23. Of Amor Concupiscentiae. 

24. The Government of Felicity. 

25. The Lives of Atticus, Sejanus, Augustus. 

26. The Causes of the Diseases of the Mind. 

27. The Cures of the Mind, viz'. Passions, Diseases, 
Vices, Errours, Defects. 

28. The Art of Discerning of Men. 

29. The Art of Discerning a Man's selfe. 

30. Religion from Reason : in 3 tomes. 

31. The Life of Cum-fu-zu, soe farr wrote by J. B. 

32. The Life of Mahomett, wrot by Sir Walter Raleigh's 
papers, with some small addition for methodizing the same. 

* I have desired him to give these MSS. to the library 
of the Royal Society. 

He made it his businesse'' to advance the trade of 
England, and many men have printed his conceptions. 

Note. 
' Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' ermine, on a bend sable cottised gules, 
five besants, between 2 eagles proper; ' and an impression of Bovey's seal \iith 
the same coat. 

Richard Boyle, earl of Cork (i566-r643). 

** Earl of Corke :— vide countesse of Warwick's funerall 
sermon, 2 or 3 shops" within Paul's churchyard. 

*** Earl of Corke ^ — Thomas, earl of Strafford made 
him disgorge 1500 li. per annum, which he restored to 
the church— (from) Mr. . . . Anderson. 

Earl of Corke bought of captaine Horsty fourtie ploug/i- 

» No. 18 is no. 19 in Aubrey's copy; ' i.e. Aubrty remembered seeing the 

no. 19 is no. 18 in Aubrey's copy. sermon in a shop there. He went 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 12'. and found it, and has excerpts in/r(i, 

" 'From a child' followed: scored p. 116. 

out. *** MS. Aubr. 8 fol. 1 2. 

*» MS. Aubr. 8, fol. U^ 

I 3 



1 16 A ubrey's 'Brief Lives ' 

lands in Ireland for fourtie pounds. (A. Ettrick assures 
me, ' I say againe fourtie ploughlands.') 

The queen gave Lismore to Sir Walter Raleigh, and 
... to Sir John Anderson, etc. to etc., ea intentione to 
plant them, which they did not ; and were not planted till 
since the last rebellion — quaere Mr. Anderson, who sayes 
that Ireland could not be secure till it was enough peopled 
with English. 

My lady Petty sayes he had a wife or two before, and 
that he marled Mris. Fenton^ without her father's consent — 
(quaere Secretary Fenton's Christian name ''). 

* . . . Boyle, the first earle of Corke : — the countesse 
of Thanet, his great-grand-daughter, daughter to this earle 
of Corke and Burlington, haz told me that her father has 
a booke in folio — thick — of her grandfather's writing, 
(giving) the place, day, and hour of birth, and by what 
steps, wayes, and degrees he came to his greatnes. Which 
she will doe her endeavour to gett me an extract of it, but 
it is in Ireland and (I thinke) must be kept there, and is 
an heir-loome to the family. 

(^Excerpts from Anthony Walker s Sermon.) 

** Of Richard Boyle, first earl of Corke, and his seventh 
daughter, Mary, countess of Warwick. 

' The Virtuous Woman found : Being a Sermon 
preached at Felsted, in Essex, at the Funerall of the most 
excellent and religious lady, the Right honourable MARY 
Countesse Dowager of Warwick. By Anthony Walker, D. D. 
rector of Fyfield, in the sayd countie. The 2d Edition 
corrected. Printed at London, for Nath. Ranew, at the 
King's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1680.' (The 
Epistle dedicatory is dated May 27, 1678.) 

Pag. 44. — ' She was truly excellent and great in all respects: great in 
the honour of her birth, being born a lady and a virtuosa both ; seventh 
daughter of that eminently honourable, Richard, the first earle of Cork ; 
who being born a private gentleman, and younger brother of a younger 

* MS. Ballard 14, fol. 127, ii letter date Feb. 21, i6|$. 

from Aubrey to Anthony Wood of ** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 10. 



Richard Boyle 117 



brother, to no other heritage than is expressed in the device and motto, 
which his humble gratitude inscribed on all the palaces he built, 

God's Providence, mine Inheritance ; 
by that Providence, and his diligent and wise industry, raised such an 
honour and estate, and left such a familie, as never any subject of these 
three kingdomes did, and that with so unspotted a reputation of 
integrity that the most invidious scrutiny could find no blott, though 
it winnowed all the methods of his rising most severely, which our 
good lady hath often told me with great content and satisfaction. 

This noble lord, by his prudent and pions consort, no lesse an 
ornament and honour to their descendants than himself, was blessed 
with five sonnes, (of which he lived to see four lords and peeres of the 
kingdome of Ireland, * and a fifth, more than these titles speak, 
a soveraigne and peerlesse in a larger province, — that of universnll 
nature, subdued and made obsequious to his inquisitive mind), and 
eight daughters. And that you may remark how all things were 
extraordinary in this great personage, it will, I hope, be neither 
unpleasant, nor impertinent, to add a short story I had from our lady's 
own mouth : — Master Boyl, after earle of Cork (who was then a 
widdower), came one morning to waite on Sir Jeofry Fenton, at that 

time a great officer t of state in that kingdome of 
* EsSte'^ Ireland, who being ingaged in business, and not knowing 

who it was who desired to speake with him, a while 
delayed him access ; which time he spent pleasantly with his young 
daughter in her nurse's arms. But when Sir Jeoffry came, and saw 
whom he had made stay somewhat too long, he civilly excused 
it. But master Boyl replied, he had been very well entertayned; 
and spent his time much to his satisfaction, in courting his daughter, 
if he might obtaine the honour to be accepted for his son-in-lawe. 
-At which Sir Jeoffry, smiling (to hear one who had been formerly 
married, move for a wife carried in arms, and under two years old,) 
asked him if he would stay for her ? To which he frankly answered 
him he would, and Sir Jeoffry as generously promised him he should 
then have his consent. And they both kept their words honourably. 
And by this virtuous lady he had thirteen children, ten of which he 
lived to see honourably married, and died a grandfather by the 
youngest of them. 

Nor did she derive less honour from the collateral, than the descend- 
ing line, being sister by soul and genius, as well as bloud, to these 
great personages, whose illustrious, unspotted, and resplendent honour 
and virtue, and whose usefull learning and accurate pens, may attone 
and ** expiate, as well as shame, the scandalous blemishes of a de- 
bauched, and the many impertinencies of a scribling, age : — 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. lo'. ** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 11. 



fi8 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



(i), Richard, the truly right honourable, loyal, wise, and virtuous, 
earl of Burlington and Cork, whose life is his fairest and most laudable 
character ; 

(2), the right honourable Roger earle of Orery, that great poet, great 
statesman, great soldier, and great every-thing which merits the name 
of great or good ; 

(3), Francis lord Shannon, whose Pocket Pistol, as he stiles his 
book, may make as wide breaches in the walls of the Capitol, as many 
canons ; 

(4), and that honourable and well known name Robert Boyl, esquier, 
that profound philosopher, accomplished humanist, and excellent 
t Why does he divine, I had almost sayd lay-bishop, as one hath stiled 
not mention . gj^ Henry Savil ; whose works alone may make a 

lord Killimeke*; _ ^ •' ' ■' 

who was slain at librarie t- 

of'tlskarriM, in The female branches also (if it be lawfull so to call 
Ireland? them whose virtues were so masculine, souls knowing 

no difference of'sexj by their honours and graces (by mutuall reflec- 
tions) gave, and received lustre, to, and from, her : — 

the eldest of which, the lady Alice, was married to the lord Baramore ; 

the second, the lady Sarah, to the lord Digby, of Ireland ; 

the third, the lady Laetitia, to the eldest son of the lord Goring, 
who died earle of Norwich ; 

the fourth, the lady Joan, to the earle of Kildare, not only primier 
earle of Ireland, but the aticientest house in Christendome of that 
degree, the present earle being the six and twentieth, or the seaven 
and twentieth, of lineal descent : and, as I have heard, it was that 
great antiquary King Charles the First his observation, that the three 
ancientest families of Europe for nobility, were the Veres in England, 
earls of Oxford, and the Fitz-Ceralds in Ireland, earls of Kildare, and 
Momorancy in France : 'tis observable * that the present earle of 
Kildare is a mixture of blood of Fitz-Geralds and Veres ; 

the fifth, the lady Katharine, who was married to the lord viscount 
Ranelaugh %, and mother to the present generous earle 

* ^'fjnes!'^^ of Ranelaugh, of which family I could have added an 

eminent remark, I meet with in Fuller's " Worthies ; " 

this lady's character is so signalized by her known merit among 

all persons of honour, that as I need not, so I dare not, attempt 

beyond this one word— she was our lady's Friend-Sister ; 

the sixth, the lady Dorothy Loftus ; 

the seaventh, (the number of perfection) which shutt-up and crown'd 
this noble train (for the eighth, the lady Margaret, died unmaried), 
was our excellent lady Mary, married to Charles, earle of Warwick ; of 
whom, if I should use the language of my text, I should neither 

* M.S. Aubr. 7, fol. n'. 



Richard Boyle 119 



despair their pardon, nor fear the reproach of rudeness— ^awy 
daughters, all his daughters, did virtuously but thou — Prov. xxxi. 29, 
30, 31- 

But shee t needed neither borrowed shades, nor reflexive 

lights, to set her off, being personally great in all naturall 
' 'of*vfk™?ck?^^ endowments and accomplishments of soul and body, 
wisdome, beautie, favour, and virtue ; 

great by her tongue, for never woman used one better, speaking 
so gracefully, promptly, discreetly, pertinently, holily, that I have 
often admired the edifying words that proceeded from her mouth ; 

great by her pen, as you may {ex pede Herculem) discover by that 

„ little t tast of it the world hath been happy in, the hasty 

t Her ladyship's . '^'^' 

Pious Medi- iruit oi one or two interrupted noures alter supper, 
a lovs. which she professed to me, with a little regret, when 

she was surprised with it's sliding into the world without her know- 
ledge, or allowance, and wholly beside her expectation ; 

great by being the greatest mistresse and promotress, not to say the 
foundress and inventress, of a new science — the art of obliging ; in 
which she attain'd that sovereign perfection, that she reigned over all 
their hearts with whom she did converse ; 

great in her nobleness of living and hospitality ; 

great in the unparallelld sincerity of constant, faithful!, condescending 
friendship, and for that law of kindness which dwelt in her lips and 
heart ; 

great in her dexterity of management ; 

great in her quick apprehension of the difficulties of her affaires, 
and where the stress and pinch lay, to untie the knot, and loose and 
ease them ; 

great in the conquest of herselfe ; 

great in a thousand things beside, which the world admires as 
such : but she despised them all, and counted them but loss and dung 
in comparison of the feare of God, and the excellency of the knowledge 
of Christ Jesus.' 

Notes. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' per btnd crenellee argent and gules 
[Boyle]; impaling, . . ., a cross vert between 4 fleur de lys . . . [Fenton],' 
surmounted by an earl's coronet. 

A leaf containing an earlier draft of this life (as shown by the coat tricked in 
the inner margin) has been cut out between fol. 14 and fol. 15 of MS. Anbr. 6. 
The excision was made by Aubrey himself, a line being drawn by him across the 
excision from fol. 14' to fol. 15, to mark the transposition of a passage. The 
reason for the cutting out of this leaf is suggested in a letter of Aubrey to 
Anthony Wood (MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 360, July 14, 16S1), where he says his 
' Lives' contain 'severe touches on the earl of Corke, Dr. Wallis, etc' In the 
margin of the excised leaf a note, given on the authority of ' Mr. A. E.' i. e. 
Anthony Ettrick, seems to speak of amours and bastards of the earl. 



I20 Aubrni's 'Brief Lives' 

^ Catherine Fenton, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, Secretary of State for 

Ireland IS81-1603. 

'' Anthony Wood, in answer to this query, suggests : — ' Jeffrey, quaere.' 

' Lewis Boyle, second son of Richard, first earl of Cork, created viscount 

Boyle of Kynalmeaky, 162 J, 

Robert Boyle (i62?^-i69t). 

* Mr. Robert Boyle;- vide Oliver Hill's . . . , where 
he is accused of grosse plagiarisme. Dr. (Robert) Wood 
went to schoole with him at Eaton Colledge. 

** Mr. R. Boyle, when a boy at Eaton (was) verie 
sickly and pale — from Dr. (Robert) Wood, who was his 
schoole-fellow. 

*i** The honourable Robert Boyle' esq., the (fifth) 
son of Richard Boyle, the first earle of Corke, was borne at 
Lismorf in the county of Corke, the (2,5) day 
Incientiyan of (January) anno (i6af ). 
a sreauowife or He was Hurscd by an Irish nurse, after the 
twenty churches. Irisli manner, wher they putt the child into a 
ofkinjjohn.— pendulous satchell (insted of a cradle), with 

From Elizabeth, i- r 1 i m n 1 1 

countesse of a slitt for the child s head to peepe out. 

He learn't his Latin Went to the 

university of Leyden. Travelled France, Italy, Switzerland. 
I have oftentimes heard him say that after he had seen the 
antiquities and architecture of Rome, he esteemed none" 
any where els. 

He speakes Latin very well, and very readily, as most 
men I have mett with. I have heard him say that when 
he was young, he read over Cowper's dictionary : wherin 
I thinke he did very well, and I beleeve he is much be- 
holding to him for his mastership of that language. 

His father in his will, when he comes to the settlement 
and provision for his son Robert, thus, — 

Itein\io my son Robert, tvhom I beseech God to blessc 
with a particular blessing, I bequeath, &^c. 

Mr. R. H.'', who has seen the rental), sayes it was 3000 li. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 12'. » Siibst. for ' cared not for.' 

** MS. Anbr. 8, fol. 6». ' Probably Robert Hooke. 

*** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 16'. 



IVilliam Brereton 121 



per annum : the greatst part is in Ireland. His father left 
him the manner of Stalbridge in com. Dorset, where is 
a great freestone house ; it was forfeited by the earle of 
Castlehaven. 

He is very tall (about six foot high) and streight, very 
temperate, and vertuouse, and frugal! : a batcheler ; keepes 
a coach ; sojournes with his sister, the lady Ranulagh. His 
greatest delight is chymistrey. He haz at his sister's 
a noble laboratory, and severall servants (prentices to him ) 
to looke to it. He is charitable to ingeniose men that 
are in want, and foreigne chymists have had large proofe 
of his bountie, for he will not spare for cost to gett any 
rare secret. At his owne costs and chardges he gott 
translated and printed the New Testament in Arabique ^, 
to send into the Mahometan countreys. He has not 
only a high renowne in England, but abroad ; and when 
foreigners come to hither, 'tis one of their curiosities 
to make him a visit. 

Notes. 

' Aubrey gives in colours the Boyle coat {supra, p. 119), with a mullet gules 
for difference. Anthony Wood adds the reference : — 'see in the first sheet of 
the second part,' i. c. of MS. Aubr. 7, viz. the excerpts sufra from Anthony 
Walker's sermon. 

^ The Gospels and Acts in Malay (in Arabic character), Oxford, 1677. 

William Brereton, 3rd baron, (i 631 -1680). 

* William, lord Brereton, obiit March 17, 1680 »; buried 
at St. Martin's-in-the-fields : scripsit Origines Moriens in 
Latin verse. 

** William, lord Brereton^ of (Leighlin) : — this vertuous 
and learned lord (who was my most honoured and 
obligeing friend) was educated at Breda, by John Pell, 
D.D., then Math. Professor there of the Prince of Orange's 
' ilustrious schoole.' Sir George Goring, earl of Norwich 
(who was my lord's grandfather), did send for him over, 
where the (Doctor) (then Mr. John Pell) tooke great care 
of him, and made him a very good Algebrist. 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 5. » i6||, in this case. 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 33. 



122 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

He hath wrote a poem called Origines Morieiis, 
a MS. 

Obiit March 17, ]6||, London, and is buried at 
St Martin's church in the fields. 

He was an excellent musitian, and also a good composer. 

Nole. 

' Anthony Wood adds the reference ' quaere in Coll. Exon.' Wood seems 
to have thought that Sir William Brereton of Honford in Cheshire (an officer 
in the Parliamentary army, mentioned in the Aihenae) might be found among 
the Exeter College matriculations and might be connected with this peer's 
family. 

Edward Brerewood (1565-16 13). 

* Mr. Edward Brerewood ^ was borne . 

He was of Brasen-nose College in Oxon. My old cosen 
Whitney^, fellow there long since, told me, as I remember, 
that his father was a citizen of W<est> Chester ; that 
(I have now forgot on what occasion, whether he had 
outrun the exhibition from his father, or what), but he 
was for some time in straightes in the College : that he 
went not out of the College gates in a good while, nor 
(I thinke) out of his chamber, but was in slip-shoes, and 
wore out his gowne and cloathes on the bord and benches 
of his chamber, but profited in knowledge wonderfully. 

He writ his Logica, and . . ., de meteoris, de ponderibus 
el minimis (which he dedicates to his countryman, Lord 
Chancellor Egerton, who was no doubt his patron). 

He was astronomic professor at Gresham College, 
London, where he died anno 1613, and was buried in 
Great Saint Helen's chancell : so Hist, and Antiq.of Oxon., 
lib. 2. pag. 219 b. 

'Tis pity I can pick-up no more of him. 

Notes. 

' Anthony Wood added the reference 'vide A. W.'s {^Hist. et) Anliq. ' ; but 
scored it out, finding himself anticipated in the text of the notice. 

' James Whitney, matric. April 19, 161 1 at St. Mary Hall, but took his 
degrees from Brasenose (Clark's Reg. Univ. Oxon. II. iii. 334). 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 33'. 



Arthur Brett. Henry Briggs 123 

Arthur Brett (16.. -1677). 

(In MS. Aubr. 22 (Aubrey's Collection of Grammars) is a tract 
of 6 pp. 

'A demonstration how the Latine tonge may be learn t ' ; Lond. 1669 ; 
' by Arthur Bret, M.A. of Ch. Ch. in Oxford and of Westminster 
Schoole.') 

Henry Briggs (1556-163 J). 

* Henry Briggs was borne at . . . (vide Anthony 
Wood's Oxon. Antiquit. : quaere his nephew who is beadle 
to Stationers' Hall ; quaere Vaticinium Carolmum, an 
English poem). 

He was first of St. John's College in Cambridge. 
Sir Henry Savill sent for him and made him his geometric 
professor. He lived at Merton College in Oxon, where he 
made the dialls at the buttresses of the east end of the 
chapell with a bullet for the axis. 

He travelled into Scotland to comune with the honour- 
able . . . lord Nepier ^ of Marcheston about making the 
logarithmicall tables. 

<^^ Looking one time on the mappe of England he 
observed that the " two rivers, the Thames and that Avon 
which runnes to Bathe and so to Bristowe, were not far 
distant, scilicet, about 3 miles — vide the mappe. He 
sees 'twas but about 25 miles from Oxford ; getts a horse 
and viewes it and found it to be a levell ground and *> easie 
to be digged. Then he considered the chardge of cutting 
between them and the convenience of making a manage 
between those rivers which would be of great consequence 
for cheape and safe carrying of goods between London 
and Bristow, and though the boates " goe slowly and with 
meanders, yet considering they goe day and night they 
would be at their journey's end almost as soon as the 
waggons, which often are overthrowne and liquours spilt 
and other goods broken. Not long after this he dyed and 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 47'. " Dupl. with 'and sappable.' 
' Siibst. for ' that the beginnings of " Dupl. with ' the Bylanders." 

the Thames and Avon.' 



124 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

the civill warres brake-out. It happened by good luck 
that one Mr. Matthevves of Dorset had some acquaintance 
with this Mr. * Briggs and had heard him discourse of 
it. He was an honest simple man, and had runne out of 
his estate and this project did much run in his head. He 
would revive it (or els it had been lost and forgott) and 
went into the country to make an ill survey of it (which 
he printed) about anno . . ., but with no great encourage- 
ment of the countrey or others. Upon the restauration 
of King Charles II he renewed his designe and applyed 
himselfe to the king and counsell. His majestic espoused 
it more (he told me) then any one els. In short, for want 
of management and his non-ability, it came to nothing, 
and he is now dead of old age. But Sir Jonas Moore 
('If^ an expert mathematician and a practicall man), being 
sent to survey the mannor of Dantesey in Wilts (which 
was forfeited to the crowne by Sir John Danvers his 
foolery), went to see these streames and distances. He 
told me the streames were too small unlesse in winter ; 
but if some prince or the Parliament would rayse money 
to cutt through the hill by Wotton-Basset which is not 
very high, then there would be water enough and streames 
big enough. He computed the chardge, which I have 
forgott, but I thinke it was about 200,000 li. 

Insert his letter to Dr. John Pell de logarithmis written 
anno Dni 1628. 

Mr. William Oughtred calls him the English Archimedes 
in ... . 

An epitaph on H. Briggs among H. Burched's poems ^. 

** Mr. Briggs — vide and quaere Dr. Whitchcot, behind 

St. Lawrence Church ; he knew him. Respondet 

quod non. 

*** Mr. Norwood to the reader, before his Trigono- 
metrie : — ' of the construction and divers applications of 
Logarithmes Mr. Brigs hath written a booke called 
Arithmetica Logariikmica, and since again began another 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 49. ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 8. 

*** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 79. 



Thomas Brightman 125 

excellent worke of like nature entituled Trigonometria 
Britaii7iica. I have onely seen (in the hands of a friend 
of his) a printed copie of so much as he had done, namely 
the tables : but whilest he was in hand with the rest, he 
departed this life. It was writ in Latin.' 

Notes. 

' John Napier, of Merchiston, bom 1550, died 1617. His ton Alexander 
was created baron Napier in 1637. 

^ MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 48 is two leaves, pp. 49-52, sign. I, of a printed boolv, 
a miscellany of Greek and Latin verses. The first piece on ji. 49 is six Greek 
lines ■ Epitaphium D. Henrici Briggi ob mathesin et pietatem famigerati, denati 
1631. Januar. ult.' The second piece is 32 Latin verses 'in bibliothecaiu 
Oxoniensem lertio amplificatam MDCXXXVL' 



Thomas Brightman (1563-1607). 

(^A Letter from Edward Gibson about Thomas 
Brightman^. y 

c- * Hawnes, Dec. 3i, <i6>8i. 

Since you have desired and have been put into an 
expectation of receiving some information concerning 
Mr. Brightman, tho I have litle or nothing to serve you 
and your freind with, I send this to let you know that 
I find nothing of his arms ; that upon the stone is 
engraven 

' Here lyeth the body of Thomas Brightman, deceased, minister of 
this parish, who dyed Aug. 24, 1607.' 

Over his head are these sad rimes (I hope they are 
Oxford, tho not much for the honour of it) . — 

Christ cals his churches candlestiks of old, 
Altho the candlesticks but the candles hold. 
The lights on them hee calleth angels pure, 
Not barely candles, for those must endure. 
Candles when burn't out are soon forgott, 
But ministers, as angels, must not rot. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 49. 



126 Aubrey's 'Brie/ Lives' 

Sith God doth ministers so eternize, 
Let not us mortals give them lower prize. 
And specially to Brightman's recommendacion 
And bee entomed a light to th' revelation 
Wee must, wee ought, to make such saints last 
In whom wee know the times to come and past. 

I am, Sir, Yours to serve you, 

Edw. Gibson. 

Dr. Fuller, amongst his Worlhies, hath something of 
Mr. Brightman. 

* For Mr. John Aubrey : leave this at Mr. Hooke's 
lodging in Gresham College. 

A^ole. 

' In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 3, Anthony Wood has jotted down 'quaere Mr. Aubrey 
of Thomas Brightman, Dr. (William) Butler, Henry Billingsley, Sir George 
Wharton' — Aubrey's notes, so far, about these four having been scanty. 

In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 48', opposite Gibson's letter Wood notes an odd 
omission in it : — ' Quaere in what church Mr. Thomas Brightman was 
buried ? ' 

Alexander Brome (1620-1666). 

** H. Brome assured me that his brother Alexander 
was in his accedence at 4 yeares old and a quarter '. 

Note. 
' This is a marginal note opposite the life of Katherine Philips, and is 
intended to be a parallel instance of precocious reading, the boy being taken, 
first, through the Psalter, and then through the Bible, before beginning his 
' accidence ' (i. e. Latin Grammar) ; cp. the course of Anthony Wood's education, 
Clark's Wood's Life and Times, i. 46, 47, 48. Henry Brome was a London 
bookseller. 

Christopher Brookes (16 . . -1665). 

*** Christopher Brookes, of Oxford, a mathematical 
instrument maker. He was sometime manciple of 
Wadham College : his widowe lived over against the 
Theatre. 

This C. B. printed* 1649 an 8vo of about a sheetes, 

» MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 48. " Clark's Wood's Life and Times, 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 38'. ii. 237. 

*** MS. Aubr. 7, a slip at fol. 8«. 



Elizabeth Broughton 127 

scil. ' A new quadrant of more natural easie and manifold 
performance than any other heretofore extant ' : but it 
was his father-in-lawe's * invention. I had it from his 
widow about 1665. 



E]izabeth Broughton. 
* In the Heralds' Office — Heref(ordshire) — 

Edward Broughton, m. Isabell, daughter of 



of Kington, eldest 
son, 1634 



Rafe Beeston, of 
Warwickshire. 



Elizabeth. 

(Arms'": — ) 'argent, 2 bars gules, on a canton of the 
second a cross of the field, a martlet or for difference.' 

Mris. Elizabeth Broughton was daughter of . . . 
Broughton of ... in Herefordshire, an ancient family. 
Her father lived at the mannour-house at Canon- Peon. 
Whether she was borne there or no, I know not : but 
there she lost her mayden-head to a poor young fellow, 
then I beleeve handsome, but, in 1660, a pittifull poor 
old weaver, clarke of the parish. He had fine curled 
haire, but gray. Her father at length discoverd her 
inclinations and locked her up in the turret of the house, 
but she (like a . . . ) getts downe by a rope ; and away she 
gott to London, and did sett-up for her selfe. 

She was a most exquisite beautie, as finely shaped as 
nature could frame ; and had a delicate witt. She was 
soon taken notice of at London, and her price was very 
deare— a second Thais. Richard, earle of Dorset, kept 
her (whether before or after Venetia"', I know not, but 
I guesse before). At last she grew common and infamous 
and gotf' the pox, of which she died. 

I remember thus much of an old song of those dayes, 

' William Onghtred. ° Given by Aubrey in colours in 

* MS. Anbr. 6, fol. loi". s lozenge. 

" Venetia Stanley. '' Dupl. with ' had.' 



128 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

which I have seen in a collection — 'twas by way of litanie 
• — viz. : — 

From the watch at twelve a clock, 
And from Bess Broughton's buttond * smock, 
Libera nos, D amine. 

Ill Ben Johnson's execrations against Vulcan, he con- 
cludes thus : — 

Pox take thee, Vulcan ! May Pandora's pox 
And all the ills that flew out of her box 
Light on thee. And if those plagues will not doe 
Thy wive's pox take thee, and Bess Broiightofi s too. 

— In the first edition in 8vo her name is thus at 
length. 

I see that there have been famous woemen before our 
times. 

Vixere foites ante Agamemnona 
Multi, etc. 

Horace, lib. 4, ode 9. 

I doe remember her father (1646), neer 80, the hand- 
somest shaped man that ever my eies beheld, a very wise 
man and of an admirable elocution. He was a com- 
mittee-man in Herefordshire and Glocestershire. He was 
commissary to colonel Massey. He was of the Puritan 
party heretofore ; had a great guift in praying, etc. His 
wife (I have heard my grandmother say, who was her 
neighbor) had as great parts as he. He was the first that 
used the improvement of land by soape-ashes when he 
lived at Bristowe, where they then threw it away. 

■William Brouncker, and viscount (1630-1684). 

* William, lord viscount Brouncker of Lions in Ireland : 
he lived in Oxford when 'twas a garrison for the King : 
but he was of no university, he told me. He addicted 

" Aubrey notes in the margin : sempstresse helped to worke it.' 
— ' Barbara C.C. (i.e. countess of * MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 18. 

Castlemaine) had such a one : nay 



William Brouncker 129 



himselfe only to the study of the mathematicks, and was 
a very great artist in that learning. 

His mother was an extraordinary great gamester, and 
playd all, gold play ; she kept the box herselfe. Mr. . . . 
Arundall (brother of the lord Wardour) made a song in 
characters of the nobility. Among others, I remember this, 

Here's a health to my lady Brouncker and the best 

card in her hand, 
And a health to my lord her husband, with ne're a foot 

of land. 

He was president of the Royall Society about 15 
yeares ^ 

He was .... of the Navy office ^- 

He dyed April the 5th, 1684 ; buried the 14th following 

in the vault which he caused to be made (8 foot long, 

4 foot broad, and about 4 foot high) in the middle of the 

quire of Saint Katharine's, neer the Tower, of which 

convent he was governour. He gave a fine organ to this 

church a little before his death ; and whereas it was 

a noble and large choire, he divided (it) in the middle 

with a good skreen (at his owne chardge), which haz 

spoiled (it). 

(A note written by him ^. ) 
* Sir, ^ ^ ^ 

These are to give notice that on Friday next the 

thirtieth day of this instant November, 1677, being 

St. Andrew's day, the council and officers of the Royal 

Society are to be elected for the year ensuing. At which 

election your presence is expected in Gresham Colledge 

at nine of the clock in the forenoon precisely. 

(For John Aubrey, esq.) Brouncker, P. R. S. 

Notes. 

' He wasPresident, 1663, from the incorporation of the Royal Society, to 1677. 

^ He was a Lord of the Admiralty in 1680, and again in 1682. 

' The signature is in long sloping letters, like the children's puzzles of thirty 
years' back, which could be read only when the paper was held edgeways. It 
has beaten Anthony Wood, who notes at the side : — ' What this name is 

I know not.' 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 26. 

I. K 



130 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

William Browne (1591-1645). 

* The earle of Carnarvon does not remember Mr. Brown ^, 
and I ask't his lordship lately again if any of his servants 
doe : he assures me no. 

Note. 
' The inquiry was made of Charles Dormer, second earl of Carnarvon. 
William Browne, author of Britannia's Pastorals, had been tutor in 1624 to 
Robert Dormer (created earl of Carnarvon in 1628) in Exeter College. 

Robert Burton (i57f-i6|°). 

** Memorandum. Mr. Robert Hooke of Gresham College 
told me that he lay in the chamber in Christ Church that 
was Mr. Burton's, of whom 'tis whispered that, non obstante 
all his astrologie and his booke of Melancholie, he ended 
his dayes in that chamber by hanging him selfe. 

Thomas Bushell (1594-1674). 

*** Mr. Thomas Bushell was an . . . shire man, borne 
. . . : quaere Thomas Mariet, esq. [He" was borne at 
Marston in . . . shire, neer him.] 

He was one of the gentlemen that way ted on the Lord 
Chancellour Bacon. 'Twas the fashion in those dayes for 
gentlemen to have their suites of clothes garnished with 
buttons. My Lord Bacon was then in disgrace, and his 
man Bushell having more buttons then usuall on his 
cloake, etc., they sayd that his lord's breech made buttons 
and Bushell wore them — from whence he was called 
buttond Bushell. 

He was only an English scholar, but had a good witt 
and a working and contemplative head. His lord much 
loved him. 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 9. he writt the Melancholy.' 

** MS. Anbr. 23, fol. 29, a note *** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. ^f. 

appended to ' the scheme of the " The words in square brackets 

nativity of Democritus junior on his are the answer to the inquiry, added 

monument at Christ Church in Oxon : later. 



Thomas Bushell 131 

His genius lay most towards naturall philosophy, and 
particularly towards the discovery, drayning, and im- 
provement of the silver mines in Cardiganshire ", etc. 

He had the strangest bewitching way to drawe-in 
people (yea^ discreet and wary men) into his projects 
that ever I heard of. His tongue was a chaine and drewe 
in so many to be bound for him and to be ingaged in his 
designes that he ruined a number. Mr. Goodyere of . . . 
in Oxfordshire was undon by him among others ; see '' 
part iii. pag. 6 b. 

He was master of the art of running in debt, and lived 
so long that his depts were forgott, so that they were the 
great-grandchildren of the creditors. 

He wrote a stich't treatise of mines and improving of 
the adits to them and bellowes to drive-in wind, which 
Sir John Danvers, his acquaintance, had, and nayled 
it^ to his parlor-wall at Chelsey, with some scheme, and 
I beleeve is there yet: I sawe it there about 10 yeares 
since. 

During the time of the civill warres, he lived in Lundy 
island. 

Anno 1647 or 8, he came over into England ; and when 
he landed at Chester, and had but one Spanish threepence 
(this I had then from .... of Great Tew, to whom he 
told it), and, sayd he, 'P could have been contented to have 
begged a penny, like a poor man.' At that time he sayd 
he owed, I forgett whether it was 50 or sixty thousand 
pounds: but he was like Sir Kenelm Digby, if he had 
not 4d., wherever he came he would find respect and 
credit. 

(t::|'Memorandum, after his master thelordchancellordyed, 
he marled . . . , and lived at Enston, Oxon ; where having 
some land lyeing on the hanging of a hill faceing the south, 
at the foot wherof runnes a fine cleare stream which petrifies, 
and where is a pleasant solitude, he spake to his servant 

" Dupl. with ' AVales.' " Diipl. with ' I could have con- 

»> The reference is to MS. Aubr. 8, tentedly begged, like a poor man.' 
(^Lives, part iii.) : see infra, p. 134. 

K a 



132 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Jack f Sydenham to gett a labourer to cleare some boscage 
(lack which grew on the side of the hill, and also 

before wiTh^sIr'' ^^ ^'S " ^ cavity in the hill to sitt, and read or 
Ki'ngtOT^st!" ^'^ contemplate. The workman had not workt an 
was wont t^'^ hower before he discovers not only a rock, but 
a?inesTlgrace- ^ rock of an uHusuall figurc with pendants 
gileTeThis"'' hke icecles as at Wokey hole (Somerset), which 
account. ^^^ j.j^g occasion of making that delicate grotto 

and those fine walkes. 

Here in fine weather he would walke all night. Jack 
Sydenham sang rarely : so did his other servant, Mr. Batty. 
They went very gent, in cloathes, and he loved them as 
his children. 

He did not encumber him selfe with his wife, but here 
enjoyed himselfe thus in this paradise till the war brake 
out, and then retired to Lundy isle. 

He had donne something (I have forgott what) that made 
him obnoxious to the Parliament or Oliver Cromwell, about 
1650; would have been hangd if taken; printed severall 
letters to the Parliament, etc., dated from beyond sea, and 
all that time lay privately in his howse in Lambeth marsh 
where the*^ pointed pyramis is. In the garret there, is 
a long gallery, which he hung all with " black, and had 
some death's heads and bones painted. At the end where 
his couch was, was in an old Gothique nich (like an old 
monument) painted a skeleton incumbent '^ on a matt. At 
the other end where was his pallet-bed was an emaciated 
dead man stretched out. Here he had severall mortifying 
and divine motto's (he imitated his lord ^ as much as he 
could), and out of his windowes a very pleasant prospect. 
At night he walkt in the garden and orchard. Only Mr. 
Sydenham, and an old trusty woman, was privy to his 
being in England. 

He dyed about 1676 or 1677 — quaere where — he was 
80 yeares of age. [He'' dyed in Scotland yard neer 



" Dupl. with ' make.' 


"i Subst. for ' stretched. 


^ Dupl. with ' the turret.' 


Bacon. 


' Subst. for ' painted with.' 


' Added later. 



Thomas Bushell 133 



Whitehall about 1675 or 1677 ; Mr. Beach the quaker can 
tell me exactly.] 

His entertainment to Queen Henrietta Marie at Enston 
was in anno 163(6, 23 August). Insert, i.e. sovve* my 
book (which J. S.*" gave my grandfather Isaac Lyte) in this 
place. . . . GoodalP, of Ch. Ch. Oxon, composed" the 
musique ; I remember the student of Ch. Ch. which 
sang the songs ((I) now foi-gett his name). 

* Mr. Bushell had a daughter maried to a merchant . . . 
in Bristowe. 

He was a handsome proper gentleman when I sawe him 
at his house aforesayd at Lambith. He was about 70 
but I should have not guessed him hardly 60. He had 
a perfect healthy constitution ; fresh, ruddy face ; hawke- 
nosed, and was temperate. 

As he had the art of running in dept, so sometimes he 
was attacqued and throwen into prison ; but he would 
extricate him selfe again straingely. 

He* died about 3 yeares since ((from) Sir William 
Dugdale), i.e. about 1677; and was buried at . . . 

Memorandum : — in the time of the civill warres his " 
hermitage over the rocks at Enston were hung with black- 
bayes ; his bed had black curtaines, etc., but it had no 
bed-postes but hung by 4 cordes (covered with black- 
bayes) instead of bed postes. When the queen-mother 
came to Oxon to the king, she either brought (as I thinke) 
or somebody gave her an entire mummie from Egypt, 
a great raritie, which her majestic gave to Mr. Bushell, but 
I beleeve long ere this time the dampnesse of the place haz 
spoyled it with mouldinesse. 

Memorandum : — the grotto ' belowe lookes just south ; 
so that when it artificially raineth, upon the turning of 
a cock, you are enterteined with a rainebowe. In a very 

" i.e. sew in. now perfectly remember; but he did, 

^ Jack Sydenham, supra, p. 132. or neer it: and (I thinke) dyed in 

° Dupl. with ' did sett.' London. Quaere Mr. Watts the taylor.' 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 98. " Dupl. with ' his pretty house at 

■J Subst. for 'whether he lived to the.' 

see the king's restauration I cannot ' Subst. for ' rock.' 



134 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

little pond (no bigger then a basin) opposite to the rock, 
and hard by, stood (1643, Aug. 8) a Neptune, neatly cutt 
in wood, holding his trident in his hand, and ayming with 
it at a duck which perpetually turned round with him, and 
a spanniel swimming after her — which was very pretty, but 
long since spoyled. I heare that . . . earl of Rochester, 
in whose possession it now is, doeth keepe it very well in 
order. 

*Mr. Bushell was the greatest arts-master to runne in 
dept (perhaps) in the world. He died one hundred and 
twenty thousand pounds in dept. He had so delicate a way 
of making his projects alluring and feazible, profitable, that 
he drewe to his baites not only rich men of no designe, but 
also the craftiest knaves in the countrey, such who had 
cosened and undon others : e. g. Mr. Goodyeere, who undid 
Mr. Nicholas Mees's father, etc. 

Vide Plea for Irish cattle. 

Vide" (p p. 148, Bushell's rocks. 

Quaere his servant John Sydenham for the collection 
of remarques of severall partes of England, by the said 
Mr. Bushell. 

** Memorandum :— his ingeniose invention of aditus 
with bellowes to bring fresh aire into the mines : quaere 
Mr. Beech (quaker) if he hath his printed booke or where 
it may be had. He gave one to Sir John Danvers, which 
was nayled in the parlour to the wainscot : 'twas but about 
8 sheetes. 

Quaere Dr. Plott ((author of) Antiquities of Oxonshire) 
of the booke I gave him some yeares since of the songs and 
entertainment of Mr. Bushell to queen Henrietta Marie at 
his rocks. If he had it not, perhaps Anthony Wood had it. 
Mr. E(dmund) W(yld) sayes that he tap't the mountaine 
of Snowdon in ... in Wales, which was like to have drowned 
all the countrey ; and they were like to knock him and his 
men in the head. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 12". also quotes a MS. with this symbol. 

« The MS. with this symbol I ** MS. Aubr. 8, slips at fol. 

have not identified. Anthony Wood 13. 



Samuel Butler 135 



Mr. Thomas Bushell lay some time (perhaps yeares) at 
Capt. Norton's, in the gate at Scotland-yard, where he 
dyed seven yeares since (now, 1684), about 80 aetat. 

Buried in the little cloysters at Westminster 
gon : all new Abbey : vide the Register. Somebody putt " 

B. B. upon the stone f . — From Mr. Beech the 
quaker. 

Notes. 

' ' Nailed,' I suppose, after the fashion of nailing counterfeit coins to the 
counter, or vermin to the stable door. Sir John Danvers had probably lost 
money in the ' scheme.' 

'' Stephen Goodall, chaplain of Ch. Ch., died in Oxford, in Sept. 1637.— 
Griffiths' Index to Wills . . . at Oxford, p. 24. 

Anthony Wood says the music was composed by Samuel Ives. Aubrey's 
copy of these poems is now among Anthony Wood's books in the Bodleian. 

Samuel Butler (i6i|-i68o). 

* Mr. Samuel Butler was '' borne % at Pershore in Wor- 

cestershire, as we suppose : his brother lives 

X He was bom , 

in Worcester- there. 

Barb'on\^ri(?Ke, Hc wcnt to schoole at Worcester— from 

iamilefrom tt-ii 

Worcester, in Mr. Hill. 

johnrMr"!!!!!!'' His father (was) a man but of slender 
went S schoole fortuHC, and to breed him at schoole was as 
much education as he was able to reach to. 
When<= but a boy he would make observations and reflec- 
tions on every thing one sayd or did, and censure it to be 
either well or ill. He never was at the university, for 
the reason alledged. 

He came when a young man to be a servant to the 
countesse of Kent, whom he served severall yeares. Here, 
besides his study, he employed his time much in painting 
and drawing, and also in musique. He was thinking once 
to have made painting his profession— from Dr. Duke. 
His love to and skill in painting made a great friendship 

» Sic in MS. : either a slip of the " Subst. for 'was borne at Powyk, 

stone-cutter for T. B., or a heartless neer Worcester (where he went to 

recalling of his nick-name {supra, schoole).' 

V • Subst. for ' when he was a boy. 

* MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 114'. 



136 Aubrey's 'Brie/ Lives' 

between him and Mr. Samuel Cowper (the prince of limners 
of this age). 

He then studyed the Common Lawes of England, but 
did not practise. He maried a good jointuresse, the relict 
of ... . Morgan, by which meanes he lives comfortably. 

After the restauration of his majestic when the court at 
Ludlowe was againe sett-up, he was then the king's steward 
at the castle there. 

He printed a witty Poeme called Htidibras, the first part 
anno 166. . which tooke extremely"; so that the king and 
t The Lord Lord Chancellor Hyde f would have him 
Hyde"^his ^^"^ fo"") ^'^^ accordingly he was sent for. 
Fibra^ over^he They both promised him great matters, but 
chimney. ^^ ^j^jg j^y j^g j^^^ got no employment, only 

the king gave him . . . li. 

He is of a middle stature, strong sett, high coloured, 
a head of sorrell haire, a severe and sound judgement : 
a good fellowe. He haz often sayd that way (e.g. Mr. 
Edmund Waller's) of quibling with sence will hereafter 
growe as much out of fashion and be as ridicule as quibling 
with words — quod N.B. He haz been much troubled with 
the gowt, and particularly 1679, ^^ stirred not out of his 
chamber from October till Easter. 

ObiitAnno|°°'"'"'^^^°l. 
(Circiter 70. ) 

He dyed of a consumption September 25 ; and buried 
27, according to his appointment'', in the churchyard of 
Convent Garden ; scil. in the north part next the church 
at the east end. His feet touch the wall. His grave, 2 
yards distant from the pillaster of the dore, (by his desire) 
6 foot deepe. 

About 25 of his old acquaintance at his funerall. 
I myself being one [of" the eldest, helped to carry'' the 
pall with Tom Shadwell, at the foot, Sir Robert Thomas 

" Subst. for ' which tooke, nothing struck out, apparently only because 

so much ! ' Aubrey thought they went too much 

^ Subst. for ' desire.' Persons of into detail, 

position were usually buried in church. ^ Subst. for ' beare.' 

" The words in square brackets are 



Samuel Butler ' 137 



and Mr. Saunders, esq., at the head ; Dr. Cole and Dr. 
Davenant, middle]. His coffin covered with black bayes ; 

S. B. i68o^ 

* Insert in vita Sam. Butler his verses of the Jesuites, 
not printed, which I gave to you^ about la or 14. 

** Hudibras imprinted. 

No Jesuite ever took in hand. 

To plant a church in barren land ; 

Or ever thought it worth his while 

A Swede or Russe to reconcile ; 

For where there is not store of wealth, 

Souls are not worth the charge of health °. 

Spaine and ■* America had two designes 

To sell their * Ghospell for their mines ; 

For had the Mexicans been poore, 

No Spaniard twice had landed on their shore. 

'Twas gold the Catholick Religion planted, 

Which, had they wanted gold, they still had wanted. 

He had made very sharp reflexions upon the court in his 
last part ° : — 

Did not the learned Glynne and Maynard 
To prove true subjects traytors straine hard ? 

*** Mr. Saunders (the countesse of Kent's kinsman) sayd 
that Mr. John Selden much esteemed him for his partes, 
and would sometimes employ him to write letters for him 
beyond sea, and to translate for him. He was secretarie to 
the duke of Bucks, when he was Chancellor of Cambridge. 
He might have had preferments at first ; but he would not 
accept any but very good ones, so at last he had none at 
all, and dyed in want. 

» The inscription on the coffin. " Subst. for ' the charges of their 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. j". health.' 

" Anthony Wood, in obedience to ^ Read, perhaps, ' on,' ' her.' 

this injunction, inserted the leaf which <> See Clark's Wood's Life and 

is now fol. 1 15 of MS. Aubr. 6. Times, i. i86, note 2. 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 1 1 5. *** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 1 14'. 



138 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

He painted well and made it (sometime) his profession. 

He wayted some yeares on the countess of Kent : she 
gave her gentlemen a,oli. per annum a-piece. Mr. John 
Selden tooke notice of his partes and would many times 
make him write or translate for him. 

Obiit sine prole. 

* Samuel Butler writt my lord [John »] Rosse's Answer 
to [Robert ''] the marquesse of Dorchester. 

Memorandum : — satyricall witts disoblige whom they 
converse with, etc. ; and consequently make to themselves 
many enemies and few friends ; and this was his manner 
and case. He was of a leonine-coloured liaire, sanguino- 
cholerique, middle sized, strong. 

William Butler (1535-16 if). 

**..."= Butler, physitian ; he was of Clare-hall in 
Cambridge, never tooke the degree of Doctor, though he 
was the greatest physitian of his time. 

The occasion of his being first taken notice of 

was thus t : — About the comeing-in of'* king 
Wa™eT,esq™e."'' Jamcs, there was a minister of . . . (a few miles 

from Cambridge), that was to preach before 
his majestic at New-market. The parson heard that 
the king was a great scholar, and studyed so ex- 
cessively that he could not sleep, so somebody gave 
him some opium, which had made him sleep his last, 
had not Dr. Butler" used this following remedy. He 
was sent for by the parson's wife. When he came and 
sawe the parson, and asked what they had donne, he 
told her that she was in danger to be hanged for killing 
her husband, and so in great choler left her. It was at 
that time when the cowes came into the backside to be 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 7. " Anthony Wood inserts the Chris- 
' Inserted by Anthony Wood. tian name ' William.' 

" Inserted by Wood, who wrote * Subst. for ' Upon the first of King 

' Henry ' and then changed it to James.' 
' Robert.' » Dupl. with ' this physitian.' 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 26'. 



William Butler 139 

milk't. He turnes back, and asked whose cowes those 
were. She sayd <her) husband's ='- Sayd he, ' will you 
give one of these cowes to fetch your husband to life 
again?' That she would, with all her heart. He then 
causes one presently to be killed and opened, and the 
parson t to be taken out of his bed and putt 

t Qaaereb f ' , „ , • , r 

E. w. or Gale, into the cowcs warme belly, which after some 

who ? 

time brought him to life, or els he had 
infallibly dyed. 

Memorandum : — there is a parallell storie to this in 
Machiavell's Florentiac History, where 'tis sayd that one 
of the Cosmo's being poysoned was putt into a mule's 
belly, sowed up, with a place only for his head to come out. 

He was a humorist *=. One time king James sent for 
him to New-market, and when he was gon halfe way 
(he) left the messenger and turned back ; so then the 
messenger made him ride before him. 

I thinke he was never marled. H e lived in an apothecary's 
shop, in Cambridge, (John) Crane, to whom he left his 
estate ; and he in gratitude erected the monument* for him, 
at his owne chardge, in the fashion ° he used. He was not 
greedy of money, except choice pieces of gold or rarities. 

He would many times (I have heard say) sitt among the 
boyes at St. Maries church in Cambridge {^^ and just 
so would the famous attorney-generall Noy, in Lincoln's 
Inne, who had many such froliques and humours). 

I remember Mr. Wodenoth, of King's College, told me, 

that being sent for to he told him that his 

disease was not to be found in Galen or Hippocrates, 
but in TuUie's Epistles, Cum non sis ubifueris, non est cur 
velis vivere. 

I thinke he left his estate to the apothecarie. He gave 
to the chapell of Clare-hall, a bowle *■, for the communion, 
of gold (cost, I thinke, 2 or 300 li.), on which is engraved 

» 'Husband's' subst. for 'hers.' moodes.' ^ infra, p. 143. 

■> No doubt Edmund Waller, supra ; « Subst. for ' habit.' 

and Thomas Gale, infra. ' Subst. for ' plate.' 

= Dupl. with ' a man of great 



140 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

a pelican feeding her young with the bloud from her breast 
(an embleme of the passion of Christ), no motto, for the 
embleme explained it selfe. 

He lies buried in the south side of St. Marie's chancell, 
in Cambridge, wher is a decent monument, with his body 
halfe way, and an inscription, which gett. 

He was much addicted to his humours, and would suffer 
persons of quality to wayte sometimes some houres at his 
dore, with coaches, before he would recieve them. Once, 
on the rode from Cambridge to London, he tooke a fancy 
to a chamberlayn or tapster in his inne, and tooke him 
with him, and made him his favourite, by whom only 
accession was to be had to him, and thus enriched him. 
Dr. Gale^, of Paul's schoole, assures me that a French 
man came one time from London to Cambridge, purposely 
to see him, whom he made stay two howres for him in 
his gallery, and then he came out to him in an old blew 
gowne ; the French gentleman makes him 2 or 3 very 
lowe bowes downe to the ground ; Dr. Butler whippes 
his legge over his head, and away goes into his chamber, 
and did not speake with him. 

He kept an old mayd whose name was Nell. Dr. Butler 
would many times goe to the taverne, but drinke by him- 
selfe. About 9 or 10 at night old Nell comes for him 
with a candle and lanthorne, and sayes ' Come you home, 
you drunken beast.' By and by Nell would stumble ; 
then her master calls her ' drunken beast ' ; and so they 
did drunken beast one another all the way till they came 
home. 

* A serving man brought his master's water to doctor 
Butler, being then in his studie (with turn'd barres) but 
would not bee spoken with. After much fruitlesse impor- 
tunity, the man told the doctor he was resolved he should 
see his master's water ; he would not be turned away — 
threw it on the Dr's. head. This humour pleased the 
Dr. and he went to the gent, and cured him — <from) 
Mr. R. Hooke. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 22, 



IVilliam Butler 141 

A gent, lying a-dyeing, sent his servant with a horse 
for the doctor. The horse being exceeding dry, ducks 
downe his head strongly into the water, and plucks downe 
the Dr. over his head, who was plunged in the water over 
head and eares. The Dr. was madded, and would returne 
home. The man swore he should not ; drew his sword, 
and gave him ever and anon (when he would returne) 
a little prick, and so drove him before him — (from) 
Mr. . . . Godfrey. 

* Some instances of Dr. Butler's cures : — from Mr. James 
Bovey. — The Dr. lyeing at the Savoy in London, next the 
water side, where was a balcony look't into the Thames, 
a patient came to him that was grievously tormented with 
an ague. The Dr. orders a boate to be in readinesse 
under his windowe, and discoursed with the patient (a 
gentleman) in the balcony, when on a signall given, 2 or 3 
lusty fellowes came behind the gentleman and thi-ew him 
a matter of 20 feete into the Thames. This surprize 
absolutely cured him. 

A gentleman with a red, ugly, pumpled face came to 
him for a cure. Said the Dr., ' F must hang you.' So 
presently he had a device made ready to hang him from 
a beame in the roome ; and when he was e'en almost dead, 
he cutts the veines that fed these pumples, and lett-out the 
black ugly bloud, and cured him. 

Another time one came to him for the cure of a cancer 

(or ulcer) in the bowells. Said the Dr., ' can ye } ' 

'Yes,' said the patient. So the Dr. ordered a bason for 
him to , and when he had so donne the Dr. com- 
manded him to eate it up. This did the cure. 

** Inscription on his monument"-. 

This inscription was sent to me by my learned and 
honoured friend, Dr. Henry More, of Cambridge. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 24. " Anthony Wood queries ' Where is 
** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 23. The in- this monument ? ' having forgotten 

scription is Henry Mora's autograph. MS. Aubr. 6 : supra, p. 140. 



142 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



Gulielmus Butlerus, Clarensis Aulae 

quondam Socius, Medicorum omnium 

quos praesens aetas vidit fadle princeps, 

hoc sub marmore secundum Christi ad- 

ventum expectat, et monumentum hoc 

privata pietas statuit, quod debuit 

publica. Abi, viator, et ad tuos reversus, 

narra te vidisse locum in quo salus 

jacet. 

Nil proh ! marmor agis, Butlerum dutn tegis, uUum 

l_i Si splendore tuo nomen habere putas. _ 

> lUe tibi monumentum est, tu diceris ab illo : c; 

W . . . I— t 

O Butlen vivis munere, marmor mers. fr] 

'^ Sic homines vivus, mira sic mortuus arte, ^ 

Phoebo chare senex, vivere saxa facis. 

Butlero Heroum hoc posuere dolorque fidesque. 
Hei ! quid agam, exclamas et palles. Lector ? At unum 
Quod miseris superesse potest, locus hie monet : ora. 
Obiit CI3IDCXVII. Janua. XXIX. 
Acta, suae LXXXIII. 

* A scholar made this drolling epitaph : — 

Here lies Mr. Butler who never was Doctor, 

Who dyed in the yeare that the Devill was Proctor^. 

Memorandum : — There is now in use ^ in London a sort 

of ale called Dr. Butler's ale. 

** Dr. Butler : — This inscription I recieved from Dr. 

Henry Moore of . . . Cambridge. Quaere if his coat of 

arms is not there, and what ? Quaere his coat of arms ''- 
From Dr. H. More: — More's father was a very strong 

bodyed man. 'Twas forty stooles he gave his father ; he 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 26'. '' For the answer to this query, 

° Dupl. with ' fashion.' see infra. 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25. 



Cecil Calvert 143 



had almost killed him. Told him he would be the better 
for't as long as he lived. 

That he was chymical I know by this token that his 
mayd came running-in to him one time, like a slutt and 
a furie, with her haire about her eares, and cries % ' Butler ! 
come and looke to your Devills yourselfe, and you will : the 
stills are all blowne up ! ' She tended them, and it seemes 
gave too great a heate. Old Dr. Ridgely ^ knew him, and 
I thinke was at that time ^ with him. — From this Dr. Ridgely 
his Sonne. 

* Dr. Butler of Cambridge : — {Arms : — > ' azure, three 
lozenges in fess between 3 covered cups or. — This is the 
coate of armes on his monument. By reason of time and 
the ill colours I cannot positively say whether the field is 
azure or vert, but I beleeve 'tis the former.' — This informa- 
tion I had from Mr. Vere Philips, fellow of King's College, 

Cambridge. 

^ Motes. 

1 Thomas Gale, Head Master of St. Paul's School 1672-1697, D.D. Trin. 
Coll. Cambr. 1675. 

^ Aubrey does not explain this ' drollery.' I can see nothing Satanic in the 
names of the Cambridge proctors for 1617-18, John Smithson and Alexander 
Read. 

3 Thomas Ridgley (Rugeley), M.D., St. John's, Cambr. 1608 ; his son Lulce 
Ridgely, M.D., Christ's, Cambr. 

Cecil Calvert, 2nd baron Baltimore (i 606-1 675). 

** Cecil Calvert, lord Baltemore, absolute lord and 
proprietary of Maryland and Avalon in America, son to 
(George) Calvert (secretary of estate to king James), 
was gentleman-commoner of Trinity College, Oxon, con- 
temporary with Mr. Francis Potter, B.D. 

*** Now if I would be rich, I could be a prince. I could 
goe into Maryland, which is one of the finest countrys 
of the world ; same climate with France ; between Virginia 
and New England. I can have all the favour of my lord 

" Dupl. with 'said.' •** Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, 

■> Dupl. with ' then.' fol. 138 : Sept. 2, 1671. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 22. *** Ibid., fol. 141" : Oct. 27, 1671. 



144 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Baltemore I could wish. — His brother is his lieutenant there ; 
and a very good natured gentleman. — Plenty of all things : 
ground there is 2000 miles westwards. 

I could be able I believe to carry a colony of rogues ; 
another, of ingeniose artificers ; and I doubt not one 
might make a shift to have 5 or 6 ingeniose companions, 
which is enough. 

■William Camden (1551-1623). 

* Mr. William Camden, Clarencieux — vide Fuller's Holy 
State where is something of his life and birth, etc. : vide 
England^ s Worthies : quaere at the Heralds' Office when 
he was made Clarencieux. 

Mr. Edward Bagshawe (who had been second schoole- 
master of Westminster schoole) haz told me that Mr. Cam- 
den had first his place and his lodgeings (which is the gate- 
house by the Queen's Scholars' chamber in Deanes-yard), 
and was after made the head schoole-master of that 
schoole, where he writt and taught Institutio GrcEcae 
Grammatices Compendiaria : in usum Regiae Scholae 
Westmonasteriensis, which is now the common Greeke 
grammar of England, but his name is not sett to it. 
Before, they learned the prolix Greeke Grammar of 
Cleonard. 

He writt his Britannia first in a large 8°. 

Annales reg. Elizabethae . 

There is a little booke in i6mo. of his printed, viz.: 
A Collection of all the Inscriptions then on the Tombes 
in Westminster Abbey. 

'Tis reported, that he had bad eies ^ (I guesse lippitude) 
which was a great inconvenience to an antiquary. 

Mr. Nicholas Mercator has Stadius's Ephemerides, which 
had been one of Mr. Camden's ; his name is there (I knowe 
his hand) and there are some notes by which I find he was 
astrologically given. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 119. Aubrey fitchee sable.' 

gives in trick the coat : — ' or, a fess ° Subst. for ' was short-(sighted).' 

engrailed between 6 cross crosslets 



Willtafn Camden 145 

In his Britannia he haz a remarkable astrologicall 
observation, that when Saturn is in Capricornus a great 
plague is certainly in London. He had observed it all his 
time, and setts downe the like made by others before 
his time. Saturn was so posited in the great plague 1625, 
and also in the last great plague 1665. He likewise 

delivers that when an eclipse happens in that 

'tis fatall to the towne of Shrewsbury, for . . . 

He was basted by a courtier of the queene's in the 
cloysters at Westminster for . . . queen Elizabeth in his 
history — from Dr. John Earle, dean of Westminster. 

My honoured and learned friend, Thomas Fludd, esq., 
a Kentish gentleman, ((aged) 75, 1680) was neighbour 
and an acquaintance to Sir Robert Filmore, in Kent, 
who was very intimately acquainted with Mr. Camden, 
who told Sir Robert that he was not suffered to print 
many things in his Elizabetha, which he sent over to 
his acquaintance and correspondent Thuanus, who printed 
it all faithfully in his Annalls without altering a word- 
quod N. B. 

He lies buried in the South cross-aisle of Westminster 
Abbey, his effigies \ on an altar, with this inscription :— 

Qui fide antiqua et opera assidua 

Britannicam antiquitatem indagavit 

Simplicitatem innatam 

honestis studiis excoluit 

Animi solertiam candore illustravit 

Gulielmus Camdenius 

ab Elizabetha regina ad regis armorum 

(Clarentii titulo) dignitatem evocatus 

Hie 

Spe certa resurgendi in Christo 

S.E. 

Qui obiit anno Domini 1623, 9 Novembris, 

Aetatis suae 74: 

in his hand a booke, on the leaves wherof is writt 
BRITANNIA. 

Mr. Camden much .studied the Welsh language, and 

I. L 



146 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

kept a Welsh servant to improve him (in) that language, 
-for the better understanding of our antiquities.— From 
Mr. Samuel Butler. 

* Sir William Dugdale tells me that he haz minutes 
of King James's life to a moneth and a day, written by 
Mr. William Camden ; as also his ovvne life, according to 
yeares and daye, which is very briefe, but 2 sheetes, 
Mr. Camden's owne hand writing. Sir William Dugdale 
had it from (John) Hacket f , bishop of Coventry and 
. ^ „ Lichfield, who did filch it from Mr. Camden 

t ir* Quaere ' 

!,™.%ide as he lay a dyeing. 

fu^kefcTme ** Qu^ere Mr. Ashmole to retrive and looke 

i*He(Dr.Th.) °ut Mr. Camdcn's minutes (memorandums) of 
oligdaieYo.'wh'o King James I from his entrance into England, 
told me of it. ^jji^jj j3^_ ThorndykeJ filched from him as 
he lay a dyeing. 'Tis not above 6 or 8 sheetes of paper, 
as I remember. Those memoires were continued within 
a fortnight of his death. 

*** Quaere Dr. Buzby if Mr. Camden ever resigned the 
schoolmaster's place"-? And if he did not dye at West- 
minster at the schoole house — vide bishop Hackett's life, 
which is printed before his sermons. 

**** Memorandum : — Mr. Camden's nativity is in his 
Memoires of King James, which gett. 

***** William Camden : quaere Sir William Dugdale 
who haz his papers ? 

Anthony Wood's lettre sayth that some of them are 
in Sir Henry St. George's hands ^ ' written and tricked 
with Mr. Camden's owne hand ' : ergo quaere ibidem. 

****** When my grandfather"' v/ent to schoole at Yatton- 
Keynell (neer Easton-Piers) Mr. Camden came to see the 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 119'. ***** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 18. 

** MS. Aubr. 6, a slip pasted on to •> See Clark's Wood's Life and 

fol. 119. Tivies, ii. 268. 

*** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 119'. ***+** jyS^ Ballard 14, fol. 133; 

* ' Non ' is added by Anthony a letter from Aubrey to Anthony 
Wood in red ink, in answer to this Wood, dated July 15, 1C81. 
inquiry. c igaac Lyte. 

'*** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 119. 



PP^illiam Canynges 147 

church, and particularly tooke notice of a little painted- 
glasse-windowe in the chancell, which (ever since my re- 
membrance) haz been walled-up, to save the parson the 
chardge of glazing it. 

William Canynges (1399-147 4). 

* The antiquities of the city of Bristowe doe very 
well deserve some antiquarie's paines (and the like for 
Gloucester). Here were a great many religious houses. The 
collegiate church (priorie of Augustines) is very good build- 
ing, especially the gate-house. The best built churches 
of any city in England, before these new ones at London 
since the conflagration. Severall monuments and in- 
scriptions. 

Ratliff church (which was intended * for a chapel) is 
an admirable piece of architecture of about Henry VH's 
time. It was built by alderman . . . Canning, who had 
fifteen shippes of his owne (or 16). He gott his estate 
chiefly by carrying of pilgrims to St. Jago of Compostella. 
He had a fair house in Ratlifif Street that lookes towards 
the water side, ancient Gothique building, a large house 
that, 1656, was converted to a glasse-house. See the anno- 
tations on Norton's Ordinall in Theatriiin Ckcmiaim, where 
'tis sayd that Thomas Norton of Bristow got the secret 
of the philosopher's stone from alderman Canning's widow. 

This alderman Canning did also build and well endow 
the religious house at Westbury or Henbury (vide Speede's 
mappe and chronicle) ; 'tis about two or three miles from 
Bristowe in the rode to Aust-passage. 

In his old age he retired to this house and entred into 
that order. He built his owne monument at his church at 
Ratcliff where is an inscription, which gett ^ ; ^^ but he 
was not interred there but at Westbury. 

A''ole. 
' See J. Eiitton's Historical and Architectural essay relating to Redcliffe 
Church, Bristol, with plans, views, account of its monuments, &c. 1813. 

* MS. Aubr. 8; fol. 105. ° Subst. for ' built.' 

L 2 



148 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



William Cartwright (16 11-1643). 

* William Cartwright, M.A., Aedis Cliristi, Oxon., natus 
juxta Teuxbury ia com. Glocestriae, September, 161 1 ; 
baptizatus* 26 Sept. 

** Glocestershire is famous for the birth of William 
Cartwright at a place called Northway neer Tewksbury. 
Were he alive now he would be sixty-one. 

He writt a treatise of metaphysique — quaere Dr. 
{Thomas) Barlowe, etc., de hoc: as also of his sermons, 
particularly the sermon that by the king's command he 
preached at his returne from Edge-hill fight. 

'Tis not to be forgott that king Charles ist dropt a teare 
at the newes of his death. 

William Cartwright was buried in the south aisle in 
Christ Church, Oxon. Pitty 'tis so famous a bard should 
lye without an inscription. 

*** William Cartwright was borne at Northway neer 
Tewksbury, Gloucestershire — this I have from his brother, 
who lives not far from me ^ and from his sisters whom 
I called upon in Glocestershire at Leckhamton. His sister 
Howes was 57 yeares old the 10 March last: her brother 
William was 4 yeares older. 

His father was a gentleman of 300 li. per annum. He 
kept his inne at Cirencester, but a year or therabout, 
where he declined and lost by it too. He had by his 
wife ICO //. per annum, in Wiltshire, an impropriation, 
which his son has now (but having many children, lives 
not handsomely and haz lost his learning : he was by 
the second wife, whose estate this was). Old Mr. Cart- 
wright lived sometime at Leckhampton, Gloc, wher his 
daughters now live. 

» MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 4'. *** Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, 

'• At Northway ': so his baptismal fol. 141 : Oct. 27, 1671. 

certificate in MS. Wood F. 49, fol. 25. '' Aubrey, at this date, was in 

** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, hidiug~at Broad Chalk. 

fol. 138'; Sept. 3, 1671. 



Lucius Cary 149 

Lucius Cary, viscount Falkland (1610-1643). 

* Lucius Carey ^, second lord Falkland, was the eldest 
son of Sir Henry Carey, Lord Lievetenant of Ireland, the 
first viscount Falkland. 

His mother was daughter and heir of Sir (Laurence) 
Tanfield, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, by whom 
he had Great Tue, in Oxfordshire (formerly the Raines- 
fords), and the Priory of Burford, in Oxfordshire, which 
he sold to (William) Lenthall, the Speaker of the Long 
Parliament. 

He was borne . . . (quaere) ; had his University educa- 
tion at the University of Dublin, in Ireland. He travelled, 
and had one Mr. ... (a very discreet gentleman) to be 
his governor ^, whom he respected to his dyeing day. 

He maried Letice, the daughter of Sir (Richard) 
Morison, by whom he had two sonnes : the eldest lived 
to be a man, died sine prole ; the second was fathrr to 
this lord Falkland now living. 

This lady Letice was a good and pious lady, as you 
may see by her life writt about 1649, or 50, by . . . 
Duncomb, D.D. But I will tell you a pretty story from 
William Hawes, of Trin. Coll., who was well acquainted 
with the governor aforesaid, who told him that my lady 
was (after the manner of woemen) much governed by, 
and indulgent to, the nursery ; when she had a mind to 
beg any thing of my lord for one of her woemen * (nurses, 
or &c.) ; she would not doe it by herselfe (if she could 
helpe it), but putt this gentleman upon it, to move it to 
my lord. My lord had but a small estate for his title ; 
and the old gentleman would say, ' Madam, this is so 
unreasonable a motion to propose to my lord, that I am 
certaine he will never graunt it ' ; — e. g. one time to lett 
a farme* twenty pound per annum under value. At 
length, when she could not prevaile on him, she would 
say that, ' I warrant you, for all this, I will obtaine it of 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 93. * Dupl. with ' rnayds.' 

'' Dupl. with ' bargaine.' 



150 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

my lord ; it will cost me but the expence of a fetv teares.' 
Now she would make her words good ; and this great 
witt, the greatest master of reason and judgement of his 
time, at the long runne, being storm'd by her teares (I pre- 
sume there were kissei and secret embraces that were also 
ingredients), would this pious lady obtain her unreasonable 
desires of her poor lord. 

Haec verba, me hercule, una falsa ]acrumula, 

Quam, oculos terendo misere, vix vi expresserit, 

Restinguet. 

Terent. Eunuch. Act i, Scene i. 

N B. : — my lord in his youth was very wild, and also 
mischievous, as being apt to stabbe and doe bloudy mis- 
chiefs ; but 'twas not long before he tooke-up to be 
serious, and then grew to be an extraordinary hard 
t A mayd that studcnt. I havc heard Dr. Ralph Bathurst f 
lord lived with Say that, when he was a boy, my lord lived 
I'xiiereTs ' at Coveutrcy (where he had then a house), 
Harmoniques and that he would sett up very late at nights 

written with , ■ , t i . ■ j_ ii 

Philemon Hoi- at his study, and many times came to the 

land's owne , , , , 1 1 j. » 

hand, in a library at the schoole % there. 

curious Greeke ,-,. , , , /. 

character; he The studics in fashion m those dayes (in 

was school- t^ T i\ 1 ■ • 1 

master here. England) wcrc poctry, and controversie with 
the church of Rome. My lord's mother was a zealous 
papist, who being very earnest to have her son of her 
religion, and her son upon that occasion, labouring hard 
to find the * trueth, was so far at last from setling 
on the Romish church, that he setled and rested in 
the Polish (I meane Socinianisme). He was the first 
Socinian in England; and Dr. (Hugh) Crescy, of Merton 
Coll. (dean of <Leighlin> in Ireland, afterwards a Bene- 
dictin monke), a great acquaintance of my lord's in those 
dayes (anno . . . ), told me, at Samuel Cowper's (1669), 
that he himselfe was the first that brought Socinus's bookes 
(anno . . . ) ; shortly after, my lord comeing to him, and 
casting his eie on them, would needs presently borrow 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 93'. 



Lucius Cary 151 



them, to peruse ; and was so extremely taken and satisfied 
with them, that from that time was his conversion. 

My lord much lived at Tue, which is a pleasant seat, 
and about 12 miles from Oxford ; his lordship was ac- 
quainted with the best witts of that University, and his 
house was like a Colledge, full of learned men*. Mr. 
WiUiam Chillingworth, of Trinity College in Oxford (after- 
wards D.D.), was his most intimate and beloved favourite, 
and was most commonly with my lord ; next I may reckon 
(if not equall) Mr. John Earles, of Merton College (who 
wrote the Characters) ; Dr. (George) Eglionby, of Ch. Ch., 
was also much in esteem with his lordship. His chaplaine. 
Charles Gataker, (filius (Thomae) Gataker of Redriff, a 
writer), was an ingeniose young gentleman, but no writer '' 
For learned gentlemen of the country, his acquaintance 
was Sir H. Rainesford, of . . . neer Stratford-upon-Avon, 
now .... (quaere Tom Mariet) ; Sir Francis Wenman ", 
of Caswell, in Witney parish ; Mr. . . . Sandys, the traveller 
and translator (who was uncle to my lady Wenman) ; 
Ben. Johnson (vide Johnsonus Virbius, where he haz 
verses, and 'twas his lordship, Charles Gattaker told 
me, that gave the name to it) ; Edmund Waller, esq. ; 
Mr. Thomas Hobbes, and all the excellent "^ of that 
peaceable time. 

In the civill warres he adhered to King Charles I, who 
after Edge-hill fight made him Principall Secretary of 
Estate (with Sir Edward Nicholas), which he dischardged 
with a great deale of witt and prudence, only his advice 
was very unlucky to his Majestic, in perswading him 
(after the victory" at Rowndway-downe, and the taking 
of Bristowe), to sitt-downe before Glocester, which was 
so bravely defended by that incomparably vigilant governor 
coll. . . . Massey, and the diligent and careful soldiers 
and citizens (men and woemen), that it so broke and 

» Anthony Wood notes in the mar- " Subst. for ' Wayneman.' 

gin ' Jo<hn> Triplett.' " ' excellent' written over ' witts,' as 

i" Charles Gataker was author of an alternative, 

several pamphlets. " Dupl.with'victory by the Devizes.' 



IS2 



Aubrey s 'Brief Lives' 



weakned the king's army, that 'twas the procatractique 
cause of his ruine : vide Mr. Hobbes. After this, all 
the King's matters went worse and worse. Anno domini 
164(3) ^t the .... fight (quaere which) at Newbery, my 
lord Falkland being there, and having nothing to doe to 
chardge ; as the 2 armies were engageing, rode in like 
a mad-man (as he was) between them, and was (as he 
needs must be) shott. Some that" were your superfine 
discoursing politicians and fine gentlemen, would needs 
have the reason of this mad action of throwing away 
his life so, to be his discontent for the unfortunate advice 
given to his master as aforesaid ; but, I have been 
well enformed, by those that best knew him, and 
* knew the intrigues behind the curtaine (as they say), 
that it was the griefe of the death of Mris . . . Moray, 
a handsome lady at court, who was his mistresse, and 
whom he loved above all creatures, was the true cause 
of his being so madly guilty of his own death, as afore 
mentioned : (inilbtm mag?i7iju ingenhtm sine mixtitra de- 
men tiae). 

The next day, when they went to bury the dead, they 
could not find his lordship's body, it was stript, trod-upon, 
and mangled ; so there was one that had wayted on him 
in his chamber would undertake to know it from all other 
bodyes, by a certaine mole his lordship had in his neck, 
and by that marke did find it. He lies interred in the 

at Great Tue aforesaid, but, I thinke, yet without 

any monument ; quaere if any inscription. 

In the dining roome there is a picture of his at length, 
and like him ('twas donne by Jacob de Valke, who taught 
me to paint). He was but a little man, and of no great 
strength of body ; he had blackish haire, something flaggy, 
and I thinke his eies black. Dr. Earles would not allow 
him to be a good poet, though a great witt ; he writt 
not a smoth verse, but a greate deal of sense. He hath 
writt 

' Subst. for ' Some now that.' * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 94. 



Sir Charles Cavendish 153 

He had an estate in Hertfordshire, at , which 

came by Morrison (as I take it) ; sold not long before 
the late civill warres. 

A'bUs. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the coat ' argent, on a bend sable, 3 roses of the 
field [Cary],' surmounted with a viscount's coronet and wreathed with laurel 
for a poet. 

'' A pencil note in the margin says : ' quaere Baron Beity ' ; perhaps Vere 
Bertie, Puisne Baron of the Exchequer, 1675. The query would be for the 
name of the tutor on the foreign tour. 

' i.e. a maid, formerly in Lucius, lord Falkland's service, came into service 
with Dr. Bathnrst's father, and told of his lordship's late studies. 

Sir Charles Cavendish (16. .-1652 r). 

* (From Mr. John Collins, mathematician : — ) Sir Charles 
Cavendish^ was borne at ... , the younger brother to 
William, duke of Newcastle. He was a little, weake, 
crooked man, and nature having not adapted him for 
the court nor campe, he betooke himselfe to the study 
of the mathematiques, wherin he became a great master. 
His father left him a good estate, the revenue wherof he 
expended on bookes and on learned men. 

He had collected in Italie, France, &c., with no small 
chardge, as many manuscript mathematicall bookes as 
filled a hoggeshead, which he intended to have printed ; 
which if he had live(d> to have donne, the growth of 
mathematicall learning had been 30 yeares or more for- 
warder then 'tis. But he died of the scurvey, contracted 
by hard study, about 1652 (quaere), and left one Mr. 
. . , an attorney of Clifford's Inne, his executor, who 
shortly after died, and left his wife executrix, who sold 
this incomparable collection aforesaid by weight to the 
past-board makers for wast paper. J^ A good caution 
foi those that have good MSS. to take care to see them 
printed in their life-times. 

He dyed .... and was buried in the vault of the 
family of the duke of Newcastle, at Bolsover, in the 
countie of (Derby). 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 29. 



T54 Aubrey s 'Brief Lives' 

He is mentioned by Mersennus. Dr. John Pell (who 
knew him, and made him one of his XII jurymen contra 
Longomontanum) tells me that he writt severall things 
in mathematiques for his owne pleasure. 

Aot€. 

' Aubrey gives in tricl: the coat : — ' sable, 3 biiclfs' heads caboshed argent 
[Cavendish] ; quartering, argent, a fess between 3 crescents gules [Ogle], 
a crescent on the fess point for difference,' with the motto Cavendo tutus. 

Charles Cavendish, Colonel, (1620-1643). 

* Charles Cavendish, colonel, was second son to the 
right honourable (William, 2nd> earle of Devonshire, 
brother to this present earle, William. 

He was borne at anno .... He was well 

educated, and then travelled into France, Italic, &c. ; but 
was so extremely delighted in travelling, that he went 
into Greece, all over ; and that would not serve his turne 
but he would goe to Babylon, and then his governour 
would not adventure to goe any further with him ; but to 
see Babylon he was to march in the Turks' armie. This 
account I had many yeares since, scilicet 1642, from my 
cosen Edmund Lyte, who was then gentleman usher to 
his mother the countesse dowager. 

Mr. Thomas Hobbes told me that this Mr. Cavendish told 
him that the Greekes doe sing their Greeke. — In Hereford- 
shire they have a touch of this singing ; our old divines 
had. Our old vicar of Kington St. Michael, Mr. Hynd, 
did sing his sermons rather then reade them. You may 
find in Erasmus that the monkes used this fashion, who 
mocks them, that sometimes they would be very lowe, 
and by and by they would be mighty high, quando nihil 
opus est. — Anno 1660 comeing one morning to Mr. Hobbes, 
his Greeke Xenophon lay open on the board : sayd he, 
' Had you come but a little sooner you had found a Greeke 
here that came to see me, who understands the old Greeke ; 
I spake to him to read here in this booke, and he sang 

* MS. Auljr. 6, fol. 29 : Aubrey repeats the coat given supra. 



Charles Cavendish 



155 



it ; which putt me in mind of what Mr. Charles Cavendish 
told me' (as before); 'the first word is "E.vvoia, he pro- 
nounced it ennia! The better way to explaine it is by 
prick-song, 



VII " 



Q 



MTjvty aetSe Qio. nrjXT)i'a6eco 'AxtA^os" avOpdiiros. 

* Upon his returne into England the civill warres 
brake-out, and he tooke a comission of a colonel in his 
majestie's cause, wherin he did his majestie great service, 
and gave signall proofes of his valour ; — e. g. out of 

Mercurii Atdici — • 

Grantham, in Lincolnshire, taken by col. Cavendish for the king, 
23 March, 164J, and after demolished. — Young Hotham routed at 
Ancaster by col. Cavendish, 11 Apr. 1643. — Parliament forces routed 
or defeated at Dunnington by col. Cavendish, 13 June, 1643. 

Mercuritts Aulicus, Tuesday, Aug. I, 1643; 'It was advertised 
from Newarke that his majestie's forces having planted themselves 
at the siege of Gainsborough in com. Line, were sett upon by the 
united powers of Cromwell, Nottingham, and Lincolne, the garrisons 
of these townes being almost totally drawn-out to make-up this army, 
which consisted of 24 troupes of horse and dragoons. Against this 
force, col. Cavendish having the command of 30 troupes of horse and 
dragoons, drawes out 16 only, and leaving all the rest for a reserve, 
advanced towards them, and engaged himselfe with this small partie 
against all their strength. Which being observed by the rebells, they 
gott between him and his reserve, routed his 16 troupes, being fore- 
spent with often watches, killed lievetenant-colonel Markam, most 
valiantly fighting in defence of his king and countrey. The most noble 
and gallant colonel himselfe, whilest he omitted no part of a brave 
commander, being cutt most dangerously in the head, was struck-off 
his horse, and so unfortunately shott with a brace of bullets after 
he was on the ground, whose life was most pretious to all noble and 
valiant gentlemen. Wherupon the reserve coming, routed and cutt 
downe the partie.' 

This was donne either the 2H or 29 of July, 1643, for 
upon this terrible rout, the lord Willoughby of Parham 
* M.S. Atibr. 6, fol. 29'. 



156 Aubrey s 'Brief Lives' 

forthwith yealded Gainsborough to the king's partie, 

July 30 ; the earle of Newcastle being then generall of 
that partie. 

His body was first buried at . . . , f but 

+ Quaere if at r \ • 1 ' -n i i 

Gainshornu|Th by Order of his mother s will, when she was 

or Newark ? , 

as I remember buricd at Darby (where she has erected a 

'twas Newarkc. 

noble monument for herselfe and lord) she 
ordered her Sonne's body to be removed, and both to 
be layd in the vault there together, which was Feb. i8, 
1674. 

Funerall Sermon, by William Naylour, her chaplain, 
preached at Darby, Feb. i8, 1674. Lond. for Henry 
Broome. Texte, 2 Sam. iii. 38th verse. — page 16: 

' He was the souldiers' mignion, and his majestie's darling, designed 
by him generall of the northern horse (and his commission was given 
him), a great marke of honour for one of about five and twenty : 
" thus shall it be donne to the man whom the king delights to 
honour.'' 

' Col. Cavendish was a princely person, and all his actions were 
agreable to that character : he had in an eminent degree that which 
the Greekes call fHor a^iov TvpavviSos, the semblance and appearance 
of a man made to governe. Methinkes he gave clearethis indication, 
the king's cause lived with him, the king's cause died with him — when 
Cromwell heard that he was slaine, he cried upon it We have donne 
our hisinesse. 

' And yet two things (I must confess) this commander knew not, 
pardon his ignorance, — he knew not to flie away — he knew not how to 
aske quarter — though an older did, I meane . . . Henderson; for when 
this bold person entred Grantham on the one side, that wary gentle- 
man, who should have attaqued it, fled away on the other. If Cato 
thought it usurpation in Caesar to give him his life. Cavendish thought 
it a greater for traytors and rebells of a common size to give him his. 
This brave hero might be opprest, (as he was at last by numbers) but 
he could not be conquered ; the dying words of Epaminondas will fitt 
h im, Sa/is vi'xi, invictiis etiam morior. 

* ' What wonders might have been expected from a commander 
so vigilant, so loyall, so constant, had he not dropt downe in his 
blooming age? But though he fell in his green yeares, he^ ftll a 
prince, and a great one too, in this respect greater then Abner; for 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 39. 

' Anthony Wood notes 'col. Charles Cavendish.' 



Charles Cavendish 



157 



Abner, that son of Mars, deserved his father's epithite, aXXoTpdcraXXoj, 
one of both sides, first he setts-up Isbosheth, and then deserts him. 
Whereas Cavendish merited such a statue as the Roman senate 
decreed L. Vitellius, and the same inscription, Pietatis immobilis 
erga Principem, one whose loyaltie to his great master nothing 
could shake. 

'Secondly, consider the noble Charles Cavendish in his extraction, 
and so he is a branch of that family, of which some 
descended that are kings of Scotland : this the word 
Fuimus joyned to his maternall t coate does plainly 
point at — not to urge at this time his descent by the 
father's side from one of the noblest families in England. 
An high extraction to some persons is like the dropsie, 
the greatnesse of the man is his disease, and renders 
him unweildie ; but here is a person of great extract 
free from the swelling of greatness, as brisk and acti\e 
as the hghtest horseman that fought under him. In 
some parts of India, they tell us, that a nobleman 
accounts himselfe polluted if a plebeian touch him ; 
but here is a person of that rank who used the same 
familiaritie J and frankness amongst the meanest of his 
souldiers, the poorest miner, and amongst his equalls ; 
and by stooping so low, he rose the higher in the 
common account, and was valued accordingly as a 
prince *, and a great one ; thus Abner and Cavendish 
run parallell in their titles and appellations. 

' Consider Abner in the manner of his fall, that was 
by a treacherous hand, and so fell Cavendish. II Sam. 
iii. 27. " And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab 
tooke him aside in the gate to speake with him quietly, 
and smote him there under the fifth rib, that he died, 
for the bloud of Asahel * his brother." Thus fell Abner ; and thus 
Cavendish,— the colonell's horse being mired in a bog at the fight 
before Gainsborough, 1643, the rebels surround him, and take him 
prisoner • and after he was so, a base raskall comes behind him, and 
runs him through. Thus fell two great men by treacherous handes. 

' Thirdly and lastly, the place of his iall, that was in Israel . . . Here 
Abner fell in his, and Cavendish fell in our Israel— the Church of 
England. ... In this Church brave Cavendish fell, and what is more 
then that, in this Churches quarrel. . . . 

'Thus I have compared colonel Cavendish with Abner, a fighting 
and a famous man in Israel ; you see how he does equal, how he does 
exceed him.' 



t His mother 
was daughter 
to the lord 
Bruce, whose 
ancestors had 
been kings of 
Scotland! 
t Sir Robert 
Harley (son), an 
iiigeniose gfnt. 
and expert sol- 
dier, haz often 
sayd, that 
(generally) the 
commanders of 
the king's army 
would never be 
acquainted with 
their soldiers, 
which was an 
extraordinary 
prejudice to the 
king's cause. 
A captaine's 
good look, or 
good word (some 
times), does 
infinitely winne 
them, and 
oblige them ; 
and he would 
say 'twa to 
admiration how 
souldiers will 
venture their 
lives for an 
obligeing officer. 
— quod N. B, 



* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 39'. 



' Abner' in MS. by a slip. 



158 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

John Cecil, 4th earl of Exeter (1628-1678). 

* . . . Cecil, earl of Exeter (quaere my lord chief 
baron Montagu" de nomine Christiano''), earle of Exeter, 
translated monsieur Balsac's letters, as appeares by his 
epistle to my lord in the first volumne, lib. V, lettre V, and 
Vol. 1^, lib. V, lettre VI — ' et je suis sans doute beaucoup 
plus honneste homme en Angleterre qu'en France, puisque 
j'y parle par vostre bouche.' 

William Cecil, lord Burghley (1520-1598). 

** Cecil, lord Burleigh : — Memorandum, the true name 
is Sitsilt, and is an ancient Monmouthshire family, but 
now come to be about the size ° of yeomanry. In the 
church at Monmouth, I remember in a south windowe 
an ancient scutcheon of the family, the same that this 
family beares. 'Tis strange that they should be so vaine 
to leave off an old British name for a Romancy one, which 
I beleeve Mr. Verstegan did putt into their heads, telling 
his lordship, in his booke, that they were derived from 
the ancient Roman Cecilii. 

The first lord Burley (who was Secretary of Estate) 
was at first but (a) country-schoole- master, and (I 
thinke Dr. Thomas Fuller sayes, vide Holy State) borne 
in Wales. 

I remember (when I was a schooleboy at Blandford) 
Mr. Basket, a reverend divine, who was wont to beg us 
play-dayes, would alwayes be'^ uncovered, and sayd that 
''twas the lord Burleigh's custome,/(?r (said he) here is my 
Lord Chanceller, my Lord Treasurer, my Lord Chief Jjtstice, 
iHrc, predestinatedl 

' He made Cicero's Epistles his glasse, his rule, his 
oracle, and ordinarie pocket-booke ' (Dr. J. Web in pre- 
face of his translation of Cicero's Familiar Epistles). 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 59'. earl in 1(143. 
" SirWilliam Montagu, Chief Baron ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 60. 

of the Exchequer 1676-1686. 1= Dupl. with 'degree.' 

^ John Cecil, succeeded as fourth "" Subst. for ' keepe.' 



Thomas Chaloner 159 



Thomas Chaloner (1595-1661). 

* Thomas Chaloner 1, esq., [bred ^ up in Oxon], was the 
(third) son of Dr (Thomas) Chaloner, who was tutor (i.e. 
mformator'^) to prince Henry (or prince Charles — vide 
bishop Hall's Letters de hoc). 

He was a well-bred gentleman, and of very good naturall 
parts, and of an agreable humour. He had the accomplish- 
ments of studies at home, and travells in France, Italic, 
and Germanic. 

About anno . . . (quaere John Collins) riding a hunting 
in Yorkeshire (where the allum workes now are), on 
a common, he ^ tooke notice of the soyle and herbage, and 
tasted the water, and found it to be like that where he 
had seen the allum workes in Germanic. Wherupon he 
gott a patent of the king (Charles I) for an allum worke 
(which was the first that ever was in England), which was 
worth to him two thousand pounds per annum, or better : 
but tempore Caroli I"' some courtiers did thinke the 
profitt too much for him, and prevailed so with the king, 
that, notwithstanding the patent aforesayd, he graunted 
a moeitie, or more, to another (a courtier), which was the 
reason that made Mr. Chaloner so interest himselfe for 
the Parliament-cause, and, in revenge, to be one of the 
king's judges. 

He was as far from a puritan as the East from the 
West. He was of the naturall religion, and of Henry 
Martyn's gang, and one who loved to enjoy the pleasures 
of this life. He was (they say) a good scholar, but he 
wrote nothing that I heare of, onely an anonymous pam- 
phlett, 8vo, scil. An account of the Discovery of Moyses's 
Tombe; which was written very wittily. It was about 
165a. It did sett the witts of all the Rabbis of the 



* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 19. June 7, 161 1. 

' The words in square brackets " i. e. ' tutor,' in the sense of 

are added by Anthony Wood. Chalo- instructor (not, of comptroller of the 

ncr matriculated at Exeter College, household). 



i6o Aubrey s 'Brief Lives' 

Assembly then to worke, and 'twas a pretty while before 
the shamme was detected, which was by 

He had a trick sometimes to goe into Westminster hall 
in a morning in Terme time, and tell some strange story" 
(sham), and would come thither again about ii or 12 
to have the pleasure to heare how it spred ; and sometimes 
it would be altered, with additions, he could scarce knowe 
it to be his owne. He was neither proud nor covetous, 
nor a hypocrite : not apt to doe injustice, but apt to 
revenge. 

After the restauration of King Charles the Second, he ^ 
, ^,. . kept the castle at the Isle of Man f, where he 

T This IS a ^ 

mistake had a Drettic wench that was his concubine ; 

E{dinunn) ^ 

w(yid) esq * where when newes was brought him that there 

assures me that ^ 

CHAUNER\hat ^^''^ some come to the castle to demaund it 
ofMan"'and'^ ^°^ ^^^ majcstic, hc spakc to his girle to make 
chaloTer'*^ him a posset, into which he putt, out of a paper 
beyondVhlsea; ^^ had, somc poyson, which did, in a very short 
Ihemwast°he time, make him fall a vomiting exceedingly; 
kl'wes'nofrbuf and after some time vomited nothing but bloud. 
j^l^fto be the His retchings were so violent that the standers 
hS'.'.smA- per^ by were much grieved to behold it. Within 
»hicrTHOMAs'' three howres he dyed. The demandants of the 
castle came and sawe him dead ; he was swoln 
so extremely that they could not see any eie he had, and 
no more of his nose then the tip of it, which shewed like 
a wart, and his coddes were swoln as big as one's head. 
This account I had from George Estcourt, D.D., whose 
brother-in-lawe, . . . Hotham, was one of those that sawe 
him. 

A'oles. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the coat ' azure, 3 cherubs' heads or.' In MS. Aubr. 
8, fol. 6', is a note : — ' Is Chaloner's shield cum vel sine chevron. Resp. — 
cum chevron, prout per scale.' 

' Anthony Wood assigns the discovery, and first working, of the alum-mine 
to Thomas Chaloner the father, towards the end of Elizabeth's reign. 

^ Anthony Wood says that James Chaloner, brother of Thomas, poisoned 
himself in 1660 at Peel Castle. Thomas died in 1661 at Middleburg in 
Zeeland. 

" Dupl. with ' false,' i.e. falsehood. * MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 19'. 



George Chapman. Walter Charleton i6i 

George Chapman (1557-1634). 

* On the south side of St. Giles church in the church- 
yard by the wall, one entire Portland stone ^, a yard and 
\ high fere, thickness half a yard. 

D. O. M. 

Georgius Chapmannus 

Poeta Hotnericus Philosophus 

o (etsi Christianus 

otus) per quam celeriter 

... V: LXXVII fatis concessit 
. . . die Mail anno Salutis 
Humanae M D C XXXIV 

H. S. E. 

Ignatius Jones architectus 

regius ob honorem bonarunj 

literarum familiari suo 

hoc monumentum 

D. S. P. F. C. 

JVote. 

' In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6i', Aubrey gives a rough drawing of the monument. 
The lower part is an oblong block, ' thicknes j yard : one entire Portland 
stone ' with the inscription on the front. Above is a laurel wreath carved in 
stone. Behind is what seems to be a mural tablet. 

In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6", Aubrey asks, ' quaere if . . . Chapman is in the first 
part?' i.e. in MS. Aubr. 6 (Lives, Part i.) : but no life of Chapman is found in 
that volume. 

Walter Charleton (i6^§-i7o7). 

** Walter Charleton, M.D., borne at Shepton-Malet * in 
com. Somerset, Feb. 2^, 1619, about 6 h. P.M., his mother 
being then at supper. 

*** ' Dom. G. Charleton, D. M. : nascitur die Mercurii ^ tv 
Febr., aerae Christi 16}^, hor. la, mom. 18 P.M.' — this" is 
my lord William Brounckar's doeing and is his owne hand- 
writing. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 61. Aubrey Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 
has been unable to make out the 144. 

whole inscription. *** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 54. 

** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. a'', and a slip ^ Wednesday, 

at fol. 100'. ° i. e. the horoscope which Aubrey 

» ' His father was minister there ' : has there. 
I. M 



i62 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Thomas Charnoek (1536-1581). 

* Mr. (Andrew) Paschal, rector of Chedzoy, hath the 
originall scroll of Mr. Charnoek, scilicet, of the philoso- 
pher's stone. 

** Mr. Charnoek, the chymist, mentioned in (Ashmole's) 
Theatrum Ckymicum, was buryed in Otterhampton neer 
Bridgewater, anno 1581 ", April ai, aged $^ yeares — 
(from) Mr. Paschal : vide Mr. Paschal's lettre, here inserted ^ 
before (the life of) Nicholas Mercator, p. 32. 

*** Co7icerning Mr. Charnocke. 
Sir, 

Mr. Wells of Bridgewater performed his promise. He 
writes that the house was lately pulled down, and is new 
built from the ground, all except the wall at the east end. 
He could make nothing of what was only left over the 
chimney ; but he found the little dore that led out of the 
lodging-chamber into the little Athanor roome. Of that 
you have an account in the enclosed draught. 

The two roses I take to be the white and red, termes 
common with Charnocke for the two niagisteries. The 
two animals over them I suppose are wolves, denoting 
the " S abounding with a volatile '^ © and used for pre- 
paring and purifying one of the principal ingredients into 
the worke. Out of it growes (if those authors may be 
credited) most precious fruits. 

I obliged a painter to goe over soon after I had been 
there and take all he could find exactly. He was there, 
but I could never get anything from him : an ingeniose 
man, but egregiously carelesse. 

Looking back I find this noted by me — June 2a, 1681 ; 
the place in the Athanor roome in which he kept his 

* MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 77. " i. e. as fol. 56-58 of MS. Aubr. 8. 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 9'. *** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 58' ; the 

" Anthony Wood noted here ' rather heading is by Aubrey ; the letter is 

1680; ifyoumeane Stephen Charnoek, the original. 

the divine ' : but saw his error and ° Earth. 

erased the note. ^ Salt. 



Thomas Charnock 163 

lampe was stone-work about 15 inches deep and so much 
square in the clear from side to side. Over it a wooden 
collar with a rabit" as to lett-in a cover close. No place 
to come into the square but by the collar, contrived probably 
after the accident of burning his tabernacle mentioned in 
his printed pieces. 

I find this added: — 'Twas painted about the chimney 
thus : — on the left side of the chimney proceeded from 
a red stalk streaked with white, first, a paire of red branches, 
then a paire of white, then of red, then one of white to 
the top ; something like a rabbit's head painted looking 
from the chimney to the foot of the sayd stalk. — The next 
picture separated as by a pillar on the chimney :— from 
one stalke, two white branches, of either side one ; then 
two red, above; then two white; then at the top this 

the balls of a dusky yellow. — The next picture is 

also distinguished by a pillar on the chimney to the 
right side : this (is) quite obscured by smoake. 

In the left corner of the roome another picture described, 
with double branches, white, then red, then white, then one 
on the top red. 

This is all I can say of that place, of which I wish I were 
capable of sending a better account. 

The other side of Mr. Wells's paper gives you one of 
the schemes in the middle of the roll, which is now by me. 

The transcription of the thing, said to be Ripley's, 

should cost Mr. Ashmole nothing, were I not under an 

obligation not to impart it to any. It may be greatly to 

his losse who did communicate it to me, if the owner 

should know I have it. If I can contrive a way to send 

it with leave I shall be ambitious to gratify that worthy 

person. 

your etc. 

And. Paschall. 

a Rabbet = ' a groove cut along the edge of another board, required to fit 

edge of a board ... to receive a KC— Century Dictionary. 
corresponding projection cut on the 

M 3 



164 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

* To his much honoured friend John Aubrey, esqre., 
these present, at Mr. Hooke's lodgeings in Gresham College, 
London. 

** Sir, 

I received and returne thankes for yours. 

Since my last I got leave to transcribe what Mr. Char- 
nocke wrote on the backside of the rolle, which I heer 
send you. I kept as neare as I could to the very errours 
of his pen, by which it may in part be seen that he was, 
as he professes, an tinlettered scholar. The inside of the rolle 
(which is all in Latine, and perhaps the same with the 
scrowle mentioned in Theatrttm Chemicum, p. 375) was 
composed by a great master in the Hermetic philosophy 
and written by a master of his pen. Some notes written 
in void spaces of it by Mr. Charnocke's hand shew he did 
not (at least throughly) understand it. But it seemes to 
me that this rolle was a kind of Vade viecum or manuall 
that the students in that wisdome carryed about with 
them. I presume 'twas drawn out of Raymund LuUy, of 
which I shall be able to gaine fuller satisfaction when 
I have his workes come down. 

I was also, since my last, at Mr. Charnocke's house in 
Comag, where the rolle was found ; and saw the place 
where 'twas hid. I saw the litle roome and contrivance 
he had for keeping his worke, and found it ingeniosely 
ordered so as to prevent a like accident to that which 
befell him New Yeare's day, 1555 ; and this pretty place 
joining as a closet to his chamber was to make a servant 
needlesse and the worke of giving attendance more easy 
to himselfe, I have also a litle iron instrument found 
there which he made use of about his fire. I sawe on the 
doore of his little Athanor-xoom, if I may so call it, drawn 
by his own hand, with course colours and work, but in- 
geniously, an embleme of his worke, at which I gave some 
guesses, and so about the walls of his chamber. I thinke 

* Address, on MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 53. ** MS. Aubr. 8,fol. 57. The letter 

Postage is marked as ' 6a'.' is the original. 



Thomas Charnock 165 

there was in all 5 panes of this worke, all somewhat differing 
from each other, some very obscure and almost worne out. 
They told me that people had been unwilling to dwell in 
that house, because reputed troublesome, — I presume from 
some traditionall storyes of this person, who was looked 
on by his neighbours as no better than a conjurer. 

As I was taking horse to come home from this pleasant 
entertainment, I see a pretty ancient man come forth of 
the next doore. I asked him how long he had lived there. 
Finding that it was the place of his birth, I inquired if he 
had ever heard anything of that Mr. Charnocke. He told 
me he had heard his mother (who dyed about la or 14 
yeares since and was 80 yeares of age at her decease) often 
speake of him ; that he kept a fire in, divers yeares ; that 
his daughter lived with him ; that once he was gone forth, 
and by her neglect (whome he trusted it with in his 
absence) the fire went out and so all his worke was lost ; 
the brazen head was very neare comeing to speake, but 
so was he disappointed. 

I suppose the pleasant-humoured man — for that he was 
so appeares by his breviary — alludeing to Frier Bacon's 
story, did so put off the inquisitivenes of his simple neigh- 
bours, and thence it is come down there by tradition 
till now. 

Indeed it appeares by the inclosed lines that when he 
wrote the rolle he had attained but to the white stone, 
which is perhaps not half the way to the red, 

(' Put me to my sister Mercury, I congeale into silver ') ; 
and, if the old woman's tale were true, he might after- 
wards be going on and be come neare to the red and then 
that vexing accident might befall him ; and this might 
be, notwithstanding what is sayd in the fragment, re- 
ferred to the yeare 1574, for (being so neare the red 
as the traditionall story sayes he was) he might see 
in that 50th yeare of his age that the white was ferment 
to the red. 

You may observe my calculation differs in one thing 
from Mr. Ashmole's in his notes upon Theatrum Chemicum, 



i66 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

p. 478 : for he makes ' the presse ' to have been (out of 
Stowe) 15.58, but I (out of Dr. Burnet's History) 1557 ; 
and consequently he supposes the presse to have been 
after the finishing of the Breviary, but I presume he set 
on the Breviary after he was pressed. So indeed he him- 
selfe plainly averres in the 4 last lines of chapter 4 of his 
Breviary (Theatrum Chemiaim, p. 296). I mention this 
to give a reason for my dissenting from your worthy friend, 
to whome I must intreat you to communicate these in- 
formations that I have had opportunity to gather, and 
also present my humble service. 

Sir, 

I thought when I set pen to paper to have given 
you an account of some conversation I have had with a person 
who is a zealous friend and admirer of this sort of know- 
ledge, but I see I have already gone beyound bounds. 
I shal onely say he hath almost convinced me that it is 
not so hidden and obscure, so difficult and unaccountable, 
as men commonly seeme to beleeve. I am in hopes to 
receive, by Mr. Hooke's and Mr. Lodwick's favour, the 
lamp for which he was pleased to give directions some 
time since. 

I have not yet seen my miller and his invention, though he 
promised to bring it to me ; I presume 'tis not yet ready. 
I expect him dayly. 

Pray give my humble service to our worthy friend, and 
to Mr. Pigott. 

I am sure I now need the " . . . . 

* I shall be glad to heare of a new edition of the 
Theatrum^ and that you will speed the printing of your 
MS. of Raymund Lullye's. If it doe not goe soon to 
the presse, how joyful! should I be to have the perusall 
of it ! 'Tis the onely grievous thing I suffer in this solitude 
that I may not see good bookes and good men, but 
I must be content. 

" Line frayed off. •> 'E\\3.s,kshmo\e'sTheatrtimChejni- 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 56''. cu7?i Britannicum, 1652. 



Thomas Charnock 167 

* The first thing written on the back side " is as followes : — 

At Stockeland, Bristowe, iiii myles from Brigewater, 1566. 

The principall rules of naturall philosophy figuratively set fourth to 
the obtayning of the philosopher's stone, collectyd out of xl auctors by 
the unletteryd scholer Thomas Chamocke, studient in the sciencis off 
astronomie, physick, and naturall philosophie, the same year that he 
dedicatyd a booke off the science to queene Elizabeth of Englande 
which was Anno Domini 1566, and the viii yere off her raigne. 



(MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 56^, gives the rest of the writing on the back of 
the roll ; but the outer edge of the leaf is torn off, and the writing 
consequently imperfect) 

his pose 

. . on the white and red rose 
. black appere sartayne 
XX or it wax bright 
Ix after to black againe 
XX or it be perfet* white 
it or all quick things be dedd 
. . or this rose be redd 
Thomas Chamocke [in ° red letters] 
1572. 

This is the philosopher's dragon which eateth upp his one tayle 
Beinge famisshed in a doungen of glas and all for my prevayle 
(Ma)ny yeres I keapt this dragon in pryson strounge. 
<Bef>ore I coulde mortiffy him I thought it lounge 
(But) at the lenght by God's grace yff ye beleve my worde 
(I) vanquished him wythe a fyrie sword. 

[Then"* followes the picture of a dragon with a black 
stone under his foot, with a white stone neare his breast, 
with a red stone over his head : his tayle is turned to his 
gapeing mouth.] 

The dragon speketh : — 

. . . . souldiers in armoure bright 

. . . (n>ot have kylled me in fyelde in fighte 

. . (Cha)mock nother for all his philosophie 

■ • • (pr)yson and famyne he had not famysshed me 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 56. "= A note added IQ the text by 

" i. e. of the roll mentioned, supra, Paschall. 
p ig. "1 A description by Paschall of a 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 56". drawing on the roll, after the above 

I' ' Perfet ' is scored through. verses. 



i68 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

(Guy of W}arwicke nor Bevys of Southehampton 

. such a venomous dragon 

. fowght with Hidra the serpent 

. . . e cowlde not have his intent 

. n the wyse inclose too in a toonne off brasse 

. d shutt up in a doungeon of glasse 

. lyffe was so quick and my poyson so strounge 

. e cowlde kyll me it was full lounge 

. he hyld me in prison day and nyght 
{k)eapt me from sustenance to mynishe me myght 

When I saw none other remedye 

very hunger I eate myne one bodye 

. . by corruption I became black and dedd 
{Th}at precious stone which is in my hedd 
. . . be worth a M^' to him that hath skyll 
(F}or that stone's sake he wysely dyd me kyll 
(In d)eath I dyd hym forgyve even at the very hower 
{Se)inge that he wylbe beneficiall unto the poore 
When I was alyve I was but stronge poyson 
Profittable for few things in conclusion 
{Now th)at I ame now dying in myne owne blood 
(N)ow I do excell all other wordeley good 
{A) new name is given me of those that be wysse 
(No)w I ame named the elixer off great price 
(If y)ou wyll make prouff, put to me my sister mercury 
(I will co)ngoyle hir into sylver in the twinkling off an eye 
. . . . . qualites I have many mo 

. . . (foo)lyshe and ingenorant shall never kno 
Few prelates and Masters of art within this reame 
Do knowe aryght what I do meane 

My great grawnt-father was killyd by Ravnde LuUi, knight of Spayne 
And my g(r)awnt-father by Syr Gorge Rippley, a chanon of 

Yenglande sartayne 
And my father by a chanon of Lechefelde was kylled truly 
Who gave hym to his man Thomas Davton when he dyd dye 
And my mother by Mr. Thomas Norton off Bristow slayn was 
And each of these were able to make *@ or D in a glasse 
And now I ame made the great and riche elixer allso 
That my master shall never lack whether he ryde or go 
But he and all other must have great feare and aye 
As secrettely as they can to exchaunge my increase awaye. 



Here Charnock changeth to a better cheere 

For the sorrow that he hath sufferyd many a yere 

* The symbols for sun and moon = gold and silver. 



Thomas Charnock 169 

Or that he could accomplish the regiment of his fyre 

"or he saw his desier 

Wherefore in thy hartt now prease God allway 
And do good deeds with it whatsoever thou may 
Therefore thy god gave this science unto thee 
To be his stuarde and refresh the poore and needie. 



Anno D. 1526 — Thomas Charnocke borne at Feversham 

in Kent. 

He travailed all England over to gain his knowledge. 

155I — He attained the secret from his master of Salisbury 

close, who dying left his worke with him. 

He lost it by fireing his tabernacle on a New 

Yeare's day. 
About this time being 28 yeares of age, he learned 

the secret againe of the prior of Bathe. 
He began anew with a sei-vant, and againe by him- 

selfe alone without a servant. 
He continued it nine monthes ; was within a month 
of his reckoning ; the Crowe's head began to 
appear black. 
1557 — He, pressed on a warre proclaimed against the 
French (Burnet's History, part 2, p. 355), broke 
and cast all away. January i, he began ; July 2o, 
he ended, his Breviary. 
1562 — He marryed Agnes Norden at Stockland, Bristoll. 
1563 — He buryed Absolon his son. 

i_566 — He dedicated a booke to Queen Elizabeth 9 yeares 
after the Breviary was penned. 
He dated the roUe at Stockland. 
1572 — He wrote the posy on the roUe. 

He wrote his aenigma ad Alchimiam'' and de 
Alchimia ". 
1573 — the fragment "i of ' knocke the child on the head.' 
j_574 — that he never saw the white ferment to the red till 
that 5cth yeare of his age. 

" Half a line which Paschall could not read. 

" Printed in Ashmole's Theatnim Chemicum. 

"• Printed ibid. " Printed ibid. 



lyo Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

1576 — the difficulty of the philosophick number in the roll. 

1 58 1 — Buryed at Otterhampton neare Stockland out of 
his house at Comage where he kept his worke. 

1587 — Bridget Charnock (probably his daughter that kept 
his house when his fire was sayd to go out), 
marryed to one . . . Thatcher in Stockland. 

Collected out of the Roll, the register, and Theatrwn 
Chemicum. 

GeoflVey Chaucer (1348-1400). 

* Sir Geffrey Chaucer : memorandum — Sir Hamond 
L'Estrange, of . . . , in . . . had his Workes in MS., 
a most curious piece, most rarely writt and illumined, 
which he valued at \oo li. His grandson and heire still 
haz it. — From Mr. Roger L'Estrange. 

He taught his sonne the use of (the) astrolabe at 10; 
prout per his treatise of the Astrolabe. 

Dunnington Castle, neer Newbury, was his ; a noble 
seate and strong castle, which was held by the King 
(Charles P') (who governour ?) but since dismanteled. 

Memorandum : — neer this castle was an oake, under 
which Sir Jeofrey was wont to sitt, called Chaucer s-oake, 

which was cutt downe by tempore Caroli I™' ; and 

so it was, that was called into the starre chamber, 

and was fined for it. . . . Judge Richardson" harangued 
against him long, and like an orator, had topiques from 
the Druides, etc. This information I had from ... an 
able attorney that was at the hearing. 

His picture is at his old howse at Woodstock (neer the 
parke-gate), a foot high, halfe way : has passed from 
proprietor to proprietor. 

** One Mr. Goresuch of Woodstock dined with us at 
Rumney marsh, who told me that at the old Gothique- 
built howse neer the parke-gate at Woodstock, which was 
the howse of Sir Jeffrey Chaucer, that there is his picture, 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 27. ** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, 
' Sir Thomas Richardson, Chief fol. 200; April 7, 1673. 

Justice of the King's Bench, 1631. 



William Chillingworth 171 

which goes with the howse from one to another — 
which see. 

WiHiam Chillingworth (1602-164!). 

* WilHam Chillingworth^, D. D., — vide Anthony Wood's 
Antiq. Oxon. in Trinity College — was borne in Oxford. 
His father was a brewer. 

About anno ... he was acquainted with one . . . who 
drew him and some other scholars over to Doway, where 
he was not so well entertained as he thought he merited 
for his great disputative witt. They made him the porter 
(which was to trye his temper, and exercise his obedience) : 
so he stole over and came to Trinity College againe, 
where he was fellowe. 

William Laud, A. B. C. % was his godfather and great 

friend. He sent his grace weekly intelligence of what 

passed in the university^. Sir William Davenant (poet 

laureat) told me that notwithstanding this doctor's great 

reason, he was guiltie of the detestable crime of treachery. 

Dr. Gill ^ filius D"" Gill (schoolmaster of Paules schoole), 

and Chillingworth held weekely intelligence one with 

another for some yeares, wherein they used to nibble at 

states-matters. Dr. Gill in one of his letters calles King 

James and his sonne, the old foole and the young one, 

which letter Chillingworth communicates to W. Laud, 

A. B. Cant. The poore young Dr. Gill was seised, and 

a terrible storme pointed towards him, which, by the 

eloquent intercession and advocation of Edward, earle of 

Dorset, together with the teares of the poore old Doctor 

his father, and supplication on his knees to his majestic, 

were blowne-over. I am sorry so great a witt should have 

such a naeve. 

Absentem qui rodit amicum, 

Qui non defendit alio culpante, solutos 
Qui capiat risus hominum famamque dicacis, 
Fingere qui non visa potest, commissa tacere 
Qui nequit: hie niger est; hunc tu, Romane, caveto. 
HORAT. lib. I, sat. iv. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 121". ° i. c. Arch Bishop of Canterbury. 



172 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

He was a little man, blackish haire, of a saturnine 
complexion. 

The lord Falkland (vide (life of) lord Falkland) and he 
had such extraordinary clear reasons, that they were wont 
to say at Oxon that if the great Turke were to be 
converted by naturall reason, these two were the persons 
to convert him. 

He lies buried in the south side of the cloysters at 
Chichester, where he dyed of the morbus castrensis after 
the taking of Arundel castle by the parliament : wherin 
he was very much blamed by the king's soldiers for his 
advice in military affaires there, and they curst that little 
priest and imputed the losse of the castle to his advice. 
In his sicknesse he was inhumanely treated by Dr. Chey- 
nell*, who, when he was to be buryed, threw his booke 
into the grave with him, saying, ' Rott with the rotten ; 
let the dead bury the dead.' Vide a pamphlet of about 
6 sheets writt by Dr. Cheynell (maliciously enough) where 
he gives an account of his life. 

This following inscription was made and set-up by 
Mr. Oliver Whitby ^ his fellowe-collegiate at Trinity 
College and now one of the prebendarys of this church : 

t This is a Virtuti sacrum. 

m)t Cliantoi-or Spe certissimae resurrectionis 

the Church, Hic reducem expectat anima'.Ti 

but Chancellor ^ 

of the Church of GULIELMVS CHILLINGWORTH, 

Sarum, whose c T* "D 

office was ^' 1 . -t . 

aTecturein'"'""^ Oxonii natus et educatus, 

Latin, quarterly, CoUegii S*^^ Trinitatis olim 

in the pulpit in 

the library, Socius, Decus et Gloria. 

Theo^ogieor Omni Llterarum genere celeberrimus, 

the Canon Ecclesiae Anelicanae adversus Romano-Catholicam 

Lawe. bince ^ 

the Reformation Propugnator Invictissimus, 

Hwas commuted . „.,. .^^ ,,... 

into preaching Ecclesiae SarisDuriensis Praecentor t dignissimus ; 
dayes'^He"' Sine Exequiis, 

afuhe^Tin'ts'of Furentis cujusdam Theologastri, 

the Church of Doctorls Cheynell %, 

England. r^. . , j- • 1 

J Minister of Dins et maledictione sepultus : 

Petworth. Honoris et Amicitiae ergo, 

Ab Olivero Whitby, 



IVilliam Chillingworth 173 

Brevi hoc monimento, 
Posterorum memoriae consecratus, 
Anno Salutis, 
1672.* 

My tutor, W. Browne ", haz told me, that Dr. Chilling- 
worth studied not much, but when he did, he did much in 
a little time. He much delighted in Sextus Empeiricus. 
He did walke much in the College grove, and there 
contemplate, and meet with some cod's-head or other, and 
dispute with him and baffle him. He thus prepared 
himselfe before-hand. He would alwayes be disputing; 
so would my tutor. I thinke it was an epidemick eviU 
of that time, which I thinke now is growne out of fashion, 
as unmannerly and boyish. He was the readiest and 
nimblest disputant of his time in the university, perhaps 
none haz equalled him since. 

I have heard Mr. Thomas Hobbes, Malmesb. (who 
knew him), say, that he was like a kisty fighting felloiv that 
did drive his enimies before him, but ivould often give his 
oivne party smart^ back-blowes. 

When Doctor Kettle, (the president of Trin. Coll. 
Oxon.) dyed'', which was in anno (1643) Dr. Chillingworth 
was competitor for the presidentship, with Dr. Hannibal 
Potter and Dr. Roberts. Dr. Han. Potter had been 
formerly chaplain to the bishop of Winton, who was so 
much Dr. Potter's friend, that though (as Will Hawes haz 
told me) Dr. Potter was not lawfully elected, upon 
referring themselves to their visitor (bishop of Winton), 
the bishop (Curie) ordered Dr. Potter possession ; and 
let the fellowes gett him out if they could. This was 
shortly after the lord Falkland was slaine, who had he 
lived. Dr. Chillingworth assured Will HaweSj no man 
should have carried it against him : and that he was so 
extremely discomposed and wept bitterly for the losse 
of his deare friend, yet notwithstanding he doubted not 
to have an astergance ' for it. 

» 1642, in MS. ^ Dupl. witli ' terrible.' 



174 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Notes. 

' William Chillingwortli was elected Scholar of Trinity June 2, 1618 (then 
of St. Martin's parish, Oxon, aged 19), and Fellow, June 10, 1628. 

'' For another instance of reports sent to Laud (who was Chancellor of 
Oxford 1630-41) about Oxford matters, see Clark's Wood's Life and Times, 
ii. 238. 

' Alexander Gill matr. at Trinity College, June 26, 161 2, was Clerk at 
Wadham College, April 20, 1613, but rejoined Trinity and from thence took 
his CD., March 9, 163^. He was usher to his father in St. Paul's School 
1621-28, being removed for the offence here related. 

* Francis Cheynell, a native of Oxford (like Chillingworth), Fellow of Merton 
1629, D.D. July 24, 1649. 

^ Oliver Whitby, matr. at Trinity, Oct. 15, 1619 ; Archdeacon of Chichester, 
Dec. 23, 1672. 

' William Browne, of Blandford St. Mary, Dorset, aged 16, elected Scholar 
of Trinity May 28, 1635, M.A. March 18, 164^. 

' Anthony Wood, in a marginal note, objects — ' This cannot be : Dr. Kettle 
died after Chillingworth.' But Wood is wrong. Kettell died in July 1643; 
Chillingworth in January, 164I ; Potter was admitted President August 8, 
1643. 

' ' Astergance,' apparently an Aubrey form for ' abstergence,' i. e. consolation. 
The meaning perhaps is : — although Chillingworth was grieved for Falkland's 
(or Kettell's) death, he had looked for the consolation of being promoted to the 
Presidentship of his College. 

John Clavell (i 601 -1642). 

* John Clavell, the famous thiefe, borne May 11, 1601, 
1 1*" 30' P.M. 

John Cleveland (1613-1658). 

** John Cleveland was borne at . . . (quaere Mr. Nayler) 
in Warwickshire. He was a fellow of St. John's CoUedge 
in Cambridge, where he was more taken notice of for his 
being an eminent disputant, then a good poet. Being 
turned out of his fellowship for a malignant he came to 
Oxford, where the king's army was, and was much caressed 
by them. He went thence to the garrison at Newark 
upon Trent, where upon some occasion of drawing of 
articles, or some writing, he would needs add a short 
conclusion, viz. ' and hereunto we annex our lives, as 
a labell to our trust.' After the king was beaten out 
of the field, he came to London, and retired in Grayes 

*■ MS. Anbr. 23, fol. 121'. ** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. (f. 



George Clifford 



175 



Inne. He, and Sam. Butler, &c. of Grayes Inne, had* 
a clubb every night. He was a comely plump man, 
good curled haire, darke browne. Dyed of the scurvy, 
and lies buried in St. Andrew's church, in Holborne, 
anno Domini 165.. (quaere Mr. Nayler^, of . . . ). 

George Clifford, earl of Cumberland (1558-1605). 



*Henry, earl of tn. 
Cumberland ; obiit 1 
12 Eliz. (1570). 



Anne, daughter of William, 
lord Dacres of Gillesland. 



George, earl of w. Marg(aret) daughter 
Cumberland : ( of Francis, earl 

obiit 3 Jacobi of Bedford). 

< 1605 >. 



Francis, m. Grisold, daughter 

earl of Cum- of Thomas Hughes 

berland, of Uxbridge, esq. 

obiit 1641. 



(i) Richard, m. Anne, m. 



earl of 
Dorset 



daughter 
id neir. 



(2) Philip, earl of 
Pembroke and 
Montgomery. 



Margaret, tn. John, earl 
of Thanet. 



ISABELL in. James, earl 
of North- 
ampton. 



Nicholas, earl of 
Thanet, my hon- 
oured lord ; obiit 

November 27, 
1679, sans issue. 



:. Elizabeth, 
daughter of 
Richard, earl 
of Corke and 
Burlington. 



John, 
obiit 
sine 

prole. 



Richard, 
now 
earle. 



Henry, earl m. 
of Cumber- 
land, obiit 
1643. Henry, 
earl of Cum- 
berland, was 
a poet. His 

daughter (the 
counte^se of 
Corke and 
Burlington) 

hath several I "^ 
copies of his 
making. 
Elizabeth 



. Frances, 

daughter 

of Robert 

Cecill, 

earl of 

Sarum. 



m. Richard 
< Boyle >. 
earl of 
Cork and 
Burling- 
ton. 



t This George, earl of Cumberland, built the 
greatest fleet of shipping that ever any subject 
did. He had a vast estate, and could then ride 
in his owne lands from Yorkeshire to West- 
He had , . . castles. 
The best account of his expedition with his fleet to 
America is to be found in Purchas's Pilgrim, He tooke 
from the Spaniards to the value of seaven or 8 hundred 
thousand poundes. When he returned with this riche 



t From, 
Elizabeth^ 
countesse of 
Thanet. 

morland. 



* MS. has 'did had,' i.e., Aubrey 
at first thought of writing * did have.' 

^ Perhaps John Nayler, fellow of 
St. John*s College, Cambridge. 



* Aubrey, in MS. Raw!. D. 727, 
fol. 96^ 
c Subst. for ' a great many.' 



176 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

cargo (the richest without doubt that ever subject brought), 
the queene's councell (where he had some that envyed 

him — ^. . T -J- \ 

Virtntis comes Inviaia) 

layed their heads together and concluded 'twas too much 
for a subject to have, and confiscated it all to the queen, 
even shippes and all, and to make restauration to the 
Spaniard, that he was forced to sell fifteene thousand 
pounds per annum. My lady Thanet told me she sawe 
the accounts in writing. The armada of the Argonautes 
was but a trifle to this. 

As I take it, Sir Walter Ralegh went this brave voyage 
with his lordship ; and Mr. Edmund Wright, the excellent 
navigator ; and, not unlikely, Mr. Harriot too. 

This was the breaking of that ancient and noble family ; 
but Robert, earl of Salisbury (who was the chiefest enemie) 
afterwards marled his daughter, as above, as he might 
well be touch't in conscience, to make some recompence 
after he had donne so much mischiefe. 

That he was an acquaintance of Sir Walter Raleigh, 
I remember by this token, that Sir James Long told me 
that one time he came to Draycot with Sir Walter Raleigh 
from Bathe, and, hunting a buck in the parke there, his 
horse made a false step in a conie-borough and threw him 
and brake the kennell-bone of his shoulder. 

Henry ClifTord, earl of Cumberland (1591-1643). 

* From the pedigree of the earles of Cumberland ^ in 
the hands of Elizabeth, countesse of Thanet, daughter of 
the earle of Burlington and Corke. 

George, (third) earl of Cumberland, had seaven f castles 

in the north. He was buryed with his ances- 

c.-StX".''""' tors at Skippon Castle. Obiit about the 

beginning of King James's raigne. 

Vide epistle to George, earl of Cumberland, before the 

History of the Massacre. 

^ *■ .MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28. " The number was doubtful, see supra, p. 175. 



Henry Clifford 



177 



the 



verses. 



Henry, (fifth) earl of Cumberland, was a poet; 
countesse of Corke and Burlington haz still his 
He was of Christ Church, Oxon^, Nicholas, earl of 
Thanet, was wont to say that the mare of Fountaines- 
abbey did dash, meaning that since they gott that estate 
(given to the church) they did never thrive but still 
declined. 

Henry, lord CUflford, first earl of Cumberland, 

obiit 34 Henry VITI { 1542 ) ; sepult. in ecclesia 

Skippon. Knight of the Garter. 

Henry, lord Clifford, second earle of Cum- m. 
berland, obiit 12 EHz.. 8 Januarii 1570 
(i.e. To >• He was knight of the most 
noble order of the Garter, and lord of 
Westmorland and Vesse. Buried in 
Skippon Church. 



Anne, daughter of William, lord Dacres of 

Gillesland, his second wife. She died in 

Skipton Castle in July 1581, and was 

buryed in the vault of tnat Church. 



George, third earl of ?». Margaret, a. Francis, 
. — i,._t-_j i._;_L. _r J u^_- erearl of 

Cumber- 
land. 



daughter 

of Francis, 

earl of 

Bedford. 



Cumberland, knight of 

the Garter, that made 

the famous expedition 

to America. Obiit 1605 

in the Savoy at London. 

Sepult. in Skippon 

Church. 



Richard, earle ?«. Lady Anne m. Philip. 



of Dorset, 

Obiit at Dorset 

house, 28 

March, 1624. 



Chfford 
(quaere obiit). 



earl of 

Pembroke 

etc. 



. Mris Grizell 
Hughes of 
Uxbridge, 
widow to 
Thomas * 
Nevill, lord 
Abergavenny. 



Henry, lord tn. Frances Cecill, 
Clifford; last only daughter of 
Robert, earl of 



had issue only 
two daughters. 



earl of Cum- 
berland of 
that line. 
Obiit in 

Yorke, 1643. 



Salisbury, Lord 

High Treasurer. 

Obiit 14 Feb. 

1643. 



Elizabeth Clifford, wariWrf (163.0 Richard 
borne in Skipton Boyle, earle of 

Castle, 1613. Corke and 

Burlington. 

* Henry, the last earle of Cumberland, was an ingeniose 
gentleman for those times and a great acquaintance of the 
Lord Chancellor Bacon's ; and often writt to one another, 
which lettres the countesse of Corke and Burlington, my 
lady Thanet's mother, daughter and heir of that family, 
keepes as reliques ; and a poeme in English that her father 
wrott upon the Psalmes and many other subjects, and very 
well, but the language being now something out of fashion, 
like Sir Philip Sydney's, they will not print it. 

Notes, 

* Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' checquy or and azure, a fess gules 
[Clifford],' surmounted by an earl's coronet. Anthony Wood has a note 
here: — * George, earl of Cumberland, A.M. 1592: A.B. Aed. Christi, 1608, 
quaere ' — this latter degree belongs to Henry, fifth earl. 

^ Matric. Jan. 30, i6of : took B.A. Feb. 16, i6og. 

* ' Thomas,' is in error for Edward. 

* Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 208 : May 17, 1673. 

I. N 



178 Aubrey^s 'Brief Lives' 

Sir Edward Coke (1552-1633). 

* Vide his life by ... : quaere his nephew or sonne ^ Roger 
Coke. Sir Edward Coke ^ knight, Lord Chiefe Justice of 
the King's Bench, was borne at ... in Norfolke. I heard 
an old lawyer ( . . . Dunstable) of the Middle Temple, 
1646, who was his country-man, say that he was borne to 
300 //. land per annum ^, and I have heard some of his 
country say again that he was borne but to 40/?'. per 
annum. What shall one beleeve? 

Quaere Roger Coke of what house he was in Cambridge, 
or if ever at the University. 

Old John Tussell (that was my attorney) haz told me 
that he gott a hundred thousand pounds in one yeare, viz. 
1° Jacobi, being then attorney-generall. His advice was 
that every man of estate (right or wrong) should sue-out 
his pardon, which cost 5 It. which * was his fee. 

He left an estate of eleaven thousand pounds per annum. 
Sir John Danvers^, who knew him, told me that when one 
told him his sonnes would spend the estate faster then he 
gott it, he replyed 'they cannot take more delight in 
spending of it then I did in the getting of it.' 

He was chamber-fellow to the Lord Chiefe Baron Wyld's 
father (Serjeant Wyld *). He built the black buildings 
at the Inner Temple (now burn't) which were above the 
walke toward the west end, called then ' Coke's buildings.' 

After he was putt out of his place of Lord Chief Justice 
of the King's Bench ", to spite him^ they made him sheriff 
of Buckinghamshire, anno Dni . . . ; at which time he 
caused the sheriff's oath to be altered, which till that time 
was, amongst other things, to enquire after and apprehend 
all Lollards. He was also chosen, after he was displaced, 
a burghesse to sitt in Parliament. 

t From Roger t He was of wonderfull painstaking, as ap- 
'~'°^^' peares by his writings. He was short-sighted 

but never used spectacles to his dyeing day, being then 83 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 28. •> Dupl. with ' which belonged to 
" ' Or Sonne ' is scored oat. him.' " Nov. 15, 1616. 



Sir Edward Coke 179 



yeares of age. He was a very handsome proper man and 
of a curious complexion, as appeares by his picture at 
the Inner Temple, which his grandson gave them about 
1668, at length, in his atturney-generall's fusted gowne, 
which the house haz turned into judge's robes. 

He maried, his second wife, . . ., the relickt of Sir . . . 
Hatton, who was with child when he maried her*. — (from) 
(Elizabeth) lady Purbec ; vide B. Johnson's masque of 
the Gipsies. 

He dyed at Stoke-poges in com. Bucks . . . 1638'' 
(quaere), but is buryed at ... in Norfolk. 

For his moralls, see Sir W. Raleigh's Try all. 

He shewed himselfe too clownish and bitter in his 
carriage to Sir Walter Ralegh at his triall, where he sayes 
' Thou traytor,' at every word, and ' thou lyest like a traytor. 
See it in Sir Walter Ralegh's Hfe, Lond. 1678, Svo. 

His rule: — 

Sex horas somno, totidem des legibus aequis, 

Quatuor orabis, des epulisque duas. 
Quod reliquum est tempus sacris largire Camenis. 

He playes " with his case as a cat would with a mouse, 
and be so fulsomely pedantique that a school boy would 
nauseate it. But when he comes to matter of lawe, all 
acknowledge him to be admirable. When Mr. Cuff*, 
secretary to the earle of Essex, was arraigned, he would 
dispute with him in syllogismes, till at last one of his 
brethern said, 'Prithee, brother, leave off: thou doest 
dispute scurvily.' Cuff was a smart man and a great 
scholar and baffeld him. Said Cooke 

' Dominum cognoscite vestrum ' ; 
Cuff replied, ' My lord, you leave out the former part of the 
verse ", which you should have repeated, 
Acteon ego sum ' — 
reflecting on his being a cuckold. 

» Three lines of the text are sup- " Henry Cuff: Clark's Wood's Zj/e 

pressed here. °nd Times, i. 424. 

" Sept. 3, 1633. " Ovid, Metam. iii. 230 

' Subst. for ' will play.' 

N 3 



i8o Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

* The world expected from him a commentary on 
Littleton's Tenures ; and he left them his Common-place 
book, which is now so much made use of. 

Sir Edward Coke did envie" Sir Francis Bacon, and 
was wont to undervalue his lawe : vide de hoc in the lord 
Bacon's lettres, where he expostulates this thing with Sir 
Edward Coke, and tells him that he may grow when that 
others doe stand at a stay. 

Memorandum : — he was of Clifford's Inne before he was 
of the Inner Temple, as the fashion then was first to be of 
an Inne of Chancery. 

Memorandum: — when the play called Ignoramus (made 
by one Ruggle of Clare-hall) was acted with great applause 
before King James, they dressed Sir Ignoramus like Chief 
■Justice Coke and cutt his beard like him and feigned his 
vo3-ce. Mr. Peyton, our vicar of Chalke, was then a 
scholar at Kings College and sawe it. This drollery did 
ducere in seria mala : it sett all the lawyers against the 
clergie, and shortly upon this Mr. Selden wrote of Tythes 
not jure divino. 

Notes. 

^ Aubrey gives in trick the coat ; — ' . . ., 3 eagles displayed . . .* 

^ In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 97', Aubrey has this note : — ' Sir Edward Coke, Lord 
Chief Justice — when I was first of the Middle Temple, I heard an old (80 (years 
old)) Norfolke gentleman of the (name of) Dunstable affirme that Sir Edward 
Coke was borne but to 300 li. a yeare land.' 

^ This story is repeated at the foot of the leaf: — ' Sir John Danvers told me 
that he had heard one say to him, reflecting on his great scraping of wealth, 
that his sonnes would spend his estate faster then he gott it. He replied, they 
cannot take more delight in the spending of it then I did in the getting of it.' 

' George Wilde, Serjeant at Law, 16 14; father of Sir John Wilde, Chief 
Baron of the Exchequer, 1 648. 

Jean Baptiste Colbert (16 19-1683). 

** Monsieur . . . Colbert was a merchant and an excellent 
accomptant, i. e. for Debtor and Creditor. He is of Scotish 
extraction and that obscure enough, his grandfather being 
a Scotish bag-piper to the Scotch regiment. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 27'. gives in trick the coat ' . . ., a serpent 
» Subst. for ' envyed.' in pale vert.' 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 5. Aubrey 



John Colet. Henry Coley i8i 

Cardinal Mezarin found that his stables were very chardge- 
able to him, and was imposed upon in accompts. He 
hearing of this merchant Colbert to be a great master 
in this art, sends for him and desires him to make inspection 
into his accounts and putt him into a better method to 
avoyd being abused. Which he did, and that so well that 
he imployed him in ordering the accounts of all his estate 
and found him so usefull that he also made use of him to 
methodize and settle the accompts of the king. This was 
his rise. — From Dr. John Pell. 

John Colet (1466-1519). 

* John Colet, D.D., deane of St. Paula's, London — vide 
Sir William Dugdale's Historie of Paule's church. After 
the conflagration his monument being broken, his coffin, 
which was lead, was full of a liquour which conserved the 
body. Mr. Wyld and Ralph Greatorex tasted it and 'twas 
of a kind of insipid tast, something of an ironish tast. The 
body felt, to the probe of a stick which they thrust into 
a chinke, like brawne. The coffin was of lead and layd in 
the wall about 3 foot \ above the surface of the floore. 

Henry Coley ('633-1695?). 

** My friend Mr. Henry Coley was borne in Magdalen 
parish in the city of Oxon, Octob. 18, 1633. His father was 
a joyner over against the Theater. 

He is a tayler in Graies Inne lane. 

He hath published an ingeniose discourse called Clavis 
Astrologiae, in English, 1669. 

He is a man of admirable parts, and more to be expected 
from him every day : and as good a natured man as can be. 
And comes by his learning meerly by the strong impulse 
of his genius. He understands Latin and French : yet 
never learned out his grammar. 

*** Henry Coley^ natus Oxon, neer Kettle-hall, Octob. 
18, hora a. 15' 4" P.M.— his father a joyner. 

» MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6o». fol. 131 : June 14, 1671. 

** Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, *** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 86. 



1 82 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

He was a woman's tayler : tooke to the love of astrologie, 
in which he grew in a short time a good proficient ; and in 
Mr. W. Lilly's later time, when his sight grew dimme, was 
liis amanuensis. 

He hath great practise in astrologie, and teacheth mathe- 
matiques. He hath published Clavis Astrologiae, 1675, 
a thick octavo, the second edition, wherein he has compiled 
clearly the whole science out of the best authors. 

Note. 

' Aubrey gives ' ab Astronomia Britannica,' Coley's nativity and the ' latitudo 
planetarum ' at his birth, on the scheme 

'Henry Coley, astrologer, bom at Oxon, 1633, October 18, 2'' 15' 4" P.M., 
latit. 51° 42'.' 

John Collins (163^-1683). 

* John Collins, accomptant, was borne at Wood-eaton 
neer Oxford, March the 5th, i62|, about half an houre after 
5 at night (Saturday night) : this I had from himselfe. 

** John Collins obiit London, November 10, 1683. 

*** John Collins : — adde his sheet Of interest, and Plea 
for Irish cattle : all the rest are set downe, but not when 
printed. And also his Histoj'ie of salt and fisheries, 1683, 
printed by A. Godbid, 4to. 

**** John Collins, a learned mathematician, fellow of the 
Royal Society : scripsit plurima : he was not an University 
man, but was first prentice to (Thomas) Allam the booke- 
binder. 

Anthony Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury (1631-168I). 
***** Anthony, earl of Shaftesbury : — Memoires relating 
the principall passages of his life, in folio, stitcht, printed 
by Samuel Lee, j68i. 

Samuel Cooper (1609-1673). 
****** Samuel Cowper, his majestie's alluminer and my 
honord friend, obiit May . . ., 1673: sepultus in Pancrace 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 28. **** Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, 

** MS. Anbr. 7, fol. 5. fol. 316: April 9, 1679. 

*** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25. ***** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 16'. 

" See Clark's Wood's Life and ****** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 2. 

Times, iii- 24. 



Thomas Cooper. Richard Corbet 183 

chancell, next grave to father . . . Symonds, e societate 
Jesu — their coffins touch. Aetat. circiter 6 — . 

Thomas Cooper (1517 ?-i594). 

* Thomas Cooper, Magdalenensis— vide Anthony Wood's 
Antiq. Oxon. : quaere if he was not schoolmaster at 
Winchester Colledge ? 

Dr. Edward Davenant told me that this learned man had 
a shrew to his wife, who was irreconcileably angrie with him 
for sitting-up late at night so, compileing " his Dictionarie, 
{Thesaurus linguae Romanae etBritannicae, Londini, 1584 ; 
dedicated to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, and Chancellor 
of Oxford). When he had halfe-donne it, she had the 
opportunity to gett into his studie, tooke all his paines out 
in her lap, and threw it into the fire, and burnt it. Well, 
for all that, that good man had so great a zeale for the 
advancement of learning, that he began it again, and went 
through with it to that perfection that he hath left it to us, 
a most usefuU worke. He was afterwards made bishop of 
Winton. 

He dyed (39 Apr. I594>- 
In Thesaurum, Thomae Cooper, Magdalenensis, hexasticon Richardi 

Stephani. 

Vilescat rutila dives Pactolus arena, 

Hermus, at auriferi nobilis unda Tagi, 

Vilescant Croesi gemmae Midaeque talenta, 

t Verstegan Major apud Britones t eruta gaza patet : 

brames'him for Hoc, Wainflete, tuo gens Anglica debet alumno, 

that expression. q^j ^j^jj; ^^^^j^ ^^^^^ \zhox^ dedit. 

** Mr. Pulleyn ^ tells me that Cowper who wrot the 
Dictionary was not bishop of Winton but of Lincoln : vide 
and mend it ". 

Richard Corbet (1583-1635). 
*** Epitaph on master Vincent Corbet, gardiner, father 
of the bishop: B. J(onson's) Underwoods, p. 177. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 91'. Magdalen Hall. 

* Subst. for ' about.' ° Anthony Wood notes : — ' after- 
** MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 4. wards of Winton.' 

" Josias Pullen, Vice-Principal of *** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 69. 



184 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

* Richard Corbet, episcopus (ex last edition of his 
poemes, in preface sc.p. i6)was made deaneof Christ Church, 
1620; bishopof Oxen, 1628; bishopof Norwich, 1632. Vide 
Anthony Wood's Antiq. Oxon. 

** Richard Corbet^ D.D., was the son of Vincent 
Corbet — vide his poem — 

' better =■ known 
By Poynter's name then by his owne 
Here lies engaged till the day 
Of raysing bones and quickning clay : 
No wonder, reader, that he hath 
Two sirnames in one epitaph, 
For this one doth comprehend 
All that both families could lend — 

who was a gardner at Twicknam, as I have heard my old 
cosen Whitney say. Vide in B. Johnson's Underwoods an 
epitaph on this Vincent Corbet, where he speakes of his 
nurseries etc., p. 177. 

He was a Westminster scholar ; old parson Bussey, of 
Alscott in Warwickshire, went to schoole with him — he 
would say that he was a very handsome man, but something 
apt to abuse, and a coward. 

He was a student (vide Anthony Wood's Antiq. Oxon) 
of Christ-church in Oxford. He was very facetious, and 
a good fellowe. One time he and some of his acquaintance 
being merry at Fryar Bacon's study (where was good liquor 
sold), they were drinking on the leads of the house, and 
one of the scholars was asleepe, and had a paire of good 
silke stockings on. Dr. Corbet (then M.A., if not B.D.) 
gott a paire of cizers and cutt them full of little holes, but 
when the other awaked, and percieved how and by whom he 
was abused, he did chastise him, and made him pay for 
them. 

After he was D. of Divinity, he sang ballads at the 
Crosse at Abingdon on a market-day. He and some of 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 15'. ** MS. Aiibr. 6, fol. 106. 

» Subst. for ' farther.' 



Richard Corbet 185 



his camerades were at the taverne by the crosse,t (which 
t 'Twas after ^y ^^ ^^X ^^^^ *^^" ^^ fincst of England ; 
the c^os'sTin^ ^ remember it when I was a freshman: it 
BrSowe^buT ^as admirable curious Gothique architecture, 
worke^'^QuLre ^^d fine figures in the niches : 'twas one of those 
if not marble? j^^^jj^ ^^ ^^^^ _ _ f^^ j^j^ ^^^^^ . ^jj^ chronicle). 

The ballad singer complaynd, he had no custome, he could 
not putt-off his ballades. The jolly Doctor putts-ofif his 
gowne, and putts-on the ballad singer's leathern jacket, 
and being a handsome man, and had a rare full voice, 
he presently vended a great many, and had a great 
audience. 

After the death of Dr. (William Goodwyn), he was made 
deane of Christ-church (quaere if ever canon); vide" part 
iii, pag. 7 b. 

He had a good interest with great men, as you may find 
in his poems, and with the then great favourite, the duke of 
Bucks ; his excellent witt was lettres of recommendation to 
him. I have forgott the story, but at the same time that 
Dr. (Samuel) Fell thought to have carried it, Dr. Corbet 
putt a pretty trick on (him) to lett him take a journey 
on purpose to London for it, when he had already the 
graunt of it. 

He- preacht a sermon before the king at Woodstock 
(I suppose king James, quaere) and no doubt with a very 
good grace ; but it happened that he was out, on which 
occasion there were made these verses : — 

A reverend deane, 

With his band '' starch't cleane. 

Did preach before the King ; 
In his band string was spied 
A ring that was tied ^, 

Was not that a pretty thing? 
If then without doubt, 
In his text he was out 
next, 

" i, e. MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 15', ui supra. He was never Canon of Ch. Ch. 
'' Dupl. with ' ruffe.' 



i86 Atibrey^s 'Brief Lives' 

The ring without doubt 
Was the thing putt him out, 
For all that were there, 
On my conscience, dare sweare, 

That he handled it more than his text : — 

vide the verses. 

* His conversation" was extreme pleasant. Dr. Stubbins^ 
was one of his cronies ; he was a jolly fatt Dr. and a very 
good house-keeper; parson of < Ambrosden) in Oxfordshire. 
As Dr. Coi'bet and he were riding in Lob-lane, in wett 
weather, ('tis an extraordinary deepe dirty lane) the 
coach fell ; and Dr. Corbet sayd that Dr. Stubbins was 
up to the elbowes in mud, he was up to the elbowes in 
Stubbins. 

Anno Domini (1628) he was made bishop of Oxford, and 
I have heard that he had an admirable, grave, and venerable 
aspect. 

One time, as he was confirming, the country people 
pressing in to see*" the ceremonie, sayd he, 'Beare-off there, 
or rie confirme yee with my staffed Another time being to 
lay his hand on the head of a man very bald, he turns to 
his chaplaine (Lushington) and sdiyd,' Sovte dicst, Lushingtoiil 
(to keepe his hand from slipping). There was a man with 
a great venerable beard ; sayd the bishop, ' You, behind the 
beards 

His chaplain. Dr. Lushington*, was a very learned and 
ingeniose man, and they loved one another. The bishop 
sometimes would take the key of the wine-cellar, and he and 
his chaplaine would goe and lock themselves in and be merry. 
Then first he layes downe his episcopall hat, — ' There lyes 
the Dr.' Then he putts of his gowne, — ' There lyes the 
Bishop' Then 'twas, — ' Here's to thee, Corbet', and ' Here's 
to thee, Lushington'. —Yxova. Josias Howe, B.D., Trin. 
Coll. Oxon. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. io6«. 

" Snbst. for ' company.' 

•> Subst. for 'pressing upon the,' 



Richard Corbet 187 



He built a pretty house (quaere) neer the cawsey beyond 
Friar Bacon's studie. 

He married ® . . . , whom 'twas sayd he begott. She 
was a very beautifull woman, and so was her mother. He 
had a son (I think Vincent) that went to schoole at West- 
minster, with Ned Bagshawe ; a very handsome youth, but 
he is run out of all, and goes begging up and downe to 
gentlemen. 

He was made bishop of Norwich, Anno Domini (1632). 
He dyed (28 July, 1635). The last words he sayd were, 
' Good night, Lushington.' He lyes buried in the upper end 
of the choire at Norwich, [on the south side of the monu- 
ment of bishop Herbert, the founder, under a faire grave- 
stone of free-stone, from whence the inscription ^ and 
scutcheon of brasse are stollen*]. 

His poems are pure naturall witt, delightfuU and easie. 

Quaere what he hath writt besides his poems : vide part 
iii, p. '' 7 b. 

It appeares by his verses to Master Ailesbury '', Dec. 9, 
1618, that he had knowledge of analytical! learning, being 
so well acquainted with him and the learned Mr. Thomas 
Harriot. 

* I have not seen the date of his Iter Boreale ; but it 
ends thus : — 

We return d, but just with so much ore, 
As Rauleigh from his voyage, and no more. 

** Memorandum :— his antagonist Dr. (Daniel) Price, the 
anniversarist, was made deane of the church at Hereford. 
Dr. (William) Watts, canon of that church, told me, 1656, 
that this deane was a mighty pontificall proud man, and 
that one time when they went in procession about the 
cathedrall church, he would not doe it the usually way in 
his surplice, hood, etc., on foot, but rode on a mare, thus 
habited, with the Common-Prayer booke in his hand, 

» The words in square brackets are infra. 
sabstituted for 'with this inscription * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. io5. 

(vide).' ** MS- Aubr. 6, fol. 106". 

» i.e. MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 15', tU 



i88 Aubrey's 'Brie/ Lives' 

reading. A stone-horse happend to breake loose "... he 
would never ride in procession afterwards. 

* In the cathedral church of Norwich, upper end of the 
choeur, towards the steppes to the altar, in the middle is 
a little altar-tombe of bishop Herbert the founder ; south 
of which tombe is a faire freestone gravestone of bishop 
Corbet, the inscription and shield of brasse are stollen. Vide 
A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon. (His) son (is a) fainiant. 

Notes. 

' Aubrey gives in colours the coat, 'or, a raven sable [Corbet],' wreathed with 
laurel. 

' An alternative reading is given : — 

'A ring he espyed 
In his band-string tyed.' 
'' John Stubbinge, D.D., Ch. Ch., 1630 : vicar of Ambrosden, co. Oxon., 

i''>35- 

' Thomas Lnshington, D.D., Pembr., June 22, 1632, obiit Dec. 22, 1661. 
Notes of his life are found in Wood MS. F. 39, fol. 203', 204, 259. 

° Alice, daughter of Leonard Hutton, sometime Student of Christ Church, 
Canon of St. Paul's 1 609-1632. 

" In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 9, Aubrey has a note, ' bishop Richard Corbet : vide 
memorandum 1671 in libro B pro reliquiis inscriptionis.' A copy of what was 
still legible of the inscription is found in a letter from Aubrey to Wood in 
WooA MS. F. 39. 

' .Sir Thomas Aylesbury, 1576-1657, Master of the Requests. He had been 
of Christ Church, Oxford. 

Tom Coryat (1577-1617). 

**01d major Cosh was quartered (Sept. i8, 1642) at his 
mother's house at Shirburne in Dorsetshire ; her name was 
Gertrude. 

This was when Sherburne castle was besieged, and when 
the fight was at Babell hills, between Sherburn and Yeovill : 
the first fight in the civill warres that was considerable. 
But the first brush was between the earle of Northampton 
(father to Henry, the lord bishop of London) and the lord 
Brooke, neer Banbury: which was the later end of July, or 
the beginning of August, 1643. I ^ was sent for into the 

" Three lines of the text are here ** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 6". 

suppressed. '' Subst. for ' I left Oxford ' ; see 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. I ;'. supra, p. 37. 



Abraham Cowley 189 

countrey to my great griefe, and departed the 9th of Aug. 
'Twas before I went away, I beleeve in Aug. Quaere 
de hoc. 

But to returne to T. Coryat : had he lived to returne into 
England, his travells had been most estimable, for though 
he was not a wise man, he wrote faithfully matter of fact. 

Abraham Cowley (161 8- 166 7). 

* Mr. Abraham Cowley ^ : he was borne in Fleet-street, 
London, neer Chancery-lane; his father a grocer, at the 
signe of . . . 

He was secretarie to the earle of St. Alban's (then lord 
Jermyn) at Paris. When his majestic returned, the duke of 
Buckingham hearing that at Chertsey was a good farme of 
about . . . li. per annum, belonging to the queene-mother, 
goes to the earl of St. Alban's and the commissioners to * 
take a lease of it. They answered that 'twas beneath his 
grace to take a lease of them. That was all one, he would 
have it, payd for it, and had it, and freely and generously 
gave it to his deare and ingeniose friend, Mr. Abraham 
Cowley, for whom purposely he bought it. 

He lies interred at Westminster Abbey, next to Sir 
Jeffrey Chaucer, N., where the duke of Bucks has putt 
a neate monument of white marble, viz. a faire pedestall, 
wheron the inscription : — 

Abrahamus Couleius, 

Anglorum Pindarus, Flaccus, Maro, 

Deliciae, Decus, Desiderium aevi sui. 

Hie juxta situs est. 

Aurea dum volitant lat^ tua scripta per orbem, 
Et fama aetemum vivis, divine Poeta, 
Hie placidS. jaeeas requie ; eustodiat urnam 
Cana Fides, vigilentque perenni lampade Musae ; 
Sit saeer iste locus. Nee quis temerarius ausit 
SacrilegA turbare manu venerabile bustum. 
Intacti maneant, maneant per secula, dulcis 
Coulei eineres serventque immobile saxum. 

* MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 113". » Subst. for ' to buy it.' 



igo Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Sic vovet, 
Votumque suum apud posteros sacratum esse voluit, qui viro in- 
comparabili posuit sepulcrale marmor, GEORGIUS dux BUCKING- 
HAMIAE. 

+ His grace the Abraham Cowley excessit e vita anno aetatis suae 49 ; 
lielcfa'^tasse'llof ^'' honorific^ pompi elatus ex Aedibus Bucking- 
the pall. hamianis, viris t illustribus omnium ordinum exequias 

celebrantibus, sepultus est die 3 mensis Augusti anno Domini 1667. 

Above that a very faire urne, with a kind of ghirland of 
ivy about it. 

The inscription was made by Dr. (Thomas) Spratt, his 
grace's chapellane : the Latin verses were made, or mended, 
by Dr. (Thomas) Gale. 

On his very noble gravestone, his scutcheon, and 

Abrahamus Couleius 

H. S. E. 

1667. 

Memorandum : — this George, duke of Bucks, came to the 
earl of St. Albans and told him he would buy such a lease 
in Chertsey belonging to the queen mother. Said the earle 
to him, ' that is beneath your grace, to take a lease.' ' That 
is all one,' qd. he, ' I desire to have the favour to buy it for 
my money.' He bought it, and then freely bestowed it on 
his beloved Cowley : which ought not to be forgotten. 

By Sir J. Denham : — 

Had Cowley ne're spoke, nor Th.'' Killigrew writt, 
They'd both have made a (very) good witt. 

— A. C. discoursed very ill and with hesitation. 

He v/rit when a boy at Westminster . . . poems and 
a comedy called Love's Riddle, dedicated to Sir Kenelme 
Digby ; printed, London, . . ., 8vo. 

* Abraham Cowley: — vide his will, scilicet, for his true 
and lasting charity, that is, he settles his estate in such 
a manner that every yeare so much is to be payd for the 
enlarging of poor prisoners cast into gaole by cruel credi- 
tors for some debt. This I had from Mr. Dunning of 
London, a scrivener, who is an acquaintance of Dr. Cowley's 

' i. c. Tom. * MS. Aubr. 6, a slip at fol. 113'. 



. . . Cradock. Robert Dalzell 191 

brother. I doe thinke this memorable benefaction is not 
mentioned in his life in print before his workes ; and it is 
certainly the best method of charity. 

Note. 

' Aubrey notes that he was of ' Cambridge,' and gives in trick the coat : — 
' . . . , a lion rampant . . . , within a bordure engrailed . . . ,' wreathed in 
laurel. 

. . . Cradock. 

* Memorandum: — Mris Smyth" told me of one . . . 
Cradock in the west (where Mris Smyth's relations or 
birth) from a cratch dyed worth lOfiooH. — Quaere de hoc, 
e.g. (at) Taunton or Warminster. 

William Croone (1633-1684). 

** . . . Croun, M.D., obiit Sunday Oct. 12, 1684, 
London; buried at St. Mildred's in the Poultry. His 
funerall sermon is printed. He was fellow of the Physitians' 
College and also Regiae Societatis Socius. 

. . . Curtin. 

*** Madam Curtin, a good fortune of 3000//., daughter 
to Sir William Curtin, the great merchant, lately married 
her footman, who, not long after marriage, beates her, getts 
her money, and ran away. 

Hobert Dalzell, earl of Carnwarth (15.. -1654). 

**** 'Twas the lord Kenwurth that sayd to the earl of 
Salisbury Ken you an ape, sir, — from Elizabeth, countesse of 

Thanet. 

Note. 

The Rev. H. E. D. Blakiston, of Trinity College, suggested to me the 
transliteration of ' Kenwurth ' to ' Carnwarth.' Robert Dalzell succeeded as 
second earl of Camwath in 1639, died 1654. He might be in conflict about 
Scotch matters with William Cecil, second earl of Salisbury, commissioner to 
treat with the Scots at Ripon, in 1640. 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 36. *** MS. Aubr. 21, p. 11. 
" Jane Smyth, see sub nomine. **** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6'. 
** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 5^ 



192 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Sir Charles Danvers (1568-160^). 

* Sir Charles Danvers was beheaded on Tower-hill with 
Robert, earle of Essex, February the 6th, t6oo ». I find in 
the register of the Tower chapell only the sepulture of 
Robert, earl of Essex, that yeare ; wherfore I am induced 
to beleeve that his body was carryed to Dantesey ^ in Wilts 
to lye with his ancestors. Vide Stowe's Chronicle, where 
is a full account of his and the carle's deportment at their 
death on the scaffold. 

With all their faylings, Wilts cannot shew two such'' 
brothers. 

His familiar acquaintance were ..."=, earl of Oxon ; 
Sir Francis and Sir Horace Vere ; Sir Walter Ralegh, etc. — 
the heroes of those times. 

Quaere my lady viscountesse Purbec and also the lord 
Norris for an account of the behaviour and advice of Sir 
Charles Danvers in the businesse of the earl of Essex, which 
advice had the earle followed he had saved his life. 

** Of Sir Charles Danvers, from my lady viscountesse 
Purbec : — Sir Charles Danvers advised the earle of Essex, 
either to treat with the queen — hostages . . . , whom Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges did let goe ; or to make his way through 
the gate at Essex house, and then to hast away to Highgate, 
and so to Northumberland (the earl of Northumberland 
maried his mother's sister), and from thence to the king of 
Scots, and there they might make their peace ; if not, the 
queen was old and could not live long. But the earle 
followed not his advice, and so they both lost their heads 

on Tower-hill. 

Note. 

' In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 46, Aubrey writes, in reference to burials at Dantesey, 
' quaere, if Sir Charles Danvers that was beheaded ? — He was buryed in the 
Tower chapell.' Aubrey's description of the burial-place of the Danvers family 
(MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 46), with the inscriptions, is printed in J. E. Jackson's 
Aubrey's Wiltshire Collections, pp. 223-225 ; the pedigree of Danvers is there 
given at p. 216. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25'. and his brother Henry, earl of Danby. 
' i. e. 1605. " Edward Vere, seventeenth earl of 
I" Dupl. with ' shew the like two Oxford. 

brothers,' scil. as Sir Charles Danvers ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 26'. 



Elizabeth Danvers. Henry Danvers 193 

Elizabeth Danvers. 

* His ^ mother, an Italian, prodigious parts for a woman. 
I have heard my father's mother say that she had Chaucer 
at her fingers' ends. 

A great poHtician ; great witt and spirit, but revengeful!*. 

Knew how to manage her estate as well as any man ; 
understood Jewells as well as any jeweller. 

Very beautifull, but only short-sighted. To obtain 
pardons for her sonnes '' she maryed Sir Edmund Carey, 
cosen-german to queen Elizabeth, but kept him to hard 
meate. 

Smyth of Smythcotes — Naboth's vineyard — digitus Dei^ 

The arcanum — 'traditio lampadis' in the family of 
Latimer^ of poysoning king Henry 8 — from my lady 
Purbec. 

Notes. 

' i. e. Henry, eail of Danby's. She was Elizabeth, daughter of John Nevill, 
the last lord Latimer. ' An Italian ' may mean that she knew that language, 
among her other accomplishments. I can make nothing of a note added by 
Aubrey here, which seems to read ' . . . Cowley, crop-ear'd.' 

"^ I do not know to what circumstance, in the history of the Danvers family, 
Aubrey here applies i Kings xxi. ig. 

= Catherine Parr, last consort of Henry VHI, was widow of John, 3rd lord 
Latimer ; and step-mother of John, 4th lord Latimer, the father of this 
Elizabeth Danvers, whose grand-daughter (' viscountess Purbeck ') was Aubrey's 
informant. 

Henry Danvers, earl of Danby (1573-1644). 

** Henry Danvers \ earl of Danby ; vide his christning 
and epitaph in libro - A. in Dantesey church : vide (David) 
Lloyd's State-worthies, 8vo, 1679. 

Quaere my brother William, and J. Stokes, for the 
examination order of the murther ^ at Cosham in North 
Wilts. Old L. Shippon, Oxon, 

' From Turke and Pope,' etc. 

R. Wisdome was then lecturer and preacht that day, and 
Henry Long expired ° in his armes. My great-grandfather, 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25 . '' For the murder of Henry Long. 

» Aubrey, in the margin, notes ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25. 

' Anne BuUeyn.' " Dupl. with ' dyed.' 

I. O 



194 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

R. Danvers, was in some trouble about it, his horses and 
men being in that action. His servants were hanged and 
so . . . Long of Linets. Vide Degory Wheare's Epistles 
and John Owen's Epigrams. 

Physick Garden (at Oxford): inscriptions there; in- 
scription at Dantesey. 

(He) gave to Sir Thomas Overbury cloath. 

(He) perfected his Latin when a man by parson Old- 
ham of Dodmerton. (He was a) perfect master of the 
French ; a historian ; tall and spare ; temperate ; sedate 
and soHd; a very great favorite of prince Henry; lived 
most at Cornbury ; a great improver of his estate, to 
iiooo //. per annum at the least ; sold the 7 Downes, and 
turned the* (a) into lease; afterwards bought fee-simple 
neer Cirencester. 

* Henry, earl of Danby, (was a) great oeconomist. All 
his servants (were) sober and wise'' in their respective 
places. (He) kept . . . gentlemen: (among them) colonel 
Legge "^ (governor of Portsmouth) ; and his brother ; Mr. 
Arthur Drake (brother of Sir . . . Drake, baronet). 

** Earl of Danby — he was page to Sir Philip Sydney — 
from my cozen Elizabeth Villers : quaere -I- . 

*** Memorandum : — anno Domini, 16 — , regno regis 
CaroH primi, Henry, earle of Danby, built an almeshowse in 
this parish (Dantesey, co. Wilts) for (six) poore people 
and ^ a schoole — quaere the salary * of both. 

Notes. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' (gules), a chevron between 3 mullets 
(or) [Danby] ; quartering, (gules), a saltire engrailed (argent), an annulet for 
difference [Nevill, lord Latimer],' surmounted by an earl's coronet. 

° i. e. in MS. Aubr. 3,fol. 46 : stt supra, p. 192. The epitaph contains English 
verses by George Herbert. 

^ Henry, brother of Sir Robert, Long was killed, possibly in fair fight, by 
Sir Charles, brother of this Henry, Danvers ; see the A?chaeological Magazine, 
i. 306. In consequence, the Danvers brothers had to seek safety in France, In 
MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 44', Aubrey notes ' Sommerford magna — the assassination of 

" This symbol I cannot explain. lord Dartmouth. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25'. ** MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 46. 

*" Dupl. with ' discreet." *** MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 44'. 

' George Legge, created (1682) ^ Over the almshouse : ibid. fol. 4"). 



Sir John Danvers 195 

Harry Long was contrived in the parlour of the parsonage here. Mr. Atwood 
was then parson ; he was drown'd comeing home.' 

Richard Atwood, M.A. Oxon, 1576 : another instance of ' Digitus Dei.' 

' See Jackson's Aubrey's Willshire Collections, p. 228. 

Sir John Danvers (15.. -1594). 

* Sir John Danvers, the father, (was) a most beauti- 
ful! and good and even-tempered person. His picture 
(is) yet extant — my cosen John Danvers (his son") haz 
it at ... . Memorandum, George Herbert's verses on the 
curtaine. 

He was of a mild and peaceable nature, and his sonnes' 
sad accident* brake his heart. 

** By the same" (orator of the University of Cam- 
bridge), pinned on the curtaine of the picture of old 
Sir John Danvers, who was both a handsome and a good 
man : — 

Passe not by : search and you may 

Find a treasure worth your stay. 

What makes a Danvers would you find ? 

In a faire bodie, a faire mind. 

Sir John Danvers' earthly part 

Here is copyed out by art : 

But his heavenly and divine 

In his progenie doth shine. 

Had he only brought them forth, 

Know that much had been his worth. 

Ther's no monument to a sonne : 

Reade him there ^ and I have donne. 

Sir John Danvers (1588 ?-i655). 

*** Sir John Danvers : — His first wife was the lady (Mag- 
dalen) Herbert, a widowe, mother of the lord Edward 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25'. Herbert's verses on the gravestone of 
» Grandson. Henry Danvers. 

' Their flight, after the murder of ^ i. e. in his son, Henry, earl of 

Henry Long. Danby. 

** MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 46. *** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 18". 
<= George Herbert. Thisnote follows 

o a 



196 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Herbert of Cherbery and George Herbert, orator. By her 
he had no issue ; she was old enough to have been his 
mother. He maried her for love of her witt. The earl 
of Danby" was greatly displeased with him for this dis- 
agreable match. 

* Sir John, his sonne, was then'' a child about six. An 
ingeniose person, e. g. Chelsey house and garden, and 
Lavington garden ". A great friend of the king's partie 
and a patron to distressed and cashiered cavaliers, e. g. 
captain Gunter, he served ; Christopher Gibbons (organist); 
captain Peters, etc. — Lord Bacon's friend. But to revenge 
himselfe of his sister, the l(ady) Garg(rave) to ^ ingra- 
tiate himself more with the P(rotector) to null his brother, 
earl of Danby's, will, he, contrary to his owne naturall 
inclination, did sitt in the high court of justice at the 
king's triall. 

Dantesey (3500/2. per annum), not entailed, (was) 
forfeited and given to the duke of Yorke. 

His son, John, by his last wife ((Grace) Hughes), has 
500/2. per annum (old land) in Oxonshire, which was part 
of judge ^ Danvers' estate tempore Edwardi IV, one of the 
judges with Litleton. 

Henry, the eldest son of Sir John Danvers, dyed before 
his father, and left his two sisters co-heires, viz. Elizabeth ^ 
(who) married Robert Viliers (only son of viscount Purbec), 
and Anne, married to Sir (Henry) Lee of Ditchley. 

The Danvers-Villiers family. 

(MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 97, gives 'eight coelestiall schemes', being the 
nativities of Robert Danvers, esq. (that is, Robert Viliers, son of 
the viscount Purbec^), the lady Elizabeth his wife, and their six 
children, vid'. foure daughters and iwo sonnes, diligently calculated 

' His elder brother. Common Pleas, 1450 ; Sir Thomas 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25". Littelton (the jurist), justice of the 
^ i. e. at the time of his father's Common Pleas, 1466. 

death, stipra, p. 195. ' This is the ' Elizabeth, viscountess 

" i. c. the arrangement of these Purbeck,' who so frequently appears 

gardens proved his good taste. in these biographies as an informant 

^ Dupl. with 'to collogue with the P.' of Aubrey. 
" Sir Robert Danvers, justice of the 



The Danvers-Villiers family 197 

according to art by the Tables of Regiomontanus by W. C This 
paper supphes the following dates : — ) 

* Robert Danvers ^, esq., m. the lady Danvers % born 



born 19 Oct., 1624, 
\\^ 48' P.M. 



Tuesday, 7 Aprill, 1629, 

^ 26' P.M. 



Mris Frances Danvers, born Friday 12 July 1650, o*" 
16' P.M. 

Mris Elizabeth Danvers, born Monday 10 November 
1651, lo*" 21' P.M. 

Mris Ann Danvers, born Sunday 23 October 1653, 

5*' 10' A.M. 

Mris Mary Danvers, born Saturday io November 1655, 
7'' 28' A.M. 

Mr. Robert Danvers, born Saturday 14 Martii 165?-, 
5'' 30' A.M. 

Mr. Edward Danvers, born Thursday 28 Martii 1661, 
4'' 9' A.M. 

** Memorandum, 1676, July 19, P.M., about 6^ my 
lord viscount (Robert) Purbec, filius, was hurt in the neck 
by Mr. Fielding* in Fleet Street. 

(Ask Elizabeth, viscountess Purbec) the year and day 
when her son, the lord Purbec, was killed in a duel at 
Liege? Respondet: he was killed in a duell at Liege 
about a year before the death of King Charles II "*— I thinke 
in the month of Aprill. 

Notes. 

» In MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 97", is a note :— ' These,' I suppose the schemes given 
on the recto of the leaf, ' were done when he,' Robert Danvers, ' was in Caers- 
brooke Castle, prisoner, in the Isle of Wight.' 

2 In MS. Aubr. 33, on a slip at fol. 121', is the note :— 'Lord . . . Purbec,' 
i. e. John Villiers, created viscount Purbeck in 1619, ' natus at Godbee, Sept. 6, 
lah P.M., 1591 : melancholy. His mother saith he was borne Sept. 6, Monday, 
ijii P.M., 1591. Mris Toman writeth that it was 2^ 30' P.M.' 

3 Robert Wright (took the name of Danvers), son of Frances (daughter of 
Sir Edward Coke; wife of John Villiers, of note 2) who eloped in 1621 with 
Sir Robert Howard. He styled himself 'viscount Purbeck' ; died 1675. 

* Robert Fielding (' Beau' Fielding) afterwards married his widow, Margaret, 
daughter of Uhck Burke, marquis of Clanricarde. 

" MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 97. " Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Danvers, ut supra. 
** MS. Aubr. 21, foh97\ 



198 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Michael Dary (16.. -1679). 

* Michaell Dary, mathematician, and a gunner of the 
Tower (by profession, a tobacco-cutter), an admirable 
algebrician, was buryed in the churchyard neer Bethlem 
on May-day 1679. With writing in the frostie weather" 
his fingers rotted and gangraened. He was an old man ; 
I guesse about 66 + . 

Edward Davenant, merchant (15 . . -i 6 . . ). 
** Edward Davenant, merchant : he lies buried behind 
the bishop's stall at Sarum with this inscription'': — 
Literas, lyceo, rerumque usus, emporio, etc. 

*** Memorandum: — Mr. (Edward) Davenant, merchant 
in London, eldest brother of John Davenant, bishop of 
Sarum, broke (the seas being crosse to him) ; but being 
a person of great estimation with the merchants, they 
favoured him, and he went into Ireland. He did set up 
the trade of pilchard fishing at Wythy Island ° there, where 
he was a Justice of Peace, and in 20 yeares he gott there 
about ten thousand pounds, payd his debts, and left his 
family well. This account I had from my worthy and 
intimate friend, Mr. John Davenant, grandsonne to him. 

Edward Davenant, D.D. (16. .-i6|^). 

**** Edward Davenant ^, S. Theol. Dr., was the eldest 
son of (Edward) Davenant, merchant of London, who 
was elder brother to the right reverend father in God, 
the learned John Davenant, bishop of Sarum. 

I will first speake of the father, for he was a rare"* man 
in his time, and deserves to be remembred. He was of 
a healthy complexion ^, rose at 4 or 5 in the morning, so 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. I'. *** MS. Aubr. 36, p. i6. 

" The winter of 1678-79 was a " Whiddy Island, in Bantry Bay. 

severe one : Clark's Wood's Life and **** MS. Aubr, 6, fol. 43. 

Times, ii. 426, 432, 439. <■ Subst. for ' an incomparable,' 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 45. = Therefollowed'(except the gout),' 

*" Omittedhere,becansegiven,('«/;a:, scored out. 
p. 199, from fol. 43. 



Edward Davenant 199 

that he followed his studies till 6 or 7, the time that other 
merchants goe about their businesse ; so that, stealing so 
much and so quiet time in the morning, he studied as 
much as most men. He understood Greeke and Latin 
perfectly, and was a better Grecian then the bishop. He 
writt a rare Greeke character as ever I sawe. He was 
a great mathematician, and understood as much of it as 
was knowen in his time. Dr. Davenant, his son, hath 
excellent notes of his father's, in mathematiques, as also 
in Greeke, and 'twas no small advantage (to) him to have 
such a learned father to imbue arithmeticall knowledge 
into him when a boy, night times when he came from 
schoole (Merchant Taylors'). He understood trade very 
well, was a sober and good menager, but the winds and 
seas cross'd him. He had so great losses that he broke, 
but his creditors knowing it was no fault of his, and also 
that he was a person of great vertue and justice, used not 
extremity towards him ; but I thinke gave him more 
credit, so that he went into Ireland, and did sett up 
a iishery for pilchards at Wythy Island, in Ireland, where 
in . . . yeares he gott loooo li. ; satisfied and payd his 
creditors ; and over and above left a good estate to his 
son. His picture bespeakes him to be a man of judgement, 
and parts, and gravity extraordinary. There is written 
Expecto. He slipt comeing downe the stone stayres at 
the palace at Sarum, which bruise caused his death. He 
lyes buried in the south aissle of the choire in Sarum 
Cathedral behind the bishop's stall. His son, Dr. Davenant, 
sett up and made this inscription for him, which I will 
remember as well as I can : — 

Literas, lyceo, rerumque usus, emporio, 
Nostris edoctus, ingentis hinc prudentiae 
Extulit merces insulas ad Hibernicas ; 
Ubi annos viginti custos pads publicae 
Populum ditavit inopem, emollivit ferum, 
Gratus et charus Anglis et Hibernicis. 
Musis dilectus Latiis, nee minus Atticis, 
Studiisque fratrem, hujus ecclesiae praesulem. 



200 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Sequebatur aemulus. Omnes in illius pectore 

Fulserunt Gratiae, sed praenituit Pietas, 

Quae in egenos tantum non fuit prodiga. 

Post varios casus, in vitae actu ultimo 

Cum luctu ^ bonorum, plausu omnium, exiit. 

Quid multis ? Scias hoc, lector : vivus memoria 

PoUebat mira, mortuus redolet suavi. 

„, .. 1 Aetatis suae . . . 

Obiit anno \ . ^, • . 

( Aerae Christianae . . . 

* Dr. Edward Davenant was borne at his father's 
howse at Croydon in Surrey (the farthest handsome great 
howse on the left hand as you ride to Bansted Downes) 
anno Domini . . . (vide register). I have heard him say, 
he thankt God his father did not know the houre of his 
birth : for that it would have tempted him to have studyed 
astrologie, for which he had no esteeme at all. 

He went to school at Merchant Taylors' school, from 
thence to Queen's Colledge in Cambridge, of which house 
his uncle, John Davenant, (afterwards bishop of Sarum), 
was head, where '' he was fellowe. 

When his uncle was preferred to the church of Sarum, 
he made his nephew treasurer of the church, which is the 
best dignity, and gave him the vicaridge of Gillingham 
in com. Dorset, and then Paulsholt parsonage, neer the 
Devises, which last in the late troubles he resigned to his 
wive's brother (William) Grove. 

He was to his dyeing day of great diligence in study, 
well versed in all kinds of learning, but his genius did 
most strongly encline him to the mathematiques, wherin 
he has written (in a hand as legible as print) MSS. in 4to 
a foot high at least. I have often heard him say (jestingly) 
that he would have a man knockt in the head that should 
write any thing in mathematiques that had been written 
of before. I have heard Sir Christopher Wren say that he 
does beleeve he was the best mathematician in the world 
about 30 or 35 + yeares agoe. But being a divine he was 

" ' Luctn ' in the copy on fol. 43 ; ' dolore,' in the copy on fol. 45. 
" MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 43". i" Dupl. with ' where he profited very well.' 



Edward Davenant 201 

unwilling to print, because the world should not know how 
he had spent the greatest part of his time. 

He very rarely went any farther then the church, which 
is hard by his house. His wife was a very discreet and 
excellent huswife, that he troubled himselfe about no 
mundane affaires, and 'tis a private place, that he was but 
little diverted with visitts. 

I have writt to his executor, that we may have the 
honour and favour to conserve his MSS. in the Library 
of the Royal Societie, and to print what is fitt. I hope 
I shall obtaine my desire. And the bishop of Exon 
((Thomas) Lamplugh) marled the Dr's second daughter 
Katherine, and he was tutor to Sir Joseph Williamson, 
our President. He had a noble library, which was the 
aggregate of his father's, the bishop's, and his owne. 

He was of middling stature, something spare ; and 
weake, feeble leggs ; he had sometimes the goute ; was 
of great temperance, he alwayes dranke his beer at meales 
with a toast, winter and summer, and sayd it made the 
beer the better. 

He was not only a man of vast learning, but of great 
goodnes and charity ; the parish and all his friends will have 
a great losse in him. He tooke no use for money upon 
bond. He was my singular good friend, and to whom 
I have been more beholding then to any one beside ; for 
I borrowed five hundred pounds of him for a yeare and 
a halfe, and I could not fasten any interest on him. 

He was very ready to teach and instruct. He did * 
me the favour to informe me first in Algebra. His 
daughters were Algebrists. 

His most familiar learned acquaintance was Lancelot 
Morehouse, parson of Pertwood. I remember when I was 
a young Oxford scholar, that he could not endure to heare 
of the New (Cartesian, or &c.) Philosophy ; ' for,' sayd he, 
' if a new philosophy is brought-in, a new divinity will 
shortly follow ' (or ' come next ') ; and he was right. 

He dyed at his house at Gillingham aforesaid, where he 
* MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 44. 



202 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

and his predecessor, Dr. (John) Jessop, had been vicars 
one hundred and . . . yeares, and lyes buryed in the 
chancell there. Obiit March 9th, i6|-§, and was buried the 
31 of the same month. 

He was heire to his uncle, John Davenant, bishop of 
Sarum. Memorandum: — when bishop ColdwelF came to 
this bishoprick, he did lett long leases, which were but 
newly expired when bishop Davenant came to this sea ; 
so that there tumbled into his coffers vast summes. His 
predecessor, Dr. Tounson, maried his sister, continued in 
the see but a little while, and left severall children un- 
provided for, so the king or rather duke of Bucks gave 
bishop Davenant the bishoprick out of pure charity ^. 
Sir Anthony Weldon sayes (in his Court of King James), 
'twas the only bishoprick that he disposed of without 
symony, all others being made merchandise of for the 
advancement of his kindred. Bishop Davenant being 
invested, maried all his nieces to clergie-men, so he was 
at no expence for their preferment. He granted to his 
nephew (this Dr.) the lease of the great mannour of 
Poterne, worth about 1000 li. per annum ; made him 
threasurer of the church of Sarum, of which the corps is 
the parsonage of Calne, which was esteemed to be of the 
like value. He made severall purchases, all which he 
left him ; insomuch as the churchmen of Sarum say, that 
he gained more by this church then ever any man did by 
the church since the Reformation, and take it very 
unkindly that, at his death, he left nothing (or but 50 li) 
to that church which was the source of his estate. 
How it happened I know not, or how he might be 
workt-on in his old age, but I have heai'd severall yeares 
since, he had sett downe 500 li. in will for the Cathedral 
Church of Sarum. 

He had 6 sonnes and 4 daughters. There was a good 
schoole at Gillingham : at winter nights he taught his 
sonnes Arithmetic and Geometrie ; his 2 eldest daughters, 
especially Mris Ettrick, was a notable Algebrist. 

^^ Memoria. He had an excellent way of improving 



John Davenant 203 



his children's memories, which was thus : he would make 
one of them read a chapter or &c., and then they were 
[sur le champ') to repeate what they remembred, which did 
exceedingly profitt them ; and so for sermons, he did not 
let them write notes (which jaded their memorie), but 
gave an account vivA voce. When his eldest son, John, 
came to Winton-schoole (where the boyes were enjoyned 
to write sermon notes) he had not wrote ; the master askt 
him for his notes — he had none, but sayd, ' If I doe not 
give you as good an account of it as they that doe, I am 
much mistaken.' 

* Edward Davenant, D.D., obiit 13 of March i6ff, 
and is seated in the north side of the east end of the 
chancell at Gillingham, Dorset. — From Anthony Ettrick, 
esq. 

** By Dr. Edward Davenant, S.T.P., Vei'siis mnc- 
monici ad compulationes cossicas. Memorandum : — Dr. 
Davenant hath excellent explanations of these verses, 
which transcribe : his son James *, at Oriel College Oxon, 
hath them. 

Notes. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' gules, between 9 cross-crcsslets fitchee 
or, 3 escallops ermine [Davenant].' 

2 John Coldwell was consecrated Dec. 26, 1591, and died Oct. 14, 1596. 

' Robert Tounson, consecrated July 9, 1620, died May 15, 162 1, leaving 
a widow and fifteen children. The conge d'elire on behalf of Davenant was 
issued May 29, 1621. 

' James Davenant, matric. at Oriel, July 23, 1656. 

John Davenant (1576-1641). 

*** John Davenant, episcopus Sarum : his epitaph made 
by bishop Pierson *. 

He bought the advowson of Newton-tony, Wilts, which 
he gave to Queene's College '=, Cambridge — quaere if not 
others. 

He hung the choire of Sarum with purple velvet, which 
was plundered in the sacrilegious times. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 8'. ° John Pearson, bisliop of Chester 
** MS. Aubr. 10, fol. 31. 1672-86. 

♦** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 44'. ^ Of which he had been President. 



204 Atibrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Sir William Davenant (i6of-i668). 

* Sir William Davenant \ knight, Poet Laureate, was 
borne [about ^ the end of February — vide A. Wood's 
Antiq. Oxon. — baptized 3 of March A.D. i6o|], in . . . 
street in the city of Oxford at the Crowne taverne. 

t Roberta was a His father was John Davenant, a vintner 

fellow of St. , 1 1- J -J,' 1_ • 

John's College there, a very grave and discreet citizen : nis 

inOxon; then i t n i r 

preferred to the mothcr was a Very beautiiull W9man, and 01 a 

parsonage of , , ^ , , 

West Rrngton Very good Witt, and of conversation extremely 

by bishop ^ o - Ti L J- 

Davenant, agreablc. They had three sons, viz. i, Robert "f , 

whose chaplaine 11/ \ 1 

he was. 3, William " ; and 3, Nicholas (an attorney) : and 

two handsome daughters, one married to Gabriel Bridges 
(B.D., fellow of C. C. Coll., beneficed in the Vale of White 
Horse), another to Dr. (William) Sherburne (minister of 
Pembridge in Hereford, and a canon of that church). 

Mr. William Shakespeare was wont to goe into Warwick- 
shire once a yeare, and did commonly in his journey lye 
at this house in Oxon. where he was exceedingly respected. 
[I"* have heard parson Robert (Davenant) say that 
Mr. W. Shakespeare haz given him a hundred kisses.] Now 
Sir William would sometimes, when he was pleasant over 
a glasse of wine with his most intimate friends — e. g. Sam. 
Butler (author of Hudibras), &c. — say, that it seemed to 
him that he writt .with the very spirit that Shakespeare, 
and seemd* contented' enough to be thought his son. 
[He 8 would tell them the story as above, in which way 
his moth'er had a very light report ''.] 

He went to schoole at Oxon to Mr. Sylvester (Charles 
Whear, filius.Degorii W., was his schoolefellowe), but I feare 
he was drawne from schoole before he was ripe enough. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 46. in the life of Sir John Suckling infra. 
" The words here put in square ^ The words in square brackets are 

brackets are a later insertion : the first scored out. 

clause is scored out. " Dupl. with ' was.' 

'' Subst. for ' Robert was vicar of ' ' Contentended ' in MS, 

West Kington, chaplain to bishop ^ The words in square brackets are 

Davenant.' scored out. 

" Aubrey adds ' vide p. 79 (Suck- •> Dupl. with ' whereby she was 

ling)'; i.e.fol. iioof thisMS. Aubr.6, called a whore ' : also scored out. 



Sir William Davenant 205 

He was preferred to the first dutches of Richmond to 
wayte on her as a page.- I remember he told me, she 
sent him to a famous apothecary for some Unicornes-horne, 
which he was resolved to try with a spider which he 
incircled* in it, but without the expected successe ; the 
spider would goe over, and thorough and thorough, uncon- 
cerned. 

He was next a servant (as I remember, a page also) 
to Sir Fulke Grevil '' lord Brookes, with whom he lived to 
his death, which was that a servant of his (that had long 
wayted on him and his lordship had often told him that 
he would doe something for him, but did not but still putt 
him off with delayes) as he was trussing up his lord's 
pointes comeinge from stoole (for then their breeches were 
fastned to the doubletts with points — then came in hookes 
and eies — which not to have fastened was in my boy-hood 
a great crime) stabbed him. This was at the same time 
that the duke of Buckingham was stabbed by Felton, and 
the great noise and report of the duke's. Sir William told 
me, quite drowned this of his lord's, that 'twas scarce taken 
notice of. This Sir Fulke G. was a good witt, and had 
been a good poet ° in his youth. He wrote a poeme in 
folio which he printed not till he was old, and then, (as 
Sir W. said) with too much judgment and refining, spoyld 
it, which was at first a delicate thing. 

He writt a play or playes, and verses, which he did with 
so much sweetnesse and grace, that by it he got the love 
and friendship of his two Mecaenasses, Mr. Endymion 
Porter, and Mr. Henry Jermyn (since earl of St. Albans), 
to whom he has dedicated his poem called Madegascar. 
Sir John Suckling also was his great and intimate friend. 

After the death of Ben Johnson he was made in his 
place Poet Laureat. 

He gott a terrible clap of a black handsome wench that 
lay in Axe-yard, Westminster, whom he thought on when 

" Dnpl. with ' empaled.' 

^ Anthony Wood notes in the margin ' Grevill, lord Brookes.' 

" Wood notes in the margin, ' Sir Fulk Grevill, poet.' 



2o6 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

he speakes of Dalga in Gondibert, which cost him his nose, 
with which unlucky mischance many witts were to(o) 
cruelly bold : e. g. Sir John Menis, Sir John Denham, &c. 
* In 1 641, when the troubles began, he was faine to 
fly into France, and at Canterbury he was seised on by 
the mayor — vide Sir John Menis' verses — 

' For Will had in his face the flawes 
And markes recieved in countrey's cause : 
They flew on him like lyons passant, 
And tore his nose as much as was on't. 
And call'd him superstitious groome. 
And Popish Dog, and Cur of Rome. 

'Twas surely the first time 

That Will's religion was a crime.' 

In the civill warres in England he was in the army of 
William, marquess of Newcastle (since duke}, where he was 
generall of the ordinance. I have heard his brother Robert 
say, for that service there was owing to him by King 
Charles the First looco//. During that warre, 'twas his hap 
to have two aldermen of Yorke his prisoners, who were 
something stubborne, and would not give the ransom e 
ordered by the councell of warr. Sir William used them 
civilly, and treated them in his tent, and sate them at the 
upper end of his table a la mode de France, and having 
donne so a good while to his chardge, told them (privately 
and friendly) that he was not able to keepe so chargeable 
guests, and bad them take an opportunity to escape, which 
they did ; but having been gon a little way they considered 
with themselves that in gratitude they ought to goe back 
and give Sir William their thankes ; which they did, but it 
was like to have been to their great danger of being taken 
by the soldiers ; but they happened to gett safe to Yorke. 

The King's party being overcome, Sir William Davenant 
(who received the honour of knighthood from the duke 
of Newcastle by commisionj went into France ; resided 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. ^<i^. 



Sir William Davenant 207 

chiefly in Paris where the Prince of Wales then was. He 
then began to write his romance in verse, called Gondibert, 
and had not writt above the first booke, but being very 
fond of it, prints it (before a quarter finished), with an 
epistle of his to Mr. Thomas Hobbes and Mr. Hobbes' 
excellent epistle to him printed before it. The courtiers 
with the Prince of Wales could never be at quiet about 
this piece, which was the occasion of a very witty but 
satericall little booke of verses in Kvo. about 4 sheetes, writt 
by George, duke of Buckes, Sir John Denham, etc. — 

'That thou forsak'st thy sleepe, thy diet, 
And which is more then that, our quiet! 

This last word Mr. Hobs told me was the occasion of 
their writing. 

Here he layd an ingeniose designe to carry a consider- 
able number of artificers (chiefly weavers) from hence to 
Virginia ; and by Mary the queen-mother's meanes, he 
got favour from the king of France to goe into the prisons 
and pick and choose. So when the poor dammed wretches 
understood what the designe was, the{y) cryed tuio ore — 
' Tout tisseran !' i. e. We are all weavers I Will, (took) 36, 
as I remember, if not * more, and shipped them ; and ^ 
as he was in his voyage towards Virginia, he and his 
tisseran were all taken by the shippes then belonging 
to the Parliament of England. The slaves I suppose 
they sold, but Sir William was brought prisoner to 
England. Whither he was first a prisoner at Cares- 
broke-castle in the Isle of Wight, or at the Tower of 
London, I have forgott : he was a prisoner at both. His 
Gondibert, 4to, was finished at Caresbroke-castle. He 
expected no mercy from the Parliament, and had no hopes 
of escaping (with) his life. It pleased God that the two 
aldermen of Yorke aforesayd hearing that he was taken 
and brought to London to be tryed for his life, which 
they understood was in extreme danger, they were 
touch(ed) with so much generosity and goodnes, as, 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 47. " Subst. for ' and went with them.' 



2o8 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

upon their owne accounts and meer motion, to try what 

+ 'Twas Harry they could to savc Sir William's life who had 

^veysir*"" been so civill to them and a meanes to save 

^aven"nt's life theirs, to come to London : and acquainting 

When th°y^^^e the Parliament with it, upon their petition, etc., 

sacr'ifiSng one, Sir William's life was savedf. 

then said Henry -n ■ r i r - ■ ^ /t_ 

that 'in Bemg freed from imprisonment, (because 

sacrifices they , „ _, ,. i /-■ t 

always offered playcs, scil. Tragedies and Comoedies, were 

pure and . . t-» i ■ • i i \ i_ 

without blemish: in thosc rresDyterian times scandalousj ne 

nowyeetalke . ^^ - . . 

of making a contrivcs to set-up an Opera stylo recitativo, 

sacrifice of an , . ,, . . 

old rotten whercin serieant Maynard and severall citizens 

rascall.' Vide "' ' -n. i , i 

H. Martyn's were engagers. It began at Rutland-house, in 

Life, where by ^ ^ ^ . 

thisveryjest Charter-housc-yard ; next, (scil. anno . . . ) at 

then • forgot, the / ' ' \ ' 

lord Falkland the Cock-pitt in Drury-lanc, where were acted 

saved H. ^ ■' .^ 

Martyn's Life, very wcll stylo recitativo. Sir Francis Drake s 
. . ., and t/ie Siege of Rhodes [ist and 2d part). It did affect 
the eie and eare extremely. This first brought scenes in 
fashion in England ; before, at playes, was only a hanging. 
Anno Domini 1660 was the happy restauration of his 

majestie Charles II. Then was Sir Wm. made 

; and the Tennis court in Little Lincolnes- 

Inne fielde was turn'd into a play-house for the duke of 
Yorke's players, where Sir William had lodgeings, and 
I itisnowa where he dyed, April the <7th> i66<8>t. 
Tennis court J ^^g ^^ ^vLs funerall. He had a coffin of 

aP^H-in^ upon trie 

duke's"L°use*'fn walnutt-trcc ; Sir " John Denham sayd 'twas 

Dorset garden. ^.j^^ g^^^g^ ^^f^^ ^^^^ g^g^ J^g g^^g_ * Hfg 

body was carried in a herse from the play-house to 
Westminster-Abbey, where, at the great west dore, he was 
§ Which is neer recicvcd by the sing(ing) men and choristers, 
o°fD'?.™Mac"™ who sang the service of the church ('I am the 
MemoraiTdum: Rcsurrection, &c.') to his§ grave, which is in 

— my honoured . . , , . i 

friend Sir the south crossc aisle, on which, on a paving 

Robert Moray ,,. ..... r ^ l 

lies by him; but stonc of marblc, is writt, in imitation ot that on 

JflMJ inSCrip- r^.Tr7-777-l ' 

tion. Ben Johnson, 'C rare Sir Wtll. Uavenant. 

His first lady was Dr. ... 's daughter, physitian, 

" Subst. for ' then almost forgot.' 
■^ Subst. for ' the best coffin they sayd that.' * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 47". 



John Davenport 209 

.... by whom, he had a very beautiful! and ingeniose 
son that dyed above 20 yeares since. His 2d lady was 
the daughter of ... by whom he had severall children : 
I sawe some very young ones at the funerall. His eldest 
is Charles Davenant, LL.Dr., who inherits his father's beauty 
and phancy ^. He practises at Doctors Commons. He 
writt a play called Circe, which haz taken very well. 

Sir William hath writt about 25 (quaere) playes ; the 
romance called Gondibert ; and a little poeme called Mada- 
gascar. 

His private opinion was that Religion at last, — e.g. 
a hundred yeares hence, — would com.e to settlement, and 
that in a kind of ingeniose Quakerisme. 

* That sweet swan of Isis, Sir William Davenant, dyed 
the seaventh day of April last, and lyes buried amongst 
the poets in Westminster abbey ^ by his antagonist, 
Mr. Thomas May, whose inscription of whose marble was 
taken away by order since the king came in. 

Sir William was Poet Laureat ; and Mr. John Dryden 
hath his place. But me thought it had been proper that 
a laurell should have been sett on his coffin — which was 
not donne. 

He hath writt above 20 playes ; besides his Gondibert 
and Madagascar. 

^ Note. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the Davenant coat, ut supra, p. 203, but wreathed in 
laurel : see the facsimile at the end of vol. iv. of Clark's Wood's Life and 
Times. 

John Davenport (1597-1 6|§). 

** Sir John Dugdale told me that he would enquire 
about Mr. John Davenport, and send to you. — This was 
halfe a yeare since, at least. 

*** Sir John Dugdale saith that John Davenport was 
a nonconformist ; and he hath enquired of his relations, 

» Subst. for ' spirit.' chapel, quaere.' 

* Letter from Aubrey to Anthony ** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 9' : a memo. 
Wood, of date May 19, 1668; MS. intended for Anthony Wood. 
Wood F. 39, fol. 118. *** AubreyinMS. WoodF. 39,fol. 

» Wood queries:— 'in S. Bennet 390: July 15, '689- 



2IO Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

who know nothing of him, if dead or alive, but they believe 
he is dead. He went over sea — he thinkes to the Bar- 
badoes, or some of these plantations % or to Holland. 

John Davys (1550-1605). 
* Memorandum : — Mr. Browne, the mathematical! in- 
strument maker of the Minories, told me that the sea- 
quadrant was invented by Captaine Davy . . . yeares 
since, — he that found out the streights called Davys's 
Streights. 

Arthur Dee ('579-1651). 

** ' Arthur Dee,' (sonne of John Dee), a physitian at 
Norwych, 'was born 13 Julii i579, mane, hora 4. 30' fere 
(vel potius, 35 min.) in ipso ortu solis, ut existimo' — Thus 
I find it in his father's Ephemerides. 

Obiit Norwychi about 1650. 

*** (Arthur Dee told Dr. Bathurst and Dr. Wharton) 
t Mrs, Dee ' ^^^"^ (being but a boy) he usedf to play at 
MnRowdd" quoits with the plates of gold made by pro- 
Stertytot*" jection in the garret of Dr. Dee's lodgings in 
STth^often^S? Prague. . . . When he was 9 yeares of age and 
ert esame. ^^ Trebona in Germany with his father, he was 
design'd to succede Kelly as his father's speculator.' 

**** (Arthur Dee) 'has often told Mr. Whitefoot, of 
Norwich, who buried him, that he had more than once seen 
the philosopher's stone, and he thinks that he has written 
some peice on that subject. He was a man of a very 
pleasant conversation and had good practice in Norwich : 
a great acquaintance of Dr. (Thomas) Browne's.' 

John Dee (1527-1608). 
***** John Dee: — Mr. Ashmole hath his nativitie. 
Resp.— 'tis in his Theatriim Chemicum. Hee had a very 

"• DaveBport was pastor at New- *** InaletterfromEliasAshmoleto 

haven in New England. AnthonyWood: MS.Ballardi4,fol.i3. 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 18'. **** In a letter from Dr. John 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 37: also ver- Conant to Anthony Wood, 1683: MS. 

batim from the Ephemerides Stadii, Wood F. 49, fol. loi. 

in MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 77. ***** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6^ 



John Dee 211 

faire cleare rosie complexion : so had the earl of Rochester, 
exceeding. 

* 'Johannes Dee, natus Londini, 1537, Julii 13, 4'' 1' 
P.M.' — this nativity 1 I copied out of the learned John 
Dee's papers in the hands of Elias Ashmole, esq. 

** From Elias Ashmole — the father of this John Dee 
was a vintner in . . . London. 

*** John Dee — from Meredith Lloyd : — Talbot, marying 
an inheritresse of the prince of South Wales (who was 
descended from Howel Da, i. e. Howelus bonus : the same 
family from whom John Dee was descended). — Dr. Trout- 
bee hath Raymund LuUy's ... (a chymical tract) with 
John Dee's marginall notes. 

**** I left about 1674, with Mr. Elias Ashmole, 3 pages 
in folio concerning him ^. 

Memorandum : — Mr. Meredith Lloyd tells me that his 
t J Dee's father was Roland Dee ^, a Radnorshire gen- 

x^mner^ir '^ tlemau f, and that he hath his pedegree, which 
lrgneo'f^".''tn hc hath promised to lend to me. He was 
JEiias Ashmole, dcsccndcd from Rees, prince of South Wales.. 
k?rom"l° *"•■*' My great-grandfather, William Aubrey 
fs'^nneTf"" (LL.Df.), and he were cosins, and intimate 
Arthur). acquaintance. Mr Ashmole hath letters between 

them, under their owne hands, viz. one of Dr. W. A. 
to him" (ingeniosely and learnedly written) touching the 
Sovraignty of the Sea, of which J. D. writt a booke which 
he dedicated to queen Elizabeth and desired my great 
grandfather's advice upon it. Dr. A.'s countrey-house was 
at Kew, and J. Dee lived at Mortlack, not a mile distant. 
I have heard my grandmother say they were often together. 

Arthur Dee, M.D., his son, lived and practised at Nor- 
wich, an intimate friend of Sir Thomas Browne, M.D., 
who told me that Sir William Boswell, the Dutch ambas- 
sador, had all John Dee's MSS. : quaere his executors 
for his papers. He'' lived then somewhere in Kent. 

* MS. Anbr. 23, fol. 78. **** MS. Aubr, 6, fol. 37. 

** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 77". " See supra, pp. 61-65. 

*** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 9'. " Sir 'William Boswell. 

P a 



212 Aubrey s 'Brief Lives' 

Memorandum : — Sir William Boswell's widowe lives at 
Bradburne, neer Swynoke, in Kent. Memorandum : — Mr. 
Hake, of the Physitians' Colledge, hath a MS. of Mr. John 
Dee's, which see or gett. 

Quaere A. Wood for the MSS. in the Bodlean library of 
Doctor Gwyn, wherein" are severall letters between him 
and John Dee, and Doctor Davies, of chymistrey and of 
magicall secrets, which my worthy friend Mr. Meredith 
Lloyd hath seen and read : and he tells me that he haz 
been told that Dr. Barlowe gave it to the Prince of 
Tuscany^. 

Meredith Lloyd sayes that John Dee's printed booke of 
Spirits, is not above the third part of what was writt, 
which were in Sir Robert Cotton's library ; many whereof 
were much perished by being buryed, and Sir Robert 
Cotton bought the field to digge after it. 

Memorandum : — he told me of John Dee, etc., conjuring 
t Vide Almanac, at a poolef in Brccknockshire, and that they 

about the poole ^ , , , , , 

in Brecon. found a wedgc of gold ; and that they were 

troubled and indicted as conjurers at the assizes ; that a 
mighty storme and tempest was raysed in harvest time, 
the countrey people had not knowen the like. 

His picture in a wooden cutt is at the end of Billingsley's 
Euclid, but Mr. Elias Ashmole hath a very good painted 
copie of him from his sonne Arthur. He had a very fair, 
clear'' complexione (as Sir Henry Savile) ; a long beard 
as white as milke. A very handsome man. 

Investigatio cinerum A 
Old goodwife Faldo * (a natif of Mortlak in Surrey), 
8o + aetatis (1673 ''), did know Dr. Dee, and told me he 
dyed at his howse in Mortlack, next to the howse where 
the tapistry hangings are made, viz. west of that howse ; 
and that he dyed about 60 + , 8 or 9 yeares since (January, 
1672), and lies buried in the chancell, and had a stone 

" Anthony Wood notes, ' false.' " Dupl. with ' sanguine.' 

*■ See Clark's Wood's Life and "* ' 1672' is added in pencil. 

Times, ii. 158. 



Jolm Dee 



213 



(marble) upon him. Her mother tended him in his sick- 
t A Brief History Hessc. Shc told me that he did entertain 
the Polonian ambassador at his howse in 
Mortlak, and dyed not long after; and that 
he shewed the eclipse with a darke roome to 
the said ambassador f. She beleeves that he 
was eightie years old when he dyed. She 
sayd, he kept a great many stilles goeing. 
That he layd the storme Sir Everard Digby. 
That the children dreaded him because he was 
accounted a conjurer. He recovered the basket 
of cloathes stollen, when she and his daughter 
(both girles) were negligent : she knew this. 

He is buried (upon the matter) in the middest 
of the chancell, a little towards the south side. 
She sayd, he lies buried in the chancell between 
Mr. Holt and Mr. Miles, both servants to 
queen Elizabeth, and both have brasse inscrip- 
tions on their marble, and that there was on 
him a marble, but without any inscription, 
which marble is removed ; on which old marble 
is signe of two or three brasse pinnes. A 
daughter of his (I thinke, Sarah) maried to a flax-dresser, 
in Southwarke: quaere nomen. 

He dyed within a yeare, if not shortly, after the king of 
Denmark was here : vide Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle 
and Capt. Wharton's Almanac. 

* He built the gallery in the church at Mortlak. Goody 
Faldo's father was the carpenter that work't it. 

A stone was on his grave, which is since removed. At 
the upper end of the chancell then were steppes, which in 
Oliver's dayes were layd plaine by the minister, and then 
'twas removed. The children when they played in the 
church would runne to Dr. Dee's grave-stone. She told 
me that he forewarned Q. Elizabeth of Dr. Lopez attempt 

against her (the Dr. bewrayed, himselfe). 

He used to distill egge-shells, and 'twas from hence 
* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 38. 



of Muscovia, by 
Mr.JoIiii Milton, 
Lond. 1682, 
paff. 100, scrl. 
i:;^^. 'Dr. Giles 
Fletcher went 
ambassador 
from tlie Queen 
to Pheodor then 
emperour ; 
whose relations, 
being judicious 
and exact, are 
best read 
entirely by 
themselves. This 
emperour. upon 
report of the 
great learning 
<of > the 
mathematician, 
invited him to 
Mosco, with 
offer of two 
thousand pound 
a-yeare, and 
from Prince 
Boris one 
thousand 
markes ; to 
have his 
provision from 
the emperor's 
table, to be 
honourably 
recieved, and 
accounted as 
one of the chief 
men in the land. 
All which Dee 
accepted not.' 



214 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

that Ben Johnson had his hint of the alkimist, whom 
he meant. 

He was a great peace-maker ; if any of the neighbours 
fell out, he would never lett them alone till he had made 
them friends. 

He was tall and slender. He wore a gowne like an 
artist's gowne, with hanging sleeves, and a slitt. 

A mighty good man he was. 

He was sent ambassador for Queen Elizabeth (shee 
thinkes) into Poland. 

Memorandum : — his regayning of the plate for . . . . 's 
butler, who comeing from London by water with a basket of 
plate, mistooke another basket that was like his. Mr. J. 
Dee bid them goe by water such a day, and looke about, 
and he should see the man that had his basket, and he did 
so ; but he would not gett the lost horses, though he was 
offered severall angells. He told a woman (his neighbour) 
that she laboured under the evill tongue of an ill neighbour 
(another woman), which came to her howse, who he sayd 
was a witch. 

In J. David Rhesus ' British Grammar, p. 60 r — ' Juxta Crucis amnem 
(Nant y groes), in agro Maessyuetia?to, apud Cambro-brytannos, erat 
olim illustris quaedam Nigroru7n familia, unde Joan Du, id est, 
Johannes ille cognomento Niger, Londinensis, sui generis ortum 
traxit : vir certe ornatissimus at doctissimus, et omnium hac nostra 
aetata turn Philosophorum tum Mathematicorum facile princeps : 
monadis illius Hieroglyphicae et Propaedeumatum aphoristicorum de 
praestantioribus quibusdam Naturae virtutibus, aliorumque non 
paucorum operum insignium autor aximius. Vir praetarea ob tam 
multam axperientiam frequenti sua ia tot transmarinas regiones 
peregrinatione comparatam, rarum quamplurimarum et abditarum 
peritissimus.' 

Notes. 

' In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 36, Aubrey gives the horoscope, with astrological 
notes, e.g. that there is 'a reception between Saturn and Luna,' that 'Jupiter is 
in his exaltation and lord of the ascendant,' etc. 

'' In MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 6, Aubrey notes : — ' vide the new additions in John 
Dee's life.' This perhaps refers to MS. Aubr. 6, foil. 36-38, as being additional 
to the paper which he here says he left with Ashmole. 

' In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 37, Aubrey gives in colours the coat, ' gules, a lion 
rampant within a bordure indented or,' adding the note : — ' Memorandum in 



Thomas Deere 



215 



the scutcheon at the beginning of his preface the bordure is engrailed : I believe 
that is the truest, for 'twas donne with care — sed quaere.' 

In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 36', he gives in trick the coat for Dee's match ' 1578, 
Febr. 5,' with Jane Fromundz, viz. : — 'in the i and 6, gules, a lion rampant 
within a bordure engrailed or [Dee]; in the 2, or, a lion rampant gules 
[...]; in the 3, . . , a lion rampant crowned sable [...]; in the 4, 
azure, a lion rampant . . . [Dun] ; in the 5, argent, on 2 bends gules 6 cross 
crosslets or [ . . . ],' as the coat of John Dee ; impaling ' per chevron ermines 
and gules, a chevron between 3 fleur de lys or' [Fromundz], for Jane Fromundz. 
The motto is ' A Domino factum est istud.' 

' Aubrey's conversation with ' goodwife Faldo,' written down at the time 
(Oct. 22, 1672), is found in a letter to Anthony Wood, in MS. Wood F. 39, 
fol. 192. 

Thomas Deere (i6|^-i6- . .). 

* Thomas Deere, natus March 15°, 1639, 15'' 7' P.M., at 
New Sarum — John Gadbury's advice, i April, 1676. 

** Thomas Deare's letter : — 

' From Stackton in parochia de Fordingbridge, die Jovis% 
9 Martii, 167I-, a"" 30' P.M. 

The Accydents of the native, etc. 

In November 1655, aged 15 yeare 8 moneths, went to 
London, to a master, a clerke in the Kinge's Bench. 

In November foUowinge, aged 16 yeare 8 moneths, had 
the small pox. 

In February and March 1658, an ague and feavor. 

At the same tyme an uncle (the mother's brother) dyed, 
which gave the native a good legacy. 

In 1661, purchased an estate. 

In August 1662, hee marryed, which was one of the worst 
acts that etc. 

In July i(>(>'^, hee had a sonn born, etc. 

In June 1667, another sone. 

In the same yeare in September, his father dyed etc., aged 
70 etc. 

In 1666, a very great feavor; in (16)67, another; in 
'68, a surfeite which caused another (fever), etc. 

In May '71, another sunn which lived but a fortnight, etc. 

Many other accidents there are and remarkeable, but 

* MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 96. ** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 7. 

" i. c. Thursday. 



2i6 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

I suppose 3 or 4 or but 2 of these may doe well enough " 
etc. Yet as to preferrment, etc. — In Aug. 1667, I was 
courted by the old earle of Pembrook'' to be his chiefe 
steward ; but, hee always vexed with false informations 
against me, I left his ymployment.' 

* Memorandum : — Mr. Th. Deer is now (Jan. 1675-) in 
prison at Fisherton-Anger. 

Gideon de Laune (1565 ?-i659). 

** . . . De Laune : — he was apothecary to Mary the 
queen mother : came into England . . . 

He was a very wise man, and as a signe ° of it left an 
estate of 80,000 li. 

Sir William Davenant was his great acquaintance and 
told me of him, and that after his returne into England he 
went to visit him, being then octogenary, and very decrepit 
with the gowt, but had his sight and understanding. He 
had a place made for him in the kitchen chimney ; and, non 
obstante he was master of such an estate, Sir William sawe 
him slighted not only by his daughter-in-lawe, but by the 
cooke-mayd, which much affected him — misery of old age. 

He wrote a booke of prudentiall advice, in quadrans, 8vo, 
in English verse, which I have seen, and there are good 
things in it. 

Sir Jolin Denham (1615-166I). 

*** Sir John Denham was unpolished with the small-pox : 
otherwise a fine complexion. 

**** From Anthony Wood : — in the Matriculation booke 
he finds it thus written — ' Johannes Denham, Essex, filius 
Johannis Denham de Horseley parva in com. praed., militis, 
aetat. 16, 1631.' 

***** Sir John Denham \ Knight of the Bath, was borne 
at Dublin in Ireland, anno Domini . . . 

» For purposes of testing the astro- ** MS. Aiibr. 8, fol. 7'. 

logical scheme. " Subst. for ' proofe.' 

^ Philip Herbert, fifth earl, sue- *** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6'. 

ceeded 1655, died 1669. **** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 84. 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 7'. ***** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 105. 



Sj)' John Denham 217 

Quaere Dr. Buzby if he was a Westminster schollar— 
I have forgot. Anno ... he was admitted of Trinity 
Colledge in Oxford, where he stayed ... His tutor there 

was I have heard Mr. Josias Howe say that he 

was the dreamingst young fellow ; he never expected such 
things from him as he haz left the world. When he was 
there he would game extremely ; when he had played 
away all his money he would play away his father's wrought 
rich gold cappes. 

His father was Sir John Denham, one of the Barons of 
the Exchequer. He had been one of the Lords Justices in 
Ireland : he maried Ellenor f , one of the daughters of Sir 
\ She was a Garret Moore, knight, lord baron of Mellifont, 
!if™'JI"'l in the kingdome of Ireland, whom he maried 

AVOID 311 ^ 3.S ^3 

monumln't^at'"^ duHng his service in Ireland in the place of 
jX^V-y, Chief Justice there. 

resembk his From Trinity Colledge he went to Lincolnes- 

father. Inue, whcre (as judge Wadham Windham"-, 

who was his contemporary, told me) he was as good 
a student as any in the house. Was not suspected to be 
a witt. 

At last, viz. 1640, his play of The Sophy came out, which 
.„. , did take extremely: Mr. Edmund Waller sayd 

X His play came -f '' 

out at that time, ^j^gjj gf j^jj^^ ^h^(- jjg broke-otit like the Irish 
Rebellion % — threescore thousand strong, before any body 
was aware'' 
§ Vide Justus He was much rooked by gamesters, and fell 

Turcaeus '^ de jo 

lusuaicae, acquainted with that unsanctified crew, to his 

where he proves ^ 

'tis a disease and x\\\r\&. His father had some suspition of it, and 

that It proceeds ^ 

and'tfat'^tlie ^^^ ^^"^ Severely, wherupon his son John (only 

^rou"dSt nition) child) wrot a little essay in 8vo, printed . . . , 

Iddted' "to it. Against § gameing and to shew the vanities and 

?6^8""semft'. inconveniences of it, which he presented to his 



1638", sepult, 
at Egham 
in Surrey. 

But shortly after his father's death % (who left 2,000 or 



fn &fm" father to let him know his detestation of it '\ 



» Judge of the King's Bench, 1660. = Subst. for ' Paschalius.' 

•^ Dnpl. with ' when noboby sus- ■■ Subst. for ' most guilty of it.' 

pectedit.' ' i-c- i^Sf- 



2i8 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

1,500/2. in ready money, 2 houses well furnished, and 
much plate) the money was played away first, and next 
the plate was sold. I remember about 1646 he lost 
■zoo li. one night at New-cutt. Anno ... (I ghesse 1643) 
he was high-sheriff of the countie of Surrey. 

At the beginning of the civill warre he was made 
governor of Farnham-castle for the king, but he was but 
a young soldier, and did not keepe it. In 164I, after Edghill 
fight, his poeme called Cowpers Hill was printed at Oxford, 
in a sort of browne paper, for then they could gett no better. 

164a (quaere) he conveyed, or stole away, the two dukes 
of Yorke and Glocester from St. James's (from the tuition 
of the earle of Northumberland), and conveyed them into 
France to the Prince of Wales and Queen-mother. King 
Charles II sent him and the lord Culpepper envoyes to the 
king of Poland, . . . 

Anno 1652, he returned into England, and being in 
some straights was kindly entertayned by the earle of 
Pembroke at Wilton, where I had the honour to contract 
an acquaintance with him. Here he translated the . . . 
t He burlesqued booke of Vcrgil's ^«m, and also burlesqu't itf: 
burnt'ittsfyeing Quaerc Mr. Christopher Wase who was then 
fiuthlTtheXst there, tutor to William", lord Herbert. He 
so abS.i-^'' was, as I remember, a yeare with my lord of 
cSopher Pembroke at Wilton and London ; he had 
^^^- then sold all the lands his father had left him. 

His first wife was the daughter and heire of . . . Cotton, 
of ... in Glocestershire, by whom he had 500/2. per 
annum, one son and two daughters. * His son did not 
patrem sapere. He was of Wadham College '^ in Dr. 
Wilkins's time : he dyed sine prole, I thinke, there. — One of 
his daughters is maried to . . . Morley, of Sussex, esq.; 
the other . . . 

He was much beloved by King Charles the First, who 
much valued him for his ingenuity. He graunted him the 
reversion of the surveyor of his majestie's buildings, after 

" ' William, lord,' subst. for ' the lord.' * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 105". 

'' John Denham, fellow-commoner of Wadham, in July 1654. 



Sir John Denham 219 

the decease of Mr. Inigo Jones ; which place, after the 
restauration of King Charles II he enjoyed to his death, and 
gott seaven thousand pounds, as Sir Christopher Wren told 
me of, to his owne knowledge. Sir Christopher Wren was 
his deputie. 

Anno Domini 166.. he maried his ad wife, (Margaret) 
Brookes, a very beautifull young lady ; Sir John was ancient 
and limping. The duke of Yorke fell deepely in love with 
her, though (I have been morally assured) he never had 
carnall knowledge of her. This occasioned Sir John's 
distemper of madnesse in 166 . . , which first appeared when 
he went from London to see the famous free-stone quarries 
at Portland in Dorset, and when he came within a mile of 
it, turned back to London again, and did" not see it. He 
went to Hownslowe, and demanded rents of lands he had 
sold many yeares before ; went to the king, and told him 
he was the Holy Ghost. But it pleased God that he 
was cured of this distemper, and writt excellent verses 
(particularly on the death of Mr. Abraham Cowley) after- 
wards. His 2d lady had no child ; was poysoned by the 
hands of Co. of Roc.'' with chocolatte. 

At the coronation of King Charles II he was made 
Knight of the Bath. 

He dyed (vide A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon.) at the house 
of his office (which he built, as also the brick-buildings next 
the street in Scotland-yard), and was buried, anno Domini 
i66|, March the 23, in the south crosse aisle of Westminster 
Abbey, neer Sir Jeffrey Chaucer's monument, but hitherto 
(1680) without any memoriall for him. 

Memorandum: — the parsonage-house at Egham (vulgarly 
called The Place) was built by baron Denham ; a house 
very convenient, not great, but pretty, and pleasantly 
scituated, and in which his son, Sir John, (though he 
had better seates), did take most delight in. He sold it 
to John Thynne, esq. In this parish is a place called 
Cammomill-hill, from the cammomill that growes there 

" Subst. for ' and then would not.' 

'" Elizabeth Mallet, wife of John Wilmot, second earl of Rochester. 



220 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

naturally ; as also west of it is Prune-well-hill (formerly 
part of Sir John's possessions), where was a fine tuft of 
trees, a clear spring, and a pleasant prospect to the east, 
over the levell of Middlesex and Surrey. Sir John tooke 
great delight in this place, and was wont to say (before the 
troubles) that he would build there a retiring-place to 
entertaine his muses ; but the warres forced him to sell that 
as well as the rest. He sold it to Mr. . . . Anstey. In 
this parish W. and by N. (above Rttnney Meade) is Cowper's 
Hill, from whence is a noble prospect, which is incomparably 
well described by that sweet swan. Sir John Denham ; 
printed first at Oxon shortly after Edghill fight, 164I. 

Memorandum : — he delighted much in bowles, and did 
bowle very well. 

He was of the tallest, but a little incurvetting at his 
shoulders, not very robust. His haire was but thin and 
flaxen, with a moist curie. His gate was slow, and was 
rather a stalking (he had long legges), which was wont to 
putt me in mind of Horace, De Arte Poetica : — ■ 

' Hie, dum sublimes versus ructatur, et errat ■ 
Si veluti merulis intentus decidit auceps 
In puteum foveamve : ' 

His eie was a kind of light goose-gray, not big; but it 
had a strange piercingness, not as to shining and glory, but 
(like a Momus) when he conversed with you he look't into 
your very thoughts. 

He was generally temperate as to drinking ; but one 
time when he was a student of Lincolne's-Inne, having 
been merry at the taverne with his camerades, late at night, 
a frolick came into his head, to gett a playsterer's brush 
and a pott of inke, and blott out all the signes between 
Temple-barre and Charing-crosse, which made a strange 
confusion the next day, and 'twas in Terme time. But it 
happened that they were discovered, and it cost him and 
them some moneys. This I had from R. Estcott =*, esq., 
that carried the inke-pott. 

"• Richard Escott matr. at Exeter, July 3, 161 2 ; afterwards of Lincoln's Inn. 



Rend Descartes 221 



In the time of the civill warres, George Withers, the 
poet, begged Sir John Denham's estate at Egham of the 
Parliament, in whose cause he was a captaine of horse. It 
(happened) that G. W. was taken prisoner, and was in 
danger of his Hfe, having written severely against the king, 
&c. Sir John Denham went to the king, and desired 
his majestie not to hang him, for that whilest G. W. lived 
he should not be the worst poet in England. 

Scripsit the Sophy : Cowper's Hill : Essay against Game- 
ing : Poems, 8vo, printed anno Domini . . . ; Cato Major 
sive De Senectute, translated into English verse, London, 
printed by H. Heringman, in the New Exchange, 1669. 

Memorandum : — in the verses against Gondibert, most 
of them are Sir John's. He was satyricall when he had 
a mind to it. 

A'o^es. 

' Aubrey gives in colours the coat : ' gules, 3 lozenges ermine [Denham],' 
surrounded by laurels. He adds the note : — ' this coate is in stone and thus 
coloured, on the roofe or vaulting of the cathedral church at Winchester: Sir 
John told me his family was originally westerne.' He adds the reference ' vide 
A. Wood's Hist. Oxon.' 

^ Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 193, writing Oct. 22, 1672, says:— 'Sir 
John Denham wrott an essay against gameing, to shew his detestation of it to 
his father, printed by N. Biookes, at the Angel in Comhill. I have it, about 
3 or 4 sheetes, Svo. His name is not to it, but I know 'twas his ; and a kinsman 
of his, that was one of his father's clarkes, gave the copy to Brookes : and Sir 
John Denham owned it to me.' 

Rene Descartes (1596-165"). 

* Monsieur Renatus Des Cartes, 

' nobilis Gallus, Perroni dominus, summus mathematicus 
et philosophus ; natus Hagae Turonum pridie Calendas 
Apriles, 1596; denatus Holmiae Calendis Februarii, 1650' 
— this inscription I find under his picture graved by C. V. 
Dalen. 

How he spent his time in his youth, and by what method 
he became so knowing, he tells the world in his treatise 
entituled Of Method. The Societie of Jesus glorie in that 
theyr order had the educating of him. He lived severall 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 33'. 



222 



Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



yeares at Egmont (neer the Hague), from whence he dated 
severall of his bookes. He was too wise a man to encomber 
himselfe with a wife ; but as he was a man, he had the 
desires and appetites of a man ; he therefore kept a good 
conditioned hansome woman that he liked, and by whom 
he had some children (I thinke 2 or 3). 'Tis pity but 
comeing from the braine "■ of such a father, they should be 
well cultivated. He was so eminently learned that all 
learned men made visits to him, and many of them would 
desire him to shew them his . . . of instruments (in those 
dayes mathematical! learning lay much in the knowledge of 
instruments, and, as Sir H. S.'' sayd, in doeing of tricks), 
he would drawe out a little drawer under his table, and 
shew them a paire of compasses with one of the legges 
broken ; and then, for his ruler, he used a sheet of paper 
folded double. This from Alexander Cowper (brother of 
Samuel), limner to Christina, queen of Sweden, who was 
familiarly acquainted there with Des Cartes. 

* Mr. Hobbes was wont to say that had Des Cartes kepc 
himselfe wholy to geometrie that he had been the best 
geometer in the world. He did very much admire him, 
but sayd that he could not pardon him for writing in the 
defence of transubstantiation which he knew to bee absolutely 
against his judgment '^ — quod N. B. 

Robert Devereux, earl of Essex (1567-160^). 

** Ex registro capellaeTurris London, scil. 1600*, 'Robert, 
carle of Essex, beheaded, Febr. 6th.' 

From my lady Elizabeth, viscountesse Purbec, repeated 
by her : — 

1. There is none, oh none but you, 
Who from me estrange your sight. 
Whom mine eyes affect to view 
And chained eares heare v/ith delight. 

" Dupl. with ' loines.' ■> Sir Henry Savile. * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 8". 

^ Dupl. with ' opinion,' or ' conscience.' 

** MS. Aubr. S, fol. 31. <>■ i.e. 160J. 



Sir Everard Dighy 223 

2. Others' beauties others move, 
In you I all graces find : 
Such are the effects of love 

To make them happy that are kind. 

3. Woemen in fraile beauty trust, 
Only seeme you kind to me. 
Still be truly kind and just 
For that can't dissembled bee. 

4. Deare, afford me then your sight, 
That surveighing all your lookes 
Endlesse volumnes I may write 

And fill the world with envyed bookes. 

5. Which when after ages view 
All shall wonder and despayre, 
Women, to find a man so true, 
And men, a woeman halfe so faire — - 

made by Robert, earl of Essex, that was beheaded. 

* The tradition is that the bell of Lincoln's-Inne was 
brought from Cales (Cadiz), tempore reginae Elizabethae, 
plundered in the expedition" under (Robert Devereux), 
earl of Essex. 

Sir Everard Digby (1578-160!). 

** Sir Everard Digby (father of Sir Kenelme) scripsit 
libellum Latin^ cui titulus : — 

Everardi Dygbei de duplici methodo — 

in 8vo, in dialogues. 

I have heard Mr. John Digby say (his grandsonne) that 
he was the handsomest man (accounted) in England. 

*** Sir Everard Digby was a most gallant gentleman and 
one of the handsomest men of his time. He writt some- 
thing in Latin de methodo, which I did light upon 23 yeares 
ago at a country man's howse in Herefordshire; and 
Mr. Francis Potter told me he writt de arte natandi. 

'Twas his ill fate to suffer in the powder-plott. When 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. I'. " In 1596. ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 10. 

*** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 178 : July 6, 1672. 



224 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

his heart was pluct out by the executioner (who, secunduvi 
formani, cryed ' Here is the heart of a traytor!'), it is credibly 
reported, he replied, 'Thou liest!' This my lord Bacon 
speakes of, but not mentioning his name, in his Historia 
vitae et mortis. 

Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-1665). 

* Sir Kenelm Digby ^, knight: he was borne at (Gote- 
hurst, Bucks) on the eleventh of June ^: see Ben: Johnson, 
2d volumne : — 

' Witnesse thy actions done at Scanderoon 
Upon thy birthday, the eleaventh of June.' 

[Memorandum : — in the first impression in 8vo it is thus ; 
but in the folio 'tis my, instead of thy.^ 

Mr. Elias Ashmole assures me, from two or three 
nativities by Dr. {Richard) Nepier, that Ben: Johnson was 
mistaken and did it for the ryme-sake. — In Dr. Napier's 
papers of nativities, with Mr. Ashmole, liind: — 'Sir Kenelme 
Digby natus July 11, ^ 40' A.M. 1603, 14 Leo ascending,' 
and another scheme gives it at ' ^ A. M., 26 Cancer as- 
cending'; and there are two others of Cancer and Leo. 

He was the eldest son of Sir Everard Digby, who was 
accounted the handsomest gentleman in England. Sir 
Everard sufferd as a traytor in the gunpowder-treason ; 
but king James restored his estate to his son and heire. 
Mr. Francis Potter told me that Sir Everard wrote a booke 
De Arte Natandi. I have a Latin booke of his writing in 
8vo : — Everardi ^ Dygbei De diiplici metkodo libri duo, in 
dialogues 'inter Aristotelicum et Kamistam,' in 8vo : the 
title page is torne out. — His second son was Sir John Digby, 
as valiant a gentleman and as good a swordman 
learne, ifyou as was in England, who dyed (or was killed f) 

desire it''. 

in the kings cause at Bridgewater, about 1644. 
It happened in 1647 that a grave was opened next to 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 99. ' i.e. if Anthony Wood wants to 
" This title is substituted in the mar- know which of the suggestions is 

gin. The text had ' de fallaciis,' scored correct, Aubrey can find out. 
out, and ' vide margent' written over. 



Str Kenelm Dtgby 225 

Sir John Digby's (who was buried in summer time, it 
seemes), and the flowers on his coffin were found fresh, as 
I heard Mr. Harcourt (that was executed) attest that very 
yeare. Sir John died a batchelour. 

Sir Kenelme Digby was held to be the most accomplished 
cavalier of his time. He went to Glocester hall in Oxon, 
anno (1618) (vide A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon). The learned 
Mr. Thomas Allen (then of that house) was wont to say 
that he was the Mirandula of his age. He did not weare 
a gowne there % as I have heard my cosen Whitney say. 

There was a great friendship between him and Mr. Thomas 
Allen ; whether he was his scholar I know not. Mr. Allen 
was one of the learnedest men of this nation in his time, 
and a great collector of good bookes, which collection Sir 
Kenelme bought (Mr. Allen enjoyeing the use of them for 
his life) to give to the Bodlean Library, after Mr. Allen's 
decease, where they *" now are. 

He was a great traveller, and understood lo or la 
languages. He was not only master of a good and grace- 
full judicious stile, but he also wrote a delicate hand, 
both fast-hand and Roman. I have seen lettres of his 
writing to the father ° of this earle of Pembroke, who much 
respected^ him. 

He was such a goodly handsome person, gigantique and 
great voice, and had so gracefuU elocution and noble 
addresse, etc., that had he been drop't out of the clowdes 
* in any part of the world, he would have made himselfe 
respected. But the Jesuites spake spitefully, and sayd 
'twas true, but then he must not stay there above six 
weekes. He was envoy^ from Henrietta Maria (then 
Queen-mother) to Pope (Innocent X) where at first he was 
mightily admired ; but after some time he grew high, and 

" i. e. although in Glocester Hall, " i. e. to Philip Herbert, fifth earl 

hedidnot matriculate in the University. of Pembroke, obiit 1669; father of 

This was by no means infrequent all William, sixth earl, obiit 1674, and 

through the seventeenth century, and Philip, seventh earl, obiit 1683. MS. 

was especially common with students Aubr. 6 was written in 1680. 

of Roman Catholic families. ^ Subst. for 'loved.' 

* Subst. for ' they remain.' * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 99'. 

I. Q 



226 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

hectored with his hoHnesse, and gave him the lye. The 
pope sayd he was mad. 

He was well versed in all kinds of learning. And he 
had also this vertue", that no man knew better how to abound, 
and to be abased, and either was indifferent to him. No 
man became grandeur better''; sometimes again he would 
live only with a lackey, and horse with a foote-cloath. 

He was very generous, and liberall to deserving persons. 
When Abraham Cowley was but 13 yeares old, he dedicated 
to him a comedy '^, called Love's Riddle, and concludes in 
his epistle* — 'The Birch that whip't him then would prove 
a Bay.' Sir K. was very kind to him. 

When he was at Rome one time, (I thinke he was envoye 
from Mary the Queen-mother to Pope (Innocent X)) he 
contrasted ° with his holinesse. 

Anno . . . (quaere the countesse of Thanet) much against 
his mother's, etc., consent, he maried that celebrated beautie 
and courtezane, Mrs. Venetia Stanley, whom Richard earle of 
Dorset kept as his concubine, had children by her, and setled 
on her an annuity of 500/2. per annum; which after Sir K. D. 
maried was unpayd by the earle ; and for which annuity 
Sir Kenelme sued the earle, after mariage, and recovered it. 
He would say that a handsome lusty man that was discreet 
might make a vertuose wife out of a brothell-house. This 
lady carried herselfe blamelessly, yet (they say) he was 
t Rich rd earle j^^lo^s of her f. She dyed suddenly, and 
ofDorset invited hard-hearted woem«n ' would censure him 

her and her 

husband once a seVPrflv 

yeare, when, J ' 

^ltp^t\'ot''hr After her death, to avoyd envy and scandall, 
onfy kis'Led he^ ^c retired in to Gresham Colledge at London, 
JSlfeinfe'being whcrc hc diverted himselfe with his chymistry, 
^''"''^' and the professors' good conversation. He 

wore there a long mourning cloake, a high crowned hatt, 
his beard unshorne, look't like a hermite, as signes of 

" Dupl. with ' excellency.' » A pen- slip for 'contested': see 

*" Subst. for ' more.' supra. 

" Dupl. with ' play.' f Dupl. with ' people.' 

■■ Subst. for ' dedication.' 



St'r Kenelm Digby 227 



sorrowe for his beloved wife, to whose memory he erected 
a sumptuouse monument, now quite destroyed by the 
great conflagration. He stayed at the colledge" two or 
3 yeares. 

The faire howses in Holbourne, between King's street 
and Southampton street, (which brake-off the continuance 
of them) were, about 1633, built by Sir Kenelme ; where he 
lived before the civill warres. Since the restauration of 
Charles II he lived in the last faire house westward in the 
north portico of Convent garden, where my lord Denzill 
HoUis lived since. He had a laboratory there. I thinke he 
dyed in this house — sed quaere. 

He was, 164.., prisoner for the king (Charles I) at 
Winchester-house, where he practised chymistry'', and 
wrote his booke of" Bodies and Soule, which he dedicated 
to his eldest son, Kenelme, who was slaine (as I take it) in 
the earle of Holland's riseing'^. 

Anno 163 .. . tempore Caroli.I"'he received the sacrament 
in the chapell at Whitehall, and professed the Protestant 
religion, which gave great scandal to the Roman Catho- 
liques ; but afterwards he looked back. 

He was a person of very extraordinary strength. I re- 
member one at * Shirburne (relating to the earl of Bristoll) 
protested to us, that as he, being a midling man, being sett 
in (a) chaire. Sir Kenelme tooke up him, chaire and all, with 
one arme. 

He was of an undaunted courage, yet not apt in the 
least to give offence. His conversation was both ingeniose 
and innocent. 

Mr. Thomas White, who wrote de Mundo, 1641 °, and 
Mr. . . . Hall of Leige, e societate Jesu^ were two of his 
great friends. 

As for that great action of his at Scanderoon, see the 

" Dupl. with ' he was here two.' ■* July 1648. 

* Subst. for 'studyed chymistry': * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 100. 

'made artificial! stones 'is written over « ' 1' is written over the '1,' 

as an alternative. perhaps as a correction. 

" Subst. for ' de Corpore.' 

Q 3 



228 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Turkish Historic. Sir (Edward) Stradling, of Glamorgan- 
shire, was then his vice-admirall, at whose house is an 
excellent picture of his, as he was at that time: by him 
is drawen an armillary sphaere broken, and undernethe is 
writt IMPAVIDUM FERIENT (Horace). See excellent 
verses of Ben: Johnson (to whome he was a great patrone) 
in his ad volumne. 

There is in print in French, and also in English (trans- 
lated by Mr. James Howell), a speech that he made at 
a philosophicall assembly at Montpelier, 165 . . Of the 
sympathetiqiie powder— sec it*. He made a speech at the 
beginning of the meeting of the Royall Society Of the 
vegetation of plants. 

He was borne to three thousand pounds per annum. 
His ancient seat (I thinke) is Gote-herst in Buckingham- 
shire. He had a fair estate also in Rutlandshire. What 
by reason of the civil warres, and his generous mind, he 
contracted great debts, and I know not how (there being 
a great falling out between him and his then only son, 
t He married John f ) he Settled his estate upon . . . Corn- 
present'^Henr^,'^ wallcys, a subtilc solHcitor ''j and also a member 
NotmL no of the House of Commons, who did putt 
her^^Hlsid''^ Mr. John Digby to much charge in lawe : 
Forti^cue, by quacre what became of it ? 
Qua"rethr'" Mr. J. D. had a good estate of his owne, 
'^^'"^' and lived handsomely then at what time I 

went to him two or 3 times in order to your Oxon. 
Antiqu. ; and he then brought me a great book, as 
big as the biggest Church Bible that ever I sawe, and 
the richliest bound, bossed with silver, engraven with 
scutchions and crest (an ostrich) ; it was a curious 
velame" It was the history of the family of the Digbyes, 
which Sir Kenelme either did, or ordered to be donne. 
There was inserted all that was to be found any where 
relating to them, out of records of the Tower, rolles, 
&c. All ancient church monuments were most exquisitely 

* Afterwards Aubrey added ' I have seen.' 
'" Subst for ' a lawyer.' i. c. vellum. 



Venetia Dighy 229 



limmed by some rare artist. He told me that the com- 
pileing of it did cost his father a thousand pound. Sir 
Jo. Fortescue sayd he did beleeve 'twas more. When Mr. 
John Digby did me the favour to shew me this rare MS., 
' This booke,' sayd he, ' is all that I have left me of all the 
estate that was my father's ! ' He was almost as tall and 
as big as his father: he had something* of the sweetnesse 
of his mother's face. He was bred by the Jesuites, and 
was a good scholar. He dyed at . . . 

Vide in . . . Lives when Sir Kenelme dyed. 

Sir John Hoskyns enformes me that Sir Kenelme Digby 
did translate Petronius Arbiter into English. 

Notes. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' azure, a flenr de lys argent [Digby] ; 
impaling, argent on a bend azure 3 bucks' heads caboshed or [Stanley] ' ; and 
adds the reference ' vide his life in ... ' some book, presumably, whose title 
he had forgot. 

'' ' June ' was written ; but Aubrey noted in the margin ' Quaere Mr. Ashmole 
pro nativitate by Dr. (Richard) Nepier.' The answer to this query is found in 
MS. Aubr. 23, a slip at fol. I2i', ' SirKenelm Digby natus July 11, s"" 4°' '^■M- 
1603 ; another scheme gives it at 4'' A.M.' Having got this information, 
Aubrey then struck out 'June ^ in the text, and substituted ' July ' ; and added 
the paragraph which follows. 

Venetia Digby (1600- 1633). 

* Venetia Stanley ^ was daughter of Sir . . . Stanley. 
She was a most beautifull desireable creature ; and being 
matura viro was left by her father to live with a tenant and 
servants at Enston- abbey f (his land, or the earl 

+ At the west , . , 

end of the of Derbv's) in Oxfordshn-e; but as private as 

church here '' ■' ' 1 1 • 1 j 

were two towers ^j^^t place was, it sccmcs her beautie could 

as at Welles or '^ ' , 1 , ■ 1 

Westminster ^ot Ivc hid. The young eagles had espied 

Abbey, which J j o o 111 

^:T%"um6% ^^^j ^"^ ^^ ^^^ sanguine and tractable, and 
oie^bte'^were of much suavity (which to abuse was greate 

richly wains- nittip^ 

cotted, both piciie;. 

sides and roofe. jj^ thosc daycs Richard, earle of Dorset 

(eldest son'' and heire to the Lord Treasurer, vide pedegree) 

» Subst. for ' much.' second earl, died in 1609, a year 

* MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 101'. after his father, Thomas Sackville, 

» Grandson ; his father Robert, first earl. 



230 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

lived in the greatest splendor of any nobleman of England. 
Among other pleasures that he enjoyed, Venus was not the 
t Sam Daniel • ^^^^^- t This pretty creature's fame quickly 
RS^'^h^ckf of came to his Lordship's eares, who made no 
emprisind'in'a delay to catch at such an opportunity, 
chamber | etc. j jj^ve now forgott wlio first brought her to 

towne, but I have heard my uncle Danvers " say (who was 
her contemporary) that she was so commonly courted, and 
that by grandees, that 'twas written over her lodging one 
night in Uteris uncialibus, 

PRAY COME NOT NEER, 
FOR DAME VENETIA STANLEY LODGETH HERE. 

The earle of Dorset, aforesayd, was her greatest gallant, 
who was extremely enamoured of her, and had ^ one if not 
more children by her. He setled on her an annuity of 
500/?'. per annum. 

Among other young sparkes of that time, Sir Kenelme 
Digby grew acquainted with her, and fell so much in love 
with her that he married her, much against the good will 
of his mother ; but he would say that ' a wise man, and 
lusty, could make an honest woman out of a brothell-house.' 
t venetia ^^'' Edmund Wyld had her picture { (and you 

pi'cturTisl.t'the "^^y imagine was very familiar with her), which 
Rutland's at picturc is now (vide) at Dioitwytch, in Worces- 
myco'se7^'^'"" tcrshire, at an inne, where now the towne 
Ms"Afb?.'8^ keepe their meetings. Also at Mr. Rose's, a 
° ' ^^' jeweller in Henrietta-street in Convent garden, 

is an excellent piece of hers, drawne after she was newly 
dead. 

She had a most lovely and sweet-turn'd face, delicate 
darke-browne haire. She had a perfect healthy constitution ; 
strong ; good skin ; well proportioned ; much enclining to 
a Bona Roba (near altogether). Her face, a short ovall ; 
darke-browne eie-browe, about which much sweetness, as 
also in the opening of her eie-lidds. The colour of her 

" John Dauvers, p. 196, supra. >> Subst. for 'had some children.' 



Venetia Digby 231 



cheekes was just that of the damaske rose, which is 
t Her picture neither too hott nor too pale. She was of a 
now at ^ ^'^ just * staturc, not very tall. 
Carmarthen-' '" Sir Kenelmc had severall pictures of her 
corn%yaiieys' by Vandyke, &c. f He had her hands cast in 
owe's (the ladv playstcr, and her feet, and her face. See Ben: 
howse, who was Johnson's 2d volumnc, where he hath made her 

the daughter ... . , . , . 

andheireof live in poctrey, in his drawing of her both 

. . . Jones, of i- 3' & 

Abermaries. body and mind : — 

' Sitting, and ready to be drawne, 
What makes these tiffany, silkes, and lawne, 
Embroideries, feathers, fringes, lace, 
When every limbe takes like a face ! ' — &c. 

* When these verses were made she had three children 
by Sir Kenelme, who are there mentioned, viz. Kenelnie, 
George, and John. 

She dyed in her bed suddenly. Some suspected that 
she was poysoned. When her head*" was opened there was 
found but little braine, which her husband imputed to her 
drinking of viper-wine ; but spitefull woemen would say 
'twas a viper-husband who was jealous of her that she 
would steale a leape. I have heard some say, — e.g. my 
cosen Elizabeth Falkner, — that after her mariage she 
redeemed her honour by her strick't living. Once a yeare 
the earle of Dorset invited her and Sir Kenelme to 
dinner, where the earle would 
behold her with much passion, 
and only kisse her hand. 

Sir Kenelme erected to her 
memorie a sumptuouse and 
stately monument'^at . . . Fryars"* 
(neer Newgate-street) in the east 
end of the south aisle, where 
her bodie lyes in a vault of brick-worke, over which are 

" Dupl. with ' good.' loi) ^ drawing of this monument here 

* MS. Anbr. 6, fol. loi. given in facsimile. 

" Subst. for 'braine.' -^ ' . . . Fryars' is written over 

" Aubrey gives (MS. Aubr. 6, fol. ' Christ Church,' as an alternative. 




232 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

three steps* of black marble, on which was a stately 
altar of black marble with 4 inscriptions in copper gilt 
affixed to it : upon this altar her bust of copper gilt, all 
which (unlesse the vault, which was onely opened a little 
by the fall) is utterly destroyed by the great conflagration. 
Among the monuments in the booke mentioned in Sir 
Kenelm Digby's life, is to be seen a curious draught of 
this monument, with copies of the severall inscriptions. 

About 1676 or 5, as I was walking through Newgate- 
street, I sawe Dame Venetia's bust standing at a stall at 
the Golden Crosse, a brasier's shop. I perfectly remembred 
it, but the fire had gott-ofif the guilding : but taking notice 
of it to one that was with me, I could never see it afterwards 
exposed to the street. They melted it downe. How these 
curiosities would be quite forgott, did not such idle fellowes 
as I am putt them downe! 

Memorandum : — at Goathurst, in Bucks ^ is a rare 
originall picture of Sir Kenelme Digby and his lady Venetia, 
in one piece, by the hand of Sir Anthony van Dyke. In 
Ben. Johnson's 2d volumne is a poeme called 'Eupheme ^ 
left to posteritie, of the noble lady, the ladie Venetia Digby, 
late wife of Sir Kenelme Digby, knight, a gentleman 
absolute in all numbers : consisting of these ten pieces, viz. 
Dedication of her Cradle ; Song of her Descent ; Picture 
of her Bodie ; Picture of her Mind ; Her being chose 
a Muse ; Her faire Offices ; Her happy Match ; Her 
hopeful! Issue; Her 'AnO0EG2I2, or Relation to the 
Saints ; Her Inscription, or Crowne.' 

Her picture drawn by Sir Anthony Vandyke hangs in 
the queene's draweing-roome, at Windsor-castle, over the 
chimney. 

Venetia Stanley was (first) a miss to Sir Edmund Wyld ; 
who had her picture, which after his death, Serjeant Wyld 
(his executor) had ; and since the Serjeant's death hangs 
now in an entertayning-roome at Droitwich in Worcester- 
shire. The Serjeant lived at Droitwich. 

" Dupl. with ' degrees.' 

' ' Or Bedfordshire' followed, scored out. 



Leonard Dtgges 233 



JVoles. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' argent on a bend azure 3 bucks' heads 
caboshed or [Stanley, earl of Derby].' Another hand has enlarged this first 
sentence to ' daughter of Sir Edward Stanley of Eynstonn in com. O-xon, son 
of Sir Thomas Stanley, knight, younger son to Edward, earl of Derby.' A note 
by ' E. M.' (? Edmund Malone) says, ' This is Anthony Wood's handwriting.' 
It is certainly not ; but it very probably is Sir William Dugdale's, v^hich is 
sometimes mistaken for Wood's. 

^ Einsham abbey is the place meant. See the facsimile in Clark's Wood's 
Life and Times, i. 228. 

■* In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 70' also, this is quoted, but there scored out, as 
' Eupheme, being a poem left to posterity,' &c. There, for ' a Muse,' Aubrey 
reads ' his Muse.' 

Iieonard Digges (15 . .-1571 ?). 

*Jacobus Digges', de m. Philippa, filia Johannis Engeham 
Berhara, armig. | de Chart, uxor 2«*». 

Leonard Diggs, 7n. Sara, filia (Thomae) Wilford, de 
de Wotton. I Hartridge in parochia de Cranbroke. 

i \ i i 

Maria, Thomas Digges, m. Anna, filia Anna, uxor Sara, uxor 

uxor... filius at haeres 

Barber. Leonardi. 



Warhami Willelmi . . . Martyn. 

St. Leger, Digges de 

militis. Newington. 



Jacobus * Digges, Leonardus Digges, Dudlius Digges, 7n. Maria, minima 



de Bech, filius secundus. de Chilham, miles : 

Armiger. mode (1619) super- 

stes, legatus ad Im- 
peratorem Russiae. 



filia et coh acres 

Thomae Kemp de 

Olney, militis. 



I II I.I 

Thomas Diggs, primus Johannes, Dudlius, filius Anna. Elizabetha. 

filius, armiger. filius zdus. 3tius. 

** Memorandum this visitation'' was in anno 1619 by 
John Philpot. 

They ° were, for several! generations, of Barham in Kent. 
John, the sonne of Roger Digges of Mildenhall (which 
Roger is the first in this genealogie), vixit tempore 
Henrici III; and writt then Dig. — Memorandum here 
are 14 generations or descents to the last line : quod N.B. 



Mr. Leonard Digges translated Claudian de raptu Pro- 
serpinae into English, 4to, 161 7 and 1638. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 73. the genealogy above : probably a MS. 

» This entry is scored out. in the Heralds' Office. 
** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 73'. " The family of Digges. 

•> i.e. from which Aubrey excerpted 



234 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

* Leonard Digges, esquire, of Wotton ^ in Kent — 
he wrote a thin folio called Pantometria, printed 15.. 
At the end he discourses of regular solids, and I have 
heard the learned Dr. John Pell say it is donne admirably 
well. In the preface he speakes of cutting glasses in such 
a particular manner that he could discerne pieces of money 
a mile off; and this he saies he setts downe the rather 
because several! are yet living that have seen him doe it. 

. . . Prognostication^ everlasting, 4to, (Lond.) 15(64). 

(A 4to) ' Tectojiicon, briefly shewing the exact measuring 
and speedy reckoning all manner of land, squares, timber, 
stone, steeples, pillars, globes, etc., for declaring the perfect 
making and large use of the carpenter's ruler, containing 
a quadrant geometricall, comprehending also the rare use 
of the square, and in the end a little treatise opening the 
composition and appliancie of an instrument called The 
Profitable Stafife, with other things pleasant and necessarie, 
most condusible for surveyors, landmeaters, joyners, car- 
penters, and masons : published by Leonard Digges, 
gentleman, 1556.' 

' L. D. to the Reader — Although many have put forth 
sufficient and certain rules to measure all manner of 
superficies, etc., yet in that the art of numbring hath been 
required, yea, chiefly those rules hid and as it were locked 
up in strange tongues, they doe profit or have furthered 
very little, for the most part, yea, nothing at all, the 
landmeater, carpenter, mason, wanting the aforesayd. For 
their sakes I am here provoked not to hide but to open 
the talent I have recieved, yea, to publish in this our 
tongue very shortly if God give life a volumne containing 
the flowers of the sciences mathematicall largely applied 
to our outward practise profitably pleasant to all manner 
men. Here mine advice shall be to those artificers, that 
will profit in this or any of my bookes <^^ now published, 
or that hereafter shall be, first confusedly to read them 
through, then with more judgement, read at the third 
reading wittily to practise. So, few things shall be 
* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 72^. 



Leonard Digges 235 



unknowne. Note, oft diligent reading joyned with in- 
genious practise causeth profitable labour. Thus most 
hartely farewell, loving reader, to whom I wish myselfe 
present to further thy desire and practise in these.' 

The method that carpenters etc. used before this booke 
was published was very erronious, as he declares, 

* K?" See in the beginning of (Thomas) Digges' 
Siratio{ti)cos, and also towards the later end, concerning 
him and his father. I remember the sonne sayes there that 
he was muster-master to the States of Holland : and see 
more concerning his father (who was an esquire of Chilham 
Castle in Kent) in the preface to his Pantometria. — It 
is an ancient family in Kent. Vide his Ala seu scala 
Mathematices etc. 

** A prognostication everlasting, once again published 
by Leonard Digges, gentleman, in the yeare of our Lord 
1564;— 

in 4to, dedicated to Sir Edward Fines, knight of the 
garter, lord Clinton and Saye, etc. His first impression 
was in 1553 — ' "^ot onely your lordship's tasck move(d) of 
a prognostication seemed then to make that argument 
fittest, but also the manifest imperfections and manifold 
errors yearly committed did crave the ayd of some that 
were both willing and able to performe the truthe in like 
matters.' 

Notes. 

' In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 73', Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — 'gules, on a cross 

argent five eagles displayed sable [Diggts] ' ; on fol. 72', 75', he gives the same 

coat, with the motto 

IN ARDUA VIRTUS ; 

on fol. II, he gives the coat and motto, but adds that there is a crescent 'in 
medio scuti.' 

" ' Wotton ' is substituted for ' . . . Castle,' to which a. marginal note was 
added, ' I think 'tis Chilham Castle.' In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 1 1 , Aubrey wrote : — 
' . . . Digges, esq., of Chilham Castle, Kent — vide prefaces of his /'a!?2^om«/n'« 
and Ala seu Scala Mathematices, etc. His son makes mention of his life in his 
Strati olicos^ 

' A pencil note on fol. 73 gives the title, with the press mark in the 1674 
Catal. libr. impress. Bibl. Bodl., viz. — 'A perpetual prognostication for weather : 
C. 2. 13. Art.' 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 51'. ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 75. 



236 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Thomas Digges (15 . . -3 595). 

* Mr. Thomas Digges : — he wrote a booke in 4to, 
entituled — 

' Stratioticos, compendiously teaching the science of 
nombres as well in fractions as integers, and so much of 
the rules and aequations algebraicall and art of nombers 
cossicall as are requisite for the profession of a soldier; 
together with the modern militarie discipline, offices, 
lawes and orders in every well-governed camp and armie 
inviolably to be observed.' 

First published by him, 1579, ^"^ dedicated ' unto the 
right honourable Robert, earle of Leicester.' The second 
edition, 1590. 

He was muster-master generall of all her majestie's 
forces in the Low Countries, as appeares in page ^^tl- 

At the end of this booke (the last paragraph) speaking 
of ' engins and inventions not usual to be thought on and 
had in readinesse.' — 

'Of these and many mo important mattars militare, 
I shall have occasion at large to dilate in my treatise of 
great artillerie and pyrotechnie, ^° whose publication 
I have for divers due respects hitherto differred.' 

He was the onely sonne of the learned Leonard Digges, 
esqr, of whom he speakes in the preface to his Stra- 
tioticos. 

Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 51 ; — ' Una familia Curio- 
num in qua tres continua serie Oratores extiterunt.' In 
this family have been four learned men in an uninter- 
rupted descent — scilicet, two eminent mathematicians 
(Leonard and Thomas), Sir Dudley Digges, Master of 
the Rolles, and his sonne Dudley, fellow of AUsoules 
College, Oxon. 

** Alae seu scalae mathematicae, quibus visibilium 
remotissima coelorum theatra conscendi et planetarum 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 75'. a long note about the book he men- 
** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 74. This folio tioned on fol. 75 as ' Ala seu scala 

is a slip on whiiji Aubrey has written inathematices, 4to, printed at London.' 



Thomas Digges 237 



omnium itinera novis et inauditis methodis explorari, 
turn hujus portentosi syderis (in Cassiopea) in mundi 
boreali plaga insolito fulgore coruscantis distantia et 
magnitudo immensa situsque protinus tremendus indagari 
Deique stupendum ostentum terricolis expositum cognosci 
liquidissime possit. 

Thoma Diggesio, Cantiensi, stemmatis generosi, autore, 
Lond. 1573. 

Dedicated 

' Ad Guliel. Cecilium, praeclariss. ordinis equitem au- 
ratum, baronem Burghleium, summumque Angliae The- 
saurarium,' etc. 

— luce clarius deprehendi long^ supra lunam ipsam esse. 
Tum demum antiquorum et recentiorum omnium astrono- 
morum modos cometarum et corporum coelestium distantias 
et magnitudines metiendi quos unquam legeram in animum 
sevocare coeperam, nee quenquam reperire poteram qui 
viam huic subtilissimae parallaxi examinandae convenientem 
demonstravit. Solus igitur, omnium astronomorum anti- 
quorum et recentiorum ope orbatus, (in iiuctuanti dubita- 
tionum plurimarum pelago jactatus) ad meipsum redii : 
brevi.ssimoque spatio (foelicibus mathematicis spirantibus 
auris) portum optatum assequendi varios cursus expedi- 
tissimos hactenus a nemine exploratos atque ab omni 
erroris scopulo tutissimos inveni. Quos in exigui libelli 
formam redactos honori tuo exhibere decrevi, mei officii 
testimonium (nisi me fallit Philautia) baud vulgari genio 
conscriptum, neque brevi temporum curriculo periturum — 

* Praefatio Authoris. 

Sed plura de hujus stellae historia scribere non decrevi 
quia eximius vir Johannes Dee (quum in reliqua philosophia 
admirandus, tum harum scientiarum peritissimus, quem 
tanquam mihi parentem alterum mathematicum veneror, 
quippe qui in tenerrima mea aetate plurima harum 
suavissimarum scientiarum semina menti meae inseruerit, 
alia a patre meo prius sata amicissime fidelissimeque 



* MS. Aubr. 8, fol 74'. 



238 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

nutriverit atque auxerit) hanc sibi tractandam assumpserit 
materiam quam . . . Conatus igitur sum et assequutus 
variis problematibus demonstrative et practice exactissime 
parallaxin hujus phaenomeni et cujusvis etiam alterius 
concludere, licet Saturni Jovis et Martis parallaxeis adeo 
sint exiguae ut sensuum imbecillitate vix discerni possint. 
Si tamen ulla arte vere animadverti queant (hoc ausim 
dicere) aut his nostris sequentibus problematibus aut 
nullis penitus praeceptis geometricis inveniri posse — Si 
aequi bonique consuleris, majora (annuenti potentissimo) 
in posterum promitto, quibus (non probabilibus solummodo 
argumentis sed firmissimis apodixibus) demonstrabitur 
verissimam esse Copernici hactenus explosum de terrae 
motu paradoxum — 1573. 

To these Alae seu Scalae Mr. Digges hath annexed 
Parallaticae commentationis praxeos nucleus quidam, 
Jo. Day — 

writ by John Dee, a small treatise, Lond. 1573 ; and 
hath writ thus 

Lectori Benevolo. 

— Me autem isti meo opusculo annectere et in lucem 
simul emittere variae impulere causae — V^ ne charis- 
simus mihi illius author debita suae inventionis privaretur 
laude : cum nonnulH fortassis si postea ederetur suspicari 
possint a meis methodis derivatum fuisse. Fateor equidem 
adeo late mea sese extendere fundamina ut turn istiusmodi 
tum plurimi etiam alii nuclei inde excerpi possint, etc. 

* Pantometria, containing longimetria, planimetria, 
stereometria — was writ by Leonard Digges, esq., but 
published by his sonne Thomas Digges esqr. and dedi- 
cated to Sir Nicholas Bacon, knight, Lord Keeper, lately 
reviewed and augmented by the author, printed at 
London, 1591. 

In the preface, thus : — • 

' But to leave things doone of antiquity long ago, my 
father, by his continuall painfull practises, assisted with 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 75. 



Michael Drayton 239 

demonstrations mathematicall, was able, and sundry times 
hath, by proportionall glasses duely situate in convenient 
angles, not onely discovered things farre off, read letters, 
numbred peeces of money with the very coyne and super- 
scription thereof cast by some of his freends on purpose upon 
downes in open fields but also seven miles off declared 
what hath been doone at that instant in private places ; he 
hath also at sundry times by the sunne fired powder and 
discharged ordinance halfe a mile and more distant — which 
things I am the bolder to report for that there are yet 
living diverse of these his doeings oculati testes, and many 
other matters far more strange and rare which I omit as 
impertinent to this place. But for invention of these con- 
clusions I have heard him say nothing ever helped him so 
much as the exquisite knowledge he had, by continuall 
practise, attained in geometricall mensurations.' 

Michael Drayton (1563-1631). 

* Michael Drayton, esq., natus in Warwickshire at Ather- 
ston upon Stower (quaere Thomas Mariett). 

He was a butcher's sonne. Was a squire ; viz. one of the 
esquires to Sir Walter Aston, Knight of the Bath, to whom 
he dedicated his Poeme. Sir J. Brawne of . . . was a 
great patron of his. 

He lived at the bay-windowe house next the east end 
of St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street. Sepult. in north + 
of Westminster Abbey. The countesse of Dorset * (Clifford) 
gave his monument : this Mr. Marshall (the stone-cutter), 
who made it, told me so. 

Sir Edward Bissh, Clarencieux, told me he asked 
Mr. Selden once (jestingly) whether he wrote the com- 
mentary to his ' Polyolbion ' and ' Epistles,' or Mr. Drayton 
made those verses to his notes. 

Vide his inscription given by the countess of Dorset. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. S''. King, was at the cost of erecting his 

» ' The countess of Dorset, that was monument ' : Aubrey, in MS. Wood 
govemes to prince Charles, now our F. 39, fol. 208 : May 17, 1673. 



240 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

In Westminster Abbey, neer Spencer. 
Michael Drayton, Esquier, 
A memorable Poet of this age, exchanged his Laurel for 
a Crowne of Glorie, Anno 1631. 
Doe, pious marble, let thy readers knowe 
What they, and what their children owe 
A MERCU- "^o Drayton's name, whose sacred dust ^ 

RIE'S CAP IN We recommend unto thy trust. PEGA- 

Protecte his mem'ry, and preserve his storie, SUS'. 
Remaine a lasting monument of his glorye. 
And when thy ruines shall disclame 
To be the treas'rer of his name. 
His name, that cannot fade, shall bee 
An everlasting monument to thee. 

Here is his bust in alablaster. The inscription is on 
black marble. 

Mr. Marshall, the stone-cutter, of Fetter-lane, also told 
me, that these verses were made by Mr. Francis Quarles, 
who was his great friend, and whose head he wrought 
curiously in playster, and valued for his sake. 'Tis pitty 
it should be lost. Mr. Quarles was a very good man. 

Sir Erasmus Dryden (1553-1633). 

*Sir Erasmus Dryden, of (Canons Ashby) in North- 
amptonshire : — John Dreyden, esq., Poet Laureat, tells me 
that there was a great friendship between his great grand- 
father's father "^ and Erasmus Roterodamus, and Erasmus 
was god-father to one of his sonnes, and the Christian name 

" i.e.atthesideoftheinscription this with a mercury's cap, on a wreath ; a 
is carved ; Aubrey gives a rough sketch shield gouttee, with a Pegasus, 
of the figures, a sun in his glory charged * MS. Anbr. 8, fol. 102'. 

i" Erasmus was in England 1497 and 1510. The Dryden pedigree is : — 
David Dryden 

John Dryden, obiit 1584 

Sir Erasmus, obiit 1632 
I 



I I 

John Erasmus (3rd son) 

I 
John (the poet) 



Sir IVilltam Dugdale 241 

of Erasmus hath been kept in the family ever since. The 
poet's second sonne is Erasmus. 

And at ... , the seate of the family, is a chamber 
called ' Erasmus's chamber.' 

I ghesse that this coate" — 'azure, a lion rampant and 
in chief a sphere between a estoiles or' — was graunted in 
Henry 8th's time by the odnesse of the charge. 

John Dryd«n (1631-1700). 

* John Dreyden, esq., Poet Laureate. He will write it** 

for me himselfe. 

** John Dryden, poeta, (born) 19 Aug. 1631, 5'' 33' 

16" P.M. . .^ ^.^ ... 

*** ' Natus msignis poeta 

1631 

Aug. 9°, 5" 53' P.M. 

Latit. 52° North.' 

This is the nativity of Mr. John Dreyden, poet laureat, 
by Mr. John Gadbury, from whom I had it. 

Sir WiUiam Dugdale (1 605-1 68f). 

**** Sir William Dugdale, Garter, < born,) laSept. J605, 
3'' 15' P.M. 

***** 'Sir^ William Dugdale avow'd to :mee (that) 
at the time of his birth (10 September, as Ithinke, which 
was the birth day of Francis the first) a swarme ■ of bees 
came and settled under the window where hee was borne, 
September 18. Johan. Gybbon.' 

Memorandum that Sir William Dugdile did not tell 
his son or Mr. Gibbons de Edward the Confessor and 
he laught at it — quod N.B. 

' Sir^ William Dugdale was borne September 12, 1605' 
—from Mr. Gibbons, Blewmantle. That afternoon a swarme 

« Given in trick by Anbrey. Dr. Richard Napier's papers. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. Io8^ *** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 87. 

■> i. c. his life. The page has been **** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 121: out of 

left blank for the fulfilment of this Dr. Richard Napier's papers, 
promise : cf. Milton, infra. ***** MS. Aubr. 7, u slip at fol. 

** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 121 : out of 8». 

I. R 



242 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

of bees pitch't under his mother's chamber window, as it 
were an omen of his laborious collections. 

Azotes. 

' This is a note in the handwriting of John Gibbon ('Blue Mantle' pursuivant, 
1668) ; followed by a^ memorandum by Aubrey. 

" A note by Gibbon, correcting tlie previous one: followed by a memorandum 
by Aubrey. 

Sir Jolin Dunstable. 

* Sir John Dunstable: — the cellar he calls his library. — 
Parliament men prepare themselves for the businesse of 
the nation with ale in the morning. Some justices doe 
sleepe on the bench every assizes. 

** At Chippenham the Deputye Lieutenants mett to 
see the order of the militia, but quales D : Lieutenants 
tales ofificiarii. After a taedious setting (at dinner, and 
drinking after dinner) the drummes beate and the soldiers 
to march before the windbwe to be seen by the Deputy 
Lieutenants. Justice VVagstaffe ^ (colonell) had not marcht 
before 'em many yardes but downe a falls all along in 
the dirt. His myrmidons, multa vi, heav'd him up, and 
then a cryd out ' Some drinke, ho ! ' and so there was 
an end of that businesse. 

A'ote. 
' The hero of the anecdote is no doubt Sir John Dunstable. In the Dramatis 
personae for Aubrey's projected comedy, one of the characters is ' Justice 
Wagstaffe' (MS. Aubr. 21, p. 2), over which name Aubrey has written 'Sir 
J. Dunstable, ' apparently as the name of the person he meant to copy. 

Saint Dunstan (935-988). 

*** I find in Mr. Selden's verses before Hopton's ' Con- 
cordance of Yeares,' that he was a Somersetshire gentleman. 
He was a great chymist. 

The storie of his pulling the devill by the nose with 
his tongues as he was in his laboratories was*" famous 
in church-windowes. Vide . . . Gazaei Pia Hilaria, {where 
it is) delicately described. 

* MS. Aubr. 2 1 , p. 1 9. • Dupl. with ' his athanor roome.' 

** MS. Aubr. 21, p. 2. *> Dupl. with 'is famous in picture 

♦** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 31'. and poetrie.' 



Sir Edward Dyer 243 

He was a Benedictine monke at Glastonbury, where 
he was afterwards abbot, and after that was made arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. He preached the coronation- sermon 
at Kingston, and crowned king ('Edwy). In his sermon 
he prophesyed, which the Chronicle mentions. 

Mr. Meredith Lloyd tells me that there is a booke in 
print of his de lapide philosophorum ; quaere nomen. 

Edwardus Generosus gives a good account of him in 
a manuscript which Mr. Ashmole haz. 

Meredith Lloyd had, about the beginning or the civill 
warres, a MS. of this Saint's concerning chymistrey, and 
sayes that there are severall MSS. of his up and downe 
in England : quaere Mr. Ashmole. 

Edwardus Generosus mentions that he could make a fire 
out of gold, with which he could sett any combustible 
matter on fire at a great distance.. Memorandum : — in 
Westminster library is an old printed booke, in folio, of 
the lives of the old English Saints : vide. 

Meredith Lloyd tells me that, three or 400 yeares ago, 
chymistry was in a greater perfection, much, then now ; 
their proces was then more seraphique and universall : 
now they looke only after medicines. 

Severall churches are dedicated to him r two at Lond'on : 
quaere if one at Glastonbury. 

Sir Edward Dyer (15.. -1607). 
* Sir Edward Dyer, of Somersetshire (Sharpham Parke, 
etc.), was a great witt, poet, and acquaintance of Mary, 
countesse of Pembroke, and Sir Philip Sydney. He is 
mentioned in the preface of the ' Arcadia.' He had four 
thousand pounds per annum, and was left fourscore thousand 
pounds in money ; he wasted it almost all. This I had 
from captaine Dyer, his great grandsonne, or brother's 
great grandson. I thought he had been the sonne of the 
Lord Chiefe Justice Dyer, as I have inserted in one of 
these papers, but that was a mistake. The judge was 
of the same family, the captain tells me. 
* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 1'. 

R a 



244 Aubrey's ''Brief Lives' 

St. Edmund (1170 ?-t 240). 

* Seth, lord bishop of Sarum, tells me that he finds 
Saint Edmund was borne at Abington. He was arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. He built the college at Sarum, 
by St. Edmund's Church : it is now Judge Wyndham's 
Sonne's howse. He resigned his archbishoprick, and came 
and retired hither. In St. Edmund's church here", were 
windowes of great value. Gundamore*" offered a good 
summe for them ; I have forgott (what). In one of 
them was the picture of God the Father, like an old man 
(as the fashion was), which ;much offended Mr. Shervill, the 
recorder, who in zeale (but without knowledge) clambered 
up on the pewes " to breake the windowe, and fell downe 
and brake his legg (about 1629); but that did not excuse 
him for being question'd in the Starre-chamber for it. 
Mr. Attorney Noy was his great friend, and shewed his 
friendship there. But what Mr. Shervill left undonne, the 
soldiers since have gonne through with, that there is not 
a piece of glass-painting left. 

' Edmundus, Cant. * A.B., primus legit Elementa Euclidis, 
Oxoniae, 1290"; Mr. Hugo perlegit librum Aristotelis 
Analytic. Oxon. ; Rogerus Bacon vixit A.D. 1292.' — This 
out of an old booke in the library of University College, 
Oxon. 

Thomas Egerton, lord Ellesmere (1540-161 f). 

** Sir Thomas Egerton \ Lord Chancellor, was the 
naturall sonne of Sir Richard Egerton of (Ridley) in 
Cheshire. — This information I had 30 yeares since from 
Sir John Egerton of Egerton in Cheshire, baronet, the 
chiefe of that family. 

He was of Lincoln's-Inne, and I have heard Sir John 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 32. Aubrey using his contraction for 

" At Salisbury. arch-bisliop (A. B.) instead of the 

'' Gondomar, ambassador of Spain Latin, 

to James I, i6i 7-33. Sic, in Aubrey's MS., but in error : 

" Subst. for ' scales.' perhaps 12 10 was intended. 

■^ i. c. ' Cantuar. archiepiscopus,' ** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 83^ 



George Ent 245 



Danvers say that he was so hard a student, that in three 
or 4 yeares time he was not out of the howse. He had 
good parts, and early came into good practise. 

My old father, Colonel Sharington, Talbot f, told me 
that (Gilbert, I thinke), earle of Shrewesbury, 

t Hehad, I ,.,,., , , , ^ ' 

bsiieve, 200 dcsircd him to buy that noble mannour ot 

a<1opted sonnes. ^ , . 1 , ,. 11 . 1 

tllesmer for him, and delivered him the money. 
Egerton liked the bargain and the seate so well, that truly 
he e'en kept it for himselfe, and afterwards made it his 
baronry, but the money he restored to the earl of Shrews- 
bury again ". 

Dyed . . . , and was buried .... 

He was a great patron to Ben Johnson, as appeares 
by severall epistles to himi 

His son and heire, since earle of Bridgewater, was an 
indefatigable ringer — vide the ballad. 

* Chancellor Egerton haz a monument in the south 
wall of St. Martin's-in-the-fields chancell ; but the upper 
part ('greatest) is covered with a pue or gallerie. 

Tuta** frequensque via est, per amici fallere nomen ; 
Tuta frequensque licet sit via, crimen habet. 
Ovid <Ars Amat. i. 585). 

Translated .by Theophilus Wodinoth : — 

A safe and common way it is by friendship to decieve, 

But safe and common though it be, 'tis knavery, by your leave. 

Note. 
' Aubrey gives in colours the coat : — ' argent, a lion rampant gules between 
3 pheons sable [Egerton].' 

George Ent (16 . . -1679). 

** G. Ent" obiit Septemb. 2, 1679. Buried in the north 
of the rotundo at the Temple Church. Motto of his 

ring. Quam totus homuncio nil est*. 

" Here followed, scored out as being able to the Shrewsbury story, supra. 

in error, ' he was created earle of ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 29. 

Bridgwater.' " Eldest son of Sir George : see in 

» MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 9. the life of Thomas Triplett. 

i" Aquotationjotteddownasapplic- ^ Patron. Satir. cap. 34 (Biicheler). 



246 Aubrey's ''Brief Lives' 

Nole. 
In August, 1674, this George Ent came to Oxford, to live there. He 
brought with him a letter of introduction from Aubrey to Anthony Wood, 
which is now in MS. Ballard 14. Wood and he did not get on, and Aubrey 
several times makes excuses for his friend ; e. g. Aug. 36, 1674 (MS. Ballard 14, 
fol. no), ' he is a very honest gentleman and his rhodomontades you will easily 
pardon.' The quarrels, however, became fiercer. Aubrey to Wood, March 9, 
167^, (MS. Ballard 14, fol. 115): — 'I am exceeding sorry for Mr. Ent's strange- 
nesse to you; but 'tis confess't his friends must beare with him. I did not 
shew him your letter ; but, expostulating with him, and he being cholerique, 
etc., I read only that paragraph where he " introduced into your company two 
l)oy-bachelors and "upbrayded you with dotage" — ■.' 

Desiderius Erasmus (1467-1536). 

* ' Nascitur Erasmus Roterodamus anno ]4'57, Octob. 
die 37, hora 16, 30': poli elevatio 54° o" — (from) David 
Origanus, p. 603. 

'TVTercurius, Venus, Luna et Leo conjunct!, praesertim 
in ascendente, faciunt oratores doctissimos. Talis ex parte 
fuit conatitutio Erasmi Roterodami, cujus judicium gravis- 
simum, ingehium acutissimum, et oratio copiosissima, ex 
scriptis editis eruditissimis, omnibus nota est. Habuit 
enim Mercurium cum Venere in horoscopo, in signo aereo 
Libram, et Jovem trigono radio Mercurium et Venerem 
intuentem' — (from ibid.) pag. 601. 

Obiit anno Domini MDXXXVI, mense Julii— vide 
praefationem de obitu Erasmi ante Epistolas, impressas 
Antverpiae MDXLV. 

** Erasmus Roterodamus was like to have been a 
bishop — vide Epistolas. 

*** Desiderius Erasmus, Roterodamus :— 

His name was ' Gerard Gerard,' which he translated 
into 'Desiderius Erasmus^' 

He was begot (as they say) behind dores — vide an Italian 
booke in 8vo. de famosi Bastardi: vide Anton. Possevini 
Apparatus. His father (as he says in his life, writt by 
himselfe) was the tenth and youngest son of his grand- 
father : who was therfore designed to be dedicated to 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 5". ** MS. Anbr. 8, fol. 7. 

*** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 5'. 



Desiderius Erasmus 247 

God. — ' Pater Gerardus cum Margareta (medici cujusdam 
Petri filia), spe conjugii (et sunt qui intercessisse verba 
dicunt), vixit.' 

His father tooke great care to send him to an excellent 
schoole, which was at Dusseldorf, in Cleveland. He was 
a tender chitt, and his mother would not entruste him 
at board*, but tooke a house there, and made him 
cordialls, etc. — from John Pell, D.D. 

He loved not fish, though borne in a fish towne — from 
Sir George Ent, M.D. 

(From) Dr. John Pell: — he was of the order of ... , 
whose habit was the same ithat the pest-house master 
at ... (I thinke, Pisa : quaere Dr. John Pell) in Italic 
wore ; and walking in that towne, people beckoned him 
to goe out of the way, taking him to be the master of 
the pest-house ; and he not understanding the meaning, 
and keeping on his way, was there by one well basted. 
He made his complaint when he came to Rome, and had 
a dispensation for his habit. 

He studied sometime in Queens Cdlledge in Cambridge : 
his chamber was over the water. Quaere Mr. Paschal 
more particularly; and if a fellowe : 'he'' had his study 
when a young scholar here. 

'The staires which rise up to his studie at Queens 
Colledge in Cambridge doe bring first into two of the 
fairest chambers in the ancient building ; in one of them, 
which lookes into the hall and chiefe court, the Vice- 
President kept in my time ; in that adjoyning, it was my 
fortune to be, when fellow. The chambers over are good 
lodgeing roomes ; and to one of them is a square turret 
adjoyning, in the upper part of which is that study of 
Erasmus ; and over it leades. To that belongs the best 
prospect about the colledge, viz. upon the river, into the 
corne-fields, and countrey adjoyning, etc. ; Jf^" so that it 
might very well consist with the civility of the House to 

" Subst. for 'would not adventure had lived in the rooms formerly oc- 
him at the boarding schoole.' copied by Erasmus. 

>> i.e. Andrew Paschal (B.D. 1661) 



248 Aubrey's 'Brie/ Lives' 

that great man (who was no fellow, and I think stayed 
not long there) to let him have that study. His keeping 
roome might be either the Vice-President's, or, to be neer 
to him, the next; the room for his servitor that above, 
over it, and through it he might goe to that studie, which 
for the height, and neatnesse, and prospect, might easily 
take his phancy.' This- from Mr. Andrew Paschal, Rector 
of Chedzoy in Somerset, June 15, ]68o. 

He mentions his being there in one of his Epistles, and 
blames the beere there. One, long since, wrote, in the 
margent of the booke in (the) College library in which 
that is sayd, ' Sunt ei'at in princifiio, etc' ; and all Mr. Pas- 
chall's time they found fault with the brewer. 

He had the parsonage (qyaere value) of Aldington in 
Kent, which is- about 3 degrees perhaps a healthier place 
then Dr. Pell's parsonage in Essex. I wonder they could 
not find for him'* better preferment; but I see that the 
Sun and Aries being in the second house'', he was not 
borne to be a rich man. 

He built a schoole at Roterdam, and endowed it, and 
ordered the institution'^. Sir George Ent was educated 
there. A statue in brasse is erected to his memory on 
the bridge in Roterdam. 

' The last five bookes of Livy nowe extant, found by 
Symon Grinaeus in the library of a monastery over against 
the citie of Wormbs, are dedicated by Erasmus Rotero- 
damus unto Charles the son of William lord Montjoy in 
the reigne of Henry the eight of famous memory, king of 
England, etc' — Philemon Holland's translation. 

Sir Charles Blount, of Maple-Durham, in com. Oxon. 
(neer Reding), was his scholar (in his Epistles there are 
some to him), and desired Erasmus to doe him the favour * 
to sitt for his picture, and he did so, and it is an excellent 
piece : which picture my cosen John Danvers, of Baynton 
(Wilts), haz : his wive's grandmother was Sir Charles 
Blount's daughter or grand-daughter. 'Twas pitty such a 

" Dupl. with ' find out.' " i. e. fixed the course of study. 

*• In his horoscope. " M.S. Anbr. 6, fol. 6. 



Desiderius Erasmus 249 

rarity should have been aliend from the family, but the issue 
male is lately extinct. I will sometime or other endeavour 
to gett it for Oxford Library. 

They were wont to say that Erasmus was interpendent 
between Heaven and Hell, till, about the year 1655 (quaere 
Ur. Pell), the Conclave at Rome damned him for a here- 
tique, after he had been dead .... yeares. 

Vita Erasmi, Erasmo autore, is before his Colloquia, 
printed at Amstelodam. MDCXLIV. But there is a good 
account of his life, and also of his death, scil. at Basil, and 
where buried, before his Colloquies printed at London. 

His deepest divinity is where a man would least expect 
it : viz. in his Colloquies in a Dialogue between a Butcher 
and a Fishmonger, 'lx.^vo(f>a-yCa. 

Scripsit. 

Colloquia : dedicated ' optimae spei puero Johanni 
Erasmio Frobenio.' 

Liber utilissimus de conscribendis epistolis : dedicated 
' ad Nicolaum Beraldum.' 

Liber Adagiorum. 

Verborum Copia. 

Epistolae. 

Exhortatio ad pacem ecclesiasticam. 

Paraphrasis in quatuor Evangelistas. 
Matth. — dedicated Carolo, Imperatori. 
Joan. — dedicated Ferdinand©, Catholico. 
Lucas — to Henr. 8, Rex Angl. 
Marcus — to Francisc. I, Gall. Rex. 

Novum Testamentum transtulit : memorandum — Henry 
Standish, bishop of St. Asaph, wrote a booke against his 
Translation on the New Testament; vide Sir Richard 
Baker's Chronicle (Henry VHI). 

If my memorie failes me not, I have read in the first 
edition of Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle (quaere) that the 
Syntaxis in our English Grammar was writt by Erasmus. 

Memorandum : — Julius Scaliger contested with Erasmus, 
but gott nothing by it, for, as Fuller sayth, he was like 



250 Atibreys ^ Brief Lives' 

a badger, that never bitt but he made his teeth meet. He 
was the Up6hpofx.os of our knowledge, and the man that 
made the rough and untrodden wayes smooth and 
passable ^ 

Anthony Ettriek (1622-1703). 

* Anthony Ettriek, esq., borne at Berford in the parish 
of Wimburne-Minster com. Dorset, November the 15th 
(viz. the same day that Queen Katherine), A.D. 1622 — 
quaere horam — on a Sunday. His mother would say 
he was a Sundaye's bird. 

His eldest son, Mr. William Ettriek, was borne also on 
the 15 of November, A.D. 1651. 
Maried Aug. 1651. 
Reader at the Middle Temple 167-. 

John Evelyn (1620-1706). 

** John Evelyn, esq., Regiae Societatis Socius. drew 
his first breath at Wotton in the county of Surrey^, A.u. 
1620, 31 October, i™" hora mane. 

Note. 
' In MS. Wood F. 49, fol. 39, is the cover of Aubrey's Surrey Collections : — ■ 
' An essay towards the description of the county of Surrey, by Mr. John Aubrey, 
Fellow of the Royall Societie.' On the back of this, fol. 39', Aubrey has the 
note : — ' Note that the annotations marked J. E. are of John Evelyn, esq. , R.S.S.' 
These Surrey collections are now MS. Aubr. 4. 

Thomas Fairfax, 3rd baron (i 611-167 1). 

*** Thomas, lord Fairfax of Cameron, Lord Generall of 
the Parliament armie : — Memorandum, when Oxford was 
surrendred"" (24° Junii 1646), the first thing generall 
Fairfax did was to sett a good guard of soldiers to preserve 
the Bodleian Library. 'Tis said there was more hurt 
donne by the cavaliers (during their garrison) by way of 
embezilling and cutting-off chaines of bookes, then there 

" Dnpl. with ' easie.' i" Wood 514, no. 19*, is a pass 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 37*. granted at the time of the siege, with 
** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 94. Sir Thomas Fairfax's signature and 
*** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 60. seal. 



George Feriby 25 c 



was sincte. He was a lover of learning, and had he not 
taken this special! care, that noble library had been utterly- 
destroyed — quod N. B. ; for there were ignorant senators 
enough who would have been contented to have had it so. 
This I doe assure you from an ocular witnesse, E. W. esq.'' 
He haz a copie of verses before in folio. 

George Feriby (1573-16..}. 

* In tempore Jacobi one Mr. George Ferraby was 
parson of Bishops Cannings in Wilts : an excellent musitian, 
and no ill poet. When queen Anne came to Bathe, her 
way lay to traverse the famous Wensdyke, which runnes 
through his parish. He made severall of his neighbours good 
musitians, to play with him in consort, and to sing. Against 
her majestie's comeing, he made a pleasant pastorall, and 
gave her an entertaynment with his fellow songsters in 
shepherds' weeds and bagpipes, he himself like an old 
bard. After that wind musique was over, they sang their 
pastorall eglogues (which I have, to insert in to liber B.). 

He was one of the king's chaplaines. 'Twas he caused 
the 8 bells to be cast fhere, being a very good ringer. 

He hath only one sermon in print that I know of, at the 
funerall of Mr. (John) Drew of the Devises, called Life's 
Farwell. 

He was demy, if not fellow, of Magdalen College, Oxon. 

** Thomas'' Ferraby, formerly a demy or fellow of 
Magdalen College, Oxon, minister of Bishops Cannings, 
Wilts, was an ingeniose man and a good musitian and 
composer. 

He treated queen Anne at Wednsdytch in his parish 

with a pastorall of Tiis owne writing and composing and 

sung by his neighbours clad in shepherds' weeds, whom he 

brought-up to musique. 

"' He gave another entertayment in Cote-field to king 

" Edmund Wyld (?). ** Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 

* Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 369 : Aug. 15, 1682. 

136 : Aug. 9, 167 1. " In error for ' George.' 



252 Aubrey's ''Brief Lives' 

James, with carters singing, with whipps in their hands ; 
and afterwards, a footeball play. 

This parish would have challenged all England for 
musique, ringing, and footeball play. 

He was one of his Majestie's chaplaines. One sermon 
is among my grandfather Lyte's old bookes in the country, 
at the funerall of (John) Drew, esquire, called Life's 
fareivell, printed . . . 

Nicholas Make (15 . . -166 . .). 

* Dr. . . . Fisk", a physitian, practised physick and 
astrologie, and had good practise in both, in Convent 
Garden, London. IVIr. Gadbury acknowledges in print 
to have had his greatest helpes in astrologicall knowledge 
from him, and sayes that he was an able artist. 

He wrote'' and printed a treatise of the conjunction of 
Saturne and Jupiter. 

Obiit about 20 yeares since and buryed in Convent 
Garden. 

Thomas Flatman (16 . . -1688). 

** Mr. Thomas Flatman, quondam Novi CoUegii socius, 
then a barrister of the Inner Temple, an excellent painter 
and poet. The next terme his poems will be in print. 

*** Mr. Thomas Flatman ^ died at his house in Fleet 
street on Thursday December <6th), buried the 9th of 
that moneth, at St. Bride's, neer the railes of the com- 
munion table, in the grave with his sonne, on whom he 
layd a fair marble gravestone with an inscription and 
verses. His father is living yet, at least 80, a clarke of 
the Chancery. 

**** Thomas Flatman, filius, natus 1673, Oct. 4, hora 
18 P.M. This native dyed of the small pox about 
Christmas (December) 1683. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 10. Mus. Libr. 

" 'Fisk, M.D., or so called': ** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 

Aubrey's note in MS. Aubr. 8, fol. f. 135" : Aug. 9, 1671. 

' ' An astrological discourse ' by *** M.S. Aubr. 7, fol. 8". 

N. F., 1650, I 2mo, is in the Brit. **** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 58. 



Sir IVilliam Fleetwood 253 

Note. 

' Anthony Wood detects an oversight : — ' Why do j'ou not set downe the 
yeare ? ' Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 386", says, ' Thomas Flatman dyed in 
1688, before Christmas.' 

Thomas Flattman, of Red Cross street, Alc'ersgate, London, at Winchester 
school from Michaelmas 1648, was admitted probationer of New College ,to an 
Arts fellowship^ 11 Sept. 1654, and fellow in 1656; but resigned in 1657, 
betaking himstlf to the study of Law. 

Sir William Fleetwood (1535-1594). 

* Sir Miles* Fleetwood, Recorder of London, was of 
the Middle Temple ; was Recorder of London, when 
King James came into England ; made his harangue to the 
City of London [aiiTava.K\aa-i.i), ' When I consider your 
wealth I doe admire your wisdome, and when I consider 
your wisdome I doe admire your wealth.' It was a two- 
handed rhetorication, but the citizens tooke (it) in the 
best sense. 

He was a very severe'' hanger of highwaymen, so that 
the fraternity were resolved to make an example of him ■" : 
which they executed in this manner: They lay in wayte 
for him not far from Tyburne, as he was to come from 
his house at ... in Bucks ; had a halter in readinesse ; 
brought him under the gallowes, fastned the rope about 
his neck and on the tree, his hands tied behind him (and 
servants bound), and then left him to the mercy of his 
horse, which he called Ball. So he cryed ' Ho, Ball 1 Ho, 
Ball ! ' and it pleased God that his horse stood still, till 
somebody came along, which was halfe a quarter of an 
hour or +. He ordered that this horse should be kept as 
long as he would live, and it was so — he lived till 1646 : — 
from Mr. Thomas Bigge, of Wicham "*- 

One day goeing on foote to Yield-hall, with his clarke 
behind him, he was surprised in Cheapside with a sudden 
and violent looseness neer the Standard. He "... bade 
his man hide his face "... 

* MS. Anbr. 8, fol. 16. title, noting between the lines, 'his 
" In error for ' William.' Worship ; quaere, if Honour." 

* Dupl. with ' a great.' ^ i. e. Wycombe. 

" Aubrey hesitated about his correct « A line of text is suppressed here. 



254 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

His seate was at Missenden in the county of Bucks, 
where his descendents still remaine. 
He is buried at ... in cona. Bucks. 

John Fletcher (1579-1625). 

* John Fletcher, invited to goe with a knight into 
Norfolke or Suffolke in the plague-time 1625, stayd but 
to make himselfe a suite of cloathes ; fell sick of the 
plague, and dyed. 

** Mr. John Fletcher, poet: in the great plague, 1625, 
a knight of Norfolk (or Suffolke) invited him into the 
countrey. He stayed but to make himselfe a suite of 
cloathes, and while it was makeing, fell sick of the plague 
and dyed^ This I had (1668) from his tayler, who is 
now a very old man, and clarke of St. Mary Ovary's. 

John Florio (i545?-i625). 

*** John Florio was borne in London in the beginning 
of king Edward VI, his father and mother flying from the 
Valtolin ('tis about Piedmont or Savoy) to London for 

religion : Waldenses. The family is originally of Siena, 

where the name is to this day. 

King Edward dying, upon the persecution of queen 
Mary, they fled back again into their owne countrey, 
where he was educated. 

Afterwards he came into England, and was by king 
James made ' informator ' to prince Henry for the Italian 
and French tongues, and clarke to the closet to queen Anne. 

Scripsit : — 

First and second fruits, being two books of the in- 
struction to learne the Italian tongue : 

Dictionary ; 
and translated Montagne's Essayes. 

He dyed of the great plague at Fulham anno 1625. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 45'. *** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, 
** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 54. fol. 133: June 10, 1671. Ibid., fol. 

* 'And was buryed August 29th, 131, Aubrey says the infoimation 
1625'- Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, was from Florio's grandson, 'Mr. 
fol. 253 : Jan. 31, 167I. Molins.' 



Str Edward Ford 255 

Sir Edward Ford (1605- 1670). 

* Edward Ford ", esquire, printed 5 or 6 sheetes in 4to — 
Mr. Edmund Wyld haz it — 

' A designe for bringing a river from Rickmansworth 
in Hartfordshire to St. Gyles in the fields, the benefits of 
it declared and the objections against it answered, by 
Edward Ford of Harting in Sussex, esq., London, printed 
for John Clarke, 1641.' Memorandum that now (168^) 
London is growne so populous and big that the new river 
of Middleton can serve the pipes to private houses but 
twice a weeke, quod N. B. 

I beleeve this was afterwards Sir Edward Ford, quondam 
a gentleman commoner of Trinity College, Oxon : de quo 
vide in prima parte A. W. 

Vide in my trunke of papers a printed sheet of his 
of . . . 

['Twas'' he built the high water-house over against 
Somerset howse, pulled downe since the restauration 
because a nusance.] 

** ' Experimental proposalls how the king may have 
money to pay and maintaine his fleetes with ease to the 
people, London may be re-built and all proprietors 
satisfied, money be lent at 6 li. per cent on pawnes, and 
the fishing trade sett-up ; and all without strayning or 
thwarting any of our lawes or customes,' by Sir Edward 
Forde, London, printed by W. Godbid, 1666 — a 4to 
pamphlet. 

*** Sir Edward Ford's body was brought over into 
England, and buried at Harting Church in Sussex with 
his ancestors — obiit Sept. 3. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 60". Aubrey Mr. Edmund Wyld has, and is ex- 
gives in trick the coat: — 'azure, a ceeding scarce: see it, and take the 
chevron wavy between 3 griffins title.' 

segreant or.' ' This sentence is scored out. 

" An erased note, ibid., says : ' He ** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 

proposed to a parliament, tempore 373 : May 30, 1674. 

regis Jacobi, a way of bringing water *** Aubrey, in M.S. Wood F. 39, fol. 

to London from Richmondsworth, and 135' : Aug. 9, 1671. 
printed a little booke of it, which 



^ 



256 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

His brother tells me that this August he is 6^ years old 
and that Sir Edward was borne in Aprill and one yeare 
and a half older then he. 

Sir Edward Ford first proposed his invention, the way 
of farthings for this nation, and was opposed. He could 
not gett a patent here : prince Rupert would have it, if 
he could. So then he went into Ireland and dyed fortnight 
before he had effected the getting of his patent. 

* Sir Edward Ford writt no books, but two or three 
pamphletts of a sheet or so, which I have some where, and 
have informed you of. One was an ingeniose proposall 
of a publique banke, as I remember, for the easy raysing 
of money and to avoyd the griping usurers and to promote 
trade. 

Samuel Poster (15.. -1652). 

** From Mr. Bayes, the watchmaker, his nephew : — 
Mr. Samuel Foster was borne at Coventry (as I take it) ; 
he was sometime usher of the schoole there. Was 
professor of ... at Gresham Colledge, London, . . . 
}'eares ; where, in his lodgeing, on the wall in his chamber, 
is, of his owne hand draweing, the best diall I doe verily 
beleeve in the whole world. Inter etc. it shevves you what 
a clock 'tis at Jerusalem, Gran Cairo, etc. It is drawen 
very artificially. He dyed . . . July 1653, buryed at 
St. Peter's the Poor, in Broad-street, London. A neighbour 
of Mr. Paschall's, neer Bridgewater, in Somerset, hath all 
his MSS. : which I have seen, I thinke \ foot thick in 4to. 

John Foxe (1517-1587). 

*** Adjoyning* is this inscription'' of John Fox. 

Christo S. S. 
Johanni Foxo, ecclesiae Anglicanae martyrologo fidelissimo, anti- 
quitatis historicae indagatori sagacissimo, Evangelicae veritatis 
propugnatori acerrimo, thaumaturgo admirabili qui martyres Marianos 

* Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. " To the monument of John Speed 

192': Jan. 18, 167J. in the chancel of St. Giles Cripplegate. 

** MS. Anbr. 8, fol. 14". '' ' Printed also in Stowe's Survey': 

*** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 17. Anthony Wood's note. 



Nicholas Fuller. Thomas Fuller 257 



tanquam Phoenices ex cineribus redivivos praestitit, patri suo orani 
pietatis officio in primis colendo, Samuel Foxus, illius primogenitus, 
hoc monumentum posuit, non sine lachrymis. 

Obiit die xviii mensis April. 

Anno Salutis 1587, jam 

Septuagenarius. 

Vita vitae mortalis est spes 

vitae immortalis. 

Nicholas Fuller (1557-162!), 

* The 13th of February, 1623, Mr. Nicholas Fuller", 
rector of AUington, was buried — ex registro. 

Thomas Fuller (1608-1661). 

** Thomas Fuller, D.D., borne at Orwincle f in North- 
t J. Dreyden, amotonshire. His father was minister there, 

pocte, was 

borne here. and marled . . . one of the sisters of John 
Davenant, bishop of Sarum, — From Dr. Edward Davenant. 

He was a boy of a pregnant witt, and when the bishop 
and his father were discoursing, he would be by and 
hearken, and now and then putt in, and sometimes beyond 
expectation, or his yeares. 

He was of a middle stature ; strong sett '' ; curled haire ; 
a very working head, in so much that, walking and 
meditating before dinner, he would eate-up a penny loafe, 
not knowing that he did it. His naturall memorie was 
very great, to which he had added the art of memorie : 
he would repeate to you forwards and backwards all the 
signes from Ludgate to Charing- crosse. 

He was fellow of Sydney College in Cambridge, where 
he wrote his Divine Poemes. He was first minister of 
Broad Windsor in Dorset, and prebendary of the church 
of Sarum. He was sequestred, being a royalist, and was 
afterwards minister of Waltham Abbey, and preacher of 
the Savoy, where he died, and is buryed. 

^ Aubrey in Wood MS. F. 39, fol. ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 18'. 

171 : May 10, 1672. "* Dnpl. with 'strong made.' 

• Supra, p. 31. 
I. S 



258 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

He was a pleasant facetious person, and a bonus socitis. 

Scripsit ' Holy Warre' ; ' Holy State' ; ' Pisgah Sight ' ; 
'England's Worthies'; severall Sermons, among others, 
a funerall sermon on Henry Danvers, esq., the eldest son 
of Sir John Danvers, (and only (son) by his second wife. 
Dantesey), brother to Henry earl of Danby, preached at 
Lavington in Wilts 1654: obiit 19° Novembr. 

He was minister of Waltham Crosse in Essex, and also 
of the Savoy in the Strand, where he dyed (and lies 
buryed) not long after the restauracion of his majestic. 

Simon Turbisher (1585-16..). 

* Symon Furbisher, the famous jugler, natus 30 May. 
1585, c,^ 30' A.M. 

Jolm Gadbury (1637-1704). 

** Mr. Gadbury the astrologer's father, a taylor, takes 
the measure of a young lady for a gowne and clappes up 
a match. 

NoU. 

Anthony Wood in the Ath. Oxon. gives a more correct version of this 
story. William Gadbury, a farmer, of Wheatley, co. Oxon, made a stolen 
mairiage with a daughter of Sir John Curson of Waterperry. Their son, John 
Gadbury, was apprentice to an Oxford tailor, before he set up as an astrologer. 

The correspondence between Aubrey and Wood in MS. Wood F. 51, shows 
that the publication of this story in Wood's Athenae was, very naturally, 
resented by Gadbury. Aubrey to Wood, Aug. 20, 1692, Gadbury is ' extremely 
incens't against you : . .he sayes that yon have printed lyes concerning him.' 
Aubrey to Wood, Oct. 21, 1693, ' I shewed your letter to Mr. Gadbury, wherin 
) ou tell him that what he desires should be amended as to himselfe shall be 
donne in the Appendix,' i. e. the third volume of the Athenae, on which Wood 
was then at work, ' to be printed : but he huft and pish't, saying that your 
copies are flown abroad and the scandalls are irrevocable and that he will have 
a fling at you in print to vindicate himselfe.' Wood was blind to the indiscretion 
he had committed : Wood to Aubrey, Nov. 1692, MS. Ballard 14, fol. 153 ; — 
' I wonder at nothing more then that Mr. Gadbury should take it amiss of 
those things that I say of him : for whereas the generality of scholars did 
formerly take him to have been bred an academian, because he was borne at 
Oxon, and so, consequently, not to be much admird, now their eyes being 
opend and knowing that his education hath been mechanical they esteem him 
a prodigie of parts and therfore are much desirous that his picture may hang in 
the public gallery at the schooles.' 

* MS. Aubr 23, fol. 121. ** MS. Aubr. 21, p. 11. 



Thomas Gale 259 



Thomas Gale (1636-1702). 

<MS. Aubr. 6, foil. 3, 4. This catalogue is not in 
Aubrey's hand : perhaps it is Gale's autograph, sent to 
Aubrey in answer to a request for a list of his books.) 

L ibri editi curd ct operd Tho. Gale. 

Psalterium juxta exemplar Alexandrinum bibliothecac 
regiae : Graece, 8vo. 

Scriptores mythologici ; Palaephatus, Cornutus, etc. : 
Graece, 8vo. 

Historiae poeticae scriptores ; Apollodorus, Eratosthenes, 
etc. ; Graece, 8vo. 

Rhetores antiqui ; Demetrius, Phalereus, Tiberius, etc. : 
Graece, 8vo. 

lamblichus Chalcidensis de mysteriis Aegyptiorum, etc. : 
Graece, folio. 

Johannes Eriugenan, cum notis : Lat., fol. 

S. Maximi expositiones in S. Gregorium Nazianzenum : 
Graece, fol. 

Historiae Britannicae, Anglo-Saxonicae, Anglo-Danicae, 
etc., scriptores XX nunquam prius editi, a*"' volumini- 
bus, ffol. 

Libri Graeci et Latini praelo paraii. 

Pentateuchus juxta exemplar Alexandrinum bibliothecae 
regiae, cum notis, etc. : Graece, fol. 

Liber prophetae Isaiae juxta exemplar Alexandrinum : 
Graced, cum commentario, folio. 

Basilii, Chrysostomi, Andreae Cretensis, aliorumque Grae- 
corum patrum Homiliae, nondum editae magno numero, 
Graece, fol. 

lamblichus de vita Pythagorae et ejusdem ad philoso- 
phiam protreptici, ex codicibus MSS. emendatus et nova 
versione donatus : 8vo. 

lamblichus de mathematica secundum Pythagoricos 
nunc primum ex MSS. Codd. editus, cum versione 
Latina : 8vo. 

S 2 



26o Aubreys 'Brief Lives' 



Leonis imperatoris et Basilii cubicularii de re navali 
Graecorum opuscula, nunc primum ex codd. Graecis eruta 
cum versione Latina : accedit his Appendix eorum omnium 
locorum quae apud Graecos et Latinos scriptores extant de 
re navali : 8vo. 

Tertium et ultimum volumen Historicorum gentis 
Angliae ab Henrico 111° usque ad Henricum VII""' 
nunquam hactenus editorum : fol. 

Antonini Itinerarium per Britanniam, cum commentario 
in quo multa ad chorographiam Britanniae explicandam 
adducuntur : 8vo. 

Venerabilis Bedae Historia ecclesiastica, ad antiquis- 
simos codices emaculata et multis locis restituta : fol. 

Matthaei Paris Historia. ad codices antiques emendata 
et multis repurgata erroribus, una cum copiosis notis et 
monumentis coaevis : fol. 

Codex legum antiquarum gentis Anglicanae ab Ethel- 
berto rege Cantii ad Edvardum primum : in hac collectione 
continentur quam plurimae leges Saxonicae et aliae 
nondum editae praeter eas quas Lambertus edidit: fol. 

The History of Edward the ad and of the troubles 
which happen'd in his reigne, extracted out of the rolls 
of the Tower, together with those rolls and other authentick 
evidences at large : ffol. 

The Baronage of England in HI parts: i^', of its 
original ; 3'^, of its continuance and alteration ; 3'^, of its 
rights and privilidges. 

William Gascoigne (i6i2?-i644). 

* There was a most gallant gentleman and excellent 
mathematician that dyed " in the late warres, one Mr. Gas- 
coigne, of good estate in Yorkshire ; to whom Sir Jonas 
Moore acknowledged to have received most of his know- 
ledge. He was bred up by the Jesuites. I thought to 
have taken memoires of him ; but deferring it, death 

• MS. Ballard 14, fol. 129': a letter fiom Aubrey to Anthony Wood, of 
date March 19, 168J. » Dupl. with 'killed.' 



Henry Gellibrand 261 

took away Sir Jonas. But I will sett downe what I 
remember. 

* . . . Gascoigne, esq., of Middleton, neer Leeds, York- 
shire, was killed at the battaile of Marston-moore, about 
the age of 24 or 25 at most. 

Mr. (Richard) Towneley, of Towneley. in Lancashire, 
esq., haz his papers. — From Mr. Edmund Flamsted, who 
sayes he found out the way of improveing telescopes before 
Des Cartes. 

Mr. Edmund Flamsted tells me, Sept. 1682, that 'twas 
at Yorke fight he was slaine. 

Henry Gellibrand (1597-1637). 

** Henry Gellibrand was borne in London. He was of 
Trinity Colledge in Oxon (vide Anthony Wood's Antiq. 
Oxon.). Dr. Potter and Dr. (William) Hobbes knew him. 
Dr. Hannibal Potter was his tutor, and preached his 
funeral sermon in London. They told me that he was 
good for little a great while, till at last it happened 
accidentally, that he heard a Geometric^ lecture. He 
was so taken with it, that immediately he fell to studying 
it, and quickly made great progresse in it. The fine diall 
over the Colledge Library is of his owne doeing. Con- 
struxit Logarithmos Henrici Briggs, jussu Autoris toP- 
fxaKapWov, 1631. He was Astronomy Professor in Collegio 
Greshamensi, Lond. Scripsit Trigonometriam. He being 
one time in the country, shewed the tricks of drawing* 
what card you touched, which was by combination with 
his confederate, who had a string that was tyed to his 
leg, and the leg of the other, by which his confederate 
gave him notice by the touch ; but by this trick, he was 
reported to be a conjuror. 

Vide Canterbury's Doome' about Protestant martyrs, 
(inserted in) the Almanac ; (and) that he kept conventicles 
in Gresham College. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 31. " Subst. for ' mathematical!.' 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 49. " Dupl. with ' telling.' 

" By William Prynne. 



262 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 



. . . Gerard. 

* One Mr. Gerard, of Castle Carey in Somerset, collected 
the antiquities of that county, Dorset, and that of Devon : 
which I cannot for my life retrive. His executor had 
them, whose estate was seized for debt ; and (they) 
utterly lost. 

Adrian Gilbert ( — - — ). 

** . . . Ralegh ni. Katherine Champernon m. . . . Gilbert 

i I 

Sir Walter Ralegh Adrian Gilbert, 

chymist ; sine prole. 

This Adrian Gilbert was an excellent chymist, and 
a great favourite of Mary, countesse of Pembroke, with 
whom he lived and was her operator. He was a man of 
great parts, but the greatest buffoon in England ; cared 
not what he said to man or woman of what quality soever. 
Some curious ladies of our country have rare receipts of his. 
^Twas he that made the curious wall about RoUington parke 
at Wilton. 

*** Mr. Elias Ashmole sayes that amongst his papers 
of John Dee or Dr. (Richard) Napier he finds that one 
of them held great correspondence with Adrian Gilbert. 
Quaere of him de hoc. 

Alexander Gill (1567-1635). 
Alexander Gill (1597-1642). 

**** Dr. Gill, the father, was a very ingeniose person, 
as may appeare by his writings. Notwithstanding he 
had moodes and humours, as particularly his whipping- 
fitts : — 

As Paedants out of the schoole-boies breeches 
doe clawe and curry their owne itches 

Hudibras, part . . . canto .... 

* MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 128, a ** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 74'. 
letter from Aubrey to Anthony Wood, *** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 79'. 
of date Nov. 17, 1670. **** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 51'. 



Alexander Gill 263 

This Dr. Gill whipped . . . Duncomb, who was not long 
after a colonel of dragoons at Edgehill-fight, taken pissing 
against the wall. He had his sword by his side, but the 
boyes surprized him : somebody had thro wen a stone in 
at the windowe ; and they seised on the first man they 
lighted on. * I thinke his name was Sir John D. (Sir John 
Denham told me the storie), and he would have cutt the 
doctor, but he never went abroad but to church, and then 
his army went with him. He complained to the councill, 
but it became ridicule, and so his revenge sank. 

Dr. Triplet came to give his master a visit, and he 
whip't him. The Dr. gott . . . Pitcher, of Oxford, who 
had a strong * and a sweet base, to sing this song under 
the schoole windowes, and gott a good guard to secure 
him with swords, etc., and he was preserved from the 
examen of the little myrmidons which issued-out to attach 
him ; but he was so frighted that he bes . . . . him selfe 
most fearfully. 

In Paul's church-yard in London 
There dwells a noble firker ; 
Take heed you that pass 
Lest you tast of his lash 

Still doth he cry 

Take him up, take him up, Sir, 

Untrusse with expedition. 
Oh the birchen tool 
That he winds i' th' school 

Frights worse than an inquisition. 

If that you chance to passe there. 
As doth the man of blacking ; 
He insults like a puttock 
O're the prey of the buttock 
With a whip't a . . . sends him packing. 
Still doth he cry, etc. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 52. * Dupl. with ' loud. 



264 Aubreys 'Brief Lives' 

For when this well truss't trounser 
Into the school doth enter 
With his napkin at his nose 
And his orange stuft with cloves 
On any .... he'l venter. 

Still doth, etc. 
A French-man voyd of English 
Enquiring for Paul's steeple 
His Pardonnez-moy 
He counted a toy, 
For he whip't him before all people. 

Still doth he cry, etc. 
A Welsh-man once was whip't there 
Untill he did bes .... him 
His Ciids-phittera-iiail 
Could not prevail 
For he whip't the Cambro-Britan. 

Still doth he cry, etc. 
*A captain of the train'd-band 
Yclept* Cornelius Wallis 
He whip't him so sore 
Both behind and before 
He notch't his ... . like tallyes. 

Still doth he cry, etc. 
For a piece of beef and turnip. 
Neglected, with a cabbage, 
He took up the pillion 
Of his bouncing mayd Jillian 
And sowc't her like a baggage. 

Still doth he cry, etc. 
A porter came in rudely 
And disturb'd the humming concord. 
He took-up his frock 
And he payd his nock 
And sawc't him with his owne cord. 

Still doth he cry, etc. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 52'. « Dupl. with ' sirnam'd.' 



Alexander Gill 265 



Gill upon Gill^ or 

Gill's .... uncas'd, unstript, unbound. 
' Sir, 

Did yoti me this epistle send, 

Which is so vile and lewdly pen'd, 

In which no line I can espie 

Of sense or true orthographie ? 

So slovenly it goes. 

In verse and prose, 

For which I must pull down your hose.' 

' O good sir ! ' then cry'd he, 
' In private let it be, 
And doe not sawce me openly.' 

' Yes, sir, I'le sawce you openly 
Before Sound ^ and the company ; 
And that none of thee may take heart 
Though thou art a batchelour of Art, 
Though thou hast payd thy fees 
For thy degrees: 

Yet I will make thy . . .to sneeze. 
And now I doe begin 
To thresh it on thy skin 
For now my hand is in, is in. 
First, for the themes which thou me sent 
Wherin much nonsense thou didst vent. 
And for that barbarous piece of Greek 
For which in Gartheus ° thou didst seeke. 
And for thy faults not few, 
In tongue Hebrew, 
For which a grove of birch is due. 
Therfore me not beseech 
To pardon now thy breech 
For I will be thy . . . .-leech, . . . .-leech. 

Next for the offense that thou didst give 
When as in Trinity thou didst live, 

■* Uialogue-wise between Alexander '' Interlinear note : — ' The usher.* 

Gill, father, and Alexander Gill, son. " Interlinear note : — ' Rowland.' 



266 Aubrey's ''Brief Lives' 



And hadst thy .... in Wadham College mult 

For bidding sing Qnicunque vidt * 

And for thy blanketting '' 

And many such a thing 

For which thy name in towne doth ring 

And none deserves so ill 

To heare as bad as Gill — 

Thy name it is a proverb still, 

Thou vented " hast such rascall geer. 

Next thou a preacher were 

For which the French-men all cry Fie ! 

To heare such pulpitt-ribauldrie*. 

And sorry were to see 

So worthy a degree 

So ill bestowed on thee. 

But glad am I to say 

The Masters made the{e) stay 

Till thou in quarto " didst them pray. 

But now remaines the vilest thing, 

The alehouse barking 'gainst the king 

And all his brave and noble peeres; 

For which thou ventredst for thy eares. 

And if thou hadst thy right, 

Cutt off they had been quite 

And thou hadst been a rogue in sight. 

But though thou mercy find 
Yet rie not be so kind 
But rie jerke thee behind, behind.' 

Joseph Glanville (1636-1680). 
* Joseph Glanville, D.D. : — vide his funerall sermon ^ in 
St. Paul's church-yard at the signe of ... . 

' Marginal note : — ' When he was " MS. has ' ventest.' 

dark of Wadham College and being * Marginalnote: — 'A knave's tongue 

by his place to begin a Psalme, he and a whore's tayle who can rule ? ' 
flung out of church, bidding the people ■■ Marginal note: — 'He did sitt 4. 

sing to the praise and glory of God times for his degree.' 
qnicunque vult.' * MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 9". 

'' Marginalnote: — ' he was tossed in ' i.e. Aubrey remembered having 

a blanket.' seen the sermon in a bookseller's 



Owen Glendower. Robert Glover 267 

* Dr. Joseph Glanville, minister of Bathe, was taken 
ill at Bridgewater, and returned home and dyed, Tuesday, 
November 9, )68o, and lies interred in . . . at Bath abbey. 

He was author of The zealous and iinpartiall Protestant, 
4to, stitch't, printed by Henry Brome, London, 16(81 >: 
his name is not to it. Had he lived the Parliament would 
have questioned him for it. 

Owen Glendower (1359 (?)-i4i5). 

** Quaere if you can find of what howse the famous Owen 
Glendower was. He was of Lincolns Inne, and dyed 
obscurely (I know where) in this county (Herefordshire), 
keeping of sheepe. 

. . . Skydmore of Kenchurch married his sister, and 
. . . Vaughan of Hergest was his kinsman ; and these 
two mayntayned him secretly in the ebbe of his fortune. 

Robert Glover (1544-1588). 

*** The learned herald, Mr. . . . Glover, was borne at 

in Somersetshire ; vide Fuller's ' Worthies ' de 

hoc. 

I have heard Sir Wm. Dugdale say, that though 
Mr. Camden had the name, yet Mr. Glover was the best 
herald that did ever belong to the office. He tooke a great 
deale of paines in searching the antiquities of severall 
counties. He wrote a most delicate hand, and pourtrayed 
finely. 

There is (or late was) at a coffee-house at the upper 
end of Bell-yard (or Shier-lane), under his owne hand, 
a Visitation of Cheshire, a most curious piece, which Sir 
Wm. Dugdale wish't me to see ; and he told me that 
at York, at some ordinary house (I thinke a house of 
entertainment) he sawe such an elaborate piece of York- 
shire. But severall counties he surveyd, and that with 

shop ; cf. supra, p. 115. The sermon ** Aubrey, in MS. Wood K. 39, fol, 

was by Joseph Pleydell. 138" : Sept. 2, 1671. 

* MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 7. *** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 98. 



268 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

great exactnes, but after his death they were all scattered 
abroad, and fell into ignorant hands. 

He lies interred neer Mr. Foxe's monument (who 
wrote the Martyrologie) in St. Giles' Cripplegate Chancell, 
but I could not find any inscription concerning him. 
©3" Quaere the register when he was buried. 'Twas Mr. 
John Gibbons*, Blewmantle, told me he was buried here. 
I thinke Mr. Glover was Blewmantle. 

Jonathan Goddard (i6i 7-1674). 

* Jonathan Godard, M.D., borne at Greenwich (or 
Rochester, where his father commonly lived ; but, to my 
best remembrance, he told me at the former). His father 
was a ship-carpenter. 

He was of Magdalen hall, Oxon. He was one of the 
College of Physitians, in London ; Warden of Merton 
College, Oxon, durante perduellione ; physitian to Oliver 
Cromwell, Protector ; went with him into Ireland. Quaere 
if not also sent to him into Scotland, when he was so 
dangerously ill there of a kind of calenture or high fever, 
which made him mad that he pistolled one or two of his 
commanders that came to visit him in his delirious rage. 

Collegii Greshamensis Praelector ^ medicinae ; where he 
lived, and had his laboratory ° for Chymistrie. He was 
an admirable Chymist. 

He had three or fower medicines wherwith he did all 
his cures : a great ingredient was Radix Serpentaria. — 
PVom Mr. Mich. Weekes, who looked to his stills. 

He intended to have left his library and papers to the 
Royall Societie, had he made his will, and had not dyed 
so suddainly '^. So that his bookes (a good collection) 
are fallen into the hands of' a sister's son, a scholar in 
Caius Coll. Camb. But his papers are in the hands of 

" Anbrey in MS. Tanner 25, fol. '^ MS. has 'praelectoris,' by a slip. 

£0, says ' Day- Fatality was wrilt by <^ Subat. for 'stills.' 

Mr. . . Gibbons, Blewmantle, but '' Dupl. with ' untimely.' 

I have added severall notes to it.' " Subst. for ' of a niece of his who 

* MS. .'iiibr. 8, fol. 21". maried a tradesman.' 



Thomas Goodwyn 269 

Sir John Bankes, Reg. Soc. Socius. There were his 
lectures at Chirurgions' hall ; and two manuscripts in 4to, 
thicke volumnes, readie for the presse, one was a kind 
of Pharmacopoeia (his nephew has this). 'Tis possible 
his rare universall medicines aforesayd might be retrived 
amongst his papers. My Lord Brounker has the recipe 
but will not impart it. 

He was fellowe of the Royall Societie, and a zealous 
member for the improvement of naturall knowledge amongst 
them. They made him their drudge, for when any curious 
experiment was to be donne they would lay" the taske 
on him. 

He loved wine and was most curious in his wines, was 
hospitable, but dranke not to excesse, but it happened 
that comeing from his club at the Crowne taverne in 
Bloomesbery, a foote, 1 1 at night, he fell downe dead of 
an apoplexie in Cheapside, at Wood-street end, March 24, 
Anno Domini 167I, aetat. 56. Sepult. in the church of 
Great St. Helen, Londini. 

Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey (162 1-1678). 

* Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey was of Christ's Church in 
Oxon, and chamber-fellowe to my cosen W(illiam) Morgan 
of Wells, in Peckwater, in north-east angle. 

He was afterwards of Grayes Inne, and chamber-fellow 
to my counsell, Thomas Corbet, esq. I thinke Mr. Corbet 
told me he was called to the barre. But by match, or &c. 
he concieved he should gaine more by turning zvood- 
vi07iger. 

The rest of his life and death is lippis et io7isoi-ibus 
notum. 

[Knighted '' for his great service done in London fire, 

1666.] 

Thomas Goodwyn. 

** . . . Goodwyn : he was borne in Norfolke : of the 
University of, I beleeve, Cambridge. 

" Subst. for ' impose.' " Note added by Anthony Wood. 

» MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 59'. ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 15'. 



270 Aubrey's 'Brie/ Lives' 

He was ... of the court of Ludlowe (in which place 
Jack Butts was his successor). 

He maried first Barbara daughter of Sir W. 

Long, of Draycot-Cerne, in Wilts : 3d, . . . Brabazon, of 
. . . Hereffordshire; obiit sine prole. 

He was a generall scolar, and had a delicate witt ; was 
a great historian, and an excellent poet. He wrote, among 
other things, . . . ,a Pastorall, acted at Ludlowe about 1637, 
an exquisite piece. T/te Journey into France, crept in bishop 
Corbet's poems, was made by him, by the same token it 
made him misse of the preferment of ... at court, Mary 
the queen-mother remembring how he had abused her 
brother, the king of France ; which made him to accept 
of the place at Ludlowe, out of the view of the world. 

When he sat in court there, he was wont to have Thuanus, 
or Tacitus, or etc. before him. He was as fine a gentleman 
as any in England, though now forgott. Obiit, at or about 
Ludlowe, circiter . . . (quaere Sir J. H. and Sir James 
Long). 

The Journey into France was made by Mr. Thomas 
Goodwyn, of Ludlowe, . . . ; certaine. 

Thomas Gore (163 5-1684). 

* Genesis Thomae Gore armigeri by Charles Snell, 
esq. : — 

'Tuesday, 20"° Martii 163^, 1 1'' 00' p.m. tempus 
aestimatum geneseos Thomae Gore, de Alderton (Wilts), 
armigeri.' 

^ Note. 

This Thomas Gore, a writer on heraldry, was a correspondent of Anthony 
Wood ; see Clark's Wood's Zz7« a«rf Times, ii. 140, iv. 229. Anbrey habitually, 
in his letters to Wood, refers contemptuously to him as ' the cuckold of 
Alderton.' 

Sir Arthur Gorges (15.. -1625). 

** ' Sir Arthur Gorges '^ was buried August the 22"* 
1 66 1 ' — ex regis tro Chelsey . 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 51 : also in MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 102. 
** MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 16'. » Eldest son of the translator. 



John Gower. John Graunt 271 

ht obitum illustrissimi viri Z>'. Arthuri 
Gorges, eqiciiis auraii, epicedium. 

Te deflent nati, natae, celeberrima conjux ; 
Te dolet argutae magna caterva scholae. 
< transtuiit At Lucanus t ait se vivo non moriturum 
ucanum. Arthurum Gorges : transtuiit ipse decus. 

Aetliereas cupiens Arthurus adire per auras 
Et nonus ex ejus nomine natus adest. 

In the aisle of the Gorges, viz. south side of the church 
of Chelsey on an altar monument made for his father or 
grandfather — ^' D^- Arthur Gorge, eq. aur,, filius ejus natu 
maximus.' 

John Gower (1327 ?-i4o8). 

* John Gower, esq., poet, has a very worshipfull monu- 
ment in the north side of the church of St. Saviour s 
Southwarke ; an incumbent figure : about his head i.'; 
a chaplet of gold — 

meriti, etc. — 
and a silver collar of SSS about his neck. 
Vide iterum, and also his booke. 

John Graunt (1630-1674). 

** Captaine John Graunt (afterwards, major) was borne 
(ex MS*" patris sui) 24° die Aprilis, \ an houre before eight 
a clock on a Munday morning, the signe being in the 
y degree of Gemini that day at I3 a clock, Anno Domini 
,1630. 

He was the sonne of Henry Graunt, who was borne 
]8 January 1592% being ^Tuesday, at night; et obiit 
31 March, 166^, being Fryday, between one and two in 
the morning ; buryed in the vault in the new vestrie in 
St. Michaels church in Cornhill. He was borne in ... , 
Hantshire. 

His son John was borne at the 7 Starres in Burchin 
Lane, London, in the parish of St. Michael's Cornhill. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 53'. gives in trick the coat : — ' ermine, on a 
** M.S. Aubr. 6, fol. 97. Aubrey chevron gules 5 besants.' " 159^. 



272 Aubreys ''Brief Lives' 

Me wrote Observations on the bills of mortality very 
ingeniosely (but I beleeve, and partly know, that he had 
his hint from his intimate and familiar friend Sir William 
--.Petty), to which he made some Additions, since printed. 
And he intended, had he lived, to have writt more on the 
subject. 

He writt also some Observations on the advance of excise, 
not printed : quaere his widowe for them. 

To give him his due prayse, he was a very ingeniose and 
studious person, and generally beloved, and rose early in 
the morning to his study before shop-time. He understood 
Latin and French. He was a pleasant facetious com- 
panion, and very hospitable. 

He was bred-up (as the fashion then was) in the Puritan 
way ; wrote short-hand dextrously ; and after many yeares 
constant hearing and writing sermon-notes, he fell to buying 
and reading of the best Socitlian bookes, and for severall 
\eares continued of that opinion. At last, about . . . , he 
turned a Roman Catholique, of which religion he dyed 
a great zealot. 

He was free of the drapers' company, and by profession 
was a haberdasher of small-wares. He had gone through 
all the offices " of the city so far as common-councell-man. 
Captain of the trayned-bands severall yeares ; major, 2 or 
3 yeares. — He was a common councell man 2 yeares, and 
then putt out (as also of his military employment in the 
trayned band) for his religion. 

He was admitted a fellowe of the Royall Societie, anno 
16 . . (about 1663). 

He broke '' .... He dyed on Easter eve " 1674; buryed 
on the Wednesday in Easter-weeke in St. Dunstan's church 
in Fleet Strete under the gallery about the middle (or more 
west) north side, anno aetatis suae 54- 

He had one son, a man, who dyed in Persia ; one 
daughter, a nunne at ... (I thinke, Gaunt). His widowe 
yet alive. 

" Subst. for ' degrees.' " Died April 18, buried April 22, 

'' i. e. became bankrupt. 1674. 



John Graunt 273 



* Major John Graunt dyed on Easter-eve 1674, and was 
buryed the Wednesday followeing in St. Dunstan's church 
in Fleet street in the body of the said church under the 
piewes towards the gallery on the north side, i.e., under 
the piewes [alias hoggsties) of the north side of the middle 
aisle (what pitty 'tis so great an ornament of the citty 
should be buryed so obscurely !), aetatis anno 54°. 

Was borne in Burchin lane, at the 7 Starres, in St. Michael's 
Cornhill parish, at which place he continued his trade till 
about 2 yeares since. 

( 1. Political ) 

His 'Observations on the bills of mortality-; 2 / 

is ' 

hath been printed more then once ; and now very scarce. 

He wrott some 'Observations on the advance of the excise,' 
not printed ; and intended to have writt more of the bills 
of mortality ; and also intended to have written something 
of religion. 

He was by trade a haberdasher of small wares, but was 
free of the drapers' company. A man generally beloved ; 
a faythfull friend. Often chosen for his prudence and 
justnes to be an arbitrator ; and he was a great peace- 
maker. He had an excellent working head, and was very 
facetious and fluent in his conversation. 

** He had gonne thorough all the offices of the city so 
far as common councill man. He was common councill 
man two yeares. Captaine of the trayned band, severall 
yeares: major of it, two or three yeares, and then layd 
downe trade and all other publique employment for his 
religion, being a Roman Catholique. 

Ex MSS. patris ejus : — ' My son, John Graunt, was borne 
24th day of April halfe an howre before 8 a clock on 
a Monday morning anno Domini 1620.' 

He was my honoured and worthy friend — cujus animae 
propitietur Deus, Amen. 

His death is lamented by all good men that had the 

* Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 270 : May 26, 1674. 
** Ibid., fol. 270'. 

I. T 



274 Aubrey's ' Brief Lives' 

happinesse to knowe him ; and a great number of ingeniose 
persons attended him to his grave. Among others, with 
teares, was that ingeniose great virtuoso, Sir William Petty, 
his old and intimate acquaintance, who was sometime 
a student at Brase-nose College. 

Edward Greaves (1608-1680). 

* Sir Edward Greaves, M.D., obiit Thursday November 
1 1, 1680 in Convent Garden ; buried in the church there. 

Scripsit Morbus epidemicus, or the neiv desease, 4to, 
stitch't, printed at Oxford about 1643. 

Port(avit) ' gules, an eagle displayed or, crowned argent' 

. . . Gregory. 

** . . . Gregorie, famous peruq-maker, buryed at St. 
Clement Danes church dore west. Quaere inscription in 
rythme from baron "■ Gregory, baron of the exchequer. 

Vide Cotgrave's french dictionary ubi peruqes are called 
Gregorians. 

*** Peruques not commonly worne till 1660. Memoran- 
dum there was one Gregorie in the Strand that was the 
first famous periwig-maker ; and they were then called 
Gregorians (mentioned in Cotgrave's Dictionarie in verba 
perruque). He lies buried by the west church-dore of St. 
Clements Danes, where he had an inscription which 
mentioned it. 'Twas in verse and Sir William Gregorie 
(one of the Barons of the Exchequer) read and told it me. 
Quaere of him -1- de hoc. 

Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-3579). 

**** Memorandum ^ : — Mr. Shirman, the attorney, at 
Inneholders-hall, hath a copie of Sir Thomas Gresham's 
will ^, which procure. 

Notes. 
' Aubrey in MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 8, gives in trick the coats: — {a), 'argent, 
a chevron ermine between 3 mullets pierced sable : crest, a grasshopper : motto, 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 2. *** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28. 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 7. **** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 2. 

" Subst. for 'the judge.' 



Greville, lord Brooke 275 

Forlnn ff»y'[Sir Thomas Gresham, 1601]' : and (/;), ' or, on a bend vert 3 bucks' 
heads caboshed argent.' 

■* Twice alluded to in MS. Aubr. 8, viz., (fol. 8) 'Copie out Sir Thomas 
Gresham's will from Mr. Shirman'; (fol. 12) 'Sir Thomas Gresham, knight ; 
quaere copie of his will from Mr. Shirman, attomie.' 

Fulke G-reviUe, lord Brooke (1554-1638). 
Eobert Greville, lord Brooke (i 607-1 64I). 

* Sir Fulke Greville, lord Brokes, adopted a parke- 
keeper' s sonne his heire, who (I thinke) had but one eie : 
vide de hoc in Dr. Heylen's Historic of the church of 
England .... Vide Sir William Davenant's life ^ in part 
I'' (i.e. in MS. Aubr. 6). 

Poems, in folio, London, printed . . . 

' The life '' of the renowned Sir Philip Sidney, with the 
true Interest of England, as it then stood in relation to all 
Forrain Princes : And particularly for suppressing the 
power of Spain, stated by him. Written by Sir Fulke Grevil, 
knight, lord Brook, a servant to Queen Elisabeth, and his 
companion and friend. London, printed for H. Seile, over 
against St. Dunstan's church, in Fleet-street, M.DC.LII.' 

Vide in Sir William Dugdale's Warivickshire his noble 
castle ", and monument with this inscription : ' Here 
lies the body of Sir Fulke Grevile knight servant to 
Q. Eliz., counsellor to King James, and friend to Sir 
Philip Sidney.' 

(Robert Greville, second) lord Brookes, was maried to 
(Catherine Russell) daughter of the earle of Bedford. He 
was killed at the siege of Lichfield, March the 2d (St. Chad's 
day, to whom the Church is dedicated) ( 164I) by a minister's 
sonne, borne deafe and dumbe, out of the church. He was 
armed cap d pied ; only his bever was open. I was then 
at Trinity College in Oxon. and doe perfectly remember 
the story. 

The lord Brookes, that was killed at Lichfield, printed 
a booke about Religion, a little before the civill warres, by 

* MS. Aubr, 8, fol. 4". » Stipra, p. 205. 

*■ Aubrey notes of this book ' I have it.' 

" Dnpl. with ' seat.' 

T a 



276 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

the same token that in^ (a) song on the Lords then, his 
(character) was : — ^ Brook is a foole in print! 

Peter Gunning (1614-1684). 

* . . . Gunning, episcopus Eliensis ; — his father was 
a minister in the Wild of Kent ; and 'tis thought he was 
borne there, scil. at Brenchley. 

Edmund Gunter (1581-1626). 

** Mr. Edmund Gunter ^ :— for his birth, etc , see in 
Antiq. Oxon. (by) A. Wood. 

Captain Ralph Gretorex, mathematical instrument maker 
in London, sayd that he was the first that brought 
mathematicall instruments to perfection. His booke of the 
quadrant, sector, and crosse-staffe did open men's under- 
standings and made young men in love with that studie. 
Before, the mathematical sciences were lock't up in the 
Greeke and Latin tongues and so '' lay untoucht, kept safe in 
some libraries. After Mr. Gunter published his booke, 
these sciences sprang up amain, more and more to that 
height it is at now (1690). 

When he was a student at Christ Church, it fell to his 
lott to preach the Passion sermon, which some old divines 
that I knew did heare, but they sayd that 'twas sayd of 
him then in the University that our Saviour never suffered 
so much since his passion as in that sermon^ it was such 
a lamentable one — 

Non omnia possumus omnes. 

The world is much beholding to him for what he hath 
donne well. 

Gunter is originally a Brecknockshire family, of 
Tregunter. They came thither under the conduct of 
Sir Bernard Newmarch v/hen he made the conquest of that 
county (Camden). — ' Aubrey, Gunter, Waldbeof, Havard, 
Pichard ' (which is falsely express'd in all Mr. Camden's 
bookes, scil. Prichard, which is non-sense). 

° Dupl. with ' that in libelling characters of the Lords then, his was-' 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 14". ** MS. Anbr. 8, fol. 78'. " Dupl. with ' there.' 



John Guy. William Habington 277 

iVole. 
' Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' sable, 3 gauiitletts argent' ; and adds 
' quaere if these gauntletts are dextre or sinistre ? ' 

Jolin Guy (15 . . -1638). 

* Memorandum : — ... Guy, alderman of Bristoll, was 
the wisest man of his time in that city. He was as their 
oracle and they chose him for one of their representatives 
to sitt in Parliament. 

'Twas he that brought in the (bill) for lowering of 
interest from ten in the hundred to eight per centum. 

. . . Gwyn. 

** Surlinesse and inurbanitie too common in England : 
chastise these very severely "^ 

A better instance of a squeamish and disobligeing, 
slighting, insolent, proud, fellow*, perhaps cant be found 
then in . . . Gwin, the earl of Oxford's'" secretary. No 
reason satisfies him, but he overweenes, and cutts some 
sower faces that would turne the milke in a faire ladle's 
breast. 

William Habington (i 605-1 645). 

*** William Habington, of Hindlip in Worcestershire, 
esq., maried Luce, daughter of William (Herbert), lord 
Powes, 1634, as by the Worcestershire Visitation it appeares. 

He was a very learned gentleman, author of a poem 
called Castara. He wrote a live of one of the kings of 
England. ^^^ 

Aubrey gives in trick the coat :— ' argent, on a bend gules 3 eagles displayed, 
or ; impaling, party per pale argent and gules 3 lions rampant counterchanged, 
within a bordure gobony, or and . . . , a crescent for difference.' 

* MS. Anbr. 6, fol. .= . " In his projected comedy. 
** MS. Anbr. 2 i,p. 11; and repeated i" 'Coxcome' on fol. 24^. 

almost verbatim, ibid. fol. 24^'. Au- " Aubrey de Vere, succeeded as 

brey's character Sir Fastidious Over- 20th earl in 1632, died 1702, the last 

ween in his projected comedy The of that house. 

Country Revel was to be copied from *** MS. Anbr. 7, fol. 7. 

this Gwyn. 



278 Aubrey's ' Brief Lives' 



Sir Matthew Hale (1609-16 76). 
* Jtidge Hale s accidents. 

1609, natus, November i^*, in the evening, his father then 
being at his prayers. 

:6i2, death of his mother, April 23. 

1614, his father dyed, moneth not known. 

1625, went to Oxon to Magdalen Hall ; vide A. Wood's 
History of Oxon when matriculated. 

162S, admitted of the society of Lincolne's Inne, 
November 8. 

1636, this yeare called to the barre, quaere in what 
terme. 

1640, maried the first time. He was a great cuckold. 

1656, his second mariage to his servant mayd, Mary. 

1660, made Lord Chief Baron. 

1671, Lord Chiefe Justice of England, 18 May. 

1676, Christmas day, he dyed. 

** Sir Matthew Hales, Lord Chief Justice of the King's 
Bench, was borne at Alderley in com. Glouc, November i^', 
1609 ; christned the 5"' Quaere Mr. Edward Stephens 
horam, for he has it exactly. When his mother fell in 
labour, his father was offering up his evening sacrifice. 

*** That incomparable man for goodnes and universality 
of learning. Sir Matthew Hales, Lord Chief Justice of 
England, hath writt the description of Gloucestershire, an 
elaborate piece, and ready for the presse. The transcripts 
of the Tower for it cost him 40 li. 

John Hales (1584-1656). 

**** Mr. John Hales, . . - *, was borne at Wells, 
I thinke I have heard Mr. John Sloper say (vicar of 
Chalke ; his mother was Mr. Hales's sister, and he bred 
him at Eaton). 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 3. ***" MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 119^. 

** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 20*. " .Space left for his degree; M.A. 

*** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. (Merton, 20 June, 1609). 
144: Oct. 27, 1671. 



John Hales 279 



His father was a steward to the family of the Homers : — 
Hopton, Horner, Smyth, and Thynne, 
When abbots went out, they came in"- 

Went to school, at Bath (as I take it). Fellow of 
Merton Colledge. Assisted Sir Henry Savill in his edition 
of Chrysostome {cum aliis). Afterwards fellow of Eaton 
College. 

Went chaplain to Sir Dudley Carlton (ambassador to 
. . . ). I thinke was at the Synod of Dort. 

When the Court was at Windsor, the learned courtiers 
much delighted (in) his company, and were wont to grace 
him with their company. 

I have heard his nephew, Mr. Sloper, say, that he much 
loved to read . . . Stephanus, who was ^.familist, I thinke 
that first wrote of that sect of the Familie of Love : he was 
mightily taken with it, and was wont to say that sometime or 
other those fine notions would take in the world. He was 
one of the first Socinians in England, I thinke the first. 

He was a generall scolar, and I beleeve a good poet : for 
Sir John Suckling brings him into the Session of the Poets : 
' Little Hales all the time did nothing but smile, 
To see them, about nothing, keepe such a coile.' 

He had a noble librarie of bookes, and those judicially 
chosen, which cost him . . . li. (quaere Mr. Sloper) ; and 
which he sold to Cornelius Bee, bookeseller, in Little 
Britaine, (as I take it, for 1000 /?'.) which was his maintenance 
after he was ejected out of his fellowship at Eaton College. 
He had then only reserved some few for his private use, to 
wind-up his last dayes withall. 

The ladie Salter (neer Eaton) was very kind to him after 
the sequestration ; he was very welcome to her ladyship, 
and spent much of his time there. At Eaton he lodged 
(after his sequestration) at the next house (to) the 
Christopher (inne), where I sawe him, a prettie little man, 

" Substituted for :— 

' Hopton, Homer, Knocknaile and Thynne, 
When abbots went downe, then they came in.' 



28o Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

sanguine, of a cheerful! countenance, very gentile, and 
courteous ; I was recieved by him with much humanity : he 
was in a kind of violet-colourd cloath gowne, with buttons 
and loopes (he wore not a black gowne), and was reading 
Thomas a Kempis ; it was within a yeare before he deceased. 
He loved Canarie ; but moderately, to refresh his spirits. 

He had a bountifull mind. I remember in 1647, a little 
after the Visitation % when Thomas Mariett, esq., Mr. William 
Radford, and Mr. Edward Wood (all of Trinity College) 
had a frolique from Oxon to London, on foot, having never 
been there before, they happened to take Windsore in their 
way, made their addresse to this good gentleman, being 
then fellovvf. Mr. Edward Wood was the spookes-man, 
remonstrated that they were Oxon scholars : he treated 
them well, and putt into Mr. Wood's hands ten shillings. 

He lies buried in the church yard at Eaton, under an 
altar monument of black marble, erected at the sole chardge 
of Mr. . . . Curwyn, with a too long epitaph. He was no 
kiff or kin to him. 

* Mr. John Hales dyed at Mris Powney's house, a widow- 
woman, in Eaton, opposite to the churchyard, adjoyning to 
the Christopher Inne southwards. 'Tis the howse where 
I sawe him. 

She is a very good woman and of a gratefull spirit. She 
told me that when she was maried, Mr. Hales was very 
bountifull to them in helping them '' to live in the world. 
She was very gratefull to him and respectfull to him. 

She told me that Mr. Hales was the common godfather 
there, and 'twas pretty to see, as he walked to Windsor, 
how his godchildren asked him blessing ". When he was 
bursar, he still gave away all his groates for the acquittances 
to his godchildren ; and by that time he came to Windsor 
bridge, he would have never a groate left. 

This Mris Powney assures me that the poor were more 

° Scil. of Oxford University by tlie ^ Dnpl. with ' in setting tliem up 

Parliamentary Commission. to.' 

* Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. <: Dupl. with ' fell on their knees.' 
368 : 'St. Anne's day,' July 26, 1682. 



Joseph Hall 281 



relieveable, that is to say, that he recieved more kindnesse 
from them than from the rich. That that I putt downe 
of my lady Salter (sister to Brian Duppa, bishop of 
Sarum), from his nephew (John) Sloper, vicar of Chalke, 
is false" She had him to her house indeed, but 'twas 
to teach her sonne, who was such a blockhead he could 
not read well. 

Cornelius Bee bought his library for 700/2'., which cost 
him not lesse then 2,500 li. Mris Powney told me that she 
was much against the sale of 'em, because she knew it was 
his life and joy. 

He might have been restored to his fellowship again, but 
he would not accept the offer. He was not at all covetous, 
and desired only to leave x li. to bury him. 

He bred-up our vicar, [Sloper ""j, who, she told me, never 
sent him a token ; and he is angry with her, thinks he left 
her too much. 

She is a woman pi'imitively good, and deserves to be 
remembred. I wish I had her Christian name. Her 
husband has an inscription on a gravestone in Eaton College 
chapel towards the south wall. 

She has a handsome darke old-fashioned howse. The 
hall, after the old fashion, above the wainscot, painted 
cloath, with godly sentences out of the Psalmes, etc., 
according to the pious custome of old times ; a convenient 
garden and orchard. She has been handsome : a good 
understanding, and cleanlie. 

Joseph Hall (1574-1656). 

* Joseph Hall, bishop of Exon, etc. : he was a keeper's 
son in Norfolke (I thinke, neer Norwich). — From old 
Mr. Theophilus Woodenoth. 

He wrote most of his fine discourses at Worcester, when 
he was deane there. — From Mr. Francis Potter, who went 
to schole there. 

" Diipl. with ' a mistake.' '' Inserted by Anthony Wood. 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 60. 



282 Aubrey s 'Brief Lives' 

Monsieur Balzac exceedingly admired him and often 
quotes him : vide Balzac's Apologie. 

Edmund Halley (1656-1744). 

* Mr. Edmund Hally, astronomer, born October 39, 
1656, London — this nativity I had from Mr. Hally 
himself. 

** Mr. Edmund Halley ^ Artium Magister, the eldest 
son of (Edmund) Halley, a soape-boyler, a wealthy citizen 
of the city of London ; of the Halleys, of Derbyshire, 
a good family. 

He was born in Shoreditch parish, at a place called 
Haggerston, the backside of Hogsdon. 

At 9 yeares old, his father's apprentice taught him 
to write, and arithmetique. He went to Paule's schoole to 
Dr. Gale : while he was there he was very perfect in 
the Caelestiall Globes insomuch that I heard Mr. Moxon 
(the globe-maker) say that if a star were misplaced in the 
globe, he would presently find it. 

At ... he studyed Geometry, and at 16 could make 
a dyall, and then, he said, thought himselfe a brave 
fellow. 

At (16) went to Queen's Colledge in Oxon, well versed 
in Latin, Greeke, and Hebrew: where, at the age of 
nineteen, he solved this useful probleme in astronomic, 
never donne before, ^p" viz. ' from 3 distances given from 
the sun, and angles between, to find the orbe ' (mentioned 
in the Philosophicall Transactions, Aug. or Sept. 1676, 
No. 115), for which his name will be ever famous. 

Anno Domini . . . tooke his degree of Bacc. Art. ; 
Anno Domini . . . tooke his degree of Master of Arts ^ 

Anno . . . left Oxon, and lived at London with his 
father till (1676); at which time he gott leave, and 
a viaticum of his father, to goe to the Island of Sancta 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 28'. also Halley's horoscope. 

** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 50. '' Halley did not graduate in the 

" Aubrey gives in colours the coat : ordinary course, but was made M.A. 
' sable, a fret and a canton argent ' ; by diploma in 1678. 



Edmund Halley 283 

Hellena, purely upon the account of advancement in 
Astronomy, to make the globe of the Southerne Hemisphere 
right, which before was very erroneous, as being donne 
only after the observations of ignorant seamen. There he 
stayed . . . moneths. There went over with him (amongst 
others) a woman . . . yeares old, and her husband . . . old, 
who had no child in . . . yeares ; before he came from the 
island, she was brought to bed of a child. At his returne, 
he presented his Planisphere, with a short description, to 
his majesty who was very well pleased with it ; but 
received nothing but prayse. 

I have often heard him say that if his majestic would be 
but only at the chardge of sending out a ship, he would 
take the longitude and latitude, right ascensions and 
declinations of . . . southern fixed starres. 

Anno 1678, he added a spectacle-glasse to the shadowe- 
vane of the lesser arch of the sea-quadrant (or back-staffe) ; 
which is of great use, for that that spott of light will be 
manifest when you cannot see any shadowe. 

He went to Dantzick to visit Hevelius, Anno 167-. 

December 1^', 1680, went to Paris. 

* Edmund Haley: — cardinall d'Estree caressed him 
and sent him to his brother the admirall with a lettre of 
recommendation. — He hath contracted an acquaintance 
and friendship with all the eminentst mathematicians of 
France and Italic, and holds a correspondence with them. 

He returned into England, Januarii 34°, 1685. 

Quaere Mr. Partridge of his Directio mortis, scilicet 
about '^^ aetatis. 

** (Quaere) Edmund Halley who cutts his schemes in 
wood ? they are well. 

(David) Loggan informes me that one . . . Edwards, 
the manciple of . . . College Oxon, doth cut in wood 

very well. 

Note. 

In the earl of Macclesfield's library at Shirburne Castle, Oxon., are several 
MSS. by Halley; among them a common-place book. 

* MS. Aubr. S, fol. lo. ** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 49, fol. 39'. 



284 Aubreys ^ Brief Lives' 

Baldwin Hamey (1600-1676). 

* In the midd aisle (or nave) of Chelsey church, a faire 
flat marble grave-stone : — • 

The return of Baldwin Hamey, Dr. of Physick, on the 14 of May 

being Whitsunday in the yeare of our Lord 1676 and in the 76thyeare 

of his asre. r> 1 , ./; 

° Psalm 146, vers. 4. 

His breath goeth, etc. 

William Harcourt (1610-1679). 

** Father Harcourt — he told me that he was of the 
familie of Stanton Harcourt, A.D. 1650. He was con- 
fessor, and afterwards co-executor, to the lady Inglefield. 

*** Petrification of a kidney. When father Harcourt 
suffered " at Tyburne, and his bowells, etc. throwne into 
the fire, a butcher's boy standing by was resolved to have 
a piece of his kidney which was broyling in the fire. He 
burn't his fingers much, but he got it ; and one . . 
Roydon, a brewer in Southwark, bought it, a kind of 
Presbyterian. The wonder is, 'tis now absolutely petrified . 
I have seen it. He much values it. 

**** Mr. Roydon, brewer in Southwarke (opposite the 
Temple), haz the piece of Father Harcourt's kidney which 
was snatcht out of the fire, and now petrified and very 
hard. But 'twas not so hard when he first had it. It 
being alwayes carried in the pocket hardened by degrees 
better then by the fire — like an agate polished. 

Thomas Hariot (1560-1631). 
***** Mr. Thomas Hariot ^ — from Dr. John Pell, March 
31, 1680. Dr. Pell knowes not what countreyman '' he was 
(but an Englishman he was). — [There "= is a place in Kent 

* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 16". Hamey **** MS. Anbr. 8, fol. 63\ 
was M.D,, Leyden ; incorporated at ***** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 35. 
Oxford, Feb. 4, i6|^. " ' Country,' with Aubrey, = county. 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 5". " Added as a suggestion that Hariot's 

*** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 10'. family may be looked for in those 

" In June, 1679 ; Clark's Wood's counties. 
Life and Times, ii. 453. 



Thomas Hariot 285 



called Harriot's-ham, now my lord Wotton's ^ ; and in 
Wostershire in the parish of Droytwich is a fine seat called 
Harriots, late the seate of Chiefe Baron Wyld ] 

He thinkes he dyed about the time he (Dr. Pell) went 
to Cambridge. He sayes my lord John Vaughan can 
enforme me, and haz a copie of his will : which vide. 

* Mr. Thomas Hariot — Mr. Elias Ashmole thinkes he 
was a Lancashire man : Mr. (John) Flamsted promised 
me to enquire of Mr. Townley. 

** ®^" I very much desire to find his buriall : he was 
not buryed in the Tower chapelle. 

*** Mr. Thomas Harriot" : — Memorandum: — Sir Robert 
Moray (from Francis Stuart^), declared at the Royal 
Society — 'twas when the comet "= appeared before the Dutch 
warre — that Sir Francis had heard Mr. Harriot say that 
he had seen nine cometes, and had predicted seaven of 
them, but did not tell them how. 'Tis very strange : 
excogitent astronomi. 

**** Mr. Hariot went with Sir Walter Ralegh into 
Virginia, and haz writt the Description of Virginia, which 
is printed. 

Dr. Pell tells me that he finds amongst his papers (which 
are now, 1684, in Dr. Busby's hands), an alphabet that he 
had contrived for the American language, like Devills*. 

He wrote a Description of Virginia, which is since 
printed in Mr. Purchas's Pilgrims. 

Vide Mr. Glanvill's Moderne Improvement of Useful! 
Knowledge, where he makes mention of Mr. Thomas 
Harriot, pag. '3,'},. 

When (Henry Percy, ninth) earle of Northumberland, 
and Sir Walter Ralegh were both prisoners in the Tower, 
they grew acquainted, and Sir Walter Raleigh recommended 

* MS. Anbr. 8, fol. 12. "See Clark's Wood's Life and 
** MS. Anbr. 8, fol. 91. Times, ii. 24, 25, 33, 53. 

*** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 12. **** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 35. 

' Aubrey writes in the margin the * Perhaps because the letters ended 

reference' vide pag. 40,' i. c. fol. 91, «/ in tridents; see Clark's Wood's Zz^e 

infra. and Times, i. 498, and the facsimile. 

•> Subst. for 'Steward.' 



286 Aiibrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

Mr. Hariot to him, and the eafle -setled an annuity of two 
hundred pounds a yeare on him for his life, which he 
enjoyed. But to" Hues t (who wrote Z*^ Usu Globoruiii) 
t Robert Hues and to Mr. Warner he gave an annuity but of 

was buried in . ,, 

xt. ch. Oxon. Sixty pounds per annum. 1 hese 3 were usually 
called the earle of Norihuniberland s three Magi. They 
had a table at the earle's chardge, and the earle himselfe 
had them to converse with, singly or together. 

He was a great acquaintance of Master . . . Ailesbury, 
to whom Dr. Corbet sent a letter in verse, Dec. 9, 161 8, 
when the great blazing starre appeared, — 

' Now for the peace of God{s) and men advise, 
(Thou that hast wherwithall to make us wise). 
Thine owne rich studies and deepe Harriot's mine. 
In which there is no drosse but all refine.' 

(Vide) Dr. Corbet's poems. 

The bishop of Sarum (Seth Ward) told me that one 
Mr. Haggar (a countryman of his), a gentleman and good 
mathematician, was well acquainted with Mr. Thomas 
Hariot, and was wont to say, that he did not like (or 
valued not) the old storie of the Creation of the World. 
He could not beleeve the old position ; he would say 
ex nihilo nihil fit. But sayd Mr. Haggar, a nihilum killed 
him at last : for in the top of his nose came a little red 
speck (exceeding small), which grew bigger and bigger, 
and at last killed him. I suppose it was that which the 
chirurgians call a noli 7ne tangere. 

* Mr. Hariot dyed of an ulcer in his lippe or tongue — 
vide Dr. Read's Chirurgery, where he mentions him as 
his patient, in the treatise of ulcers (or cancers). 

The Workes of Dr. Alexander Reade, printed, London, 
1650; in the treatise of Ulcers, p. 248. 'Canorous ulcers 
(ozand) also seise on this part. This griefe hastened the 
end of that famous mathematician Mr. Hariot with whom 
I was acquainted but short time before his death ; whom 

' Anthony Wood writes ' R. Hues' in the margin. 
* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 91. 



Sir Edward Harley -z^i 

at one time, together with Mr. Hughes (who wrote of the 
globes), Mr. Warner, and Mr. Torporley, the noble earle 
of Northumberland, the favourer of all good learning and 
Maecenas of learned men, maintained while he was in the 
Tower, for their worth and various literature.' 

He made a philosophical! theologie, wherin he cast- 
off the Old Testament, and then the New one would 
(consequently) have no foundation. He was a Deist. 
His doctrine he taught to Sir Walter Raleigh, Henry, 
earle of Northumberland, and some others. The divines 
of those times look't on his manner of death as a judge- 
ment upon him for nullifying the Scripture. 

Ex Catalogo librorum impressorum bibl. Bodleianae in 
Academia Oxoniensi, Oxon., MDCLXXiv : — 

Thomas Hariot: — Historia Virginiae, cum iconibus, Lat. 
per C. C. A. edita per Th. de Bry, Franc. 1590 (A. 8. 7. Art). 

— Same in English, Lond. 1588 (E. i. 25. Art. Seld). 

Thomas Hariotics : — Artis analyticae praxis ad aequa- 
tiones Algebraicas resolvendas, Lond. 1631 (F. 2. 12. 
Art. Seld.). 

' Aubrey gives the coat : — ' per pale, ermine and ermines, 3 crescents counter- 
changed [Hariot].' 

' Charles Henry Kirckhoven, created baron Wotton, Aug. 31, 1650; created 
earl of Bellomont, Feb. 11, i6|f. 

Sir Edward. Harley (1624-1700). 

* Sir Edward Harley, knight of the Bath, was borne at 
his castle of Brampton Bryan in Herefordshire. He was 
of Magdalen Hall, Oxon ; was governor of Dunkirke for 
his majestie king Charles 2'^, where he then sounded that 
sea from Graveling to Newport — which notes he haz by 
him — of great use to seamen because of the shelves. 

Sir Robert Harley (1580-1656). 

** Old Sir Robert Harley translated all the Psalmes 
very well. He was of Oriell College. 

* Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. ** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 

138 : Sept. 2, 1671. 14T : Oct. 27, 1671. 



288 Aiibrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Sir Robert Harley (1626-1673). 

* Sir Robert Harley", second sonne of Sir Robert 
Harley of Brampton-Bryan, told me that he was borne the 
morning that my Lord Chancellour Bacon dyed (9° Aprilis) ; 
sed quaere, et vide his picture if 'twas not the 6"'. 

He maried . . . 

He dyed at Brampton-Brian J 6 Nov. Sunday, 6'' A.M., 
anno Domini 1673. 

James Harrington (161I-1677). 

** James Harrington, esq. — he was borne the first 
Fryday ''in January Anno Domini 1611, near Northampton. 
Quaere Mr. Marvell's epitaph on him. 

*** James Harrington ', esq., borne the first Fryday in 

January 1611, neer Northampton; the son of [Sir" 

Sapcote] Harrington of ... in the countie of . . . , by 

. , daughter of Sir . . . Samuel'^, was borne at [Upton''] 

(Sir . . . Samuel's house in Northamptonshire) anno . . . 

He was a (gentleman) commoner of Trinity Colledge 
in Oxford. He travelled France, Italie, and the Nether- 
lands. His genius lay chiefly towards the politiques and 
democraticall goverment. 

He was much respected by the queen of Bohemia^, who 
was bred up by the lord Harrington's lady, and she owned 
the kindnes of the family. 

Anno 1647, if not 6, he was by order of Parliament 
made one of his Majestie's Bedchamber, at Holmeby, &c. 
The king loved his company; only he would not endure 
to heare of a Commonwealth : and Mr. Harington passion- 
ately loved his majestic. Mr. Harrington and the king 
often disputed about goverment. He was on the scaffold 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 72. " Written in pencil only, being a 
^ See supra, p. 157. later insertion. 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. II. ^ Jane, daughter of Sir William 

" i e. Friday, Jan. 3, 16 ij. The Samwell of Upton, co. Northts. 

date is noted also in MS. Aubr. 21, » Written in pencil only, being 

fol. 103. a later addition. 
*** MS, Aubr. 6, fol. 98. 



James Harrington ' 289 

with the king when he was beheaded ; and I have at these 
meetings" oftentimes heard him speake of king Charles I with 
the greatest zeale and passion imaginable, and that his 
death gave him so great griefe that he contracted a disease 
by it ; that never any thing did goe so neer to him. 
Memorandum : — Mr. (Thomas) Herbert, the traveller, was 
th' other of his Bedchamber by order of Parhament, and 
was also on the scaffold. He gave them both there 
some watches : vide Speech. 

He made severall essayes in Poetry, viz, love-verses, &c., 
and translated .... booke of Virgill's Mn. ; but his 
muse was rough, and Mr Henry Nevill, an ingeniose and 
well-bred gentleman, a member of the House of Com- 
mons, and an excellent (but concealed) poet, was his great 
familiar and confident friend, and disswaded him from 
tampering in poetrig which he did invito. Minervd, and to 
improve his proper talent, viz. Politicall Reflections. 

Whereupon he writ his Oceana, printed London (1656). 
Mr. T. Hobbes was wont to say that Henry Nevill had 
a finger in that pye ; and 'tis like enough. That ingeniose 
tractat, together with his and H. Nevill's smart discourses and 
inculcations, dayly at coffee-houses, made many proselytes. 

In so much that, anno 1659, the beginning of Michaelmas- 
terme, he had every night a meeting at the (then) Turke's 
head, in the New Pallace-yard, where they take water, the 
next house to the staires, at one Miles's, where was made 
purposely a large ovall-table, with a passage 
in the middle for Miles to deliver his Coffee. 
About it sate his disciples, and the virtuosi. 
The discourses in this kind were the most ingeniose, and 
smart, that ever I heard, or expect to heare, and ban- 
d<i>ed with great eagernesse : the arguments in the 
Parliament howse were but flatt to it. 

He now printed a little pamphlet (4to) called Divers 
modells of Poptdar Government, printed by Daniel Jakeman ; 
and then his partie desired him to print another little 
pamphlet called The Rota, 4to. 

» Scil. of the Rota club, described infra. 

I. u 



290 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Here* we had (very formally) a balloiting-box, and 
balloted how things should be caried, by way of teatamens. 
The room was every evening ^ full as it could be cramm'd. 
I cannot now recount the whole number : — 

Mr. Cyriack Skinner, an ingeniose young gentleman, 
scholar to John Milton, was chaire-man. There was 
Mr. Henry Nevill ; major John Wildman ; Mr. (Charles) 
Woo(l)seley, of ... , Staffordshire ; Mr. (Roger) Coke, 
grandson of Sir Edward; Sir"= William Poultney(chaireman); 
[Sir "= John Hoskins ; J(ames) Arderne'';] Mr. Maximilian 
Petty, a very able man in these matters, and who had more 
then once turn'd the councill-board of Oliver Cromwell, 
his kinsman; Mr. Michael Malett ; Mr. (Philip) Carteret, 
of Garnesey; (Francis) Cradoc, a merchant; Mr. Henry 
Ford; major . . . Venner; Mr. Edward Bagshaw; [Thomas 
t Dr Robert Mariet, esq." ;] (William) Croon, M.D. ; cum 
^t°Rota—m,. ^^ii-^tis ^m^ now slipt out of my memorie f. 
Aubr. 8, foi. II. (Besides) which ' were, as auditors », severall, 
e.g. the earle*" Tirconnel ; Sir John Penruddock ; etc. ; Mr. 
John Birkenhead; as myselfe. 

. . . Stafford, esq , as antagonists '. 

Several officers ^. 

We many times adjourned to the Rhenish-wine howse. 
One time Mr. Stafford and his gang came in, in drink, 
from the taverne \ and affronted the Junto (Mr. Stafford 
tore their orders and minutes). The soldiers offerd to 
kick them downe stayres, but Mr. Harrington's moderation 
and persuasion hind red it. 

The doctrine was very taking, and the more because, as 
to human foresight, there was no possibility of the king's 



" i. e. at the meetings at Miles's. ' antagonists,' who wished to break np 

•> Subst. for ' night.' the meetings, follow. 

Dupl. with ' Mr." i" Dupl. with ' lord.' 

^ These two names are struck out, ' Dupl with ' opponents.' 

as is Mariet infra. ' ' Officers ' dnpl. with ' soldiers.' 

" Struck out. These, like Aubrey, were ' auditors ' 

' Subst. for ' Also, as.' only. 

6 i. e. as listeners only. Those above ' Subst. for ' came in drunke.' 
were of Harrington's ' party.' The 



James Harrington 291 

returne. But the greatest part of the Parliament-men 
perfectly hated this designe of rotation by ballotiing; for 
they were cursed tyrants, and in love with their power, 
and 'twas death to them, except 8 or 10, to admitt of this 
way, for H. Nevill proposed it in the Howse, and made it 
out to them, that except they embraced that modell of 
goverment they would be ruind — sed quos perdere vult 
Jupiter etc., hos, &c. 

Pride of senators for life is insufferable ; and they were 
able to grind any one they owed ill will to to powder ; 
they were hated by the armie and their countrey they re- 
presented, and their name and memorie stinkes — 'twas 
worse then tyranny. Now this modell upon rotation was : — 
that the third part of the Senate "■ should rote out by ballot 
every yeare, so that every ninth yeare the Howse would 
be wholly alterd; no magistrate to continue above 3 yeares, 
and all to be chosen by ballot, then which manner of 
choice, nothing can be invented more faire and impartiall. 

Well : this meeting continued Novemb., Dec, Jan., till 
Febr. 20 or 21 ; and then, upon the unexpected turne 
upon generall Monke's comeing-in, all these aierie modells 
vanished. Then 'twas not fitt, nay treason, to have donne 
such ; but I well remember, he *> severall times (at the 
breaking-up) sayd, ' Well, the king will come in. Let him 
come-in, and call a Parliament of the greatest Cavaliers in 
England, so they be men of estates, and let them sett but 
7 yeares, and they will all turn Common-wealthe's men.' 

He was wont to find fault with the constitution of our 
goverment, that 'twas by jumps, and told a story of 
a cavaliero he sawe at the Carnival in Italic, who rode on 
an excellent managed horse that with a touch of his toe 
would jumpe quite round. One side of his habit was 
Spanish, the other French ; which sudden alteration of 
the same person pleasantly surprized the spectators. ' Just 
so,' said he, "tis with us. When no Parliament, then 
absolute monarchic ; when a Parliament, then it runnes to 
Commonwealth.' 

" Dnpl. with ' Howse.' '' Harrington. 

U 2 



292 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

* Anno Domini 1660, he was committed* prisoner to 
the Tower, where he was kept . . . . ; then to Portsey 
castle. His durance in these prisons (he being a gentle- 
man of a high spirit and hot head) was the procatractique 
cause of his deliration or madnesse ; which was not out- 
ragious, for he would discourse rationally enough and be 
very facetious company, but he grew to have a phancy that '' 

his perspiration turned to flies, and sometimes to bees ad 

cmtera sobrius ; and he had a timber versatile built " in 
Mr. Hart's garden (opposite to St. James's parke) to try 
the experiment. He would turne it to the sun, and sitt 
towards it ; then he had his fox-tayles there to chase 
away and massacre all the flies and bees that were to be 
found there, and then shutt his chassees'^. Now this ex- 
periment was only to be tryed in warme weather, and 
some flies would lye so close in the cranies and the cloath 
(with which it was hung) that they would not presently 
shew themselves. A quarter of an hower after perhaps, 
a fly or two, or more, might be drawen-out of the lurking 
holes by the warmeth ; and then he would crye out, 
' Doe not you see it apparently that these come from me?' 
'Twas the strangest sort of madnes that ever I found in 
any one: talke of any thing els, his discourse would be 
very ingeniose and pleasant. 

Anno ... he married to his old sweet-heart Mris . . . 
t His wife was Dayrell f , of . . . , a comely and discreete ladie. 
RoundYboi't The motto to his scale, which was party per pale 
w'as^pa'r"t'y"p''e'r'''' baron ct fcmmc Harrington and Dayrell was . . . 
femmeTwere'^ It happening so, from some private reasons, 
^TfoTigum^' ' that he could not enjoy his deare in the flower 
coiere faces. ^^^ hcatc of his youth, he would never lye 
with her, but loved and admired her dearly : for she was 
vergeniibus annis when he maried her, and had lost her 
sweetenesse. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, a slip at fol. 98". "^ i.e. window frames; French, 

» Subst. for ' sent.' ' chasse.' 

" Dupl. with ' grew conceited that.' » i.e. the coat given in note i from 

" Subst. for 'a versatile timber house MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 29«'. 
built.' 



James Harrington 293 

He was of a middling stature, well-trussed man, strong 
and thick, well-sett, sanguine, quick-hott-fiery hazell eie, 
thick moyst curled haire, as you may see by his picture. 
In his conversation very friendly, and facetious, and 
hospitable. 

For above twenty yeares before he died (except his 
imprisonment) he lived in the Little-Ambry (a faire house 
on the left hand), which lookes into the Deane's-yard in 
Westminster. In the upper story he had a pretty gallery, 
which looked into the yard (over . . . court) where he 
commonly dined, and meditated, and tooke his tobacco. 

His amici were: — Henry Nevill, esq., who never forsooke 
him to his dyeing day. Though" a whole yeare before 
he died, his memorie and discourse were taken away by a 
disease (' twas a *sad sight to see such a sample of mortality, 
in one whom I lately knew, a brisque, lively cavaliero), 
this gentleman, whom I must never forget for his constant 
friendship, payd his visits as duly and respectfully as when 
his friend (J. H.) was in the prime of his understanding — 
a true friend. 
^„ . , 1 Mr. Andrew Marvell, who made an 

T Mr. Andrew ' ' 

Marvell made a epitaph for him, which quaere. 

good epitaph for r ir ' ^ 

^'"•', '"{,'<"> — His uncle, .... Samuel, esq. ; 

■would have ' ' x 7 

given offence. — jjjg g^jj^ ]y[j._ _ _ _ Samucl, an exccllcnt 

architect, that has built severall delicate howses (Sir Robert 
Henley's, Sir Thomas Grosvenor's in Cheshire) ; 

— Sir Thomas Dolman ; 

— Mr. Roger L' Estrange ; 

—Dr. John Pell ; 

—J. A." 

He was wont to say that ' Right reason in contemplation 
is vertue in action, et vice versa. Vivere seamdum naturam 
is to live vertuously, the Divines will not have it so' ; and 
that ' when the Divines would have us be an inch above 
vertue, we fall an ell belowe it.' 

" Subst. for ' though neer (i.e. near) a.' 

* Verso of the slip at fol. 98' of MS. Aubr. 6. 

" i. e. John Aubrey. 



294 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

These verses he made, about anno ....... 

* [ Ujfo?i " t/ie state of nature. 
The state of nature never was so raw, 
But cakes bore acomes and ther was a law 
By which the spider and the silkeworme span ; 
Each creature had her birthright, and must man 
Be illegitimate ! have no child's parte ! 
If reason had no wit, how came in arte? 

ingenium i. e. quoddam ingenitum.] 
By Mr. James Harrington, esq., autor Oceanae, whose 
handwriting this is. 

** Hie jacet | Jacobus Harrington, armiger | filius maximus natu | 
Sapcotis Harrington de Rand ] in comitatu Lincolniae, equitis aurati ] 
et Janae (matris ejus) filiae | Gulielmi Samuel de Upton in | comitatu 
Northampton, militis | qui | obiit septimo die Septembris | aetatis 
suae sexagesimo sexto | anno Domini 1677. | Nee virtutis nee animi 
dotes I arrha licet aetemi in animam amoris Dei | corruptione eximere 
queant corpus | Gen. iii. ig | Pulveris enim as et reverteris | in 
pulverem | : — 

author of the Oceana — he lyes buried in the chancell 
of St. Margarite's Church at Westminster, the next grave 
to the illustrious Sir Walter Raleigh, under the south side 
of the altar where the priest stands. 

*** ©^^ Pray remember to looke upon Mr. James 
Harrington's life : upon my alterations there. It was 
a philosophicall or politicall club, where gentlemen came 
at night to divert themselves with political discourse, and 
to see the way of balloting. It began at Miles's coffee- 
house about the middle of Michaelmas-terme, and was 
given over upon general Monke's comeing-in. 

Sir John Hoskyns, etc., deane Arderne'', etc., would 
not like to have their names seen. 

Notes. 
' In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 98', Aubrey gives the reference ' vide Anthony Wood's 

• MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 3. *** A slip pasted to a slip inserted 

• The passage in square brackets is at fol. 98' of MS. Aubr. 6, a direction 
Harrington's autograph. to Anthony Wood. 

** Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. " supra, p. 290. 

308; June 6, 1678. 



Willmm Harvey 295 

Hist, et Antiq. Oxon.,' and the coat ' . . . , a fret . . . '. In MS. Aubr. 8, 
fol. 29', he gives the coat for Harrington's marriage, viz. : — ' . . . , a fret 
. . . [Harrington] ; impaling, . . . , a lion rampant crown'd . . . [D'ayrell].' 

'' The princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I. Sir John Harington, her 
tutor, was created (July 21, 1603) baron Harington of Exton. He married 
Anne Kelway, and was grand-uncle to the author of Oceana. 

^ Robert Wood, M.A. (,Mert.) 1649, appointed Fellow of Line. Coll. by the 
Parliamentary Visitors, Sept. 19, and admitted Oct. 23, 1650; ejected by 
the King's Commissioners, Aug. 18, i66o. 

Samuel Hartlib (i6 . . -1670). 

In MS. Aubr. 22 (Aubrey's collection of Grammars) is a tract : — 
' The true and ready way to learne the Latine tongue,' by Samuel 

Harthb, esq., Lond. 1654, with the inscription ' Jo. Aubrey, dedit 

S. Hartlib, 1654.' 

William Harvey (1578-1657). 

* William Harvey \ M.D., natus at Folkestone in Kent: 
** borne at the house which is now the post-house, a faire 
stone-built house, which he gave to Caius College in 
Cambridge, with some lands there : vide his will. His 
brother Eliab would have given any money or exchange 
for it, because 'twas his father's, and they all borne there ; 
but the Doctor (truly) thought his memory would better 
be preserved this way, for his brother has left noble 
seates, and about 3000 li. per annum, at least. 

*** Hemsted in Essex towards Audeley End : ibi 
sepultus Dr. Harvey. 

**** Quaere Mr. (William) Marshall, the stone-cutter, 
for the inscription in the church there. 

***** Quaere Mr. Marshall in Fetterlane for the copie 
of the inscription on his monument in Essex. 

****** Dr. W. Harvey: (ask his) epitaph (from) 
Mr. Marshall. — Quaere Anthony Wood if there is a MS. 
in bibl. Bodleiana that speakes of the circulation of the 
bloud : Dr. (Luke) Ridgeley and Dr. Trowtbec can 
enforme me from Meredith Lloyd. Memorandum, 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 121'. **** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 64. 
** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 64. ***** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 66'. 
*** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 108'. ****** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 18. 



296 Aubreys 'Brief Lives' 

Mr, Parker tells me that Mr. (John) Oliver, the City 
surveyor, had his father Marshall's inscriptions and papers; 
ergo vide there for the Doctor's inscription and also for 
the inscription of Inigo Jones. 

* Dr. William Harvey — ex libro - meo B. 

Over Dr. Harvey's picture in the great parlour under 
the library at the Physitians' College at Amen-corner 
(burnt) :— 

Gul. Harveus, an. aetat. 10, in Schola Cantuar. primis doctrinae 
rudimentis imbutus ; 14, Col. Gonvil. et Caii alumnus ; 19, peragravit 
Galliam et Italiam ; 23, Patavii praeceptores habuit Eust. Rudium, 
Tho. Minad , H. Fab. ab Aquapend., Consul Angler. 16 fit ; 24, Doctor 
Med. et Chirurg. Reversus Lond. praxin exercuit, et 
uxoremt duxit ; 25, Coll. Med. Socius ; 37, Anatom. et 
Chirurg. Professor; 54, Medicus Regius factus. Scripsit de Motu 
Sanguinis, et de Gen. Animal. Obiit 30 Jun. mdclvii. Aetat. 80. 

— (But I well remember that Dr. Alsop, at his funerall, 
sayd that he was So, wanting one ; and that he was the 
eldest of 9 brethren.) 

He lies buried in a vault at Hempsted in Essex, which 
his brother Eliab Harvey built ; he is lapt in lead, and on 
his brest in great letters 

Dr. William Harvey. 

I was at his funerall, and helpt to carry him into the 
vault. 

In the library at the Physitians' Colledge was the 
following inscription above his statue (which was in his 
doctorall robes) : — 

Gul. Harveus, natus a.D. 1578, Apr. 2. Folkston, in Com. Cantii, 
primogenitus Thomae Harvei et Joannae Halk : fratres germani, Tho. 
Jo. Dan. Eliab. Mich. Mat. : sorores, Sarah, Amey. 

Under his white marble statue, on the pedestall, thus, 

GULIELMO HaRVEO, 

Viro 

Monumentis suis immortali. 

Hoc insuper 

Coll. Med. Lond. 

Posuit. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 64. 



IVilliam Harvey 297 

Qui enim Sanguin. Motum 

(ut et Animal. Ortum) dedit 

meruit esse 

Stator Perpetuus. 

* Dr. Harvey added (or was very bountifull in con- 
tributing to) a noble building of Roman architecture (of 
rustique w^orke, with Corinthian pillasters) at the Physi- 
tians' College aforesaid, viz. a great parlour" for the 
Fellowes to meet in, belowe ; and a library, above. On 
the outside on the freeze, in letters 3 inches long, is this 
inscription : — 

Suasu et Cura Fran. Prujeani, Pr/Esidis, et Edmundi 
Smith, Elect., inchoata et perfecta est hmc fabrica. An. 
miocliii. 

All these remembrances and building was destroyed 
by the generall fire. 

He was alwayes very contemplative, and the first 
that I heare of that was curious in anatomie in England. 
He had made dissections of frogges, toades, and a number 
of other animals, and had curious observations on them, 
which papers, together with his goods, in his lodgings at 
Whitehall, were plundered at the beginning of the Rebellion, 
he being for the king, and with him at Oxon ; but he 
often sayd, that of all the losses he sustained, no greife 
was so crucifying to him as the losse of these papers, 
which for love or money he could never retrive or obtaine. 
When Charles I "^ by reason of the tumults left London, he 
attended him, and was at the fight of Edge-hill with him ; 
and during the fight, the Prince and duke of Yorke were 
committed to his care : he told me that he withdrew with 
them under a hedge, and tooke out of his pockett a booke and 
read ; but he had not read very long before a bullet of 
a great gun grazed on the ground neare him, which 
made him remove his station. He told me that Sir Adrian 
Scrope ° was dangerously wounded there, and left for 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 64'. " Anthony Wood writes ' Adrian 

" Dupl. with 'a kind of Convocation- Scrope' in the margin, to mark this 

house.' place for use in his Athenae. 
" Subst. for ' the king.' 



298 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

dead amongst the dead men, stript ; which happened to 
be th^ saving of his life. It was cold, cleer weather, and 
a frost that night ; which staunched his bleeding, and 
about midnight, or some houres after his hurt, he awaked, 
and was faine to drawe a dead body upon him for warmeth- 
sake. 

After Oxford was surrendred, which was 34 July" 1646, 
he came to London, and lived with his brother Eliab 
a rich'' merchant in London, on . . . hill, opposite to 
St. Lawrence (Poultry) church '^, where was then a high 
leaden steeple (there were but two, viz. this and St. 
Dunstan's in the East) and at his brother's country house 
at Roe-hampton. 

His brother Eliab bought, about 1654, Cockaine-house, 
now *(i68o) the Excise-Office, a noble house, where the 
Doctor was wont to contemplate on the leads of the house, 
and had his severall stations, in regard of the sun, or 
wind. 

He did delight to be in the darke, and told me he could 
then best contemplate. He had a house heretofore at 
Combe, in Surrey, a good aire and prospect, where he had 
caves made in the earth, in which in summer time he 
delighted to meditate. — He was pretty well versed in 
the Mathematiques, and had made himselfe master of 
Mr. Oughtred's Clavjs Math, in his old age ; and I have 
seen him perusing it, and working problems, not long 
before he dyed, and that booke was alwayes in his meditating 
apartment. 

His chamber was that roome that is now the office of 
Elias Ashmole, esq. ; where he dyed, being taken with the 
dead palsye, which tooke .away his speech. As soone as 
he sawe he was attaqued, he presently sent for his brother, 
and nephews, and gave one a watch, another another thing, 
etc., as remembrances of him. He dyed worth 20,oco li. 
which he left to his brother Eliab. In his will he left 

» Rectius June : Clark's Wood's "= Subbt. for ' St. Dunstan's church 

Life and Times, i. 128. in the . . . .' 

" Subst. for ' great.' * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 65. 



William Harvey 299 

his old friend Mr. Thomas Hobbes 10 H. as a token of 
his love. 

His sayings. — He was wont to say that man was but 
a great mischievous baboon. 

He would say, that we Europaeans knew not how to order 
or governe our woemen, and that the Turkes were the only 
people used them wisely. 

He was far from bigotry. 

He had been physitian to the Lord Chancellor Bacon, 
whom he esteemed much for his witt and style, but would 
not allow him to be a great philosopher. ' He writes 
philosophy like a Lord Chancelor,' said he to me, speaking 
in derision ; ' I have cured him.' 

About 1649 he travelled again into Italy, Dr. George 
(now Sir George) Ent, then accompanying him. 

At Oxford, he grew acquainted with Dr. Charles Scar- 
borough, then a young physitian (since by king Charles H 
knighted), in whose conversation he much delighted ; and 
wheras before, he * marched up and downe with the army, 
he tooke him to him and made him ly ia his chamber, and 
said to him, ' Prithee leave off thy gunning, and stay here ; 
I will bring thee into practice.' 

I remember he kept a pretty young wench to wayte on 
him, which I guesse he made use of for warmeth-sake as 
king David did, and tooke care of her in his will, as also 
of his man servant. 

For 30 yeares before he dyed he tooke no manner of 
care about his worldly concernes, but his brother Eliab, 
who was a very wise and prudent menager, ordered all not 
only faithfully, but better then he could have donne 
himselfe. 

He was, as all the rest of the brothers, very cholerique ; 
and in his young days wore a dagger (as the fashion then 
was, nay I remember my old schoolemaster, old Mr. Latimer, 
at 70, wore a dudgeon, with a knife, and bodkin, as also 
my old grandfather Lyte, and alderman Whitson of 
Bristowe, which I suppose was the common fashion in 
* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 65'. 



300 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

their young dayes), but this Dr. would be to(o) apt to 
draw-out his dagger upon every slight occasion '^- 

He was not tall ; but of the lowest stature, round faced, 
olivaster ^ complexion ; little eie, round, very black, full of 
spirit ; his haire was black as a raven, but quite white 20 
yeares before he dyed. 

I first sawe him at Oxford, 164a, after Edgehiil fight, 
but was then too young to be acquainted with so great 
a Doctor. I remember he came severall times to Trin." 
Coll. to George Bathurst, B.D., who had a hen to hatch 
egges in his chamber, which they dayly opened to discerne * 
the progres and way of generation. I had not the honour 
to be acquainted (with) him" till J651, being my she 
cosen Montague's physitian and friend. I was at that 
time bound for Italy (but to my great griefe disswaded by 
my mother's importunity). He was very communicative, 
and willing to instruct any that were modest and respectful! 
to him. And in order to my journey, gave me, i. e. dictated 
to me, what to see, what company to keepe, what bookes 
to read ^, how to manage my studies : in short, he bid me 
goe to the fountain head, and read Aristotle, Cicero, 
Avicenna, and did ^ call the neoteriques shitt-breeches. He 
wrote a very bad hand *, which (with use) I could pretty 
well read. 

I have heard him say, that after his booke of the 
Circulation of the Blood * came-out, that he fell mightily 
in his practize, and that 'twas beleeved by the vulgar that 
he was crack-brained ; and all the physitians were against 
his opinion, and envyed him ; many wrote against him, as 
Dr. Primige, Paracisanus, etc. (vide Sir George Ent's 
booke). With much adoe at last, in about 20 or 30 yeares 
time, it was recieved in all the Universities in the world ; 

" The records of the Steward's court '' Dupl. with ' complexion like 

of the University of Oxford show wainscott.' 

several cases of homicide, in the " Dupl. with ' our.' 

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, <• Dupl. with ' see.' 

from the hasty drawing of daggers « Subst. for ' to know him.' 

worn as part of the ordinary dress. ' Suhst. for 'would.' 

See also supra, p. 150. * MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 66. 



William Harvey 301 

and, as Mr, Hobbes sayes in his book ' De Corpore,' he is 
the only man, perhaps, that ever lived to see his ow?te doctrine 
established in his life time. 

He understood Greek and Latin pretty well, but was no 
critique, and he wrote very bad Latin. The Circuitus 
Sangninis was, as I take it, donne into Latin by Sir George 
Ent (quaere), as also his booke de Generatione Animalitim, 
but a little book in 12"° against Riolani (I thinke), 
wherein he makes-out his doctrine clearer, was writt by 
himselfe, and that, as I take it, at Oxford. 

His majestie king Charles I gave him the Wardenship of 
Merton Colledge in Oxford, as a reward for his service, 
but the times suffered him not to recieve or injoy any 
benefitt by it. 

He was physitian, and a great favorite of the Lord 
High Marshall of England, Thomas* Howard, earle of 
Arundel and Surrey, with whom he travelled as his 
physitian in his ambassade to the Emperor ... at Vienna, 
Anno Domini i63-. Mr. W. Hollar (who was then one 
of his excellencie's gentlemen) told me that, in his voyage, 
he would still be making of excursions into the woods, 
makeing observations of strange trees, and plants, earths, 
etc., naturalls, and sometimes like to be lost, so that my 
Lord Ambassador would be really angry with him, for there 
was not only danger of thieves, but also of wild beasts. 

He was much and often troubled with the gowte, and his 
way of cure was thus ; he would then sitt with his legges 
bare, if it were frost, on the leads of Cockaine house, putt 
them into a payle of water, till he was almost dead with cold, 
and betake himselfe to his stove, and so 'twas gonne. 

He was hott-headed, and his thoughts working would 
many times keepe him from sleepinge ; he told me that 
then his way was to rise out of his bed and walke about 
his chamber in his shirt till he was pretty coole, i. e. till 
he began to have a horror, and then returne to bed, and 
sleepe very comfortably. 

I remember he was wont to drinke coffee ; which he and 
» Snbst. for ' William.' 



302 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

his brother Eliab did, before Coffee-houses were in fashion 
in London. 

* All his profession would allowe him to be an excellent 
anatomist, but I never heard of any that admired his 
therapeutique way. I knew severall practisers in London ^ 
that would not have given '^d. for one of his bills ; and 
that a man could hardly tell by one of his bills'' what he 
did aime at. 

He did not care for chymistrey, and was wont to speake 
against them with an undervalue. 

It is now fittj and but just, that I should endeavour to 
undecieve the world in a scandall that I find strongly 
runnes of him, which I have mett amongst some learned 
young men : viz. that he made himselfe a way to putt 
himselfe out of his paine, by opium ; not but that, had he 
laboured under great paines, he had been readie enough 
to have donne it ; I doe not deny that it was not according 
to his principles upon certain occasions to .... : but the 
manner of his dyeing was really, and bo7td fide, thus, viz. 
the morning of his death about lo a clock, he went to 
speake, and found he had the dead palsey in his tongue ; 
then he sawe what was to become of him, he knew there 
was then no hopes of his recovery, so presently sends for 
his young nephewes to come-up to him, to whom he gives 
one his watch ('twas a minute watch with which he made 
his experiments); to another, another remembrance, etc.; 
made signe to . . . Sambroke, his apothecary (in Black- 
Fryars), to lett him blood in the tongue, which did little or 
no good ; and so he ended his dayes. His practise was not 
very great towards his later end ; he declined it, unlesse 
to a speciall friend, — e. g. my lady Howland, who had 
a cancer in her breast, which he did cutt-off and seared, 
but at last she dyed of it. 
1 1 have seen He rode on horseback with a foot-cloath 

him ride in 1654 . . , . . . 1 • r it • 

or 5. to visitt nis patients t, his man following on 

foote, as the fashion then was, which was very decent, now 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 66«. "■ Dupl with ' this towne.' 

*■ i. e. prescriptioDs. 



William Harvey 303 

quite discontinued The judges rode also with their foote- 
cloathes to Westminster-hall, which ended at the death of 
Sir Robert Hyde, Lord Chief Justice. Anthony earl of 
Shafton% would have revived, but severall of the judges 
being old and ill horsemen would not agree to it. 

Lettres on naturalls : (quaere) Mr. Samb{roke). 

The scandall aforesaid is from Sir Charles Scarborough's 
saying that he had, towards his latter end, a preparation of 
opium and I know not what, which he kept in his study 
to take, if occasion should serve, to putt him out of his 
paine, and which Sir Charles promised to give him ; this 
I beleeve to be true ; but doe not at all beleeve that he 
really did give it him. The palsey did give him an easie 
passe-port. 

I remember I have heard him say he wrote a booke 
De hisectis, which he had been many yeares about, and had 
made curious researches and anatomicall observations on 
them. This booke was lost when his lodgings at White- 
hall were plundered in the time of the rebellion. He could 
never for love nor money retrive them or heare what 
became of them and sayd 'twas the greatest crucifying to 
him that ever he had in all his life. 

* Dr. Harvy ' told me, and any one if he examines 
himself will find it to be true, that a man could not fancy 
— truthfully — that he is imperfect in any part that he has, 
verbi gratia, teeth, eie, tongue, spina dorsi, etc. Natura 
tends to perfection, and in matters of generation we ought 
to consult more with our sense and instinct, then our 
reason, and prudence, fashion of the country, and interest. 
We see what contemptible '' products are of the prudent 
politiques "=, weake, fooles, and ricketty children, scandalls 
to nature and their country. The heralds are fooles* — 
tola errant via. A blessing goes with a marriage for love 
upon a strong impulse. 

» i. e. Shaftesbury ; Lord High for policy. 

Chancellor, 1672. •" i e. in inducing gentlemen to 

* MS. Aubr. 2i,fol. 12. marry into noble families in order 
•> Dupl. with 'despicable.' to impale a distinguished coat. 

" i. e. of those who have married 



304 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

* Sowgelder. To see, Sir John, how much you are mis- 
taken ; he that marries a widdowe makes himself cuckold. 
Exempli gratia, to speake experimentally and in my trade, 
if a good bitch is first warded with a curre, let her ever 
after be warded with a dog of a good straine and yet she 
will bring curres as at first, her wombe being first infected 
with a curre. So, the children will be like the first husband 
(like raysing up children to your brother). So, the adulterer, 
though a crime in law, the children are like the husband. 

Sir John. Thou dost talke, me thinks, more under- 
standingly of these matters then any one I have mett with. 

Sowgelder. Ah ! my old friend Dr. Harvey — I knew 
him right well — he made me sitt by him 2 or 3 hours 
together discoursing. Why! had he been stiffe, starcht", 
and retired, as other formall doctors are, he had known 
no more then they. From the meanest person, in some 
way, or other, the learnedst man may learn something. 
Pride has been one of the greatest stoppers ^ of the advance- 
ment of learning. 

° Notes. 

' Aubrey gives (MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 64) in trick the coat : — ' or, on a chief 
indented sable 3 crescents argent [Harvey] ; quartering . . , 2 bars wavy 
. . . , on a chief ... a lozenge charged with a Maltese cross . . . .' 

^ i. c. the inscriptions given here are extracted from the lost volume B. of 
Aubrey's antiquarian collections. July 3, 1674, Aubrey to Wood, in MS. 
Ballard 14, fol. 103 : — ' My brother William hath my liber B, wherin is the 
epitaph etc. of Dr. William Harvey's life.' 

' On MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 61, the blank address-side of Francis Potter's letter 
(of date Dec. 7, 1652) to Aubrey are found Aubrey's jottings of this con- 
versation : — , ,, ,. 

' Vesalms 

I Bantinus 
( Anthocologia 
J. Riolani. 



de oculo 



Julius Placentinns : de oculo et 

auditu 

de oculo et visione 

Fabricius Aquapendente. 

Ad legendos hosce bonos autores cohortatus sum a doctore Gulielmo Harveo.' 

* MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 15. The marrying a widow, 
sowgelder, in Aubrey's comedy, is " Dupl. with ' proud.' 

dissuading Sir John Fitz-ale from •> Dupl. with ' retarders.' 



John Hawles. Richard Head 305 

' Anbrey has preserved two specimens of this bad hand. MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 
77, he marks as ' Dr. Harvey's bill for my purge, Nov. 19, 1655,' and notes 
'The recipe is Dr. Harvey's own handwriting.' MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 107, is 
a prescription addressed for 'Mr. Aubrey, Apr. 23, 1653,' on which Aubrey 
notes ' This is Dr. William Harvey's owne writing.' 

^ This passage, and the next, are taken from Aubrey's projected comedy, 
The Country Revel. In all likelihood they are a reminiscence of Harvey's 
familiar conversation ; see p. 300, supra. 

John Hawles (1645-171 6). 

* 'Remarks upon the Tryalls of Edward Fitzharris, 
Stephen Colledge, count Coningsmark, the lord Russell, 
col. Sydney, Henry Cornish, and Charles Bateman ; as also 
of Shaftsbury's Grand Jury, Wilmore's Homine replegiando, 
and the award of execution against Sir Thomas Armstrong ' : 
by John Hawles, barrister, of Lincoln's Inne : London, ] 689. 

He was the sonne of Thomas Hawles, esq., and borne 
at his father's house in the close in Salisbury. He went 
to school at Winton College, and was a gentleman 
commoner of Queen's College, Oxon. He is an exceeding 
ingeniose young gentleman. 

Richard Head (1637 ?-i686 ?). 

** From Mr. Bovey : — ... Meriton — his true name was 
Head (Mr. Bovey knew him). Borne . . . ; was a booke- 
seller in Little Britaine. 

He had been amongst the gipsies. He looked like a 
knave with his gogling eies. He could transforme" him- 
selfe into (any) shape. Brake 2 or 3 times. Was at 
last a bookeseller, or towards his later end. He main- 
tained himselfe by scribling. He (got) aoj. per sheet. 
He wrote severall pieces, viz. The English Rogite^, The 
Art of Wheadling, etc. 

He was drowned goeing to Plymouth by long sea about 
1676, being about 50 yeares of age. 

Note. 
1 In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. i', Anthony Wood notes ' Meriton Latrone in " the 

" MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 9. *■* MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 15'. 

" Subst. for ' transmographie.' 
I. X 



3o6 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

English Rogue " ; I have it (i. e. the book) in my other study.' — ' The English 
Rogue described in the life of Meriton Latrone,' Lond. 1666. 

James Heath (1629-1664). 

* Quaere of Sir . . . Heath in Pumpe Court ; quaere 
capt. Sherburne and J. Davys de hoc. 

Ex registro St. Bartholomew the lesse, London, Anno 
Dom. 1664. ' James Heath, gent., dyed the 16th, and was 
buryed the 19th of August, consumption and dropsey, in 
the church neere the skreene dore.' 

The clarke here told me that once he had a pretty good 
estate, but in his later time maintained him selfe much 
by writing bookes 1. He was hardly 40 yeares old when 
he dyed. He left 4 or 5 children on the parish, now all 
or most maried. Two were bound apprentices to weavers. 

Note. 
' James Heath, ejected by the Parliamentary Visitors (1648) from his Student- 
ship in Christ Church, wrote histories of portions of the Civil War. 

Elize Hele (15.. -1635). 

** Lady Hele" in Devon, 800/2. per annum — Sir John 
Maynard. 

The lady Hele of Devon gave by her will 800 //. per 
annum to be layd out for charitable uses and by the 
advice and prudence of serjeant Maynard ''- He did 
order it " according to the best of his understanding, and 
yet he sayd that he haz lived to see every one of these 
benefactions abused — quod N. B. 

*** Sir Robert Henley (16 .. -1680?). 

Sir Robert Henley, of Bramswell, Hants, baronet, 
decubuit ^, Thursday, about 3'' p.m., Feb. 14, Valentine's 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 21. (Devonshire), pp. 405, 609. 

** MS. Aubr. 6, a jotting on a slip ' John Maynard (1602-1690) : Ser- 

at fol. 86, explained by the next para- jeant at Law 1654. 

graph, which is found on the back of " 'did ordered' in MS., by a slip 

the slip. for ' did order it.' 

" ' Mr. Elize Hele ' : see the details *** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 96'. 

of the endowment in Lysons' Britannia * i.e. took tohisbed. The astrologer 



Edward, lord Herbert of Chirhury 307 

day. He was taken ill a hunting about noon, I think 
the Tuesday before. The yeare when, quaere ? 1673. 

Edward Herbert, baron Herbert of Chirbury (1583-1648). 

* Edward ^, lord Herbert of Cherbery — vide memo- 
randum", 1672. Vide 8vo booke by ... , ubi his life, 
and description of a noble monument designed by him. 
Vide'' lib. B, Montgomery, p. 136. — Severall whispering 
places in Wales, one here at Montgomery : — (so I am 
told by) Meredith Lloyd. — Prophetick '', America — vide 
lib. B, Montgomery. 

(James) Usher, Lord Primate of Ireland, was sent for 
by him, when in his death-bed, and he would have received 
the sacrament. He sayd indifferently of it that ' if there 
was good in any-thing 'twas in that,' or 'if it did no 
good 'twould doe no hurt.' The primate refused it, for 
which many blamed him. Fie dyed at his house in Queen 
street, very serenely ; asked what was a clock, answer 
so . . . : ' then,' sayd he, ' an houre hence I shall depart.' 
He then turned his head to the other side and expired. 
In his will he gave speciall order to have his white stone- 
horse (which he loved) to be well fed and carefully looked 
after as loi^ as he lived. He had two libraries, one at 
London, the other at Montgomery; one^ wherof he gave 
to Jesus College, Oxon. 

Vide his mother's, the ''..., funerall sermon, preached 
at Chelsey by Dr. Donne, wherunto are annexed Latin 
and Greeke verses by her sonne, George Herbert. 

Verses. Poemes. 

Vide more of this lord in Lloyd's State- Worthies, 8vo. 
1679. 

Amici: — John Donne, D.D.; Sir John Danvers, etc. 

then took his ' decnmbiture,' i. e. posi- Aubrey's own antiquarian notes, 
tion of the stars at the time of his " See, for the explanation of this 

being- laid up. joUing, in George Herbert's life, infra, 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28. p. 310. 

» i. c. , I suppose, in Aubrey's pocket ^ The blank is perhaps for ' wife of 

Almanac for 1672 : see pp. 39, 51. Sir John Danvers.' 

'' ' lib. B ' is a lost volume of 

X 2 



3o8 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

* (August, 1648) — St. Giles-in-the-fields : 'August 5th, 
buried Edward, lord Herbert, baron of Cherbery.' 

Mr. (Thomas) Fludd tells me he had constantly prayers 
twice a day in his howse, and Sundayes would have his 
chaplayne read one of Smyth's sermons. Vide Mr. Davys, 
attorney. 

** Sir Edward Herbert, afterward lord Cherbery, etc., 
dyed at his house, in Queen street, in the parish of St. Giles 
in the fields, London, and lies interred in the chancell, under 
the lord Stanhope's inscription. 

On a black marble grave-stone thus : 

Heic inhumatur corpus 

Edvardi Herbert, Equitis 

Balnei, Baronis de Cherbury 

et Castle- Island. Auctoris Libri 

cui titulus est De Veritate. 

Redder ut herbae, 

Vicessimo die Augusti, 

Anno Domini 1648. 

I have seem him severall times with Sir John Danvers : 
he was a black man. 

Memorandum : — the castle of Montgomery was a most 
romancy seate. It stood upon a high promontory, the 
north side 30+ feete high. From hence is a most delight- 
some prospect, 4 severall wayes. Southwards, without 
the castle, is Pj'im-rose hill: vide Donne's Poems, p. 53. 

Jaikel"" *** Upon this Prim-rose hill f, 

Where, if Heaven would distill 
A showre of raine, each severall drop might goe 
To his owne prim-rose, and grow manna so ; 
And where their forme and their infinitie 
Make a terrestriall galaxie. 
As the small starres doe in the skie ; 
I walke to find a true-love, and I see 
That 'tis not a meer woman that is shee, 
But most, or more, or lesse than woman be, etc. 

" MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 95. ** MS. Anbr. 8, fol. 95. 

*** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 95". 



George Herbert 309 



In this pleasant solitude did this noble lord enjoy his 
muse. Here he wrote his De Veritaie. Dr. Coote (a Cam- 
bridge scholar and a learned) was one of his chaplains. 
Mr. Thomas Masters, of New College, Oxon, lived with 
him till 164a. 

This stately castle was demolished since the late warres 
at the chardge of the countrey. 

Noles. 

' In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 95, Aubrey gives in triclc the coat :— ' Party per pale, 
azure and gules, 3 lions rampant argent ' [Herbert of Chirbury] : surmounted 
by a baron's coronet. 

* It was his London library that he gave to Jesus College : so Aubrey, 
2 Sept. 1671, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 138. 

George Herbert (1593-1633). 

* Mr. George Herbert was kinsman (remote) and 
chapelaine to Philip, earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, 
and Lord Chamberlayn. His lordship gave him a 
t In the records benefice" at Bemmarton f (between Wilton and 

oftheTower it is c* -t. ^ \ ..^,,,., 

writt Bymerton. balisbury), a pittifull little chappcll of ease to 
Foughelston, The old house was very ruinous. Here he 
built a very handsome howse for the minister, of brick, and 
made a good garden and walkes. He lyes in the chancell, 
under no large, nor yet very good, marble grave-stone, 
without any inscription. 

Scripsit : — Sacred Poems, called The Church, printed, 
Cambridge, 1633 ; a booke entituled The Country Parson, 
% This account '^^'^ printed till about 1650, 8vo. He also writt 
Araoid™oo^e' ^ f°^'° ^"^ Latin, which because the parson % 
SToke^J'sonnet' of Hincham could not read, his widowe (then 
To'Tke hil''"*' wife to Sir Robert Cooke) condemned to the 

mother-i^-laweb ^^^^ ^^ ^^^j houswifry. 

Herbert's Mss. p^^ ^^^ buryed (according to his owne desire) 
with the singing service for the buriall of dead, by the 
singing men of Sarum. Fr(ancis) Sambroke (attorney) 
then assisted as a chorister boy ; my uncle, Thomas 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 96. ° Subst. for ' the parsonage of Bemmarton.' 

^ i.e. step-mother. 



3IO Aubrey's ''Brief Lives' 

Danvers, was at the funerall. Vide in the Register booke 
at the office when he dyed, for the parish register is lost. 

Memorandum : — in the chancell are many apt sentences 
of the Scripture. At his wive's seate, My life is hid with 
Christ in God, Coloss. iii. 3 (he hath verses on this text in 
his poems). Above, in a little windowe blinded, within 
a veile (ill painted). Thou art my hideing place, Psalm 
xxxii. 7. 

He maried Jane, the third daughter of Charles Danvers, 
of Bayntun, in com. Wilts, esq. but had no issue by her. 
He was a very fine complexion and consumptive. His 
mariage, I suppose, hastened his death. My kinswoman 
was a handsome bona roba and ingeniose. 

When he was first maried he lived a yeare or better at 
Dantesey house. H. Allen, of Dantesey, was well ac- 
quainted with him, who has told me that he had a very 
good hand on the lute, and that he sett his own lyricks or 
sacred poems. 'Tis an honour to the place, to have had 
the heavenly and ingeniose contemplation of this good 
man, who was pious even to prophesie ;— e. g. 

' Religion now on tip-toe stands. 
Ready to goe to the American strands.' 

* George Herbert : — (ask) cozen Nan Garnet pro (his) 
picture ; if not, her aunt . . . Cooke. 

Mary Herbert, countess of Pembroke (i 555-1 621). 

** Maryi, countesse of Pembroke, was sister to Sir 
Philip Sydney ; maried to Henry, the eldest son of 
William, earle of Pembroke aforesayd ; but this subtile 
old earle did foresee that his faire and witty daughter-in- 
lawe would home his sonne and told him so and advised 
him to keepe her in the countrey and not to let her 
frequent the court. 

She was a beautifull ladie and had an excellent witt, 
and had the best breeding that that age could afford. Shee 

* MS, Aubr. 8, fol. 5'-. ** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 18. 



Mary Herbert 311 



had a pritty sharpe-ovall face. Her haire was of a reddish 
yellowe. 

She was very salacious, and she had a contrivance that 
in the spring of the yeare" . . . the stallions . . . were to 
be brought before such a part of the house, where she 
had a vidette to look on them. . . . One of her great 
gallants was crooke-back't Cecill, earl of Salisbury. 

In her time Wilton house was like a College, there were 
so many learned and ingeniose persons. She was the 
greatest patronesse of witt and learning of any lady in 
her time. She was a great chymist and spent yearly 
a great deale in that study. She kept for her laborator* in 
the house Adrian Gilbert (vulgarly called Dr. Gilbert), 
halfe brother to Sir Walter Ralegh, who was a great 
chymist in those dayes. 'Twas he that made the curious 
wall about Rowlington-parke, which is the parke that 
adjoyns to the house at Wilton. Mr. Henry Sanford was 
the carle's secretary, a good scholar and poet, and who 
did penne part of the Arcadia dedicated to her (as appeares 
by the preface). He haz a preface before it with the two 
letters of his name. 'Tis he that haz verses before Bond's 
Horace. She also gave an honourable yearly pension to 
Dr. (Thomas) Mouffett, * who hath writt a booke De 
insectis. Also one . . . Boston, a good chymist, a Salis- 
bury man borne, who " did undoe himselfe by studying the 
philosopher's stone, and she would have kept him but he 
would have all the gold to him selfe and so dyed I thinke 
in a goale. 

At Wilton is a good library which Mr. Christopher Wase 
can give you the best account of of any one ; which was 
collected in this learned ladle's time. There is a manu- 
script very elegantly written, viz. all the Psalmes of David 
translated by Sir Philip Sydney, curiously bound in crimson 
velvet. There is a MS. writt by Dame Marian'^ of hunting 

» Some portions of the text, three " Subst. for ' but he.' 

lines in all, are suppressed here. '' Anthony Wood corrects this to 

^ Subst. for ' elaborator.' ' Juliana,' i. e. Bemers. 
» MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 8i'. 



312 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

and hawking, in English verse, written in King Henry the 
fjth's (.jjjjg (quaere Mr. Christopher Wase farther). There is 
the legier book of Wilton, one page Saxon and the other 
Latin, which Mr. Dugdale perused. 

This curious seate of Wilton and the adjacent countrey 
is an Arcadian place and a paradise. Sir Philip Sydney 
was much here, and there was * . . . great love between him 
and his faire sister ... I have heard old gentlemen (old 
Sir Walter Long of Dracot and old Mr. Tyndale) say . . . 
The first Philip, earle of Pembroke, . . . inherited not the 
witt of either the brother or sister. 

^ ,^^ Thiscountesse, after her lord's death, maried f 

Markham sales ^q gir Matthcw Lister t, knight, one of the 

they were not +' o ' 

♦ "H^T^d 6 Colledge of Physitians, London. He was (they 
<"" ■i545- say) a learned and a handsome gentleman. She 

built then a curious house in Bedfordshire called Houghton 
Lodge neer Ampthill. The architects were sent for from 
Italic. It is built according to the description of Basilius's 
house in the first booke of the Arcadia (which is dedicated 
to her). It is most pleasantly situated and hath fower 
visto's, each prospect 25 or 30 miles. This was sold to 
the earle of Elgin for . . . li. The house did cost 10,000//. 
the building. 

I thinke she was buryed in the vault in the choire at 
Salisbury, by Henry, earl of Pembroke, her first husband : 
but there is no memoriall of her, nor of any of the rest, 
except some penons and scutcheons. 

* An epitaph on the lady Mary, countesse of Pembroke 
(in print somewhere), by William Browne, who wrote the 
Pastoralls, whom William, earle of Pembroke, preferr'd to 
be tutor to the first earle of Carnarvon ((Robert) Dormer), 
which was worth to him 5 or 6000//., i. e. he bought 300//. 
per annum land — from old Jack Markham — 

Underneath this sable hearse 
Lies the subject of all verse : 

" Some expressions in the text, two lines in all, are suppressed here. 
* MS. Aubr. 6, a slip at fol. 8i. 



Richard Herbert 313 

Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother. 
Death ! er'st thou shalt kill " such another 
Fair and good and learn'd as shee, 



Note. 
' Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' parted per pale azure and gules, 3 lions 
rampant argent [Herbert] ; impaling, ^or), a pheon (azure) [Sydney].' 

Richard Herbert (15 . . -1596). 

* (Ex libro B, p. 126): — In a buriall-place in the church 
at Montgomery (belonging to the castle) is a great free- 
stone monument of Richard Herbert, esq. (father to 
the learned lord Herbert of Cherbery, and Mr. George 
Herbert, who wrote the sacred poems), where are the 
effigies of him and Magdalene his wife, who afterwards 
was maried to Sir John Danvers of Wilts, and lies 
interred at Chelsey church but without any monument. 
Dr. Donne, dean of St. Paul's, preached her funerall sermon, 
to which are annexed severall verses, Latin and Greeke, 
by Mr. George Herbert, in memorie of her. She was 
buryed, as appeares by the sermon, July i, 1627. 

In Sepulchrum Richardi Herberti, armigeri, et Magdalenae uxoris 
ejus, hendecasyllaba. 

Quid virtus, pietas, amorve recti. 

Tunc cum vita fugit, juvare possunt? 

In coelo relevent perenne nomen, 

Hoc saxum doceat, duos recludens 

Quos uno thalamo fideque junctos 

Heic unus tumulus lapisve signal. 

Jam longum sape. Lector, et valeto, 
Aeternum venerans ubique nomen. 

** In Brecknockshire, about 3 miles from Brecknock, is 
a village called Penkelly (Anglice Hasel-wood), where is 
a little castle. It is an ancient seate of the Herberts. 
Mr. Herbert, of this place, came, by the mother's side, of 
A^gan. The lord Cherbery's ancestor came by the second 

" Snbst. for 'kill'st.' * MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 95. 

» Uupl. with ' his.' ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 95'. 



314 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

venter, who was a miller's daughter. The greatest part of 
the estate was settled on the issue by the 2d venter, 
viz. Montgomery castle, and Aberystwith. Upon this 
match with the miller's daughter are to this day recited, or 
sung, by the Welsh, these verses : viz. : — 

O gway vinney (dhyw) rig wilidh 
Vod vinhad yn velinidh 
A' vod vy mam yn velinidhes 
A' m6d inney yn arglwydhes. 

To this sence ' : — 

O God ! Woe is me miserable, my father was a 
miller, and my mother a milleresse, and I am now 

a ladie. 

Nole. 
' A more exact rendering is ; — 

'O woe is me (God) for sliame, 
That my father is a miller 
And that my mother is a miller's wife, 
And that / am a peeress.' 

William Herbert, ist earl of Pembroke (i 507-1 570). 

* William ^, earle of Pembroke, the first earle of that 
family, was borne (I thinke I have heard my cosen Whitney 
say) in ... in Monmouthshire. Herbert, of Colbrooke in 
Monmouthshire, is of that family. 

He was (as I take it) a younger brother, a mad fighting 
young fellow. 'Tis certaine he was a servant to the house 
of Worcester, and wore their blew-coate and badge. My 
cosen Whitney's great aunt gave him a golden angell^'when 
he went to London. One time being at Bristowe, he was 
arrested, and killed one of the sheriffes of the city. He 
made his escape through Back-street, through the (then 
great) gate, into the Marsh, and gott into France. 

Memorandum : — upon this action of killing the sheriffe, 
the city ordered the gate to be walled-up, and only a little 
posterne gate or dore, with a turnestile for a foot-passenger, 
which continued so till Bristowe was a garrison for the king, 

* MS, Aubr, 6, fol, 80. " ' one time' followed, scored out. 



Wtlltam Herbert, ist earl of Pembroke 315 

and the great gate was then opened, in 1644, or 1645. 

When I was a boy there, living with my father's mother, 

who was maried to alderman John Whitson t 

t He was the •' 

facforto'thr (who was my god-father), the story was as 
city that haz fresh as but of yesterday. He was called black 

been since the -^ ^ 

Reformacion lyjn Herbert. 

He gave 500 h. 

Feast tSXdty ^" France he betooke himself into the army, 
Wewioates ' ' ' whcrc he shewd so much courage, and readinesse 
miydS'^He of witt in conduct, that in short time he 
flaqi^vide' becamc eminent, and was favoured by (Francis 
register. j^ ^^ king, who aftcrwards recommended him 

to Henry the VHI of England, who much valued him, and 
heaped favours and honours upon him. 

Upon the dissolution of the abbeys, he gave him the 
abbey of Wilton, and a country of lands and mannours 
thereabout belonging to it. He gave him also the abbey 
of Remesbury in Wilts, with much lands belonging to it. 
He gave him Cardiff-Castle in Glamorganshire, with the 
ancient crowne-lands belonging to it. 

Almost all the country held of this castle. It was 
built by Sir Robert Fitzhamond the Norman, who lies 
buried at Tewkesbury abbey with a memorial : and 
he built the abbey of Glocester. It afterwards came 
to Jasper, duke of Bedford, etc. ; so to the crowne. 
I have seen severall writings of Sir John Aubrey's at 
Llantrithid in Glamorganshire, which beginne" thus: — 
' Ego Jaspar, frater regum et patruus, dux Bedfordiae, 
comes Pembrochiae, et dominus de Glamorgan et Mor- 
gannog, omnibus ad quos hoc presens scriptum pervenerit, 
salutem, etc' 

He maried (Anne) Par, sister of queen Katharine Par, 
daughter and co-heire of (Thomas) Par (I thinke^, mar- 
quisse of Northampton), by whom he had 2 sonnes, Henry, 
earle of Pembroke, and (Edward) the ancestor of the 
lord Powys. 

He was made Privy Councellor and conservator of King 
Henry the Eight's * will. He could neither write nor 
" Dupl. with ' runne.' * MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 80'. 



3i6 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

read, but had a stamp for his name. He was of good 
naturall parts ; but very cholerique. He was strong sett. 
but bony, reddish-favoured, of a sharp eie ", sterna looke. 

In queen Mary's time, upon the returne of the Catholique 
rehgion, the nunnes came again to Wilton abbey, and this 
William, earl of Pembroke, came to the gate (which lookes 
t The last lad towards the court by the street, but now is 
f\!^^^.^.^°.Gawen walled-up) with his cappe in hand, and fell upon 
heionffIn"/Jr' ' his knee to the lady abbesse f and the nunnes, 
tiat'famiiyhTz Crying peccavi. Upon queen Mary's death, the 
oSidttou'1665 earle came to Wilton (like a tygre) and turnd 
wadhfm them out, crying, ' Out ye whores, to worke, to 

Windham). 11 • j 

worke, ye whores, goe spmne. 

He being a stranger in our country, and an upstart, was 
much envyed. And in those dayes (of sword and buckler), 
noblemen (and also great knights, as the Longs), when they 
went to the assizes or sessions at Salisbury, etc., had a great 
number of retainers following them ; and there were (you 
have heard), in those dayes, feudes (i. e. quarrells and 
animosities) between great neighbours. Particularly this 
new earle was much envyed by the then lord Sturton of 
Sturton ^, who would, when he went or returned from Sarum 
(by Wilton was his rode), sound his trumpetts, and give 
reproachfull challenging words ; 'twas a relique of knight- 
hood errantry. 

From my great-uncles, the Brownes of Broad Chalke : — 
in queen Elizabeth's time, some bishop (I have forgot who) 
that had been his chaplain, was sent to him from the 
queen and council, to take interrogatories of him. So 
he takes out his pen and inke, examines and writes. 
When he had writt a good deale, sayd the earle, ' Now 
lett me see it.' ' Why,' q^ the bishop, ' your lordship 
cannot read it ? ' ' That's all one : Tie see it,' q'^ he, and 
takes it and teares it to pieces : ' Zounds, you rascall,' q"* 
he, 'd'ee thinke I will have my throate cutt with a pen- 
knife?' It seemes they had a mind to have pick't a hole in 
his coate, and to have gott his estate. 
" Dupl. with ' face.' 



Wtlltam Herbert, jrd earl of Pembroke 317 

'Tis reported that he caused himself to be lett bloud, 
and bled so much that it was his death, and that he should 
say as he was expiring, ' They would have Wilton — they 
would have Wilton,' and so gave up the ghost. 

Memorandum : — this William (the founder of this family) 
had a little cur-dog which loved him, and the earl loved the 
dog. When the earle dyed the dog would not goe from his 
master's dead body, but pined away, and dyed under the 
hearse ; the picture of which dog is under his picture, in 
the Gallery at Wilton. Which putts me in * mind of 
a parallell storie in Appian (Syrian Warr) : — Lysimachus 
being slaine, a dog that loved him stayed a long time by the 
body and defended it from birds and beasts till such time as 
Thorax, king of Pharsalia, finding it out gave it buriall. 
And I thinke there is such another story in Pliny : vide. 

He was buried in ... of St. Paule's, London, where he 
had a magnificent monument, which is described, with the 
epitaph, by Sir William Dugdale, which vide. 

** This present earl of Pembroke (1680) has at Wilton 
52 mastives and 30 grey-hounds, some beares, and a lyon, 
and a matter of 60 fellowes more bestiall than they. 

Notes. 

'^ Aubrey gives in trick the coat : — ' party per pale azure and gules, 3 lions 
rampant argent [Herbert] ; impaling, argent, 2 bars azure within a bordure 
engrailed sable [Parre],' surmounted by an earl's coronet. 

^ In error. It was Sir Thomas Parre's son William (brother of this Anne, 
countess of Pembroke) who was created marquess of Northampton in 154^. 

= Charles Stourton, succeeded as 7th baron in 1548 ; executed for murder in 
1557- 

William Herbert, 3rd earl of Pembroke (1580-1630). 

*** William, earl of Pembroke, Chancellor of the Univer- 
sity of Oxford, natus anno MDLXXX, viii Apr. ; obiit 
anno MDCXXX, x Calend. Apr."— His death fell out 
according to prediction. He dyed a bed of an apoplexie. 

**** Wilhelmus, comes Pembrochiae, Cancellarius Univ. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 81. *** MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 106'. 

** MS. Aubr. 6, a note on fol. 80'. " 23 March. 

**** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 55". 



3i8 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Oxon., natus anno MDLXXX, viii Apr. ; obiit anno 
MDCXXX, X Calend. Apr. — His nativity was calculated 
by old Mr. Thomas Allen : his death was foretold, which 
happened true at the time foretold. Being well in health, 
he made a feast ; ate and dranke plentifully ; went to bed ; 
and found dead in the morning. 

* William, earle of Pembroke, Lord Chamberlain, and 
Chancellor of the University of Oxford : — 

' Natus Anno MDLXXX, viii Apr. 
Obiit Anno MDCXXX, x Calend. Apr.'— 

I find this under his engraved picture. 

He dyed of an apoplexy, and it fell-out right according 
to prediction, because of which he made a great supper, 
and went to his bed well, but dyed in his sleep. 

He was a most magnificent and brave peer, and loved 
learned men. He was a poet. There is a little booke in 
lamo or i6mo which containes his wife's and Sir Benjamin 
Rudyer's who was his friend and contemporary. 

John Heydon (1629-166 . .). 

** From Elias Ashmole, esq'^, scilicet that he "had the 
booke called The way to blisse from his adoptive father 
Backhowse*" at Swallowfield in com. Berks., a MSS. writt 
in queen Elizabeth's time, hand and stile avovv\).S>%. 

Mr. . . . Heyden maried Nicholas Culpepper's widdowe, 
and lights there'= on the aforesayd MSS., and prints a booke 
with a great deale of The way to blisse word for word and 
verses that are printed in the commendation of other 
bookes ; and instead of such and such old philosophers ■* 
putts downe John Bowker and William Lilly which they 
never heard of: and is so impudent in one of his bookes 
since as to say Mr. Ashmole borrowed of him. 

* MS. Aubr. 6, a slip at fol. 8l. ' Sir William Backhouse, quaere.' 

** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 4". " i.e. among N. Culpepper's papers. 

» i. e. Ashmole. ^ i. e. cited in the MS. he was ex- 

*> Anthony Wood notes here : — ploiting. 



Peter Heylyn. Nicholas Hill 319 

Peter Heyljm (1599-1662). 

* Dr. Heylin was buried in the choire neer his own [sub- 
dean's"] stall, May the 10th i66a'', but his inscription is 
on the wall of the north aisle. 

** (Aubrey gives a copy of the inscription, noting, on 
the line ' posuit hoc illi moestissima conjux ' : — ) who, 
about a year after, fell in love with a lifeguardman that 
I know, whom she had maried (aetat. 23), had not cruel 
death quench't that amorous flame. 

II port ' sable, 3 horse-heads erased argent.' 

Nicholas Hill (i57o?-i6io). 

*** Mr. Nicholas Hill : — This Nicholas Hill was one of 
the most learned men of his time : a great mathematician 
and philosopher and traveller, and a poet «. His writings 
had the usuall fate of those not printed in the author's 
life-time. He was so eminent for knowledge, that he was 
t 'Twasthat ^^^ favourite of ... f the great earle of Oxford, 
thaUett*the°f— ^'^° ^^'^ ^'™ *° accompanie him in his travells 
mi?abd:'h"° (^^ ^^^ '^'^^ steward), which were so splendid 
t^avdied" ''vide ^-^^ sumptuous, that he kept at Florence a 
iSelhaboJ" greater court then the Great Duke. This earle 
the end. spcut in that .... of travelling, the inheritance 

of ten or twelve thousand pounds per annum. 

Old Serjeant Hoskins (the poet, grandfather to this Sir 
John Hoskins, baronet, my hon* friend) knew him (was ^ 
well acquainted with him), by which meanes I have this 
tradicion which otherwise had been lost ; as also his very 
name, but only for these verses^ in Ben Johnson's 2d 
volumine, viz. : — 



* Aubrey in Wood MS. F. 39, fol. *** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 38". 

160": 16 Jan. 167^. "^ The words follow, scored out, 

" Inserted by Anthony Wood. ' but no writer that ever I heard of, or 

*" Wrongly changed by Wood to if he was,' [his writings]. 

1663. ■* Subst. for ' or remembred him. 

** Ibid., fol. 156 : 30 Dec. 1671. 



320 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

I fancy that his picture, i. e. head, is at the end of the 
t Philip, earl of Long Gallcry of Pictures at Wilton t, which 

Montgomery, ,, i-ii 

Lord Cham- IS thc most philosophicall aspect that I have 

berleyn, maried rii/r t^ttii 

< Susan) the Seen, very much of Mr. 1 . Hobbes of Malmes- 

dauphter of 

< Edxvard Vere, bury, but rather more antique. Tis pitty that 

I7th>earleof ■" ^ r J 

Oxford by in noblemen s sfalleries, the names are not writt 

whom he had ^ ^ 

his issue. on, Or behind, the pictures. 

He writt ' Philosophia Epicureo-Democritiana, simpliciter 
proposita, non edocta' : printed at Colen, in 8vo or i2mo: 
Sir John Hoskins hath it. 

Thomas Henshawe, of Kensington, esq., R. Soc. Soc, 
hath a treatise of his in manuscript, which he will not print, 
viz. ' Of the Essence of God, &c. Light.' It is mighty 
paradoxicall : — That there is a God ; What he is, in lo or 
12 articles : Of the Immortality of the Soule, which he does 
demonstrate Tiavrovala and oi'Tovaia. 

[Fabian Philips, the cursiter, remembers him".] 

He was, as appeares by A. Wood's Historie, of St. John's 
Colledge in Oxford, where he mentions him to be a great 
Luliianist. 

In his travells with his lord, (I forget whither Italy or 
Germany, but I thinke the former) a poor man begged him 
to give him a penny. ' A penny ! ' said Mr. Hill, 'what dost 
say to ten pound ? ' ' Ah ! ten pound ! ' (said the beggar) 
'that would make a man happy.' N. Hill gave him im- 
mediately loli. and putt it downe upon account, — 'Item, 
to a beggar ten pounds, to make him happy.' 

* He printed ' Philosophia Epicurea Democritiana,' 
dedicated 'filiolo Laurentio.' — There was one Laurence 
Hill that did belong to the queen's court, that was hangd 
with *> Green and Berry about Sir Edmund-Berry Godfrey. 
According to age, it might be this man, but we cannot be 
certain. 

** Mr. Thomas Henshaw bought of Nicholas Hill's 

" The statement in square brackets * Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, fol- 

is scored out, and the comment added 389 : 15 July 1689. 
' negat.' Aubrey had enquired of ^ Wood notes ' false.' 

Philips. ** Ibid., fol. 389'. 



Thomas Hobbes 321 

widow, in Bow lane, some of his bookes ; among which 
is a manuscript de infinitate et aeternitate mtmdi. He finds 
by his writings that he was (or leaning) a Roman Catho- 
lique. Mr. Henshaw believes he dyed about 16] o: he 
dyed an old man. He flourished in queen Elizabeth's 
time. I will search the register of Bowe. 

* I have searched the register of Bow, ubi non inventus 
Nicolas Hill. 

** Vide torn, i of Ben: Johnson's workes, pag. 48, epigram 
CXXXIV, title ' The famous voyage "... 

Here sev'rall ghosts did flitt, 
About the shore, of .... , but late departed ; 
White, black, blew, greene ; and in more formes out- 
started 
Than all those Atomi ridiculous 
Wherof old Democrite and Hill Nicholas, 
One sayd, the other swore, the world consists. 

Note. 
' Aubrey was most anxious to have these verses inserted, three times directing 
Anthony Wood to do so. MS. Anbr. 8, a slip at fol. 4 :— ' Past on Nicholas 
Hill, in his proper place in part ist ' (i. e. MS. Aubr. 6), but no copy of the 
verses is there given. MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 7 :— ' Insert B. Johnson's verses 
of Nicholas Hill.' MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 351": 13 Jan. i68f;— 'B. Johnson 
speakes of N. Hill in his " Voyage to Holbourne from Puddle-dock in a ferry 
boate. 

A dock there is ... . called Avernus 
concern us." ' 

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). 

(This, the most elaborate of these ' Brief Lives,' occupies by itself 
MS. Aubr. 9. For the letters introductory to it, see supra, pp. 17-20. 

The various papers of which the MS. is composed are bound up 
confusedly, and the separate notes are in some cases entered on a page, 
or a page and its opposite, in no order. Considerable re-arrangement 
has therefore been necessary ; but the exact MS. references have 
been given throughout. Some few notes relating to Hobbes, found 
in other Aubrey MSS., have here been brought into their natural 
place.) 

* Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 389. 
** Ibid., fol. 354: 21 June 1681. 
I. Y 



322 



Aubrey^s 'Brief Lives' 



* The Life of Mr. Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesburie\ 
(^Introduction.') 

The writers'' of the Hves of the ancient philosophers 
used to, in the first place, to speake of their lineage" ; and 
they tell us that in processe of time severall great ^ families 
accounted it their glory to be branched" from such or 
such a Sapiens. 

Why now should that method be omitted in this 
Historiola of our Malmesbury philosopher ? Who though 
but' of plebeian descents, his renowne haz and will give 
brightnesse to his name and familie, which hereafter may 
arise glorious and flourish in riches and may justly take it 
an honour to be of kin to this worthy person, so famous, 
for his learning "^j both at home and abroad. 



(^Pedigree.) 



Hobbes, jn, 

I 



. Francis Hobbes, 
obiit sine prole. 



2. Thomas Hobbes, 
vicar of Westport. 



Middleton, of Brokenborough 
(vide Camden '). 



Edmund Hobbes, m. 



1. Thomas Hobbes, 
philosophus, obiit 
coelebs Dec 4, 1679. 



, a daughter, 



I Mary, m. 



. . Tirell. -2. Eleanor, nt. 

I 



. Harding. Francis Hobbes, in. . . 



Thomas, a clothier, 
about 23, 1679. 



2. (Edmund). When a child 
his genius lyes to drawing. 
He can engrave and some- 
thing resemoles the philoso- 
pher. I have a lyon of his 
engraving. 



This heraldique way of expressing a genealogie is most 
intelligible and makes the best impresse in the memory or 



* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 30. 

* This title is subst. for ' Sup- 
plementum vitae Thomae Hobbes, 
Malmsburiensis': seep. 17. 

'' There are two other drafts of the 
opening sentence : — ' The ancients, 
when they writt the lives ' ; 'It was 
nsuall with the writers of the lives of 
the ancient philosophers, in the '. 

<^ Dupl. with ' stock.' 



^ Dupl. with 'rich ' or 'illustrious.' 

"^ Diipl. with ' derived.' 

' Dupl.with' though of noillustrious 
family.' 

8 Dupl. with 'extraction.' 

■■ Dupl. with ' great parts.' 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 29'. 

' i. c. for the etymology ; infra, 
P- 324- 



Thomas Hobbes 323 



fancy; but* will it not be thought here to(o) pompous and 
affected by his enemies and the nation of critiques? 
Prescribe Trebate. 

My brother >> W. A. will set all this right 1. 

(^His father. y 

* Thomas Hobbes ^, then, whose life I write, was second 
son of Mr. Thomas Hobbes, vicar of Westport juxta 
Malmesbury, who maried . . . Middleton of Brokinborough 
(a yeomanly family). ** He was also vicar of Charlton 
(a mile hence) : they are annexed, and are both worth 60 
or 80/2. per annum. — *** Memorandum, Brokenborough 
also is appendant to Charlton vicaridge — \6oli. per annum 
— from Philip Laurence, whose father-in-law was vicar. 
[**** The vicaridge of Malmesbury is but xx nobles per 
annum = 6/2. 13^. 4^. ; but Coston and Radbourne belongs 
to it, which addition is equal to 50 or 60/2. per annum.] 

***** Thomas, the father ■=, was one of the ignorant 
' Sir Johns'*' of queen Elizabeth's time ; could * only read 
the prayers of the church and the homilies ; and dis- 
esteemed ' learning (his son Edmund told me so), as not 
knowing the sweetnes of it. 

****** As to his father's ignorance and clownery, 
'twas as good metall in the oare which wants excoriating 
and refineing. A witt requires much cultivation, much 
paines, and art and good conversation to perfect a man. 

(^His father's brother.') 
******* Hes had an elder brother^ whose name was 

" Aubrey's MS. is only a rough Wood wrote in the margin 'vicar of 

draft for Anthony Wood's perusal. Malmsbury,' but scored it out, as in 

Hence these queries. error. 

* For the pedigree supplied by ^ Wood wished to add ' or Sir 
William Aubrey, see infra, p. 388. Rogers.' 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 30. " Dupl. with ' did.' 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 29^. ' Dupl. with 'valued not.' 

*** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 7'. ****** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 29'. 

**** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 29". ******* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 30. 

***** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 30. « i. e. Thomas, the father. 

» Dupl. with ' vicar.' Anthony 

Y 2 



324 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Francis, a wealthy man, and had been alderman f of the 
t 'Alderman ' is borough ; by profession a glover J, which is a 

the title of tlie j , i 1 11 i ■ j_- ±_ 1 

chieiemagis- great trade here ||, and in times past much 
Afderman and greater. Having no * child, he contributed 
'quaere Sir' much to, or rather altogether maintained, his 

J{ames)Long. , ^_,, __ , , i 1 1 ■ /-\ i 

t Shall I nephew Thomas at Magdalen hall in Uxon ; and 

conceail this whcn he dycd gave him an agellnm (a moweing- 
pfifo/tTpiier ^ ground '') called the Gasten-ground, lyeing neer 
acknowledge it. to the horsc-fairc, worth 16 or 18 poundes per 
foi. 29''. " ^' '' annum ; the rest of his landes he gave to his 
famoISfor^good nephew Edmund. 

^°''"" ** At Sherston about 3 miles hence (vide 

map) are groundes likewise called the Gasten-grounds — 
perhaps 'tis Garston grounds. At Sherston was hereto- 
fore a castle, and perhaps (and quaere) if these grounds 
are not where the vallum or bulwarkes might be drawne. 
Gaer, Britannice, signifies some such thing, vide Dr. Davys' 
British Dictionary. 

In Hexham's Dutch dictionary Gast signifies ' a guest ' ; 
so that Gaste7i-gro2md W\\\ be 'the ground for the guests'; 
probably to putt the horses of the guests (that came to lye 
at the abbey) to grasse. They speake broad in our 
countrey, and do pronounce guest, gast, etc. Monasterys 
had their guest-halls ; and it should seeme they had like- 
wise their guest-grounds for the strangers' horses : as here. 

(^His brother and sister.) 

*** Thomas, the vicar of Westport,maried . . . Middleton* 
of Brokenborough f (of a yeomanly family), by whom he 
t Brokenbrig; ^^^ tvvo sonues and one daughter (quaere my 
MtArng^ibi. brother William Aubrey)— Edmund, his eldest 
^°'' (was bred-up to ^ his uncle's profession of a 

glover) ; and Thomas (philosopher), second son, whose 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 31. <T. H.) was borne in.' 
» Diipl. with ' pasture.' In MS. ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 30'. 

Aubr. 3, fol. 28, Aubrey calls it *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 31. 

'a good moweing ground, called >> Dupl. with 'with,' i.e. with his 

Gaston, not far from the house he uncle, as well as to his trade. 



Thomas Hobbes 325 



life I now write. Edmund was neer " two yeares elder 
then his brother Thomas, and something resembled htm 
in aspect *", not so tall, but fell much short of him in his 
intellect, though he was a good plain understanding 
countrey-man ". He had been bred at schoole with 
his brother ; could have made theme, and verse, and 
understood a little Greek to his dyeing day. He dyed 
(quaere William Aubrey) about 13 yeares since; aetat. 
circiter 80. 

(^His nephews and nieces.) 

This Edmund had only one .son named Francis, and two 
daughters maried to countreymen (renters) in the neigh- 
borhood. This Francis pretty well resembled his uncle 
Thomas, especially about the eie; and probably had he 
had good education might have been ingeniose ; but he 
t This part drowucd his witf* in alef. He was left by his 
dninkennes. father and uncle Thomas, 8o/?. (quaere W. A.) 
or better per annum, but he was an ill husband. He 
dyed about two yeares after his father, and left five 
children. — His eldest son is Thomas, a clothier, now about 
J He did live at ^S- I'ving at J . . . (quacrc W. A.^). The second, 
li'^Did^i^^e at <Edmund), lives at . . . ||, and has some lines 
Chippenham. ^f Thomas the philosopher. When he was 
a child ^, his genius inclined him to (* quaere W. A.) 
draweings and engraving in copper. He is now about ai. 

( Description of Malmsbury. ) 

{As may be seen from his intended preface {supra, p. 19) Aubrey 
thought of beginning the life of Hobbes with an account of Malmsbury. 
For this purpose in MS. Aubr. 9 he has drawn three plans'^ : — 
(a) plan of environs of Malmsbury (a slip at fol. 31^). 

» Dupl. with ' about.' ^ Dupl. with ' parts.' 

" Dnpl. with ' face.' = i. e. William Aubrey. 

" In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 28, Aubrey ' Dupl. with ' boy ' 

says, 'He(T.H.)had an elder brother, * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 32. 

named Edmund Hobbes, more then i Dupl. with ' pourtra) ing.' 

once alderman of Malmesbury ' : but " Other drawings of Malmsbury 

this is probably an error, from con- by Aubrey are in MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 

fusing him with the uncle. 35 and 39. 



326 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

(b) plan of iMalmsbury (fol. 31''). 

(c) a drawing of the house in which Hobbes was born (fol. 31''). 
These are reproduced in facsimile at the end of this edition. 

He gives there (fol. 31") these dimensions of the town: — 'From 
St. John's Bridge (south limit of the town) to the abbey (north) is 
about a quarter of a mile ; and from the same bridge to West port 
church (west limit) is neer about a mile. Height of the borough from 
the levill belowe is about 100 foot high.' 
The references on the plan of Malmsbury (see the facsimile) are: — 
' a = the house of his birth. 
Q) = Westport church. 
W = the West port {plim). 
(3 = the Smyth's shop. 

8 = the private house where Mr. Latimer taught him. 
I = Three Tunnes (as I take it), opposite to the smyth's shop. 

r-i = the religious (house) dedicated to Our Lady: the chapell is 

yet standing. 

H = (Hobbes's) house at the upper (end) faces the Horse fayre. 

^!= quaere if not a chapell here ? ' 

On fol. IV of MS. Aubr. 9, Aubrey has these remarks about these 
plans, etc. : — 

' If these notes are not now inserted, probably they will be lost : or 
should it not be a marginall commentary .' ' 

' I have drawne this rude sketch meerly for your clearer under- 
standing, not that I think it worth while to grave it for 'tis at randome. 
I intended if it had pleased God that I had prospered in the world to 
have had taken an exact map ^ of Malmesbury.' 

' Whitechurch, about a mile ferfe off:— quaere ubi stat?' 'Vide 
Speed's mappe in Wiltshire.' 

' Burnevall, quasi Bournevall.') 

(^Description of WestportJ) 
* Westport ^ is the parish without the west-gate (which 
is now demoHshed), which gate stood on the neck of land 
that joines Mahnesbury (vide verses ") to Westport. Here "^ 
was, before the late warres, a very pretty church, consist- 
ing of 3 aisles, or rather a nave and two aisles (which 
tooke up the whole area''), dedicated to St. Mary; and 

" On this Anthony Wood comments: 'Tis cheap to have cot in box." 
— ' I think 'tis fit it should be drawne * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 33. 

and represented, for the abbey sake. i- scil. of the 'neck ofland.' 



Thomas Hobbes 327 



a fair spire-steeple, with five tuneable bells, which, when the 
towne was taken (about 1644 ; quaere William Aubrey) 
by Sir W. Waller, were converted "• into ordinance, and the 
church pulled-downe to the ground, that the enemie might 
not shelter themselves against the garrison. The steeple 
was higher then that now standing in the borough, which 
much added to'' the prospect. The windowes were well 
painted, and in them were inscriptions that declared much 
antiquitie ; now is here rebuilt a church like a stable. 

(^Place and date of his birth.') 

Thomas Hobbes, Malmesburiensis,Philosophus,was borne 
at his father's house in Westport, being that extreme howse 
that pointes into, or° faces, the Horse-fayre ; the farthest 
howse on the left hand as you goe to Tedbury, leaving the 
church on your right. To prevent mistakes, and that here- 
after may rise no doubt ^ what house was famous for this 
famous man's birth ; I doe here testifie that in April, 1659, 
his brother Edmond went with me into this house, and into 
the chamber where he was borne. Now things begin to be 
antiquated, and I have heard some guesse it might be at 
the howse where his brother Edmund lived and dyed. 
But this is so, as I here "= deliver it. This house was given 
t Quaere by Thomas, the vicar, to his daughter f 

William Aubrey , , , i i i i „ 

if...Potiuck'. whose daughter or granddaughter possessed s 
it, when I was there. * It is a firme house, stone-built 
and tiled, of one roome (besides'' a buttery, or the like, 
within) below, and two chambers above. 'Twas in the 
innermost where he first drew breath. 

The day of his birth was April the fifth. Anno Domini 
1588, on a Fryday morning, which that yeare was Good 
Fryday. His mother fell in labour with him upon the 
fright of the invasion of the Spaniards — 

" Dnpl. with • melted.' " Dupl. with ' as I say.' 

" Dupl. with ' adorned.' ' See infra, p. 388. 

" Dupl. with ' and.' « Dnpl. with ' enjoyed.' 

^ Anthony Wood notes here ' as it * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 33. 

was concemmg Homer.' " Dupl. with ' with.' 



328 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



[* Fama " ferebat enim, sparsitque per oppida nostra 
Extremum genti classe venire diem ; 

Atque metum tantum concepit tunc mea mater 

Ut pareret geminos meque metumque simuL] 

— ** he told me himself between the houres of four and 
six: but by rectification his nativity is found to be 
, o at ... t. 

+ See my ' 

collection of j^jg horoscope^ is Taurus, having m it a 

genitures'*, ^ ] <j 

more\xacr '' satelHtium of 5 of the 7 planets. It is a maxime 
mouth'^ii™^ in astrologie — vide Ptol. Centil. — that a native 
5h.2' mane. ^^^._ j^^^j^ ^ satelUtmm. in his ascendent becomes^ 
more eminent in his life then ordinary", e.g. divers which 
see in Origanus, etc., and OHver Cromwell had so, etc. 

(^His school and college life.) 

At four yeares old ^° he went to schoole in Westport 
church, till eight ; by that time ^ he could read well, and 
number four figures. Afterwards he went to schoole to 
Malmesbury, to Mr. Evans, the minister of the towne ; 
and afterwards to Mr. Robert Latimer, a young man of 
about nineteen or twenty, newly come from the University, 
who then kept a private schoole in Westport, where the 
broad place (quaere nomen) is, next dore north from the 
smyth's shop, opposite to the Three Cuppes *= (as I take it). 
He was a batchelour and delighted in his scholar, T. H.'s 
company, and used to instruct him, and two or three 
ingeniose youths more, in the evening till nine a clock. 
Here T. H. so well profited in his learning, that at fourteen 
yeares of age, he went away a good schoole-scholar to 
Magdalen-hall, in Oxford. It is not to be forgotten, that 
before he went to the University, he had turned Euripidis 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 32'. '^ Dupl. with 'and then.' Subst. 

" Quoted from Hobbes' metrical for ' at eight yeares of age he could.' 

life of himself. « Written at first 'Three Tunnes 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 33. (quaere William Aubrey) ' : and then 

•' Dupl. with ' proves.' changed when W. A. answered the 

" Aubrey notes opposite this sen- query, 
tence : — ' This is 1 



Thomas Hobbes 329 



Medea * out of Greeke into Latin lambiques, which he 
presented to his master. Mr. H. told me that he would faine 

have had them, to have seen how he did grow in 

Twenty odde " yeares agoe I searcht all old Mr. Latimer's 
papers, but could not find them ; the ^ good huswives 
had sacrificed them. 

I have heard his brother Edmund and Mr. Wayte (his 
schoolefellowe) say that when he was a boy he was 
playsome enough, but withall he had even then a con- 
templative melancholinesse ; he would gett him into a 
corner, and learne his lesson by heart presently. His 
haire was black, and his schoolfellows '^ were wont to call 
him ' Crowe.' 

This Mr. Latimer was a good Graecian, and the first 
that came into our parts hereabout since the Reformation. 
He was afterwards minister of Malmesbury, and from 
thence preferred to a better living of looH. per annum, 
or + , at Leigh-de-la-mere within this hundred. 

At Oxford Mr. T. H. used, in the summer time especially, 
to rise very early in the morning, and would tye the leaden- 
counters (which they used in those dayes at Christmas, 
at post and payre) with pacthreds"*, which he did besmere 
with " birdlime, and bayte them with parings of cheese, and 
the jack-dawes would spye them a vast distance up in the 
t This story he aire t, and as far as Osney-abbey, and strike at 
nfi^'discoOTsi'ng the bayte, and so be harled in the string, 
to instan^ceTuch which the wayte of the counter would make 

sharpnes of sight . tt t i j i 

in so little an eie. cliug about ther wmgs. He did not much 
care for logick, yet he learnd it, and thought himselfe a 
good disputant. He tooke great delight there to goe to 
the ^ booke-binders' shops, and lye gaping on mappes, of 
which he takes notice in his life written by himselfe in 
verse : 

* MS. Anbr. 9, fol. 34. ■• Dupl. with ' strings.' 

" Dupl. with ' 25 + .' " Dupl. with ' draw through.' 

" Dupl. with 'the oven' <dupl. with ' Anthony Wood corrects to 'the 



' pies ') ' had devoured them.' stationers' shops.' 

" Dupl. with ' the boyes.' 



330 Aiibrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Ergo ad anioena magis me verto, librosque revolvo, 
Quos prius edoctus, non bene doctus eram. 
* Pascebamque animum chartis imitantibus orbem, 
Telluris faciem, et sydera picta videns, 

Gaudebam soli comes ire, et cernere cunctis 
Terricolis justos qua facit arte dies ; etc. 

** Quaere A(nthony) W{ood) what moneth and day 
he was matriculated ? 

[He * came '' to Magdalen hall in the beginning of an. 
1603, at what time, Dr. James Hussee, LL.D., was 
principall. This James Hussee was afterwards knighted 
by king James and was made Chancellour of Sarum. 
This Dr. Hussee was a great encourager of towardly youths. 
But he resigning his principallity about 1605, Mr. John 
Wilkinson succeeded him : so that Mr. Hobs was under 
the government of two principalis.^^ — Thomas Hobs was 
admitted to the reading of any book of logic (' ad " 
lectionem cujuslibet libri logices '), that is, he was admitted 
to the degree of Bachelaur of Arts, 5 Feb., 1607'*, and 
in the Lent that then began did determine % that is, did 
his exercise for the completion of that degree. Vide 
Hist, (^et Antiq. Univ.) Oxon., lib. 2, pag. 376 a.j 

(^Enters the earl of Devonshire' s service.") 

*** After he had taken his batchelor of Arts degree 
(quaere A. Wood de hoc), the than principall of Magdalen- 
hall (Sir James Husseyf) recommended him to his yong 
lord when he left Oxon, who had a conceit b that he should 
profitt more in his learning if he had a scholar of his owne 
age to wayte on him then if he had the information of 
a grave doctor. He was his lordship's page, and rode 

* MS. Aiibr. 9, fol. 35. c Part of the formula of admission : 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. is,\ Clark's Reg. Univ. Oxon. II. i. 48. 

" This paragraph is an insertion l.y ^ 160J; ibid. II. iii. 278. 

Anthony Wood in answer to Aubrey's » ibid. II. i. 50. 

q^ei^y- *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 35. 

■> His name is not entered in the ' Subst. for ' Mr. John Wilkinson.' 

University matriculation-register. e Dupl. with ' did believe.' 



Thomas Hobbes 331 



a hunting and hawking with him, and kept his privy- 
purse. 

By this way of hfe he had almost forgott his Latin ; 
vide Latin verses. He therefore " bought him bookes of 
an Amsterdam print that he might carry in his pocket 
(particularly Caesar's Commentarys), which he did read 
in the lobbey, or ante-chamber, whilest his lord was making 
his visits. 

(Zf servant to Francis Bacon.') 

The Lord Chancellour Bacon loved to converse f with him. 
t This ibeieeve ^^ assistcd his lordship in translating severall of 
Irsixoiis^^ his Essayes into Latin, one, I well remember, 
death b. jge tjjj^^ Of the Grcatms of Cities: the rest 

I have forgott. His lordship was a very contemplative 
person, and was wont to contemplate in his delicious 
walkes at Gorambery ^^, and dictate to Mr. Thomas 
Bushell, or some other of his gentlemen, that attended him 
with inke and paper ready to sett downe presently his 
thoughts. His lordship would often say that he better 
liked Mr. Hobbes's taking his thoughts'*, then any of the 
other, because he understood what he wrote, which the 
others not understanding, my Lord * would many times 
have a hard taske to make sense of what they writt. 

It is to be remembred that about these times, Mr. T. H. was 
much addicted to musique, and practised on the base-violl. 

( Visits his native county, Wiltshire.) 
1634 : this summer — I remember 'twas in venison 
season ° (J"ly or August) — Mr. T. H. came into his native 
country' to visitt his friends, and amongst others he came 

° Dupl. with ' then.' ^ Diipl. with ' notions.' 
" The chronology is here difficult. * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 36. 
William Cavendish, second earl of ' Subst. for ' time ' 
Devonshire, died 20 June, 1628 ; and ' In the first attempt at this para- 
it is he whom Hobbes regarded as his graph Aubrey wrote, 'T. H. came into 
' first ' lord (see his inscription, infra, his native country. I was then a little 
p. 386), not his father William, first youth and went to schoole to Mr. Robert 
earl, who died 3 March, 1 62|. Bacon Latimer at Leigh-de-la-mere in the 
died 9 Apr. 1626. church about a mile from my father's 
■^ Dupl. with 'was.' house (Easton Pierse).' 



332 Aubrey^'s 'Brief Lives' 

then to see his old school-master, Mr. Robert Latimer f, 

t Robert at Leigh-de-la-mer, where I was thea at 

Nov™bef "' schoole X in the church ", newly entred into my 

Jithii'ad'"^ ^"^ grammar by him. Here was the first place and 

Ms"Aubr.^, time that ever I had the honour to see this 

i°i^'adthena worthy, learned man, who was then pleased to 

and commonfy take notice of me, and the next day visited '' my 

rode -fbut this is i ,• « tt il u ■ 1 

impertinent)— rclations °. He was then a proper man, briske, 

i.e. I was not a iii-.qTT-i i 

vulgar boy and and m vcry good habit". His hayre was then 

carried not a .111 tt i -n/rii 1 

satchel! at my quitc black ". He stayed at Malmsbury and 

back. — Sed hoc , 

inter nos.— in the neighborhood a weeke or better. Twas 

MS. Aubr. 9, ^ ,,, , . 

foi. 31. the last time that ever he was in Wiltshire. 

* His conversation about those times was much about 
Ben: Jonson, Mr. Ayton, etc. 

(^His mathematical studies .y 

** He was (vide his life) 40 yeares ^ old before he looked 
on geometry ; which happened accidentally. Being in a 
gentleman's library in ... , Euclid's Elements lay open, 
and 'twas the 47 El.e libri I. He read the proposition, 
t He would now ' By f G— ,' sayd he, 'this is impossible!' So 
by^yor*'"^' he reads the demonstration of it, which referred 
emphasis'. j^j^^ back to such a proposition; which propo- 

sition he read. That referred him back to another, which 
he also read. Et sic deinceps, that at last he was demon- 
stratively convinced of that trueth. This made him in 
love with geometry. 

I have heard Sir Jonas Moore (and others ^^) say 
that 'twas a great pity he had not began the study of 

" In a second attempt it stood ' ... at but both struck out. 
Leigh-de-la-mere. I was then a little * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 35'. 

youth newly entred into my grammar ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 36. 

by him, and we went to schoole in the ' Anthony Wood writes here ' do 

church.' not you mean 40!' Aubrey had 

" Dupl. with 'came to.' written ' 4 ' by a pen-slip ; afterwards 

' Dupl. with ' friends.' he corrected it. 

* Dupl. with ' equipage ' s ' Element ' used for 'proposition.' 

« Here followed 'and moist-curled,' " Subst. for 'He would now and 

dupl. with ' and with moist curies ' ; then use an emphaticall oath.' 



Thomas Hobbes 333 



the mathematics sooner, for such a working head ^ would 
have made great advancement in it. So had he donne^ 
he would not have layn so open to his learned mathematical! 
antagonists''. But one may say of him, as one (quaere 
who) sayes of Jos. Scaliger, that where he erres, he erres 
so ingeniosely, that one had rather erre with him then 
hitt the mark ^ with Clavius. I have heard Mr. Hobbes 
say * that he was wont to draw lines " on his thigh and 
on the sheetes, abed, and ^ also multiply and divide. He 
+ Vide de hoc in would often complain that algebra f (though 
and'afsoTifhis' °^ great usc) was too much admired, and so 
QSJere Dr' folIowcd after, that it made men not contemplate 
MsfAubrgi" ^'^^ considcr so much the nature and power 
foi.36. Qf jines, which was a great hinderance to the 

groweth of geometric ; for that though algebra did rarely 
well and quickly, and easily in right lines, yet 'twould not 
bite in solid (I thinke) geometric. Quod N.B. 

** Memorandum — After he began to reflect on^ the 
interest of the king of England as touching his affaires 
between him and the parliament, for ten yeares together 
his thoughts were much, or almost altogether, unhinged 
from the mathematiques ; but chiefly intent on his De Give, 
and after that on his Leviathan : which was a great putt- 
back to his mathematical! improvement '' — quod N.B. — for 
in ten yeares' (or better) discontinuance of that study 
(especially) one's mathematiques will become very rusty '. 

(^Champions the king's cause against the parliament.) 

*** Vide Mr. Hobbes considered, p. 4 : printed London 
1662 (since reprinted, 1680, by William Crooke) : — 

1640: 'when the parliament sate that began in April 
1640 and was dissolved in May following, and in which 

" Dupl. with ' curious wilt.' ' Dupl. with ' as.' 

•> ' Began it early ' is written over, ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 36'. 

in explanation. ^ Dnpl. with ' study.' 

= Dupl. with ' to the witts.' '' Dupl. with ' knowledge.' 

* Dupl. with ' then doe well.' ' Dupl. with ' rubiginous.' 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 37 **■* MS. Aubr. 9, fol, 37. 
» 'In his bed' followed, scored out. 



334 Aubrey^s 'Brief Lives' 

many pointes of the regall power, which were necessary for 
the peace of the kingdome and safety of his majestye's 
person, were disputed * and denyed, Mr. Hobbes wrote 
a httle treatise in English, wherin he did sett-forth and 
demonstrate, that the sayd power and rights were in- 
seperably annexed to the soveraignty, which soveraignty 
they did not then deny to be in the king ; but it seemes 
understood not, or would not understand, that inseperability. 
Of this treatise, though not printed, many gentlemen had 
copies, which occasioned much talke of the author ; and 
had not his majestic dissolved the parliament, it had 
brought him in danger of his life.' 

* Vide Air. Hobbes considered, if more may not be 
inserted, scilicet as to the politiques. Sed cave — 

Incedis per ignes 
Suppositos cineri doloso. 
HORATIUS ad Asin. Pollioiiem, ode i, lib. 2. 

Memorandum the parliament was then sitting and runne 
violently against the king's prerogative. 

** Memorandum he told me that bp. Manwaring '^ 
(of St. David's) preach'd liis doctrine ; for which, among 
others, he was sent prisoner to the Tower. Then thought 
Mr. Hobbes, 'tis time now for me to shift for my selfe, 
and so withdrew " into France, and resided ^ at Paris. As 
I remember, there were others " likewise did preach his 
doctrine. This little MS. treatise grew to be^ his book 
De Cive b, and at last grew there to be the so formidable 
and . . . Leviathan; the manner of writing of which 
booke (he told me) was thus. He walked much and 
contemplated, and he had in the head of his staffe '' a pen 
and inke-horne, carried alwayes a note-booke in his pocket, 

" Subst. for ' discussed.' "^ ' Mostly ' followed : scored out. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 38'. « Anthony Wood notes ' Robert 
** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 37. Sibthorpe, vicar of Brackley.' 

'' Anthony Wood notes ' Roger ' Dupl. with ' became.' 

Manneringe.' s ' At Paris ' followed : scored out. 

" Dupl. with ' w{ nt.' ^ Dupl. with ' cane.' 



Thomas Hobbes 335 



and as soon as a thought * darted, he presently entred it 
into his booke, or otherwise he might ^ perhaps have lost it. 
He had drawne the designe of the booke into chapters, 
etc. so he knew whereabout it would come in. Thus that 
booke was made. 

' He wrote and published the Leviathan far from the 
intention either of disadvantage to his majestie, or to flatter 
Oliver (who was not made Protector till three or four 
yeares after) on purpose to facilitate his returne ; for there 
is scarce a page in it that he does not upbraid him.' — 
Mr. Hobbes considered, p. 8. 

* ' 'Twas written in the behalfe of the faithfuU subjects 
of his majestie, that had taken his part in the war, or 
otherwise donne their utmost endeavour to defend his 
majestie's right and person against the rebells : wherby, 
having no other meanes of protection, nor (for the most 
part) of subsistence, were forced to compound with your 
masters, and to promise obedience for the saving of their 
lives and fortunes, which, in his booke he hath affirmed, 
they might lawfully doe, and consequently not bear arms 
against the victors. They had done their utmost endeavour 
to performe their obligation to the king, had done all they 
could be obliged unto ; and were consequently at liberty 
to seeke the safety of their lives and livelihood wheresoever, 
and without treachery.'— <ibid.) p. 2o. 

' His majestie was displeased with him ' (at Paris) ' for 
a while, but not very long, by means of some's complayning 
of and misconstruing his writing. But his majestie had 
a good opinion of him, and sayd openly that he thought 
Mr. Hobbes never meant him hurt.' — p. a8. 

' Before his booke De Homine came forth, nothing of the 
optiques writt intelligibly. As for the Optiques of Vitellio °, 
and several others, he accounts them rather geometry than 
optiques.' — p. 54. [Will not this p. 54 more aptly come in 
in another place ?] 

' So also of all other arts ; not every one that brings 

"» Dupl. with ' notion.' * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 38. 

'' Dupl. with ' or els he should.' " Subst. for 'of Euclid and Vitellio.' 



336 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

from beyond seas a new gin, or other janty devise, is 
therfore a philosoplier. For if you reckon that way, not 
only apothecaries and gardiners, but many other sorts of 
workmen will put-in for, and get the prize — 

' Then, * when I see the gentlemen of Gresham Colledge 
apply themselves to the doctrine of motion (as Mr. Hobbes 
has done, and will be ready to helpe them in it, if they 
please, and so long as they use him civilly), I will looke 
to know some causes of naturall events from them, and 
their register, and not before ; for nature does nothing but 
by motion. 

' The reason given by him, why the drop of glasse so much 
wondred at shivers into so many pieces by breaking only 
one small part of it, is approved for probable by the Royall 
t This clause I Societie and registred in their colledge : f but 
iudgme°nn"not ^^ ^^^ ^° reason to take it for a favour, because 
-MS.'^libf.""' hereafter the invention may be taken, by that 
f 'should these mcans, not for his, but theirs.'— p. 55. 
S'or"fi?c°orae in ' As for his sclfc-prayse %, they can have very 
\^'tk°li(tlilo little skill in morality, that cannot see the justice 
— MS.'^Aubn'V, of commending a man's selfe, as well as of any 
°'' ■ thing else, in his own defence.' — p. 57. 

' Then for his morosity and peevishnesse, with which 
some asperse him, all that know him familiarly, know the 
contrary. 'Tis true that when vain and ignorant young 
scholars, unknowne to him before, come to him on purpose 
to argue with him, and fall into undiscreet and uncivill 
expressions, and he then appeare not well contented, 'twas 
not his morosity, but their vanity, which should be blamed.' — 
(^Mr. Hobbes considered^ p. 59- 

{"Residence in Paris.) 

** During his stay at Paris he went through a course 
of chymistry with Dr. . . . Davison ; and he there 
also studied Vesalius's Anatomie. This I am sure was 
before 1648; for that Sir WilHam Petty (then Dr. Petty, 

* MS. Aabr. 9, fol. 39. ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. If. 



Thomas Hobbes 337 



physitian) studyed and dissected with him. Vide pag. 
i8b. A.W.» 

(^Return to England.') 

t Quaere de ^ a ^ j_ i i • x^ i i 

hoc: vide his =•= Anno lo^-t, he returned into England, 

life — 'Twas ° 

1650 or 1651— and lived most part t in London, in Fetter lane, 

MS. Aubr. 9, r + ! ) 

foi 38'. wherehewritt, or finished, his bookeZ)^ C^r*or^, 

J Quaere etiara ' -^ ' 

dehoc ithinke . . . *> m Latin and then in English; and writt 

true as I ' t. ' 

MsTubr ~ ^^^ lessons against the two Savillian professors 
foL 38". at Oxon "=, etc. ; vide the anno Domini when 

printed. (Puto 1655 or 56.) 

(^Kindness to his jiephew.') 
** ^^SS or 1656: about this time he setled the piece 
§ Or brother: of land (aforcsayd), given to him by his uncle, 
forgott But upon his nephew Francis § for life, the re- 

surely twas to ^ ^ ^ > 

Ms"^ub^^'''~' niaynder to his nephew's eldest son, Thomas 

|i°il?enot Hobbes. He also not long after" dischardged 

pubiishecf, but"^ 3. mortgage (to my knowledge ||, to Richard 

way!7wHSig^'' Thomc, an attorney) of two hundred pounds, 

e'lveToyot"' besides the interest thereof, with which his 

teJtiSSnk!- nephew Francis (a careles^ husband) had 

foi39^'"''^' incumbred his estate. 

(^Residence in London.) 

He was much in London till the restauration of his 
majesty, having here convenience not only of bookes, but 
of learned conversation, as Mr. John Selden, Dr. William 
Harvey, John Vaughan, etc., wherof anon in the catalogue 
of his acquaintance. 

I have heard him say, that at his lord's house in the 

° i. e. fol. 50' of the MS., where is "'his Dialogi' followed: scored 

a note by Anthony Wood, as given out. 

infra, p. 367. ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 40. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 39. * In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 28, Aubrey 

*■ Subst. for ' which came out anno says that Thomas Hobbes gave it to 

. . .' Anthony Wood notes, ' Vide ' his elder brother, named Edmund 

catalogue of (Hobbes's) books in Hobbes.' 

Hist, {et Antiq. Univ.) Oxon., and " ' a yeare + ' followed : scored out. 

vide transcript thence.'— MS. Aubr. 9, ' Dupl. with 'an ill.' 

fol. 38'- 



338 



Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



countrey 
for him, an 



t Methinkes in 
the country, in 
long time, for 
want of good 
con^'ersation, 
one's under- 
standing (witt, 
invention) 
growes mouldy, 
—MS. Aubr. 9, 
fol. 39". 



there was a good Hbrary, and bookes enough 
d that his lordship stored the hbrary with what 
bookes he thought fitt to be bought : but he 
sayd, the want of learned ^ conversation f was 
a very great inconvenience °, and that though 
he conceived'* he could order his thinking 
as well perhaps as another man, yet he found 
a great defect " 



(^Acquaintance and studies.^ 

Amongst other of his acquaintance I must not forget our 
common friend, Mr. Samuel Cowper, the prince of limners 
, „ . , of this last age, who drew his picture t as like 

X This picture ^ ' r i 

as art could afford, and one of the best pieces 
that ever he did : which his majesty, at his 
returne, bought of him, and conserves as one 
of his great rarities in his closet at Whitehall. 

* 1659. In 1659 his lord was — and some 
yeares before — at Little Salisbury-house (now 
turned to the Middle-Exchange), where he 
wrot, among other things, a poeme, in Latin 
hexameter and pentameter, of the encroachment of the 
clergie (both Roman and reformed) on the civil power ^*. 
I remember I saw then 500 -V verses, for he numbred 
every tenth as he wrote. I remember he did read 
Cluverius's Historia Universalis^ and made-up his poeme 
from thence. His amanuensis remembers this poeme, for 
he wrote them out, but knows (not what became of it). 

His place of meditation was then in the portico in the 
garden. 

His manner s of thinking: — he sayd that he sometimes 



i intend ' to be 
borrowed of his 
majesty, for 
Mr. (David) 
Loggan to 
engrave an 
accurate piece 
by, which will 
sell well both at 
home and 
abroad. Mr. 
Lpggan is well 
acquainted. — 
MS. Aubr. 9, 
fol. 39'. 



" Dupl. with ' in Derbyshire.' 
' Dupl. with ' good.' 
" Dupl. with ' want.' 
^ Subst. for ' thought.' 
" Aubreynotes opposite this: 'better 
this expression.' 

f Dnpl. with 'designe.' 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 42. On fol. 



41' Aubrey makes this apology for 
its coming there out of due order of 
time : — ' Give notice how things are to 
be right placed, for all things comes, 
not into my memory chronologically 
and this seemes almost necessary to be 
forced.' 

s Dupl. with ' way.' 



Thomas Hobbes 339 



would sett his thoughts upon researching" and contemplating, 
always with this rule'' that he very much and deeply 
considered one thing at a time (scilicet, a weeke or 
sometimes a fortnight). 

There was a report J (and surely true) that in 

t Quaere ■■ the , . , ^ , , , , , 

bishop of Sarum parliament, not long after the kmg was setled, 

<le hoc, i.e. pro r . i i • i i - i 

tempore.— MS. some ot the Dishops made a motion to have 

Aubr. g, fol. 41". , 

the good old gentleman burn t for a heretique. 
Which he hearing, feared that his papers might be 
search't by their order, and he told me he had burn't 
part of them. — I have received word"^ from his amanu- 
ensis and executor that he ' remembers there were such 
verses'' for he wrote them out, but knowes not what 
became of them, unlesse he presented them to Judge 
Vaughan ^, or burned them as I did seeme to intimate.' 
%^ But I understand since by W. Crooke, that he can 
retrive a good s many of them. 

' (^Secures the protection of Charles II.) 

* 1660. The "^ winter- time of 1659 he spent in Derby- 
shire. In 1' March following was the dawning of the 
coming in of our gracious soveraigne, and in April the 
Aurora. 

** I then sent a letter to him in the countrey to advertise 
him of the Advent ' of his master the king and desired him 
by all meanes to be in London before his arrivall ; and 
knowing"^ his majestie was a great lover of good painting 
I must needs presume he could not but suddenly see 

" Subst. for ' researching and con- " Dupl. with ' such a poeme.' 

templating one thing, then of another ; ' Sir John Vaughan, Chief Justice 

but he had a method for it.' of the Common Pleas, 1668-16J4. 

' Dupl. with 'proviso' or 'observa- ^ Dupl. with 'great.' 

tion.' * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 40. 

" MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 7— 'quaere i" Subst. for ,' 1660. The winter 

bishop Sarum when he was motioned before (of 1659) he spent his time in 

to be burnt.' Ibid., fol. 7', ' Quaere Derbyshire.' 

bp. Sarum <Seth Ward) who and ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 39'. 

when (annum) the motion in parlia- ' Dupl. with 'goodnewes.' 

men't was to have Mr. Hobbes burnt.' '' Dupl. with ' hearing.' 

<! Infra, p. 382. 

Z % 



340 Aiibrey^s 'Brief Lives' 

Mr. Cowper's curious pieces, of whose fame he had so 
much heard abroad and seene some of his worke, and 
likewise that he would sitt to him for his picture, at 
which place and time he would have the best conve- 
nience "■ of renewing his majestie's graces to him. * He 
returned me thankes for my friendly intimation and came 
to London in May following. 

It happened, about two or three dayes after his majestie's 
happy returne, that, as he was passing in his coach 
through the Strand, Mr. Hobbes was standing at Little 
Salisbury-house gate (where his lord then lived). The 
king espied him, putt of his hatt very kindly to him, and 
asked him how he did. About a weeke after he had ^ orall 
conference with his majesty at° Mr. S. Cowper's, where, as 
he sate for his picture, he was diverted ^ by Mr. Hobbes''s 
pleasant discourse "- Here his majestie's favours were 
redintegrated to him, and order was given that he should 
have free accesse to his majesty, who was always much 
delighted in his witt and smart repartees. 

The witts at Court were wont to bayte him. But he 
+ TKs-^s too im, feared none of them \ and would make his part 
piibiishe'd.-MS. good. The king would call him the beare f : 
Aubr. 9, foi. 40'. c Here comes the beare to be bayted ! ' 

Repartees. He was marvellous happy and ready in his 
replies, and that without rancor (except provoked) — but now'' 
I speake of his readinesse in replies as to witt and drollery. 
He would say that he did not care to give, neither was he 
adroit ^ at, a present answer to a serious quaere : he had as 
lieve they should have expected an ' extemporary solution to 
an arithmetical! probleme, for he turned and winded and 
compounded in philosophy, politiques, etc., as if he had 

° Dupl. with ' opportunity.' ' Dupl. with 'the wilts.' 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 41. e Aubrey wishes to limit the readi- 

•> Aubrey writes opposite on fol. nessinreply to cases of light badinage: 

40' : — ' embouche, such word in Eng- in serious subjects Hobbes was slow 

lish ? ' and deliberate. 

« MS. has 'and,' by a slip for ' at.' >» Dupl. with ' good.' 

^ Dupl. with ' enterteyned.' ' Dupl. with ' a present answer.' 

" Dupl. with ' facetiae.' 



Aubr. 



im.]— MS. 
9, fol. 41". 



Thomas Hobbes 341 

been at analytical! * worke. He alwayes avoided, as much 
as he could, to conclude hastily {^Humane NatiLre, p. a). 
Vide*" p. 15 b. 

(^Re-enters the household of the earl of Devonshire.') 
Q?aerew™''™' * Memorandum— froHi 1660 till the time f 
[You'^^say''"'^' '^^ ° ^^^^ wcnt into Derbyshire, he spent most of 
tKe \vlnt his time in London at his lord's (viz. at Little 
1675° H^rf'^' Salisbury-howse ; then, Queen Street ; lastly, 
London>?was Newport-house), following his contemplation 
Xr'InS^'" and study. JtJ' He contemplated and 
and'^directed^" invented (set downe a hint with a pencill 
afterhimj-Ms' or so) in the morning, but compiled ' in the 
ernoon. 

(^His treatise De Legibics.) 
1664. In s 1664 I sayd to him ' Me thinkes 'tis pitty that 
you that have such a cleare reason and working ^ head did 
never take into consideration the learning of the lawes ' ; 
and I endeavoured to perswade him to it. But he answered 
that ' he was not like to have life enough left to goe through 
with such a long and difficult taske. I then presented him 
the lord chancellor Bacon's Elements of the Lawe (a thin 
quarto), in order therunto and to drawe him on ; which he 
was pleased to accept, and perused ; and the next time I 
came to him he shewed me therin two cleare paralogismes in 
the 2nd page {one, I well remember, was in page a), which 
I am heartily sory are now out of my remembrance, 
** I desponded, for his reasons, that he should make any 
tentamen^ towards this designe; but afterwards, it seemes, in 
the countrey he writt his treatise De Legibus ^^ (unprinted) 

" Dnpl. with ' mathematical!.' " Infra, p. 346. 

i" i.e. see further about this on fol. ' Dnpl. with 'penned': see infra, 

45' of the MS., the note found infra, p. 351. 

p. 356. 5 Subst. for ' about.' 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 42. ■" Dupl. with ' inventive.' 

" Subst. for ' he last left London, ' Subst. for ' that 'twas a long, 

he was often in London at his lord's.' taedious, and difficult taske.' 

^ The two sentences in square ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 43. 

brackets are added by Anthony Wood. ^ Dupl. with ' attempt.' 



342 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

of which Sir John Vaughaii, Lord Chiefe Justice of the 
Common Pleas, had a transcript, and I doe affirme that he 
much admired it. 

* Insert here part of his lettre to me about it. 

'Tis thus, viz., in a letter to me% dated Aug. i8, 1679, 
among severall other things, he writes '' : — 

' I have been told that my booke of the Civill Warr is 
come abroad and am heartily sorry for it, especially because 
I could not get his majestic to license it, not because it is 
ill printed or hath a foolish title set to it, for I beleeve that 
any ingeniose man may understand the wickednes of 
+ Quaere is it that time, notwithstanding the errors of the 

best to let the . 

letter stand prCSSC J. 

thatpar°^ofthe ' The treatise De Legibus (at the end of it) 
referred to the is imperfect. I desirc Mr. Home'' to pardon 

catalogTie of - _ , . . 

bookes? me that 1 cannot consent to his motion ; nor 

shall Mr. Crooke himselfe get my consent to print it. 

' I pray you present my humble thankes to Mr. Sam. 
Butler. 

' The privilege of stationers is, in my opinion, a very great 
hinderance to the advancement of all humane learning ". 
' I am, sir, your very humble servant, 

' Th. Hobbes.' 

(^Proposed fo7i7idation at Malmsbtiry.) 
** 1665. This yeare he told me that he was willing to doe 
some good to the towne where he was borne ; that his 
majestic loved him well, and if I could find out something 
in our countrey that was in his guift, he did beleeve he could 
t Theburghesses bcg it of his majcstic, and seeing f he was bred 

give a school- ,1111. i « 

master X li. per a scholar, he thought it most proper to endowe s 

annum out of 111 1.1. . j. 

their.... a free-schoole there; which is wanting nowX 
(for, before the reformation, all monasteries had great 

* MS. Anbr. 9, fol. 42'. " Stibst. for 'knowledge.' 

"■ Dupl. with ' I. A.' ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 43. 

'' Subst. for ' sayes.' ' Dupl. with ' since.' 

" Dupl. with ' together.' e Dupl. with ' found ' : and subst. 

^ A London bookseller, who had for ' erect.' 
offered to publish an authorized copy. 



Thomas Hohbes 



343 



schooles appendant to them; e.g. Magdalen schoole and 
New College schoole). After "■ enquiry I found out a piece 
of land in Bradon-forest (of about 35 //. per annum value) 
that was in his majesties guift ^ which he designed '' to 
have obtained of his majestic for a salary for 
a schoolmaster ; but f the queen's priests ^ 
smelling-out the designe and being" his 
enemies, hindred ^ this publique and charitable 
intention. 



f Aubrey 
queries — ' Will 
not this give 
offence ? ' — 
Anthony Wood 
rfplies — 
' Perhaps noj — 
MS. Aubr. 9, 
fol. 42^. 



( Controversy with Dr. John Fell ) 
Anno"^ Domini 1674 Mr. Anthony a Wood sett 
forth an elaborate worke of eleven ' yeares study, 
intituled the History and Antiquities of the 
University of Oxford, wherin, in every respective 
Colledge and Hall, he mentions the writers 
there educated and what bookes they wrote. 
The deaneof Christ Church having plenipoten- 
tiary"^ power of the presse there], perused 
every sheet before 'twas to be sent to the 
presse " ; and maugre the author and to his ■" sore 
displeasure did expunge and inserted what he 
pleased. Among other authors f , he made 
divers alterations in Mr. Wood's copie in the 

account he gives of Mr. T. Hobbes of Malmesbury's life, 

in pag. 444, 445°, Lib. II— 



[16748. 

t Memorandum 
— bishop Jokn 
Fell did not 
onlv expunge 
and insert what 
he pleased in 
Mr. Hobbes' 
life ; but also in 
the lives of other 
very learned 
men, to their 
disparagement, 
particularly of 
Dr. John 
Prideaux, 
afterwards 
bishop of 
Worcester, and 
in the life of 
Dr. (Wilham) 
Twiss.— MS. 
Aubr. 9, fol. 48'. 



" Siibst. for 'Upon.' 

■^ Dupl.with 'power' or 'possession.' 

" Dupl. with ' hoped.' 

^ Dupl. with ' but queen Katharine.' 

" Dupl. with ' hating him.' 

' Dupl. with ' prevented.' 

e '1674' is struck out and \m 
substituted for it — this latter being 
the date of Wood's altercations with 
Dr. Fell. 1674 was the date of 
publication : see infra. 

>> Anthony Wood struck out the 
passage enclosed in square brackets, 
and sent Aubrey a more elaborate 
account (now fol. 48, 48' of MS. Aubr. 
9) to take its place. This is printed 



in Clark's Wood's Life and Times, 
ii. 291, 392 ; and is perhaps the paper 
which Wood blames Aubrey for having 
kept, ibid. ii. 475, 476. 

' Aubrey added, in the margin, the 
correction ' A. W. sayes but ten.' 

' Dupl. with ' the absolute.' 

' Wood adds ' and after.' 

"> Dupl. with ' his great griefe, ex- 
pitnged and inserted what he thought 
fitt.' 

" Corrected by Wood to '376, 377.' 
The mistake is made in Hobbes's 
printed epistle, and Aubrey copied it 
thence. 



344 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives ^ 

' Vir sane de quo (inter tot prosperae et adversae famae 
qui de eo sparguntur hominum sermones) hoc verissime 
pronuntiare fas est, animum ipsi obtigisse, uti omnis scientiae 
capacissimum et infertum, ita divitiarum, saeculi, et invidiae 
negligentissimum ; erga cognatos et alios pium et beneficum ; 
inter eos quibuscum vixit, hilarem et apertum, et sermone 
libero ; apud exteros in summa semper veneratione habitum,' 
&c. ; this and much more was quite dashed out of the 
author's copie by the sayd deane. 
tMethinkes" * Thesc f additions and expunctions being 

page 15 might 111 r /~«i • /~>i 

be something made by the sayd deane of Christ Church, 

extracted and ., >iii 11 i» 

abridged; but without " the Knowledge or advice of the authour 

doe you consider 

of it. and quite contrary to his mind, he told him 

it was fitt Mr. Hobbes should know it'', because that 
his name being set to the booke and all people knowing 
it to be his, he should be liable to an answer, and so con- 
sequently be in perpetuall controversie. To this the deane 
replied, ' Yea, in God's name ; and great reason it was 
that he should know what he had done, and what he had 
donne he would answer for,' etc. 

1674. Hereupon"^, the author acquaints ^J. A., Mr. 
Hobbes's correspondent, with all that had passed ; J. A. 
acquaints Mr. Hobbes. Mr. Hobbes takeing it ill, was 
resolved to vindicate himselfe in an Epistle to the Author. 
Accordingly an epistle, dated Apr. 20, 1674, was sent to 
the author in MS., with an intention to publish it when the 
History of Oxford was to be published. Upon the reciept 
of Mr. Hobbes's Epistle by Anthony a Wood, he forthwith 
repaired, very honestly and without any guile, to the dean 
of Christ Church to communicate it to him '. The deane 
read it over carelesly, and not without scorne, and when 

" Note on fol. 43" of MS. Aubr. 9. what he had done.' 

' Page 1 5 ' in Aubrey's numbering is "^ Wood adds ' in the beginning of 

now fol. 45 of the MS. 1674.' 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 45. » i. e. John Aubrey. 

^ Corrected by Wood to ' without ' Wood adds ' and to let him see 

the advice and quite contrary to the that he would do nothing underhand 

mind of the author.' against him.' 

■= Corrected by Wood to 'know 



Thomas Hobbes 345 



he had donne, bid Mr. Wood tell Mr. Hobbes, 'that he 
was an old man, had one foote in the grave, that he should 
mind his latter end, and not trouble the world any more 
with his papers,' etc., or to that effect. 

In the meane time Mr. Hobbes meetes with the king 
in the Pall-mall, in St. James's parke ; tells him how he 
had been served by the deane of Christ Church, in a booke 
then in the presse (scilicet the ' History ' aforesayd), in- 
tituled the History and Antiquities of the Universitie of 
Oxon, and withall desires his majestie to be pleased 
to give him leave to vindicate himselfe. The king seeming 
to be troubled at the dealing of the deane, gave Mr. Hobbes 
leave, conditionally that he touch no-body but him who 
had abused him, neither that he should reflect upon the 
Universitie. 

Mr. Hobbes understanding that this History would be 
published at the common Act at Oxon, about 11 July, 
the said yeare 1674, prints his Epistle" at London, and 
sends downe divers copies to Oxon, which being dispersed 
at coffee-houses and stationers' shops, a copie forthwith 
came to the deane's hands, who upon the reading of it 
fretted and fumed '', sent" for the author of the History 
and chid him, telling withall that he had corresponded 
with his enemie (Hobbes). The author replied that surely 
he had forgot what he had donne, for he had communicated 
to him before what Mr. Hobbes had sayd and written ; 
wherupon the deane recollecting himselfe, told him that 
Hobbes should suddenly heare more of him ^ ; so that 
the last sheete" of paper being then in the presse and 
one leafe thereof being left vacant, the deane supplied it 

" Wood adds ' that he had sent to " The advance-copies of Wood's 

Mr. Wood.' See Clark's Wood's Hist, et Antiq. Univ. Oxon. were 

Life and Times, ii. 288. issued July 1 7, 1674 (Wood's Life 

•> Wood adds 'at it as a most and Times, ii. 289); the ordinary 

famous libell.' issue took place on July 27 {ibid., 290), 

" Corrected by Wood to ' and, soon being perhaps delayed for the insertion 

after, meeting with the author.' of the rejoinder to Hobbes ; Hobbes's 

^ Wood adds ' and that he would epistle had been circulated on July 11 

.have the printer called to account for [ibid., p. 288). 
printing such a notorious libell.' 



34^ Aubi^ey's 'Brief Lives' 

with this answer. Both the epistle and answer I here 
exliibite. 

* Here insert the Epistle"' and Answer'^. 

To this angry ■= answer the old gentleman never ^ made 
any reply, but slighted " the Dr's passion and forgave it. 
But 'tis supposed it might be the cause why Mr. Hobbes 
was not afterwards so indulgent, or spared the lesse to 
speake his opinion, concerning the Universities and how 
much their doctrine and method had contributed to the 
late troubles [e. g. in his History of the Civill Warre]. 

( WitJidrazvs to Derbyshire.) 
J 675, mense . . . , he left London cum animo nunqtiam 
revertendi, and spent the remaynder of his dayes in 
Derbyshire with the earl of Devonshire at Chatsworth 
and Hardwyck, in contemplation and study. He wrote 
there' . . . (vide vitam). 

(^His death and burial.) 

** Thens, (insert an account of) his sicknesse, death, 
buriall and place, and epitaph, which send for ^. 

*** Extracted out of the executor's lettre (January 1 6, 
1679) to me : — ■ 

' To his highly honoured friend, Jo. Aubrey, esq., these.' — 

(His sicknesse) ' Worthy sir — he fell sick about the 
middle of October last,' etc. ' — 

**** fi^ He dyed worth neer loooli., which (considering 
his charity) was more then I expected: vide his verses'' 
in the last page. — From W. Crooke, from Mr. Jackson 
who had 500 li. of his in his hands. — 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 46. e Aubrey proposed bringing this in 

" Aubrey inserts a copy as fol. 44 after the Catalogue of his writings : 

of MS. Aubr. 9. but it is better here. 

■^ See it in Wood's Bist. et Antiq. " See the answers to these enquiries 

at the end. in the letters appended to this life. 

" Dupl. with ' scurrilous.' *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 32". 

'' Subst. for 'never replied.' ' As in the letter infra, p. 382. 

" Dupl. with 'neglected.' **** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 53'. 

' See infra, p. 363. ' i. e. the metrical autobiography, 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 53'. infra, p. 363. 



Thomas Hohhes 347 



{ Personal characteristics. ) 

* Describe face, eyes, forehead, nose, mouth, eyebrows, 
figure of the face, complexion ; stature of body ; shape 
(slender, large, neat, or otherwise) ; figure of head and 
magnitude of head ; shoulders (large, round, etc.) ; arms, 
legs, how ? — 

** Mr. Hobbes's person, etc. : — hazel, quick eie, which 
continued to his last. He was a tall man, higher then 
I am by about halfe a head (scil. . . . feet), i. e. I could 
putt my hand between my head and his hatt.— When 
young he loved musique and practised on the lute. In 
his old age he used to sing prick- song every night (when 
all were gonne and sure nobody could heare him) for his 
health, which he did beleeve would make him live two or 
three yeares longer. 

*** In his youth unhealthy; ofan ill yellowish complexion: 
wett in his feet, and trod both his shoes the same way. 

**** His complexion. In his youth he was unhealthy, 
and of an ill complexion (yellowish), 
t This only His f lord, who was a waster, sent him 

internos. — MS. 

Aubr. 9, foi. 45'. up and downc to borrow money, and to 
gett gentlemen to be bound for him, being ashamed 
to speake him selfe : he tooke colds, being wett in his 
feet (then were no hackney coaches to stand in the 
streetes), and trod both his shoes aside the same way. 
Notwithstanding he was well-beloved : they lov'd his com- 
pany for his pleasant facetiousnes and good-nature "- 

From forty, or better, he grew healthier, and then he 
had a fresh, ruddy, complexion. He was sanginneo- 
melancholicus ; which the physiologers say is the most 
ingeniose complexion. He would say that ' there might be 
good witts of all complexions ; but good-natured,impossible.' 

Head. In his old age he was very bald '' (which claymed 
a veneration) ; yet within dore, he used to study, and sitt, 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 7. **** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 46. 

** MS. Aubr. 3, fol. ^1\ " Dupl. with ' suavitas.' 

*** MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 2S. '' Dupl. with 'recalvus.' 



348 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

bare-headed, and sayd he never tooke cold in his head, 
but that the greatest trouble was to keepe-off the flies 
from pitching on the baldnes. His head was . . . inches 
in compasse (I have the measure), and of a mallet-forme 
(approved by the physiologers). 

* Skin. His skin was soft and of that kind which my 
Lord Chancellor Bacon in his History of Life and Death 
calles a goose-skin, i. e. of a wide texture : — 

Crassa cutis, crassum cerebrum, crassum ingenium. 

Face not very great ; ample forehead ; whiskers 
yellowish-redish, which naturally turned up — which is 
a signe of a brisque witt, e.g. James Howell, Henry Jacob 
of Merton College. 

{Bcard.y Belowe he was shaved close, except a little 
tip under his lip. Not but that nature '^ could have afforded 
a venerable beard (Sapientem pascere barbam — Herat. 
Satyr, lib. 2), but being naturally of a cheerfull and pleasant 
humour '', he affected not at all austerity and gravity and 
to looke severe. [Vide " page 47 of Mi'. Hobbes considered 
— ' Gravity and heavinesse of countenance are not so good 
marks of assurance of God's favour, as a chearfull, charit- 
able, and upright behaviour, which are better signes of 
religion than the zealous maintaining of controverted 
doctrines.'] He desired not'' the reputation of his wisdome 
to be taken " from the cutt of his beard, but from his 
reason — 

Barba non facit philosophum. ' II consiste tout en la 
pointe de sa barbe et en ses deux moustaches ; et, par 
consequence, pour le diffaire il ne faut que trois coups de 
ciseau.' — Balzac, Lettres, tom. 2, p. 242. 

**Eie. He had a good eie, and that of a hazell colour, 
which was full of life and spirit, even to the last. When 
he was earnest in discourse, there shone (as it were) 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 45". ance was a signe of God's grace.' 

■• Dupl. with ' he.' ^ Dupl. with ' depended not on.' 

'' Subst. for ' nature.' " Dupl. with ' esteemed ' or ' mea- 

" This quotation is subst. for ' He sured.' 

would say that cheerfulnes of counten- ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 46. 



Thomas Hobbes 349 



a bright live-coale within it. * He had two kind of 
looks : — when he laugh't, was witty, and in a merry 
humour, one could scarce see his eies ; by and by, when 
he was serious and positive-', he open'd his eies round (i. e. 
his eie-lids). He had midling eies, not very big, nor very 
little (from Sir W<illiam> P(etty». 

** Stature. He was six foote high, and something 
better (quaere James Wh(eldon)), and went indifferently 
erect, or rather, considering his great age, very erect. 

Sight ; witt. His sight and witt continued to the last. 
He had a curious sharp sight, as he had a sharpe witt, 
which was also so sure and steady (and contrary to that 
men call bro(^a)dwittednes) that I have heard him often- 
times say that in *** multiplying and dividing he '' never 
mistooke a figure : and so in other things. 

(^Habits of body and mind.') 

He thought much and with excellent method and stedi- 
nesse, which made him seldome make a false step. 

His bookes, vide page " 2a. **** jj-^ He had very few 
bookes. I never sawe (nor Sir William Petty) above halfe 
a dozen about him in his chamber. Homer and Virgil 
were commonly on his table ; sometimes Xenophon, or 
some probable historic, and Greek Testament, or so. 

***** Reading. He had read much, if one considers his 
long life ; but ^ his contemplation was much more then his 
reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much 
as other men, he " should have knowne no more then other 
men. 

****** His physique. He seldome used any physique 
(quaere Sir W<illiam> P(etty)). What 'twas I have forgot, 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 45^'. **** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 54. 

» Dupl. with ' earnest.' ***** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 47. 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 46. * Subst. for ' but 'twas but little in 

*** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 47. respect of his contemplation (think- 

•> Dupl. with ' he was never out.' ing).' 

" i. e. fol. 54, as given here. Oppo- ^ Subst. for ' he should have con- 

site it, on fol. 53', is the direction tinned still as ignorant as other 

' Let this be brought in to it's proper men.' 

place: referrethistop.i7'(i.e.fol.47). ****** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 46'. 



350 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

but will enquire of Mr. Shelbrooke his apothecary at the 
Black Spread-eagle in the Strand. 

Memorandum — Mr. Hobbes was very sick and like to 
dye at Bristoll-house in Queen Street, about 1668. 

* He had a sicknes, anno . . . 

He was wont to say that he had rather have the advice, 
or take physique from an experienced old woman, that had 
been at many sick people's bed-sides, then from the learnedst 
but unexperienced physitian. 

** 'Tis°' not consistent with an harmonicall soule to be 
a woman-hater, neither had he an abhorrescence to good 
wine but . . . — this only i7tter nos. 

*** Temperance and diet. He was, even in his youth, 
(generally) temperate, both as to wine and women, (et 
tamen haec omnia mediocriter) — 

Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto. 

I have heard him say that he did beleeve he had been 
in excesse'' in his life, a hundred times ; which, considering 
his great "= age, did not amount to above once a yeare. 
When he did drinke, he would drinke to excesse to have 
the benefitt of vomiting, which he did easily ; by which 
benefit neither his witt was disturbt longer then he was 
spuing nor his stomach oppressed ; but he never was, nor 
could not endure to be, habitually a good fellow, i.e. to 
drinke every day wine with company, which, though not to 
drunkennesse, spoiles the braine. 

For his last 30 + yeares, his dyet, etc., was very moderate 
and regular. After sixty he dranke no wine, his stomach 
grew weak, and he did eate most fish, especially whitings, 
for he sayd he digested fish better then flesh. He rose 
about seaven, had'' his breakefast of bread and butter ; and 

* MS. Anbr. 9, fol 45'. is 'perhaps too affected.' 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 46^". *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 47. 

' As an alternative Aubrey sug- >> Suljst. for ' that he haz been 

gests : — ' As he had an harmonicall drunke in his life.' 
soule, so consequently he was no "^ Dupl. with ' long.' 

woman-hater (misogynist).' But he ^ Subst. for ' did eate.' 

adds the criticism that this sentence 



Thomas Hobbes 351 



tooke his walke, meditating till ten ; then he did putt 
downe the minutes of his thoughts, which he penned in 
the afternoon. 

* He had an inch thick board about i6 inches square, 
whereon paper was pasted. On this board he drew his 
lines (schemes). When a line came into his head, he 
would, as he was walking, take a rude memorandum of 
it, to preserve it in his memory till he came to his 
chamber. (t3^ He was never idle ; his thoughts were 
always working. 

** His dinner was provided for him exactly by eleaven, 
for he could not now stay till his lord's howre — scil. about 
two : that his stomach could not beare. 

After dinner he tooke a pipe of tobacco, and then threw 
himselfe immediately on his bed, with his band off, and 
slept (tooke a nap of about halfe an howre). 

In the afternoon he penned his morning thoughts. 

Exercises. Besides his dayly walking, he did twice or 
t Quaere James thrlcc a ycare play at tennis j (at about 75 he 
-how often, and did it) ; then went to bed there and was well 
Msl Aubl^ 9, rubbed %. This he did believe would make him 

fol. i6 . ,. , ji 1 

: Memorandum live two or three yeares the longer. 

there was no , , j. t i r r l ' 

bagnio in his *** In the countrcy, for want 01 a tennis- 

Newgate Street court, he would walke up-hill and downe-hill in 

was built about , , 

thetimeofhis the parkc, till he was m a great sweat, and then 

death.— MS. "^ ' ° i i_ i • 

Aubr. 9, fol. 46'. give the servant some money to rubbe him. 

**** Prudence. He gave to his amanuensis, James Whel- 
don (the earle of Devon's baker ; who writes a delicate 
hand), his pention at Leicester, yearly, to wayte on him, 
and take a care of him, which he did performe to him living 
and dying, with great respect and diligence : for which 
consideration he made him his executor. 

Habit. In cold weather he commonly wore a black 
velvet coate, lined with furre ; if not, some other coate so 
lined. But all the yeare he wore a kind of bootes'' of 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 45'. **** MS. Aubv. 9, fol. 47. 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 47. ' Dupl. with ' buskins.' 

*** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 46^ 



352 Aubi'-ey's 'Brief Lives' 

Spanish leather, laced or tyed along the sides with black 
ribons. 

Singing. He had alwayes bookes of prick-song lyeing 
on his table: — e.g. of H. Lawes' etc. Songs — which at 
night, when he was abed, and the dores made fast, and 
was sure nobody heard him, he sang aloud (not that he 
had a very good voice) but " for his health's sake : he did 
beleeve it did his lunges good, and conduced much to 
prolong his life. 

* Shaking palsey. He had the shaking palsey in his 
handes ; which began in France before the yeare 1650, 
and haz growne upon him by degrees, ever since, so that 
he haz not been able to write very legibly since 1665 or 
1666, as I find by some of his letters *> to me. 

(^His readiness to help with advice and money.') 
** His goodnes of nature and willingnes to instruct any 
one that was willing to be informed and modestly desired 
it, which I am a witnesse of as to my owne part and also 
to others. 

*** Charity. His brotherly love to his kinred hath 
already been spoken of He was very charitable (pro 
suo modulo) to those that were true objects of his bounty''- 
One time, I remember, goeing in the Strand, a poor and 
infirme old man craved"* his almes. He, beholding him 
with eies of pitty and compassion, putt his hand in his 
pocket, and gave him bd. Sayd"^ a divine (scil. Dr. Jaspar 
Mayne) that stood by — ' Would you have donne this, if 
it had not been Christ's command?' — 'Yea/ sayd he. — 
'Why?' quoth the other. — 'Because,' sayd he, 'I was in 
paine to consider'' the miserable condition of the old man; 
and now my almes, giving him some reliefe, doth also 
ease me.' 

" Dupl. with 'but to cleare his *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 50. 

pipes.' c Dupl. with ' charity.' 

■* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 50. ^ Dupl. with ' begged.' 

^ Subst. for ' letters he hath hon- = Subst. for ' sayd one that stood 

cured me withall.' by.' 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 46'. ' Dupl. with ' apprehend.' 



Thomas Hobbes 353 



(^Slanders concei-ning him.) 

Aspersions and envy. His work was attended with envy, 
which threw severall aspersions and false reports on him. 
For instance, one (common) was that he was afrayd to lye 
alone at night in his chamber, [I have often heard him say 
that he was not afrayd of sprigkts, but afrayd of being 
knockt on the head * for five or ten pounds, which rogues 
might thinke he had '' in his chamber] ; and severall other 
tales, as untrue. 

I have heard some positively affirme that he had a 
yearly pension from the king of PVance, — possibly for 
having asserted such a monarchic as the king of France 
exercises, but for what other grounds I know not, unles it 
be for that the present ° king of France is reputed an 
encourager of choice and able men in all faculties who 
can contribute to his greatnes. I never heard him speake 
of any such thing ; and, since his death, I have inquired of 
his most intimate friends in Derbyshire, who write to me 
they never heard of any such thing. Had it been so, he, 
nor they, ought to have been ashamed of it, and it had 
been becoming the munificence of so great a prince to 
have donne it. 

Atheisme^. Testimonial- For his being branded with 
atheisme, his writings and vertuous life testifie ^ against it. 
No man hath written better of ... , perhaps not so well. 
To prevent such false and malicious reports, I thought fit 
to insert and affirme as abovesayd. * And that he was 
a Christian 'tis cleare, for he recieved the sacrament of 
Dr. (John) Pierson, and in his confession to Dr. John 
Cosins, at . . . , on his (as he thought) death-bed, declared 
that he liked the religion of the church of England best 
of all other. 

" ' by rogues ' followed, scored out. ° Here Aubrey intended (see infra) 

''• Dupl. with ' had about him.' to cite evidence as to Hobbes's re- 

<: Louis XIV. ligious opinions. 

■i Anthony Wood notes, on fol. 47', ' Dupl. with ' give it the lye.' 

' he used to take the sacrament, and * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 47'. 
acknowledge a supreeme being.' 

I. A a 



354 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

He would have the worship of God performed with 
musique [ad me *). 

(^Addejtda.') 

* Though he left his native countrey'' at 14, and lived 
so long, yet sometimes one might find a little touch of our 
pronunciation — Old Sir Thomas Malette", one of the 
judges of the King's Bench, knew Sir Walter Ralegh, and 
sayd that, notwithstanding his great travells, conversation, 
learning, etc., yet he spake broade Devonshire to his 
dyeing day. 

** Memorandum — 'twas he (as he him selfe haz told me) 
that (invented) the method of the oeconomie of the earle 
of Devon's family and way of stating or keeping of the 
accounts. 

{Portraits of Hobbes.y 

(i.) *** Desire Sir Christopher Wren or Mr. Thomas 
Henshawe to speake to the king for his picture * of 
Mr. Hobbes for Mr. (David) Loggan to engrave it. 

(ii.) **** He did, anno 16 . . (vide the date", which is on 
the backside) doe me the honour to sitt for his picture to 
Jo. Baptist Caspars, an excellent painter, and 'tis a good 
piece, which I presented to the (Royall) Societie 13 
yeares since (but will it not be improper for me to 
mention my owne guift ?). 

***** Hanc 

Thomae Hobbes 

Malmesburiensis effigiem 

ad vivum depictam (1663) 

Regiae Societati 

Londinensi 

" i.e. it was to Aubrey himself *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 28. 

that Hobbes expressed this opinion. * By Samuel Cowper, supra, p. 338. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 45'. **** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 54'. 

^ Dupl. with ' Though he went " Dr. Philip Bliss has written a 

from Malmesbury.' note here, ' 1663 ; see loose paper — 

•= Puisne Judge of the King's Bench, Aubrey's inscription,' referring to MS. 

1641-45 and 1660-63. Aubr. 9, fol. 7', as given below. 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 42'. ***** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 7'. 



Thomas Hobbes 355 



D.D.D. 

Johannes Aubrey 

de Easton-Piers 

ejusdem Soc. 

S. 

1670. 

Gett a brasse wyer to hang it ^ by. 

<iii.) * Mr. Hobbes 's motto upon his owne picture at 
Sir Charles Scarborough's : — 

Si quaeris de me Mores inquire : sed Ille 
Qui quaerit de me, forsitan alter erit. 

(Sir Charles Scarborough confessed to me that he made 
this distich.) 

<iv.) ** Memorandum — there was a good painter at 
the earl of Devonshire's in Derbyshire not long before 
Mr. Hobbes dyed, who drew him with the great decayes 
of old age. Mr. William Ball hath a good copie of it. 

^v,) *** His motto about his picture: — 

En quam modic^ habitat philosophia. 

(^His seal.) 

. . . , a bend engrailed between 6 martletts . . . , 

was the seale ^'' he commonly sealed his letters with, 
but 'twas not his coate. 

Quare whose coate it may be — if Hobbes ? 

Quaere James Wheldon the executor if this be his 
coate of armes — for 'tis some seale — and what the colours 
are. — Respondet that the heralds did offer him a coat of 
armes but he refused it. 

(^He was 'plebeius homo') 

***** Sir William Dugdale (Clarenceux), and Sir Edward 
Bisshe, the heralds, had an esteeme and respect for him, 

" i. e. either to attach this inscrip- *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 42'. 

tion to the picture, or to hang the **** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 28. Aubrey 

picture by. gives the coat in trick. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 49. ***** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 53'. 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. £5. 

A a 2 



356 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

in so much that they would have graunted him a coate of 
armes ; but he refused it — which methinkes he neede " not 
have donne. 

Vide Alexander Broome's poemes : — 

He that weares a brave soule and dares honestly doe 
Is a herault to himselfe and a godfather too. 

* Vide Ben Jonson's Underwoods — that ' the most worthy 
men have been rock't in meane cradles.' 

(^His sayings.) 

** ' Tis of custome in the lives of wise men to putt downe 
their sayings. Now if trueth (uncommon) delivered clearly 
and wittily may goe * for a saying, his common discourse 
was full of them, and which for the most part were sharpe 
and significant. 

Here insert the two printed papers of his sayings. 

*** Quaere Mr. Ben. Tuke at the Ship in Paule's Church- 
yard for the paper of his sayings, which Dr. Francis 
Bernard and his brother Charles, etc.— a club — made. 

**** The sheet " of old Mr. Hobbes sayings was not 
published by his executor, as is there printed. 'Twas 
(indeed) donne by Mr. . . . Blunt, Sir Henry Blunt's Sonne, 
and 'tis well donne. 

***** I sayd, somewhere before, that (though he was 
ready and happy in repartying in di'ollery) he did not 
care ^ to give a present answer to a question, unless he had 
thoroughly considered it before : for he was against ' too 
hasty concluding,' which he did endeavour as much as 
he could to avoid. — This is in p. 12". 

" Diipl. with ' might.' " Anthony Wood has a note (MS. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 29. In MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 47") about these : — ' If 

Aubr. 6, foh 1", Aubrey cites the you think that those sayings are tnie, 

same passages from Brome and Jon- pray publish them : for they being 

son, and also : — printed in one sheet, will be quickly 

' J. Gadbury : " the heavens are the lost.' 

best heraulds." ' ***** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 45'. 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 46. i Dupl. with ' love.' 

' Dupl. with ' goes.' « i.e. foh 41 of MS. Aubr. 9; 

*** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 55. supra, p. 340. 

**** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 50. 



Thomas Hobbes 357 



* Thomas Hobbs (said) that if it were not for the 
gallowes, some men are of so cruell a nature as to take 
a delight"' in killing men ^* more than I should to kill 
a bird.- — Entred *> in idea. 

** When Spinoza's Tractatiis Theologico-Politicus first 
came out (1670), Mr. Edmund Waller sent it to my 
lord of Devonshire and desired him to send him word what 
Mr. Hobbes said of it. Mr. H. told his lordship :— 

Ne judicate ne judicemini °. 

He told me he had cut thorough him a barre's length, 
for he durst not write so boldly. 

*** I have heard him inveigh much against the crueltie 
of Moyses for putting so many thousands to the sword 
for bowing to * . . . vide text. 

I have heard him say that Aristotle was the worst 
teacher that ever was, the worst polititian and ethick — 
a countrey- fellow that could live in the world (would be) 
as good : but his rhetorique and discourse of animals 
was rare. 

**** T. H.'s saying : — rather use an old woman " that 
had many yeares been at sick people's bedsides, then the 
learnedst young Unpractised physitian. 

***** ^^ I remember he was wont to say that ' old men 
were drowned inwardly, by their owne moysture ; e. g. first, 
the feet swell ; then, the legges ; then, the belly ; etc' 
— This saying may be brought in, perhaps, as to the 
paragraph of his sicknesse and death. 

(From) Elizabeth, viscountesse Purbec. When Mr. T. 
Hobbes was sick in France, the divines came to him, 
and tormented him (both Roman Catholic, Church of 
England, and Geneva). Sayd he to them ' Let me alone, 

"■ MS. Aubr. 9, a slip at fol. 3. 26-28. 

" Dnpl. with ' sport.' **** MS. Aubr. 9, a slip pasted to 

^ i. e. elsewhere in this life. fol. 5. 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 7. - Dupl. with ' an old tender,' i. e. 

<= St. Matt. vii. I. attendant. 

*** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 47'. ***** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 54'. 



"* The golden calf: Exod. xxxii. 



358 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

or els I will detect all your cheates from Aaron to your- 
selves.' I thinke I have heard him speake something to this 
purpose. 

Mr. Edmund Waller sayd to me, when I desired him 
to write some verses in praise of him, that he was afrayd 
of the churchmen : he quoted Horace — 

Incedo per ignes 
Suppositos cineri doloso : 

that, what was chiefly to be taken notice of in his elogie 
was that he, being but one, and a private person, pulled- 
downe all the churches, dispelled the mists of ignorance, 
and layd-open their priest-craft. 

(^His writings.') 

(Aubrey several times notes his intention of drawing up a list of 
Hobbes' writings. In MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 53', is a memorandum 'An 
exact Catalogue of all the bookes he wrote,' with a mark showing 
that it was to be brought in before the notice of Hobbes's death, 
supra, p. 346. MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 22, is headed ' Catalogus librorum ab 
autore scriptorum,' and is left blank for their insertion. 

In MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 18', is James Wheldon's answer to the inquiry 
suggested (ut supra) on fol. 53"' : — viz.) 

* A Catalogue of his bookes. 

His Latin e poem of the wonders of the Peake. 

His translation of Thucidides out of Greek into English. 

His Humane nature, and De corpore politico in English, 

His Leviathan in English. 

/ De corpore ■\ 

His philosophy in three parts < De homine >in Latine. 

' De cive ' 

His dialogue of the Civill Warr, in English, printed 
lately against his will. 

Of his disputations with Dr. WalHs and what he has 
written in philosophy and mathematicks Mr. (William) 
Crook can best give you the titles with the order and times 
of their edition, some Latine, some English ; as also of 

His translation of the Odysses and Iliads of Homer. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. iS", in the handwriting of James Wheldon. 



Thomas Hobbes 359 



There is also a small peece in English called A Breefe 
of Aristotle's Rhetorick printed by Andrew Crooke, which 
was his, though his name be not to it. 

There is a little booke called Mr. Hobbes considered, 
wherein there is some passages relating to his life. 

(In MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 54^ Aubrey notes the omission of a list of 
Hobbes's writings, and on foL 55 he adds a transcript (with some notes 
of his own) of a list by William Crooke, Hobbes' publisher, supplemen- 
tary to that given in Anthony Wood's Hist, et Antiq. Univ. Oxon. 
ii- 377-> 

* I have no time now (in this transcript) to write the 
catalogue of his bookes, and I thought to have sent your 
paper* (which I keepe safe) but Dr. Blackburne desires 
the perusall of it. — This catalogue here I received last 
night from William Crooke. 

** A supplement to Mr. A.'' Wood's catalogue (in his 
' History ') of Mr. Hobbes his workes : viz. — 

The travells of Ulysses, being the translation of the 
9, 10, and II bookes of Homer's Odysses into English; 
London, printed 1674. 

Epistola ad D. Ant. a Wood, Latin, 1675". 

A translation of the 34 bookes of Homer's Iliads and 
the 24 bookes of his Odysses. 

Also, his preface about the vertues of heroique poesie, 
in English, printed 1675, and 1677. 

A letter to the duke of Newcastle about liberty and 
necessity, printed 1676, and 1677. [I have this some- 
where among my bookes, printed about 30 yeares since. 
It was edited iirst by John Davys of Kidwelly ; and there 
is a preface to it with S. W., i. e. Seth Ward, who then 
had a high esteeme of him.] 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 54'. see Clark's Wood's Life and Times, 
" Possibly a paper by Anthony i. 22. 

Wood containing an account of "Corrected to '1674': with a 

Hobbes, in preparation for the marginal note:— [1675] 'I believe 

Aihenae: cp. Clark's Wood's Z«7« a mistake fori674.' For this letter, 

and Times, ii. 480. see Clark's Wood's Life and Times, 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 55. ii. 288. 

•> Wood changes this to 'A. a : ' 



360 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

De Mirabilibus Pecci" — English and Latin, 1678 — a 
New-year's guift to his lord, who gave him 5 li., about 
1627. 

Decameron Physiologicum, or ten dialogues of naturall 
philosophy, to which is added the proportion of straight 
line to halfe the arc of quadrant, English, 1678 ''- 

Considerations upon the reputation, loyalty, manners, 
and religion of Thomas Hobbes, written by himselfe, 
printed 1680, with part of severall of his letters to W. Crooke 
— [This" was first printed by Andrew Crooke 1663, avovv}x5><s.\ 

Vita Thomae Hobbes, 4to, printed 1680 ; in Latin verse ; 
quarto. 

Idem, in English, translated by ... ; 1680, folio. 

An historical! narration concerning heresie and the 
punishment thereof, English, 1680. 

[Where ^ is the book against Dr. Wallis in 4to that came 
out in Jan. i6|^ ?]. 

* He haz omitted here Aristotel's Rhetorique, printed 
long since by Andrew Crooke, but without his name; 
but Dr. Blackburne, W. Crooke, and I will lay our heads 
together and sett these things right. 

J^ It ought not to be forgotten that there is before 
Sir William Davenant's heroique poem called Gondibert, 
a learned epistle of Mr. Hobbes's concerning poetrie, in 
answer to Sir William's. 

And there is also a shorter letter of Mr. Hobbes's, which 
the Honourable . . . Howard has printed before his heroique 
poem, 8vo, called I thinke Bonduca, about 1668 or 9. 

Mr. Hobbes wrote a letter to ... (a colonell, as I re- 
member) concerning Dr. Scargill's recantation sermon, 
preached at Cambridge, about 1670, which he putt into 
Sir John Birkenhead's hands to be licensed, which he 

" Anthony Wood notes in margin: the 1674 Catal. impress, libb. Bibl. 

' This is in Wood's Catalogue ' ; i.e. Bodl. 

Wood, /. c, mentions the 1 666 (second) " Added opposite, on fol. 54'. 

edition of the piece (in Latin only). <> This query is inserted by Anthony 

■> Marginal query : — ' When was Wood, 

the first copie printed ? Vide Bibl. * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 54". 
Bodlei.' The printed edition is not in 



Thomas Hobbes 361 



refused (to collogue and flatter the bishops), and would 
not returne it nor give a copie. Mr. Hobbes kept no 
copie, for which he was sorry. He told me he liked it 
well himselfe. — * Dr. " Birket, my old acquaintance, hath 
the ordering of Sir John Birkenhead's bookes and papers. 
He hath not found it yet but hath found a letter of 
Mr. Hobbes to him about it, and hath promised me if he 
finds it to let me have it. Q:^ Memorandum — Sir Charles 
Scarborough told me that he haz a copie of it, but I could 
not obtaine it of him ; but I will try again, if Dr. Birket 
cannot find it. 

(^Notes about Ms writings.^ 

{There are several scattered notes about Hobbes' writings dispersed 
throughout MS. Aubr. 9, which may be most conveniently brought 
together here.) 

His Latin Leviathan is altered in many particulars, e. g. 
the doctrine of the Trinity, etc., and enlarged with many 
considerable particulars. — MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 42"- 

The Leviathan is translated into Dutch. — MS, Aubr. 
9, fol. f. 

Quaere Ph. Laurence what volume the Dutch Leviathan 
printed and what volumine. — MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 7. 

Humane Nature, London, by Thomas Newcombe, 1650, 
lamo. — Anno i68| is printed by Mr. Crooke Humane 
Nature, and Libertie and Necessity, in 8vo, which they call 
his ' Tripos.'— MS. Aubr. 9, fol. T- 

Before Thucydides, he spent two yeares in reading 
romances and playes, which he haz often repented and 
sayd that these two yeares were lost of him — wherin 
perhaps he was mistaken too. For it might furnish him 
with copie of words.— MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 43^. 

Thucydides, London, imprinted for Richard Mynne in 
Little Brittain at the slgne of St. Paul, MDCXXXIV. — MS. 
Aubr. 9, fol. T- 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 55. ciation of the name. Anthony Wood 

" Henry Birkhead is meant, ' Bit- has scored through the ' Dr.' and 
ket' representing the slurred pronun- added a note :— ' Birket is not a Dr.' 



362 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Mr. Henry Birchit of the Middle Temple promised to 
gett for me Mr. Hobbes' letter to ... of Mr. Scargill's 
recantation, which he left with Sir John Birkenhead. — MS, 
Aubr. 9, fol. 54^. 

T. Hobbes — quaere Mr. H. Birchet de letter of Scargill's 
recantation which Sir John Birkenhead would not licence. — • 
MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 8. 

<In MS. Aubr. 9 at the end are some of the printed 
tracts issued by Hobbes in his controversy with Dr. John 
Wallis, viz. : — 

(i) A folio sheet", headed 

'To the right honorable and others the learned mem- 
bers of the Royal Society for the Advancement of the 
Sciences, presenteth to your consideration your most 
humble servant Thomas Hobbes (who hath spent much 
time upon the same subject) two propositions, whereof the 
one is lately published by Dr. Wallis, a member of your 
society. . . . 

Dr. Wallis: de motu, cap. 5. prop. i. | Thomas Hobbes, 
Roset. prop. 5.' 

(2) A quarto sheet ^ headed : 

' To the right honourable and others the learned members 
of the Royal Society for the Advancement of the Sciences, 
presenteth to your consideration your most humble servant 
Thomas Hobbes a confutation of a theoreme which hath a 
long time passed for truth.' 

(3) A quarto tract ° (the ' Propositions ' occupy 3 pages, 
the ' Considerations,' 4 pages), entitled : — 

'Three papers presented to the Royal Society against 
Dr. Wallis, together with considerations on Dr. Wallis his 
answers to them, by Thomas Hobbes of Malmsbury; 
London, printed for the author and are to be had at the 
Green Dragon without Temple Bar: 1671.') 

With Mr. Hobbes's small tracts inscribed to the Royal 
Society came a letter offering that some of the small pieces 
of his might be published in the Transactions ; which was 

» Marked MS. Anbr. 9, fol. 56. " MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 57. 

"= MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 59. 



Thomas Hobbes 363 



not donne, through Mr. Oldenburgh's default. — MS. Aubr. 
9. fol. 47\ 

(At the end of MS. Aubr. 9 is a quarto tract of 14 pages, 
entitled : — 

' Thomae Hobbesii Malmesburiensis vita, authore seipso", 
Londini, typis, anno MDCLXXIX.' 

The last two lines of it are : — 

Octoginta annos complevi jam quatuorque 
Et prope stans dictat Mors mihi, Ne metue. 

On these Aubrey notes (MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 68^)— 

' These two last verses Dr. Blackburne altered (because of 
qua in quatuor, long) in the copie printed with Mr. Hobbes's 
life in Latine, and some other alterations he made, but me 
thinkes the sense is not so brisque.') 

What did he write since he left London? Quaere (his) 
executor. — MS. Aubr. 9, fol. aa"' 

His executor acquaints William Crooke (the author's 
printer*) and me, in a lettre" under his hand January 16, 
1679, that neither Mr. Halleley (Mr. Hobbes's intimate 
friend and confident) nor him selfe have any thing in either 
of their hands of Mr. Hobbes's, the very little of that kind 
that he left behind him being disposed of ' according to his 
own order ' before he removed from Chatsworth. Quaere 
what was that order? — MS. Aubr. 9, fol. aa'. 

Mr. Thomas Hobbes (has left) in MSS. 

A dialogue concerning the common lawes. 

An epitome of the Civil Warres of England from 

1640 to 1660. 

Answer to Tke Catching of the Leviathan by 

Dr. Bramhall. 

A historical narration concerning heresy and the 

punishment thereof. — MS. Aubr. 9, a slip at fol. 37"^ 

Translation of i. 9, 10, 11 and i(a) bookes of Homer's 
Odysses in English verse. 

" MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 28 :— ' He * Dupl. with ' bookeseller.' 

writt his life last yeare (viz. 1673) in "^ MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 16 : see p. 381. 

Latin verse.' 



364 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Ecclesiastica Historia in Latin verse, Amsterdam. — MS. 
Aubr. 9, a slip pasted on to fol. 27^ 

Quaere Dr. Blackbourn and Mr. Crooke to know where 
lies or what is become of Mr. Hobbes' Historia Ecclesiastica 
Romana ? Resp. — Dr. Blackbourne haz it ; gett copie of 
it.— MS. Aubr. 7, a slip at fol. 8\ 

In May 1688, his Ecclesiastica Historia carmine elegiaco 
conscripta, in Latin verse, was printed at Augusta Trino- 
bantum, scil. London. The preface was writt by Mr. 
Thomas Rymer, of Graie's Inne, but avovvjx&'s. — MS. Aubr. 
9, fol. 54\ 

Memorandum. — Mr. Hobbes told me he would write, in 
three columnes, his doctrine, the objections, and his answers, 
and deposit ^ it in the earle of Devon's library at ... in 
Derbyshire. Dr. (Thomas) Bayly, principall of New-Inn- 
hall in Oxon, tells me he hath seen it there.— MS. Aubr. 
9, fol. 2. 

(MS. Aubr. 28 is a copy of the tract (63 pages). 

' Mr. Hobbes considered in his loyalty, religion, reputation, 
and manners, by way of letter to Dr. Wallis ' ; London, 
printed for Andrew Crooke, 1662. 

On the title-page Aubrey has the note : — 

' This letter was writt (indeed) by Mr. Thomas Hobbes 
himselfe — Jo. Aubrey de Easton-Pierse ' : 

and at the end 

' The second impression '' of this booke was from this very 
booke of mine. — ^Twas not to be bought.') 

( Verses by him. ) 

* Insert the love verses he made not long before his 
death : — 

Tho' I am now past ninety, and too old 
T' expect preferment in the court of Cupid, 
And many winters made mee ev'n so cold 
I am become almost all over stupid, 

" Dupl. with ' leave.' * MS. Anbr. 9, fol. 42'. 

" Publ. in 1680; supra, p. 333. ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 49. 



Thomas Hohhes 365 

2. 
Yet I can love and have a mistresse too, 
As fair as can be and as wise as fair ; 
And yet not proud, nor anything will doe 
To make me of her favour to despair. 

3- 
To tell you who she is were very bold ; 
But if i' th' character your selfe you find 
Thinke not the man a fool th6 he be old 
Who loves in body fair a fairer mind. 



* Catalogue " of his learned familiar friends and ac- 
qitaintances,hes\dcs those already mentioned, that I remember 
him to have spoken of. 

Mr. Benjamin Johnson, Poet-Laureat, was his loving and 
familiar friend and acquaintance. 

(^Sir Robert) Alton, Scoto-Britannus, a good poet and 
critique and good scholar. He was neerly related to his 
lord's lady (Bruce). And he desired Ben: Johnson, and this 
gentleman, to give their judgement on his style of his 
translation of Thucydides. ** He lyes buryd in West- 
minster Abbey, and hath there an elegant monument and 
inscription "", which I will insert here or so much as may be 
pertinent. 

Memorandum next after . . . Ayton should in order be 
named Sydney Godolphin, esq., who left him, in his will, 
a legacy of an hundred poundes : and Mr. Hobbes hath 
left him an eternall" monument in lib. . . . pag. ... of 
his Leviathan. 

Lucius Carey, lord Falkland was his great friend and 
admirer, and so was Sir William Petty ; both which I have 
here enrolled amongst those friends I have heard him 

■^ MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 50. have been ' already mentioned.' 

■> Anthony Wood objects, on fol. ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol 47'. 

47': 'You say p. 11' (i.e. fol. 40) '' Aubrey has a memorandum, MS. 

' that he was acquainted with Mr. Sel- Aubr. 9, fol. 7, 'take . . . Ayton's 

den and Dr. Harvey. Why do you inscription.' See supra, p. 25. 

not set them downe here ? ' But, as " Dupl. with ' perpetuall ' or 

Wood might have remembered, they 'lasting.' 



366 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

speake of, but Dr. Blackburne left 'em both out* (to my 
admiration). I askt him why he had donne so? He 
answered because they were both ignote to foreigners. 

Mr. Henry Gellibrand, Astronomy professor at Gresham 
CoUedge. 

* James Harrington, esq., who wrote against him in his 
Oceana. 

Henry Stubbes^- 

Mr. Charles Cavendish'', brother to the duke of Newcastle, 
a learned gentleman and great mathematician. 

Mr. Laurence Rooke, Geometry and Astronomy professor. 

Mr. . . . Hallely, his intimate friend, an old gent. 

** When he was at Florence (i6 . . ; vide vitam) he con- 
tracted a friendship with the famous Galileo Galileo, ...'*, 
whom he extremely venerated and magnified ; and not only 
as he was a prodigious witt, but for his sweetnes of nature 
and manners. They" pretty well resembled one another 
as to their countenances, as by their pictures doeth*^ appeare ; 
were both cheerfuU and melancholique-sanguine ; and had 
both a consimihtie of fate, to be hated and persecuted by 
t I have heard ^^ ecclcsiastiques. 

waikrTaTthat i6 . . 8, Pctrus Gasscndus"^, S. Th. Doctor 
i^dmSqiiSe et Regius Professor Parisiis,— vide his titles— 
wa^l'^eat^ whom he never mentions but with great honour 
?;'Sse"ndi,?nd ^"^ rcspcct f, ' doctissimus, humanissimus ' ; 
fs' °en a^^"^' and they loved each other entirely. 
thathe°hath^"'^ As also the like love and friendship was 
an^hrrJat'tiir betwixt him and 

marquiss's table ^,j ■ ji/r 

at Paris.— MS. Marinns . . . Me^sennus ; 

u r. 9, o . 50 . Monsr. Renatus Des Cartes ' : 



" In the Auclarium Vilae Hobbi- minder — ' Expresse his quality.' 

anae, 168 1. ° Dupl. with ' They were not much 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 50'. unlilce in their countenances.' 

i" See infra, p. 371. ' Dupl. with ' may.' 

"^ On fol. 52', Aubrey repeats this » A memorandum for the date when 

name, ' Sir Charles Cavendish.' they first met each other. 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 51. » See infra. 

^ Aubrey leaves a space for his ' See infra, p. 367. 
title or profession, adding the re- 



Thomas Hobbes 367 



as also — 

{Johan. Franc.) Niceron ; 

Samuel Sorbier, M. D. — vide his epistle and Gassendus's 
before his De Cive. 

, , . Verdusius, to whom he dedicates his . . . Dialogi{*\\dt 
my Dialogi for his Christian name — 'tis dedicated to him). 

** T. H. would say that Gassendus was the sweetest- 
natured man in the world. 

Des Cartes and he were acquainted and mutually respected 
one another. He would say that had he kept himself to 
Geometry he had been the best geometer in the world but 
that his head did not lye for philosophy. 

*** Mr, Hobbes was wont to say that had M'eur Des 
Cartes (for whom he had a high respect) kept himselfe to 
geometric, he had been the best geometer in the world ; 
but he could not pardon him for his writing in defence 
of transubstantiation, which he knew was absolutely against 
his opinion* and donne meerly to putt a compliment'' 
<on) the Jesuites. 

**** I have heard Mr. Gates say that the Jesuites doe 
much glorie that he (Des Cartes) had his education under'' 
them. 'Tis not unlikely that the Jesuites putt him upon 
that treatise. 

Edmund Waller ^ esq., poet. 

***** Sir Kenelm Digby, amicus T. H. 

****** (1648 or 49 ^ at Paris.) Sir William Petty (of 
Ireland f), Regiae Societatis Socius, a persons of a stupendous 
invention *" and of as great prudence and humanity, had an 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 50*'. between Hobbes and Petty. Anthony 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 7. Wood objects in a note on fol. 50" : — 

*** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 50'. ' Dr. Petty was resident in Oxford 

" Dnpl. with ' conscience.' 1648-49, and left it (if I am not 

•> Dupl. with ' flatter.' mistaken) 1652.' Aubrey notes:— 

**** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 51. ' Entred, vide p. 8"' (i.e. fol. 37'; 

c Dupl. with ' from.' sufra, p. 336). 
d Scored out here ; inserted infra, ' Aubrey notes : — ' Quaere the 

p. 360. name of his principall seate in Ireland.' 
***** ]y[s, Aubr. 9, fol. 7. 5 Aubrey notes (fol. 50') :— 

****** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 51. 'Quaere Sir John Hoskyns and 

» Suggested by Aubrey as the date Dr. Blackbourne to word this well.' 

of the beginning of the intimacy " Dupl. with ' witt.' 



368 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

high'' esteeme of him. His acquaintance began at Paris, 
1648 or 3649, at which time Mr. Hobbes studied Vesalius' 
Anatomy, and Sir William with him. He then assisted 
Mr. Hobbes in draweing his schemes *for his booke of 
optiques, for he had a very fine hand in those dayes for 
draweing*', which draughts Mr. Hobbes did'' much commend. 
His facultie'' in this kind conciliated them the sooner to 
the familiarity" of our common friend, 

Mr. S. Cowper aforesayd *', at whose house they often 
mett. — He drew his picture twice: the first the king 
haz, the other is yet in the custody of his widowe ; but 
he gave it, indeed, to me (and I promised I would give 
it to the archives at Oxon, ** with a short inscrip- 
tion on the back side, as a monument of his friendship 
to me and ours to Mr. Hobbes — sed haec omnia inter 
nos) *** but I, like a foole, did not take possession of 
it, for something of the garment was not quite finished, 
and he dyed, I being then in the countrey — sed hoc 
non ad rem. 

**** < Sir William Petty. ) I have a very fine letter from 
Mr. Hobbes to me where he gives him thanks and for his 
booke of Duplicate Proportion I sent him, which letter 
I will insert (so much as concerns it). Sir William Petty 
would keepe the originall honoris ergo and gave me a copie 
of it, which I have not leisure to looke out. 

***** (At Paris.) Mr. Abraham Coivley, the poet, who 
hath bestowed on him an immortal pindarique ode, which 
is in his poems. 

(165 1 or 52.) William Harvey, Dr. of Physique and 
Chirurgery, inventor of the circulation of the bloud, who 
left him in his will ten poundes, as his brother told me at 
his funerall. Obiit anno 1657, aetat. 80, sepult. at Hempsted 
in Essex, in their* vault. 

"■ Dupl. with ' partiLular.' ' Supra, p. 338. 

' MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 52. ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 51'. 

•^ Dupl. with 'graphia.' *** MS. Atibr. 9, fol. 52. 

" Dupl. with ' liked." **** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 50'. 

* Dupl. with ' excellency.' ***** y[^_ Aubr. 9, fol. 52. 

^ Dupl. with ' acquaintance.' ^ i. e. the Harvey family. 



Thomas Hobbes 369 



Mr. Edmund Waller of Beconsfield was his great friend, 
and acquainted at Paris — I believe before. 

When his Leviathan came out, he sent by his stationer's 
(Andrew Crooke) man a copie of it, well-bound, to Mr. John 
Seidell in Aedibus Carmeliticis. Mr. Selden told the 
servant, he did not know Mr. Hobbes, but had heard much of 
his worth, and that he should be very glad to be acquainted 
with him. Wherupon Mr. Hobbes wayted on him. From 
which time there was a strict friendship between (them) to 
his dyeing day. He left by his will to Mr. Hobbes a legacy 
often poundes. 

Sir John Vaughan, Lord Chiefe Justice of the Common 
Pleas, was his great acquaintance, to whom he made visitts 
three times or more in a weeke — out of terme in the 
morning ; in terme-time, in the afternoon. 

Sir Charles Scarborough, M.D. (physitian to his royal 
highnesse the duke of Yorke), who hath a very good and 
i Thiswasmade ^'^^ P'^ture (drawnc about 1655) * of him, 
sca^rbo^orlr under which is this distich (they say of 
^■°- ' Mr. Hobbes's making f), 

Si quaeris de me. Mores inquire, sed lUe 
Qui quaerit de me, forsitan alter erit ; 

and much loved his conversation. 

Sir Jonas Moore, mathematicus, surveyor of his 
i Doesthis majestie's ordinance, who had a great venera- 
inaptMt'Lre"o^r tioH for Mr. Hobbcs, and was wont much to 
^l&''.g7io\. 52". lament J he fell to the study of the mathe- 
matiques so late. 

Mr. Richard White, who writt Hemispherium Dissectum. 
**I have heard Mr. Thomas Hobbes commend Richard 
White for a solid mathematician and preferred him much 
befor.e his brother Thomas de Albiis^ for it. 



* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 53. " Anthony Wood queries (fol. 53) : 

" ' Page 7,' i. e. fol. 36' ; suj>ra, ' Was not Thomas de Albiis of his 

p ,-, acquaintance!' Aubrey answers : 'I 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 52'. beleeve he was.' 

I. B b 



37° Aubi'ey's 'Brief Lives' 

Sir Charles Cavendish ^. 

Edward, lord Herbert of Cherbery and Castle Island. 

Sir William Davenant, Poet Laureat after B. Johnson, 
and general! of the ordinance to the duke of Newcastle — at 
Paris *■ (e. g. epistle) ; perhaps before. 

William Chillingivorth, D.D. — he would commend this 
doctor for a very great witt ; ' But by G— — ,' said he, ' he 
is like some lusty fighters that will give a damnable back- 
blow now and then on their owne party.' 

George Eglionby, D.D. and deane of Canterbury, was 
also his great acquaintance. He died at Oxford", i'543, 
of the epidemique disease then rageing. 

* Jasper Mayne, Doctor of Divinity (chaplain to 
William, marquesse of Newcastle), an old acquaintance 
of his. 

Mr. Francis Osbtirne, author of ' Advice "^ to a son ' and 
severall other treatises, was his great acquaintance. 

John Pell, Dr. of Divinity, mathematicus, quondam 
professor . . . " at Breda, who quotes him in his . . . contra 
Longomontanum de Quadratura circidi, for one of his 
jury (of 12). 

Sir George Ent, M.D. — In a letter to Mr. J(ohn> 
A(ubrey> from Mr. Thomas Hobbes : — 

' Worthy Sir, 

I have receaved from Mr. Crooke the booke of 
Sir George Ent of the Use of Respiration. It is a very 
learned and ingeniose booke full of true and deepe philo- 
sophy. I pray you to present unto him my most humble 
service. Though I recieved it but three dayes since, yet, 
drawen-on by the easinesse of the style and elegancy of 
the language, I have read it all over^ and I give you most 

" See note, p. 366. ^ Clark's Wood's Life and Times, 

* i.e. their acquaintance began i. 257. 

during Hobbes's abode there. ' Aubrey notes in the margin, 'v. 

" Clark's Wood's Life attd Times, librum'; i.e. look up the title of the 

i. 104. book Pell then published to discover 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 53. the subject he was professor of. 



Thomas Hobbes 371 



humble thankes for sending it to me. I pray you present 
my service to Mr. Hooke*. 

I am, 
Sir, your most obliged and humble servant, 

Tho: Hobbes. 
Chatsworth, 
March 25, 
1679.' 

Ralph Bathurst, S.T.D., now deane of Welles, who 
hath writt verses before his booke of Humane Nature''. 

Mr. Henry Stubbes, physitian, whom he much esteemed 
for his great learning and parts, but at latter end Mr. Hobbs 
differ'd with him for that he wrote against the lord 
chancellor Bacon, and the Royall Societie. He wrote in 
Mr. Hobbes' defence— vide librum *=. 

Walter Charleton, M.D., physitian to his majestic, and one 
of the Colledge of Physitians in London, a high admirer of 
him. 

Mr. Samuel Butler, the author of Hudibras. 

In his . . . Dialogi (vide librum) he haz a noble elogie 
of Sir Christopher Wren, then a young scholar in Oxon, 
which quote ; but I thinke they were not acquainted. 

Mr. {Robert') Hooke loved him, but was never but once 
in his company. ' 

(^Sidney Godolphin^.) 

* To conclude, he had a high esteeme for the Royall 

" Aubrey notes : ' of Gresham or an exact account of the grammati- 

CoUedge.' call part of the controversy between 

1' This entry is scored out by Au- Mr. Thomas Hobbes and John Wallis, 

brey, in consequence of the following D.D." Load. 1657, 410.' 

note by Anthony Wood on MS. Aubr. * Anthony Wood on fol. 52' has 

9, fol. 52':— 'Dr. Bathurst was a note: — ' Sydney Godolphin was his 

never acquainted with him. Those acquaintance. Why mention you not 

verses were written at the desire of him?" Aubrey answers :—' Mr. T. 

Mr. Bowman, stationer of Oxford, as Hobbs told me he gave him an hundred 

I have heard the Dr. say.' pounds in his will, which he recieved: 

<: Onfol. 52' Wood has the note:— I thought I had entred him'; and 

'Stubs wrot in his defence against later adds, "Tis entred' ; y\z. supra, 

Wallis in a book intituled " A severe p. 365. 

enqnirie into the late Oneirocritica, * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 54. 

B b 2 



372 Aubrey's '^ Brief Lives' 

Societie, having sayd (vide Behemoth pag. 24a, part • • • ) 
that ' Naturall Philosophy was removed from the Universities 
to Gresham Colledge,' meaning the Royall Societie that 
meetes there ; and the Royall Societie fgenerally) had the 
^ ^ ,„ like for him : and he would long since have 

T Dr. Wallis ° 

(surely their been ascribcd a member there, but for the 

Mercuries ^ are 

in opnositioni, sake of one f or two persons, whom he tooke 

and Mr. Boyle. ' ^ ' 

I might add Sir to be his enemies. In their meeting at Gresham 

Paul Neile, who ^ 

eier^'bid^ — Colledgc is his picture, drawen by the life, 
Ms.Aubr. 9, 166- (quaere date''), by a good hand, which 
they much esteeme, and severall copies have 
been taken of it. 

* Memorandum : — Dr. Isaac Barrow hath mentioned 
Mr. T. Hobbes in his mathematicall lectures, printed and 
unprinted. 

** Edmtmd Waller, esq., of Beconsfield : — ' but what he 
was most to (be) commended for was that he being a 
private person threw downe the strongholds (tJxvp&ijuaro) of 
the Church, and lett in light.' 

Robert Stevens, Serjeant at Lawe, was wont to say of him, 
and that truly, that ' no man had so much, so deeply, 
seriously, and profoundly" considered humane nature as he.' 

*** Mr. John Dreyden, Poet Laureat, is his great 
admirer, and oftentimes makes use of his doctrine in his 
playes — from Mr. Dreyden himselfe. 

**** Memorandum he hath no countryman living hath 
knowne him so long (1633'') as myselfe, or (any) of his 
friends, &c. (who) doth know so much (about him.) 
When he had printed his translation of Thucydides (1676: 
edit. 3), his life is writt by him selfe (at my request) in the 
third person, a copie wherof I have by me, [to " publish after 
his death if it please God I survive him. J 

' Aubrey uses the astronomical **** MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 28. 

symbol for the planet. '^ Changed by Aubrey, when re- 

'' 1663 : see supra, p. 354. vising, to 1634, s"P''''> p. 33i. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 54'. « Scored out. A marginal note, 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 34'. ' This Mr. Blackburn printed ' (see 

" Dupl. with ' truly.' infra, p. 395), is also scored out. As 

*** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 46'. also is, ' all his works in . . . volumes.' 



Thomas Hobbes 373 



(^Opponents and critics.^ 

* Now as he had these ingeniose and learned friends, 
and many more (no question) that I know not or now 
escape my memory ; so he had many enemies (though 
undeserved ; for he would not provoke, but if provoked, 
he was sharp and bitter) : and as a prophet is not esteemed 
in his owne countrey, so he was more esteemed by 
foreigners then by his countreymen. 

His chiefe antagonists were 

— [Z'r.* Johi\ Bramkall,h{shoY> of [Londonderry], after- 
wards [archbishop of Armagh and] primate of Ireland. 

— Seth Ward, D.D., now bishop of Sarum, who wrote 
against him in his Vindiciae Academiarum^ avovrjixm, and 

in With whom though formerly he had some 

contest, for which he was sorry, yet Mr. Hobbes had 
a great veneration for his "worth, learning and goodnes. 

— Jo/m Wallis, D.D., a great mathematician, and that 
hath deserved exceedingly of the commonwealth of learning 
for the great paines etc. . . ., was his great antagonist 
in the Mathematiques. 'Twas pitty, as is said before, 
that Mr. Hobbs began so late, els he would (not) have 
layn so open. 

'Theophilus Pike' «i.e.> [William^] Liixy, bishop of 
St. David's) who wrote [' Observations, censures, and 
confutations of notorious errours' in his Leviathan, 1664; 
they are but weak ones.] 

Mr. \Richard\ Baxter, who wrote . . . 

{Edward" Hyde, earl of Clarendon, who wrot against 
the politicall part of his Leviathan : I have mentioned 
this in some letter, but you have forgot it.] 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 54. ° Added by Anthony Wood : who 
" The words in square brackets are afterwards added the title of the 

insertions by Anthony Wood. treatise, opposite (on fol. 53'), viz. ;— 

i> See Clark's Wood's Life and [' Edward, earl of Clarendon : A 

Times i. 296. survey of the dangerous and pernicious 

" Subst. for 'for this bishop's worth.' errours to church and state in Mr. 

^ The words in square brackets are Hobs book intit. Leviathan ; Oxford, 

insertions by Anthony Wood. 1676, 4to.'] 



374 Attbrey's 'Brief Lives' 

* Samuelis Siremesii ; Praxiologia apodictica, seu Philo- 
sophia moralis demonstrativa, pythanologiae Hobbianae 
opposita: Francofurti, 1677,410. 

** (In i6mo) — Liberty and Necessity asserted by Thomas 
Hobbes and opposed by Philip Tandy, register-accomptant, 
formerly minister and now established so again^ Lond. 
1656. 

(^Apologists and supporters.') 

(A few scattered notes in MS. Aubr. 9 may be conveniently 
brought together here.) 

*** Meditationes Politicae iisdem continuandis et illus- 
trandis addita Politica parallela xxv dissertationibus 
Academicis antehac exposuit Johannes Christopherus 
Becmatms, LL.D., editio 2t, Francofurti MDCLXXix, vide 
pag. 417 ubi magnopere laudat T. Hobbium — which 
transcribe. 

**** In 8vo : — Meditationes Politicae iisdemque con- 
tinuandis et illustrandis addita Politica Parallela XXIV 
dissertationibus academicis antehac exposuit Johannes 
Christopherus Becmanus, D. et Hist. prof. publ. ord. in 
Acad. Francofurtana ; additae sunt dissertationes de lege 
regia et de quarta monarchia : editio tertia : Francofurti 
ad Oderam, anno MDCLXXIX : — pag. 417, 418 : — 

' In Hobbesii libris eorum quae de cive et civitate agunt (nam 
reliqua nobis neutiquam curatio est) scopus generalis est e primis 
principiis naturae rationalis ac vitae socialis res politicas eruere (quo 
quidem nomine prae caeteris laudandus est cum nemo politicorum 
ante ilium id ausus fuerit), specialis est dirigere principia sua ad 
monarchiam (qui si genium gentis spectes in qua vixit non minori 
laude dignus est, licebitque aliis eadem principia ad statum aristo- 
craticum et democraticum apphcare, modo sciat istos potius quam 
monarchiam reipublicae suae congfruere). 

In aliis scriptis quae publicavit itidem eo nomine laudandus est 
quod e primis principiis moralibus, licet baud perinde vulg6 notis, res 
suas eruere conetur : sed rursus etiam culpandus quod sacra ad 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 52'. *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 52". 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 53'. **** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 5. 



Thomas Hobbes 375 



conceptus suos trahat cum hos ad sacra pertrahere indeque perficere 
debuisset. Profani tamen qui videntur apud eum occurrere loquendi 
modi non possunt plenum atheismum inferre, nunquam enim qui 
rebus moralibus mediocriter incumbit atheus esse potest, tanto minus 
Hobbesius qui ad prima usque principia moralium progredi conatur. 
Quod vero maxime sapere videtur, id vel securitateni dixeris vel 
neutralismum quendam, ut Deum quidem colat sed modum colendi 
a sacro codice derivandum esse non necessarium agnoscat ; esseque 
hunc animum ejus ex eo patet quod superius diximus, ipsum sacra 
ad conceptus suos morales trahere cum e contrario moralia quae 
habemus aut invenire etiam possumus e sacris peti debeant quippe 
quae clarius semper rem exprimunt quam sine eis exprimi potest. 
Acciditque hie » ipsi quod chymicorum multis aliisque rerum naturalium 
scrutatoribus qui, dum in causis secundis indagandis nimii sunt, eis ita 
alligantui ut ulterius eoque ad Deum usque pergere non opus esse 
judicent, unde similiter in neutralisimim incidunt. Brevius — Hobbesius 
principia vitae socialis vere explicat sed male appHcat ; unde omnis 
ilia in doctrina ejus perversitas quam tamen Christiano vitandam esse 
merito cum piis probisque omnibus pronunciamus. Concludimus cum 
judicio autoris Gallic! in Itiner. Angl. + pag. (edit. 

t This is in ^ , 

High-dutch, Germ.) 411, 412 : — 

Mr"Th Haack * -^^ '° werdcn sehr wenig gefunden welche die Sachen 

to render into pfenauer durchsehen denn Er und die der Natiirlichen 

English. ° 

Wissen-schafft erne so lange Erfahrung beygebracht 
batten. Ja Er ist ein uberbliebenes von dam Bacon, unter welchem 
Er in seiner Jugend geschrieben und an allem was ich von Ihm 
gehoret und was ich in seiner Art zu sc(h)reiben mercke sehe ich wol, 
dasz Er viel davon behalten. Er hat durch das Studieren seine Weise 
die Dinge zu vvenden und greiffet gerne in die Gleichniissen. 
Aber Er hat naturlich viele von seiner schonen und guten Eigenschafft 
ja auch von seiner feinen Leibes Gestalt. Er hat der Priester- 
schafft seines Landes, den Mathematisten zu Oxfurt und ihren 
Anhange(r)n eine Furcht eingejaget, darumb Ihre Majestat mir Ihn 
einem Bahren'' ver(g)l(e)ichen, wider welche Er die doggen, umb sie 
zu iiben anreitzet ; sonder Zweiffel hat Er die gekronte Haupter in 
den Griinden seiner Welt Klugheit hochlich verbunden, und wenn Er 
die Lehren der Religionen nicht beriihret, oder sich begniiget hatte 
d(i)e Presbyterianer und genannte Bischoffe seines Landes anzu- 
greiffen, find ich nichts darin zu tadeln.' 

** Casparis Zeigleri de juribus majestatis tractatus 
Academicus; Wittenbergae, i68t. Vide pag. iia § IV 

» Sic in MS. " Supra, p. 340. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 4. ** MS. Aubr. 9. fol. 52'. 



376 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

ubi honoris gratia citat Hobbium de differentiis inter 
pactum et legem ex element, philosoph. de Give, cap. 14. 

* (In i2mo) — Epistolica dissertatio de principiis justi 
et decori continens Apologiam pro tractatu clarissimi 
Hobbaei de Give avuvviiSis, Amstelodami apud Ludovicum 
Elzevirium, MDCLI. 

James Harrington, esquire : Oceana, vide. 

** . . . Zeigler, a German jurisconsultus, quotes him 
with great respect, as also some other German civilians, 
of which enquire farther. 

*** Sanmelis Pufendorf: Elementa Jurisprudentiae Uni- 
versalis'', 1672 : in praefatione — 

'Nee parum debere nos profitemur Thomae Hobbes, cujus hypo- 
thesis in libro de Cive, etsi quid profani sapiat, pleraque tamen caetera 
satis arguta ac sana. 

Quos heic velut in universum allegasse voluimus, in ipso autem 
opere quoties eorundem expressa fuit sententia ipsos numerare super- 
sedimus, quia, praeter taedia crebrae citationis, rationes eorum potius 
quam autoritatem secuti sumus. Nam quando ab iisdem atque aliis 
veritatis studium dissentire nos subegit, nomina eorundem ideo dis- 
simulavimus ne magnorum virorum naevos vellicando gloriolam 
captare velle videremur. Et stultum semper judicavinius, cum ipse 
te horainem noris ab erroribus haudquidquam immunem, aspera in 
alios censura rehquos ad paria tibi reponenda irritare.' 

**** Samuel Pufendorfins, professor in jure naturae apud 
regem Sueciae : in praefatione sui libri De Jure Naturae 
et Gentium, Amstelodam. 1688 : 

'Sic et Thomas Hobbius in operibus suis ad civilem scientiam 
spectantibus plurima habet quantivis pretii et nemo cui rerum ejus- 
modi est intellectus negaverit tarn profunde ipsum societatis humanae 
et civilis compagem rimatum fuisse ut pauci priorum cum ipso 
heic comparari queant. Et qua a vero aberrat, occasionem tamen 
ad talia meditanda suggerit quae fortasse ahks nemini in mentem 
venissent. Sed quod et hie in rehgione peeuharia sibi et horrida 
dogmata finxerit, hoc ipso apud multos non citra rationem sui 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 53'. in a partial citation in MS. Aubr. 9, 
** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 41'. fol. 28. 

*** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 5'. **** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 6'. 

"■ ' Elementonim Jur. Univ. lib. 11,' 



Thomas Hobbes 377 



aversationem excitavit. Quanquam et illud non raro contingere videas 
ut ab illis maximo cum supercilio condemnetur abs quibus minime 
lectus fuit aut intellectus.' 

(^Co/iclusion.y 

* I would have, just before FINIS, 

Pascitur in vivis Livor : post fata quiescit ; 
Tunc suus ex merito quemque tuetur honos. 

Ovid. Elcg. a 

** Last of all insert the pindarique ode on Mr. Hobbes 
made by Mr. Abraham Cowley ; and after that, in the 
next page, the verses made by Dr. Ralph Bathurst of 
Trinity College in Oxon, which are before Mr. Hobbes's 
Humane Nature. 

(^Copies of letters by, or about, Thomas Hobbes.'} 
i. Thomas Hobbes to Josias Pullen. 

*** For my much honored freind Mr. Josias Pullen, 
Vice-principall of Magdalen Hall in Oxon. 

Honour'd Sir, 

I understand by a letter from Mr. Aubry that you 
desire to have the bookes I have published to put them into 
the library of Magdalen Hall. I have here sent them you, 
and very willingly, as being glad of the occasion, for I assure 
you that I owe so much honour and respect to that society 
that I would have sent them, and desired to have them 
accepted, long agoe, if I could have donne it as decently 
as now that you have assured me that your selfe and some 
others of your house have a good opinion of them so that 
though the house refuse them they are not lost. You 
know how much they have been, decryed by Dr. Wallis 
and others of the greatest sway in the University, and 
therfore to offer them to any Colledge or Hall had been 
a greater signe of humility than I have yet attained to. 

* MS. Anbr. 9, fol. 54. *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 8 ; not the 
» Ovid. Amor. i. 15. 39. original, but a transcript by Aubrey. 
** MS. Anbr. 9, fol. 55. 



378 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

For your owne civility in approving them, I give you many 

thanks ; and remain 

Sir, 

Your most humble servant, 

Tho. Hobbes. 
1672'', London, 
Febr. i^\ 

ii. Thomas Hobbes to John Aubrey. 

* Noble Sir, 

I am very glad to hear you are well and continue 
your favours towards me. 

'Tis a long time since I have been able to write my selfe, 
and am now so weake that it is a paine to me to dictate. 

But yet I cannot choose but thanke you for this letter of 
Jan. 25* which I receaved not till the last of fifebruary. 
I was assured a good while since that Dr. Wallis his 
learning is no where esteemed but in the Universities by 
such as have engaged themselves in the defence of his 
geometry and are now ashamed to recant it. And I 
wonder not if Dr. Wallis, or any other, that have studyed 
mathematicks onely to gaine preferment, when his ignor- 
ance is discovered, convert his study to jugling and to 
the gaining of a reputation of conjuring, decyphering, and 
such arts *" as are in the booke "= you sent me. 

As for the matter it selfe, I meane the teaching of a man 
borne deafe and dumbe to speake, I thinke it impossible. 
But I doe not count him deafe and indocible that can 
heare a word spoken as loud as is possible at the very 
entrance to his eare, for of this I am assured that a man 
borne absolutely deafe must of necessity be made to heare 
before he can be made to speake, much lesse to understand. 
And he that could make him' heare (being a great and 
common good) would well deserve both to be honoured 

"■ '67^. Transactions for July, id-jo,^ 'Louion, 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 9: the original, 1678, accusing Dr. Wallis of robbing 

in James Wheldon's print-like writing. him of the credit of teaching a deaf- 

^ Subst. for 'jugleries.' mute. See Clark's Wood's Life and 

" Probably Dr. William Holder's Times, i. 309. 
' A Supplement to the Philosophical 



Thomas Hobbes 379 



and to be enriched. He that could make him speake 

a few words onely deserved nothing. But he that brags 

of this and cannot doe it, deserves to be whipt. 

Sir, I am most heartily 

Your most faithfull and most humble servant, 

^^ , . , Thomas Hobbes. 

Hardwick, 

March the 5*, 1677". 

* To my most honored frend Mr. John Awbry, esqre, 
to be left for him at Mr. Crooke's, a bookseller, at the 
Green Dragon without Temple barre, London. 

iii. Thomas Hobbes to William Crooke, with an enclosure 
to John Aubrey. 

(Hobbes' letter to Crooke is found as fol. ii of MS. Aubr. g : the 
enclosure to Aubrey, as foil. 12, 13. Both are in James Wheldon's 
handwriting. 

It appears by the post-stamps on the backs of these letters that the 
charge for a letter was 3^., with ■^d. for each enclosure. Thus the 
letters of Aug. 18, 1679, March 5, i6|^, Sept. 7, 1680, are all marked as 
costing id. postage (MS. Aubr. 9, foil. 15^, 10^, iV) ; while this letter 
to Crooke, with its enclosure, cost iid. {ibid., fol. ii'') ; and the letter 
of Jan. 16, i6|§, with its two enclosures, cost qd. {ibid. fol. 17'').) 

** Sir, 

I have receaved Sir George Ent's booke and Mr. 
Aubrey's letter, to which I have written an answer, but I 
cannot tell how to send it to him without your helpe, and 
therefore I have sent it to you here inclosed, for I believe 
he comes now and then to your shop, and I pray you 
doe me the favour to deliver it to him. 

I rest, your humble servant 

Tho. Hobbes. 
Chatsworth, 

March the 35*''' 1679. 

*** For Mr. William Crooke, 
Bookeseller, 
At the Green Dragon without Temple barr 

London. 



i6-7_ ** MS. Aubr. 9. fol. II. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. lov. *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 1 1' 



1. e. 



380 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

* Worthy Sir, 

I have receaved from Will: Crooke the booke of Sir 
George Ent of the use of respiration. It is a very learned 
and ingenious booke, full of true and deepe philosophy, 
and I pray you to present unto him my most humble 
service. Though I receaved it but three days since, yet 
drawn on by the easinesse of the style and elegance of the 
language I have read it all over. And I give you most 
hearty thankes for sending of it to me, and to Mr. Ent ^ 
who was pleased to bestow it upon me, and I am very 
glad to hear that Sir George him selfe is alive and in good 
health, though I believe he is very near as old as I am. 

I knew not how to addresse my letter to you, but at all 
adventure I sent it inclosed in a letter to Mr. Crooke at 
whose shop I suppose you sometimes looke in as you 
passe the street. 

I pray you present my service to Mr. Hooke and thanke 

him for the honour of his salutation. 

I am, Sir, your most obliged and humble servant, 

Thomas Hobbes. 
Chatsworth, 

March the 25*'', 1679. 

** To my most honoured frend, 
Mr. John Aubrey. 

iv. Thomas Hobbes to John Aubrey. 
*** Honored Sir, 

I thanke you for your letter of Aug. %^, and I pray 
you present my humble thanks to Sir George Ent that he 
accepteth of my judgment upon his booke. I fear it is 
rather his good nature then my merit. I am sorry for the 
news you write of his son. 

I have been told that my booke of the Civill Warr is 
come abroad, and am sorry for it, especially because I could 

"" MS. Anbr. 9, fol. 12. fol. 13". 

* Sir George Ent's son : supra, *** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 14 : the 

p. 24.S- original, in James Wheldon's hand- 

** The address : MS. Aubr. 9, writing. 



Thomas Hobbes 381 

not get his majestye to license it, not because it is ill printed 
or has a foolish title set to it, for I believe that any 
ingenious man may understand the wickednesse of that 
time, notwithstanding the errors of the presse. 

The treatise De Legibus, at the end of it, is imperfect. 
I desire Mr. Home to pardon me that I consent not to his 
motion, nor shall Mr. Crooke himselfe get my consent to 
print it. 

I pray you present my humble service to Mr. Butler "- 
The priviledge of stationers is (in my opinion) a very great 
hinderance to the advancement of all humane learning. 
I am, Sir, your very humble servant, 

Tho. Hobbes. 
Chatsworth, 
Aug. the iS"", 1679. 
* To my much honoured frend Mr. John Aubrey, at 
Mr. Hooka's lodging in Gresham College, London. 

V. James Wheldon to William Crooke, with enclosure to 
John Aubrey, and a copy of Hobbes' will. 

(Wheldon's letter to Crooke is found as foil. i6 and 17 of MS. Aubr. 
9 ; the enclosure to Aubrey, as foil. 18, 19.) 

** Hardwick, January the 16"', 1679 ^ 
Sir, 

Three days since I receaved your letter of the 9*"^ 
instant together with one from Mr. Aubrey, and because 
they containe both the same particulars I thinke it un- 
necessary to repeat to you what I have written back to that 
gentleman. 

All that I can add is onely this, that neither Mr. Halleley 
nor I have anything in either of our hands of Mr. Hobbes's 
writing, the very little of that kind that he left behind him 
being disposed of according to his own order before he 
removed from Chatsworth. 

According to Mr. Aubrey's direction I have here inclosed 

» Author ol Hudibras. ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. l6. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 15'. " 16^. 



382 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

my letter to him, which I pray you present to him with my 
humble service as soon as you shall see him. 

I am, Sir, your most humble servant, 
James Wheldon. 

* To my much respected frend 
Mr. William Crooke 

at the Green Dragon without Templebarr 
In London". 



** Hardwick, January the 16"', 1679 ''. 
Worthy Sir, 

Having been abroad about businesse for some days, 
I receaved, at my coming home, your letter of the third of 
this month, which evidences the great esteeme you have for 
Mr. Hobbes, for which I returne you my humble thanks, 
and particularly for the paines you have been pleased 
to take in the large account of what you your selfe, 
Mr. Anthony a Wood, and Sir George Ent designe for 
Mr. Hobbes his honour. 

I am glad Mr. Crooke has receaved his Life in Prose, 
which was the onely thing Mr. Halleley got possession of, 
and sent it to him "^ by my hand. Mr. Halleley tells me now, 
that Mr. Hobbes (in the time of his sicknesse) told him he 
had promised it to Mr, Crooke, but said he was unwilling 
it should ever be published as written by himselfe ; and I 
beleeve it was some such motive, which made him burne 
those Latine verses Mr. Crooke sent him about that time. 

For those Latine verses you mention about Ecclesiasticall 
Power, I remember them, for I writ them out, but know 
not what became of them, unlesse he presented them to 
judge Vaughan, or burned them, as you seem to intimate. 

He fell sick about the middle* of October last. His 
disease was the strangury, and the physitians judged it 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 17\ ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 18. 

" Readdressed in another (?William ^ i6||. 

Crooke's) hand : — ' at Mr. Moore, in ° Subst. for ' Mr. Crooke.' 

Hammond Alley ' ; see p. 44. ^ Subst. for ' beginning.' 



Thomas Hobbes 383 



incurable by reason of his great age and naturall decay. 
About the 20"" of November, my Lord being to remove 
from Chatsworth to Hardwick, Mr. Hobbes would not be 
left behind ; and therefore with a fether bed laid into the 
coach, upon which he lay warme clad, he was conveyed 
safely, and was in appearance as well after that little journey 
as before it. But seven or eight days after, his whole right 
side was taken with the dead palsy, and at the same time 
he was made speechlesse. He lived after this seven days, 
taking very little nourishment, slept well, and by intervalls 
endeavoured to speake, but could not. In the whole time 
of his sicknesse he was free from fever. He seemed there- 
fore to dye rather for want of the fuell of life (which was 
spent in him) and meer weaknesse and decay, then by the 
power of his disease, which was thought to be onely an effect 
of his age and weaknesse. He was born the 5th of Aprill, in 
the year 1588, and died the 4th of December, 1679. He was 
put into a woollen shroud and coffin, which was covered 
with a white sheet, and upon that a black herse cloth, and 
so carryed upon men's shoulders, a little mile to ^ church. 
The company, consisting of the family and neighbours that 
came to his funerall, and attended him to his grave, were 
very handsomely entertained with wine, burned and raw, 
cake, biscuit, etc. He was buried in the parish church of 
Hault Hucknall, close adjoining to the raile of the monument 
of the grandmother of the present earle of Devonshire, with 
the service of the Church of England by the minister of the 
parish. It is intended to cover his grave with a stone of 
black marble as soon as it can be got ready, with a plain 
inscription of his name, the place of his birth, and the time 
of that and of his death. 

As to his will, it is sent up to London to be proved there, 
and by the copy of it, which I here send you, I beleeve you 
will judge it fitt to make no mention of it in * what you 
designe to get written by way of Commentary on his life. 

As for the palsey in his hands, it began in ffrance, before 
the year 1650, and has grown upon him by degrees ever 
» Subst. for ' to the parish church." * MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 18". 



384 Aubrey's ^ Brief Lives' 

since ; but Mr. Halleley remembers not how long it has 
disabled him to write legibly. 

Mr. Halleley never heard of a pension from the ffrench 
king and beleeves there was no such thing ever intended. 
He desires you to accept of his thanks for your favourable 
remembrance of him, and of the returne of his respects to 
you by me. And if hereafter you should want any thing 
which we know, that might contribute ''^ to the honour of 
Mr. Hobbes's memory, upon the least notice, shall readily 
be imparted to you. 

In the mean time, with much respect, I rest. 

Sir, your much obliged and humble servant, 

James Wheldon. 

* To my highly honoured frend, John Aubrey, esq., this 
humbly present. 



** A true copy of Mr. Hobbes's will. 

The 25th day of September in the 39th year of the raigne 
of our Soveraigne Lord, King Charles the Second, and in 
the yeare of our Lord God, 1677. 

I, Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesbury, in the county of 
Wilts, gent, make this my last Will and Testament. 

First, I bequeath to Mary Tirell, daughterof my deceased 
brother, Edmund Hobbes, forty pounds. Item, I bequeath 
to Lienor Harding, daughter also of my deceased brother, 
Edmund Hobbes, forty pounds. Item, I bequeath to Eliza- 
beth Alaby, the daughter of Thomas Alaby, two hundred 
pounds, and because she is an orphan, and committed by 
me to the tuition of my executor, my will is, that she should 
be maintained decently by my executor, till she be J 6 yeares 
of age, and that then the said two hundred pounds be 
delivered into her hands, being intended for her furtherance 
in marriage, but let her dispose of it as she please ; and if it 
happen that the said Elizabeth Alaby die before she come 
to the age of 16 yeares, then my will is, that the said 200 //. 

' 'Anything' followed: scored out. 
* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. ig''. ** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 19. 



Thomas Hobbes 385 

be divided equally between the said Mary Tirell and Elenor 
Harding. 

Item, whereas it hath pleased my good lord, the earle 
of Devonshire, to bid me oftentimes heretofore, and now at 
the making of this my last will, to dispose therein of one 
hundred pounds, to be paid by his lordship, for which 
I give him most humble thanks ; I doe give and dispose of 
the same in this manner : There be five grand-children of my 
brother, Edmund Hobbes, to the eldest whereof, whose name 
is Thomas Hobbes, I have heretofore given a peece of land, 
which may and doth, I think, content him, and therefore to 
the other four that are younger, I dispose of the same 100 li. 
the gift of my lord of Devonshire, to be divided equally 
amongst them, as a furtherance to bind them apprentices. 

And I make and ordaine James Wheldon, servant to the 

earle of Devonshire, my executor, to whom I give the 

residue of my money and goods whatsoever ; and because 

I would have him in some sort contented for the great 

service he hath done me, I would pray his majestic to what 

I left him to add the arreare of my pension, or as much of 

it as it pleases his majestic. 

(His name and seale.) 

Sealed, signed and published 

in the presence of 

John Ashton, 

Will?' Barker. 

Item I give unto Mary Dell the sum of ten pounds. 



I pray" you keep his will private to your selfe and 
Mr. Hobbes's frends onely. 

vi. James Wheldon to John Aubrey. 

* Chatsworth, Sept. the 7th, 1680. 
Honoured Sir, 

Although for these three weekes, since I receaved 
your letter, I have made all the enquiry I can, yet all 

» Request added by Wheldon, at the end of the transcript of the will. 
* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 20. 

I. c c 



386 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

that I hear of the death and buriall of Sir Charles Cavendish 
is that he was interred at Bolsover in the vault belonging 
to the family of the duke of Newcastle about the year 
1652 or i^S?,- I will continue to make further inquiry, 
and if I can learne the day and the month of his death or 
buriall will give you notice of it. 

I have sent you underwritten Mr. Hobbes's epitaph 
written by himselfe, which is but lately come to my hand 
from a person that copyed it from the originall. 
With much respect, I rest, Sir, 

Your most humble and obliged servant, 
James Wheldon. 

My lord of Devonshire has paid the hundred pounds to 
Mr. Hobbes's kinred, which he bid Mr. Hobbes dispose of 

in his will. 

Coiidita hie sunt ossa 

Thomae Hobbes 

Qui per multos annos servivit 

duobus comitibus Devoniae 

fpatri at filio). 

Vir probus, et fama eruditionis. 

Domi forisque bene cognitus 

Obiit Anno Domini 1679, mensis Dec'^ die 4°, 

Aetatis suae 91. 

* To my much honoured frend John Aubrey, esq. 
To ^ be left at Mr. William Crooke's at the Green Dragon 
without Temple barr, London. 

vii. William Aubrey to Jo/m Aubrey. 

T^ , ^, ** Kington, June 5th, 1680. 

Deare brother, *= ' -' ■^ ' 

I sopose I shall be here more then a week longer 

as .... I know not whether Mr. John Stokes or Sir 

John Knight have the key of the study. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 21'. is sealed with the Aubrey coat;— 'a 

" This part of the address is scored chevron between 3 eagles' heads 

out, and there is substituted, ' for Dr. erased,' an annulet (?) for difference ; 

Blacltborn at Jonathan's Coffee.' and marked ' post payd 3^.' The 

** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 3. The letter letter is mutilated. 



Thomas Hobbes 387 



Jo. Tay . . . buried 16 of July 1580. 

Nicholas Fauckener, vicar, buried 20 July 1612. 

Richard Hine" . . . 

I shall e{n)devour to set the family of the Powers to 
rights. It was honest parson P{ower's) grandmoth(er 
I) think and Jonath. Deekes grandmother was Thomas 
Lyte's sisters. Alderman Lyte's grandm. was a P(ower> 
of Stanton . . . . , which James Power, Mr. J. G. nephew 
might purchase againe with a wife, with 1500 /z'., but which 
formerly was worth 360/2. per annum, but he's goeing to 
creep into one of Jon. Deeks' woolpacks, viz. his daughter. 

I was at Malmesbury but did see (neither) the church 
nor register but desired Mr. Binnion the parson to doe 
against I come againe ; but Francis Hobbes' widow's 
good memory did give me much satisfaction. The register 
at Westport is not 80 yeares old (not more) : the paving ^ 
is all new . 

The old vicar Hobs was a good fellow and had been 
at cards all Saturday night, and at church in his sleep 
he cries out ' Trafells is troumps"* ' (viz. clubs). Then quoth 
the dark, ' Then, master, he tha<t> have ace doe rub.' 

He (was) a collirice" man, and a parson (which I thinke 
succeeded him at Westport) provoked him (a purpose) at the 
church doore , soe Hobs stroke him and was forcd to fly 
for it 'and ... in obscurity beyound London ; died there, 
was about 80 yeares since. 

Mr. William Hobs, a great clothier (old Graye's pre- 
disessor in the same house). He had at Cleverton 60 li. 
or 80 li. per annum, and was first or 2 cousin to the philo- 
sipher. But his line is extinct. He was parson Stump's god- 
father, and brake in his trade. He had looo li. left and was 
1000/2. in debt; and at London challenged one to throw 
with him one throw on the dye for 1000 //., and wonn, payd 
his debt, and afterwards flourished in his trade, and if there 

" Or Hynd : p. 1^4- be«° destroyed. 

" Of the church at Weslport. ^ Broad Wiltshire for 'trumps'; 

" So that if there were any old see supra, p. 324. 
gravestones in the church, they have « Choleric. 

C C a 



388 



Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 



be any inscriptions of H(obbes>, it must be for him, in the 
abbye. 

* Mr. William Gale of Chipnam was buried yesterday. 
I was at Dracot, Wensday last ; Sir J. and his lady was 
writing to you. They are in mourning for the earl of 
Marleborow. He died to-morrow will be three week" 
Sir J(ames) L(ong) is quartring his coat of arms. 

To be left at Mr. Hooks lodgings 
in Gresham Colledge 

in Bishopsgate Street, London ^ 

( The lower part of this letter gave the following pedigree, but a piece 
has been torn off and is now MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 2.) 



{Pedigree of Hobbes.) 

. . . HOBBES 



I. Francis Hobbes ? 

(This Francis lived 
in Burnevall at 
jVIalmsbury, and 

died about 40 yeares 
«iiice, sine prole). 



Katherine, daughter of 
. . . fhillips, a phisition 
at Malmsbury. She 
afterwards maried Mr. 
Potluck of Cirencester. 



I 
■^. Thomas Hobbes, 
vicar. 



. Midleton. 



Edmund Hobbes 



Frances Ludlow, 

of Shipton, com. 

Glocester. 



2. Thomas, 'of 
Malmsbury.' 



Anne Hobs 
(see infra]. 



Thomas 
Laurence. 



1. Mary ;«. Rog;er Tirell, 
Hobbes I ofWestport. 



Elinor Hobbes in. John Harding, 
I of Sadlewood 
in Glouster. 



1. Roger. 2. Isaac 

(2^ years 
■old). 



Francis Hobs nt. Sarah 
(see infra). Alex- 

ander. 



, Alec. 2. Sarah. 3. Mary. | 

I. Roger, aged 28, 
Aprill last, 

Anne Hobs {supra : the i?z. Thomas Laurence, 
philosopher's sister) I 



I I 

2. James, Mary. 
23- 



Thomas, '' Will 
ne prole. I 



I 



Henry, 
sine prole. 



I 



Jo 



William. 2. Thomas. 3. Francis, Thomas. 



I. Frances, 7?t, 

Richard Dicks, 

a souldier of 

the garison, 

and now not 

heard off. 



I 

2 Mary inaried 
William Povey, 
of Malmsbury. 

(One daughter.) 



I 
3. Anne Lau- 
rence maried 
Richard Gay 
of Kington. 



, Thomas. 2. Robert, (R. Wise- 
man's godson). 



3. Richard. 4. John. 



* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 3". 

* Admon. of William Ley,, last earl 
of Marlborough of that family, was 
i,aanted 9 June, 1680. 

** A jotting on the back of the letter 



is: — 'Malmesbury : — where the steeple 
is was a church dedicated to St. Paul.' 
*= Then a common spelling for 
' Alice,' 



Thomas Hobbes 389 



Francis Hobs {supra : the w«. Sarah Alexander, of 



pliilosopher's nephew). Obiit 
May 6, 12 yeares agoe: his 
estate 80 //. per annum, 
and more. 



Mahnsbury. 



Ill I 

I. 1 homas Hobbes, m Anne 2. Edmund, 3. William. i. Sarah, ?m. 2. Franci-^ 

Playt-r, aetat. 19, James Tyley, (i.e. 

of Malms- Nov. last. NanExon(*s> Frances). 



a tanner at Malms- 
bury, aetat. 27, 

December last. His 

<;state, 30 //. per 

annum. 



bury. son of the Priory 

of Kington. 



I 



These are the only heires males of the Hobbes. 

It is uncertaine whether Anne Gay have any brother or 
sister living, but it is pitty the poor woman should 
have somthing if it be but 5 shillings. If you know the 
executor speak for her. 

I was saying to Francis Hobbes's widow (who remembers 
her service to you) that her son should get one of Mr. Thoma.i 
Hobbes's printed pictures. 
In hast, 

Your very affectionat brother, 
William Aubrey. 
Keep a copie of Rogers' pedegree ^- 

* These to my honoured freind, 

Mr. John Awbrey 

present. 

viii. Ho7i. Charles Hatton to William Crooke. 
<MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 26. The letter is written by a secretary, the 
signature C. Hatton being in a different hand. Crooke has endorsed 
it (fol. ay) ' Mr. Hatton's letter about Mr. Hobs ' : to which Aubrey 
has added ' scil. the lord Hatton's son.' On fol. 27 is a note, probably 
by Crooke, of the 'tracts' referred to, viz. 'Life^ Rheto<ric>S Con- 
siderations ^, Natural Philosophy ".' 

** Mr. Crooke, 

I thanke you for the perusall of Mr. Hobbs his tracts 
which wase a civility I did not expect or desire, for 

° ThispedigreeofRogersin William = Republished 16S2. 

Aubrey's hand is found in MS. Aubr. ^ Repnbl. 1680. 

3, fol. 123. epubl. 1682. 

* The address on MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 2"-. « MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 26. The date 
b Published 1681. of the letter is circ. 1681-2. 



390 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

I wou'd not have you at any time deliver any booke to any 
person who comes in my name unless he then payes you 
for it. I did desire only to know exactly the particular price 
of each tract bound apart in marble'd leather, guilt on the 
backe and ribbed, which pray send me by the bearer by 
whom I returne you your booke. 

I have cursorily looked over Mr. Hobbs his life in Latine 
which I beleeve will be a very vendible booke both here 
and beyond sea, for ther is noe lover of learning but will 
have the curiosity to be particularly informed of the life 
of soe eminent a person. And truly the reading of it wase 
very satisfactory to me, for in my apprehension it is very 
well writ, but I cou'd have wishM the author had more 
dilated upon some particulars ; and because you intimate 
a designe to publish it in English I shall hint to you that 
the author of the life in Latine hath either not taken notice 
of at all, or too slightingly, some things very remarkeable 
relating to the temper of Mr. Hobbs his mind or to the 
infirmity of his body, as his extraordinary timorousnes 
which he himself in his Latine poem doth very ingeniously 
confess and attributes it to the influence of his mother's 
dread of the Spanish invasion in 88, she being then with 
child of him. And I have been informed, I think by your 
self, that Mr. Hobbs wase for severall yeares before he died 
soe paralyticall that he wase scarce able to write his name, 
and that in the absence of his amanuensis not being able to 
write anything he made scrawls on a piece of paper to 
remind him of the conceptions of his mind he design'd 
to have committed to writing. But the author * of his 
life in Latine only sa(i)th that about 60 yeares of age 
he wase taken with a trembling in his hands, the forerunner 
of the palsy ; which in my apprehension deserves to be 
enlarged upon, for it is very prodigious that neither the 
timorousness of his nature from his infancy, nor the decay 
of his vital heat in the extremity of old age, accompagnied 
with the palsy to that violence, shou'd not have chill'd the 
briske fervour and vigour of his mind, which did wonder- 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 20\ 



Thomas Hobbes 391 

fully continue to him to his last ; which is a subject fit 
to be discours'd on by a genious equally philosophical! 
with Mr. Hobbs, wase that now to be hoped for. It is 
soe considerable to me that I cou'd not refrayne acquainting 
you that in my apprehension it wase convenient you tooke 
notice therof in his life you are setting forth in English. 

I am, your assured freind, 

C. Hattcn. 

* Mr. Crooke, at the Green Dragon, 

nere Temple-bar. 

Notes. 

' (P. 323.) On fol. 29" of MS. Aubr. 9, Anthony Wood notes: — 'Send to 
Malmsbnrie to take out of the register the Christian name of Mr. Hobs' father, 
when Mr. Hobbs was borne, or when his said father was buried.' [On this Aubrey 
notes : — ' As I remember he dyed at Thistleworth ; vide the register booke at 
Thistleworth, where Mr. Hobbes his father lived in obscurity a reader, and 
there dyed about 1630.'] Wood goes on : — 'I remember when I was there' 
(in 1676, Clark's Wood's Life and Times, ii. 410, 411) 'there were two 
inscriptions of the Hobs on brass plates ; one dyed 1606, quaere. Take out 
the names of all the Hobs in the register.' Obedient to this advice, Aubrey 
sent his brother William to Malmesbury ; supra, p. 387. 

^ (.P. 323.) In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 26, Aubrey puts the substance of this 
paragraph in a neater form : — 

' Mr. Hobbes' father was minister of Westport, to which Brokenborough and 
Charlton doe belong as chapells of ease, but all not worth above . . . He 
was one of the clergie of Queen Elizabeth's time— a little learning went a great 
way with him and many other Sir Johns in those days — he read homilies.' 

' (P. 323.) On fol. 30 of MS. Aubr. 9 is another draft of this paragraph:— 
'He had an elder brother, Francis Hobbes, a wealthy man, and had been 
alderman of the borough ' (dupl. with ' towne ') ; 'by profession a glover, which 
is a great trade here and was heretofore greater. He was orhus. He con- 
tributed much, or altogether maintained his nephew Thomas at Magdalen Hall 
in Oxon; and when he dyed gave him an agellum (voc.at. "the Gasten"), 
which lyes neer the horse faire : valet per annum 16 //. vel 18 li.' 

• (P. 324.) Anthony Wood notes : — ' Quaere in the register of Braken- 
borough when they were maried and their you'l find her Christian name.' — 
MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 30'. 

'" (P. 326.) In MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 31', Anthony Wood suggests the following 
paragraph for the transition from the account of Malmsbury to the life of 
Holjbes : — 

' As Malmsbury was famous in this respect that it gave death and buriall to 
that famous philosopher of his time Johannes Scotus alias Erigina who was 
stabd to death with penknives by his scholars, where there was a statue set up 
in memory of him (ut in Hist, et Antiq. Oxon. lib, i, pag. 16 /;), so much more 
famous in later times for the birth of that great philosopher T. H.' 
* The address : on MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 27'. 



392 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 28, Aubrey begins his sketch of Hobbes' life thns : — 
' Westport juxta Malmesbury: — This place is for nothing so famous as for the 
birth of my honoured and learned friend and countryman, Mr. Thomas Hobbes, 
author of de Corpore^ de Homine^ de Cive, etc. 

He was borne the 5th day of Aprill 1588 at his father's howse, which is the 
farthest on the left hand as you goe in the way or street called . . . , leaving 
the church on the right hand.' 

° (P. 326.) The verses alluded to are in Hobbes's metrical life of himself 
(MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 28 — ' he writt his life last yeare, viz. 1673, in Latin verse'). 
Aubrey cites these lines, MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 31' : — 

' T. H. Viia in verse 

Oppidiilum parvum est; habuit sed multa relatu 

Digna, sed imprimis Coenobium celebre, 
Et castrum (melius nisi sint dua castra vocanda) 

Colle sita, et bino flumine cincta fere. 

Vide mapp' (perhaps Speed's map of Wiltshire: but on a slip at fol. 3P', 
Aubrey gives a ' map ' of Malmesbury : see supra, pp. 325, 326). 

On this Anthony Wood comments : ' See i vol. of Monast. Anglican, concerning 
the monastery.' 

' (P. 326.) The matter of this paragraph is put a little more clearly in M,S. 
Aubr. 3, fol. 28 : ' Westport juxta Malmesbury: — The church was dedicated to 
St. Mary. Here were three aisles " vfhich tooke up the whole area. And (the 
church was) reported to be more ancient then the abbey. In the windowes 
(which were very good) were inscriptions which declared so much. Quaere, if 
Madulph the Scottsman taught here — unde origo monasterii ? Vide Camdenum 
de hoc. 

Before the late warres here was a. prettie church, where were very good 
windowes and a faire steeple, higher than the other, which much adorned the 
towne of Malmesbury. In it were five tuneable bells, which Sir William 
Waller or his army melted into ordinance, or rather sold. The church was 
pulled downe that the enimie might not shelter themselves against the garrison 
of Malmesbury. ' 

" (P. 328.) Aubrey's Collection of Genitures is now MS. Aubr. 23. The 
place Aubrey here refers to is fol. 52" in that MS., viz. : — 

' Mr. Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury borne at ■\\'estport juxta Malmesbury 
J 588, April 5, being Good Fryday, s"" 2' mane, hora solis ' (i.e. at sunrise). 
' J had the yeare, and day, and houre from his owne mouth.' 

Aubrey in several places recurs to this point, e.g. in MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 28 :— 

' Mr. Thomas Hobbes told me that he was borne Apr. 5"! 1588 on Good 
Fryday, in the morning between 4 and six.' 

" (P. 328.) Aubrey took great interest in this as an example in astrology, 
in which 'art' he thoroughly believed. He alludes to Hobbes's horoscope 
in several places, e. g. note on fol. 32" in MS. Aubr. 9 :— 

' Dr. (Francis) Bernard, physitian, will write a discourse on his nativity. 
Mr. John Gadburj' hath calculated this nativity from my time given, and will 
print it. Why should not I insert ' (dupl. with 'print ') ' the scheme and give 
a summary of his judgement? It would be gratefuU to those that love that 

' Or ' a nave and two aisles' • supra, p. 326. 



Thomas Hobbes 393 



art.' Whereon Anthony Wood notes — ' You should never ask these questions 
but do them out of hand forthwith— you have time enough, and if it be done 
by Easter terme 'tis well.' 

MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 28 :— '(Send) to Mr J. Gadbury and Dr. Bernard <T. H.'s) 
accidents.' 

MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 8 :— ' T. Hobbes — Quaere Dr. Bernard pro his nativity ; 
vide my Collection of Genitures ubi from his owne mouth more correct then 
formerly, viz. s"" 2' mane.' 

This horoscope is given in MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 82, and is reproduced in facsimile 
at the end of this edition. 

Pasted on to fol. i» of MS. Aubr. 9 is the scheme with this note : — ' This 
scheme was erected according to the aestimate time by Mr. Henry Coley, 
astrologer. — Thomas Hobbes, Malmesburiensis, borne at Westport juxta 
Malmesbury, 1588, April 5, being Good Fryday, s^ 2' mane, hora solis ". 
I had the yeare and day and houre from his owne mouth.' 

'^ tP. 328.) In MS. Aubr. 3,fol. 26, thus:— 'Atfower yeer old Mr. Tliomas 
Hobbes went to schoole in Westport church till 8 — then i" the church was 
painted. At 8 he could read well and number a matter of four or five 
figures. 

After, he went to Malmesbury to parson Evans. 

t Who being a After him, he had for his schoolemaster, Mr. Robert Latimer f , 

bachelor (not a good Graecian ; by whom he so well profited that at 14 

him and two or yeares old he went a good scholler to Magdalen Hall in Oxford.' 

three more u (P. 330.) As seen in the next paragraph, there was some 

mgeniose laddes "■*'•''' f s 1 > 

after supper doubt as to which ' Principal of Magdalen Hall recommended 

' 9' Hobbes to the earl of Devonshire's service. In MS. Aubr. 9, 

fol. 29, is the note : — 

' Take notice of Dr. Black burne's altering some times and dates,' (in Hobbes' 
prose Latin life of himself, prefixed to the Auctarium vitae Hobbianae) ' differing 
from this originall, c. g. of Mr. Hobbes being admitted at Magdalen Hall when 
Sir James Hussey was principall, which he would doe against my consent 
because he sayd it " would make a better picture," wheras by the matriculation- 
booke it appeares that Dr. Wilkinson was then the principall.' 

'^ (P- 33I-) On fol. 34' of MS. Aubr. 9, Aiibrey has the following 
account of Gorhambury : — 

' Memorandum in my Liber B t'. I have sett downe an exact description of this 
delicious parquef*, now (1656) plowed up and spoil'd. The east part of it 
which extends towards Verulam-house (pulled downe, and the materialls sold by 
Sir H(arbottle) Grimston, about ten yeares since) consisted of severall parts, 
viz. some thickets of plumme-trees, with fine walkes between ; some of rasberies. 
Here were planted most fruit-trees which would grow in our climate ; and also 
severall choice forest-trees. The walkes both of boscages and fruit-trees ; and 
in severall places where were the best prospects, were built elegant summer- 
houses^ of Roman architecture, then standing (1656) well' wainscotted, but the 
paving gonne. One would have thought the most barbarous nation had made 
a conquest here. This place was, in his lordship's time, a sanctuary for phesants, 

' i. c. at sunrise. and Times, iv. 192 : see supra, p. 65. 
I' i. c. at that time the old stained ^ Dnpl. with ' parke.' 

windows were still extant. " Dupl. with ' banquetting-houses.' 

" Now lost ; Clark's Wood's Life ' Dupl. with ' good.' 



394 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

partridges, and those of severall kinds and nations, as Spanish, &c. speckled, 
white, etc. I have, in this lib. B., four leves in fol. close written of the two 
houses, gardens, woods, &c. and of his lordship's manner of living and grandarie, 
which perhaps would doe well in a description of Hartfordshire, or, perhaps ", 
in his lordship's life.' 

" (P. 332.) In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. i', is this note -.—'Dr. (John) Pell says 
that for a man to begin to study mathematics at 40 yeares old, 'tis as if one 
should at that age learne to play on the lute — applicable to Mr. Thomas 
Hobbes. Vide vitam Jonae Moore.' 

" CP- 338-) In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 26, thus :— 

' Memorandum : — about the time of the King's returne f, he 
what yeares his ^''^^ makeing of a very good poeme in Latin hexameters. It 
bookes were y^^^ jj^g history of the encroachment of the clergie (both Roman 

and Reformed) on the civill power. I sawe at least 300 verses 
(they were mark't). At what time there was a report the bishops would have 
him burn't for n heretique. So he then feared the search of his papers and 
burned the greatest part of these verses.' 

" (P- 339-) The first draft of this passage stood as follows, MS. Aubr. 9, foil. 
40, 41 : — ' In April following was the dawning of the coming in of our gracious 
soveraigne, who being a great lover of curious painting I knew could not but 
sett for his picture to my ever honoured friend Mr. S. Cowper, who '> besides 
his art was an ingeniose person and of great humanity. In April I wrott 
a letter, to Mr. Hobbes in Derbyshire, by all meanes desiring him to come-up 
and make use of the opportunity of renewing his majestie's graces to him at 
our friend's howse. He thanked me for ' — etc. 

'" (P. 341.) Aubrey, writing to Wood, on Feb. 3, 167I, enlarges on this 
treatise : Wood MS. F. 39, fol. 196' :— 

' The old gent. (T. Hobbes) is strangely vigorous, for his understanding, still ; 
and every morning walkes abroad to meditate. 

' He haz writt a treatise concerning lawe, which 8 or 9 yeares since I much 
importuned him to doe, and, in order to it, gave him the Lord Chancellor 
Bacon's Maxi?nes of the Lawe. Now every one will doe him the right to 
acknowledge he is rare for definitions, and the lawyers building on old-fashiond 
maximes (some right, some wrong) must need fall into severall paralogismes. 
Upon this consideration I was earnest with him to consider these things. To 
which he M-as unwilling, telling me he doubted he should not have dayes 
enough left to doe it. 

' He drives on, in this, the king's prerogative high. Judge (Sir Matthew) 
Hales, who is no great courtier, has read it and much mislikes it, and is his 
enemy. Judge Vaughan has read it and much commends it.' 

" (P- Ziii-) Note, however, that on some of the letters from Hobbes in MS. 
Aubr. 9, viz., those of date March 25, 1679 (fol. 11", fol. 13"), and that of date 
Aug. 18, 1679 (fol- IS')? the seal shows a gate or portcullis, with an R turned 
backwards, i. c.JI, on the left side of it. 

" Anthony Wood, in a note here, not mentioned by Dr. (William) 

approves of this suggestion to add the Rawley in his life.' 

account of Gorhambury to Aubrey's ^ Aubrey notes, fol. 40", 'Bring this 

life of Bacon {supra, p. 77) :— ' 'Tis in elswhere.' 
fit you should speak of this, because 



Thomas Hobbes 395 



James Wheldon's letter of Jan. i6, i6|f (fol. 17"), has a seal bearing a man's 
bust, with helmet and cuirass. 

'° (P- 367-) In MS. Aubr. 21, p. 19, Aubrey, in his projected comedy, 
makes use of this verdict on the innate cruelty of some dispositions. He puts 
into the month- of his country-justice this speech : — 

" If ye talke of skinnes, the best judgment to be made of the fineness of 
skinnes is at the whipping-post by the stripes. Ah ! 'tis the best lechery to see 
'em suffer correction. Your London aldermen take great lechery to see the 
poor wretches whipt at the court at Bridewell.' 

On which Aubrey goes on to comment : ' Old Justice Hooke gave . . . per 
lash to wenches ; as also my old friend George Pott, esq. Vide Animad- 
versions Philosophicall on that ugly kind of pleasure and of crneltie — were it 
not for the law there were no living ; some would take delight in killing of men.' 

" (P- 375-) The substance is :— 

' Hobbes brought to the investigation of facts an acute intellect and long 
experience, and carried on, into the next generation, the Baconian spirit. 

* He had been Bacon's secretary, and owed much to his master, from whom, 
in particular, he borrowed his comparative, i.e. inductive, methods. But he 
had also fine natural gifts. 

' He excited the fears, and therefore the hostility, of the clerical party in 
I'.ngland, and of the Oxford mathematicians and their supporters. For this 
reason, Charles II compared him to a bear, worried by mastiffs. 

' In his political system, he insisted on the necessity of wisdom in sovereigns. 
In not meddling with the Creeds of the Churches and in assailing the Presby- 
terians and the Bishops of England, he is not to be blamed.' 



Note that, on fol. 42^ of MS. Aubr. 9, is a note 'to ihe earl of Devon, then 
in Great Queen Street,' with a mark referring it to the opposite page. The 
then opposite page is, in the present foliation, fol. 48, but has now nothing to 
which the note can be attached. There are traces, however, which show that 
a slip has been torn off it. 

Thomas Hobbes' life, by himself. 

( A ubrey's preface. ) 
* This was the draught that Mr. Hobbs first did leave 
in my hands, which he sent for about two yeares before 
he died, and wrote that which is printed in his Life in 
Latin by Dr. Richard Blackburn which I lent to hipi and 
he was carelesse and not remaunded it from the printer and 
so 'twas made wast paper of. 

(^Hobbes autobiography.') 

** Thomas Hobbes, natus Apr. 5, 1588, Malmesburiae 

agri Wiltoniensis, Uteris Latinis et Graecis initiatus, annum 

agens decimum quartum missus est Oxonium : ubi per 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 25\ ■** MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 23. 



396 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

quinquennium mansit, operam impendens studio Logicae 
et Physicae Aristotelicae. 

Cum annum ageret vicesimum. commendatus ab amicis, 
Oxonio relicto, recepit se in domum domini Gulielmi 
Cavendish, baronis de Hardwick et (pau1o post) comitis 
Devoniae : ubi filio ejus primogenito, adolescenti sibi fere 
coaetaneo, servivit, placuitque turn filio turn patri, tem- 
perans, sedulus, hilaris. 

Anno sequente cum domino suo in urbe perpetuo fere 
degens, quod didicerat linguae Graecae et Latinae magna 
ex parte amiserat. 

Deinde per Italiam et Galliam peregrinantem dominum 
sequutus, gentium illarum linguas eousque didicit ut 
intelligere eas mediocriter potuerit. Interea Graecam et 
Latinam paulatim perire sibi sentiens, Philosophiam autem 
Logicamque (in quibus praeclare profecisse se arbitrabatur) 
viris prudentibus derisui esse videns, abjecta Logica et 
Philosophia ilia vana, quantum temporis habebat vacui 
impendere decrevit Unguis Graecae et Latinae. 

Itaque cum in Angliam reversus esset, Historias et 
Poetas (adhibitis grammaticorum celebrium commentariis) 
versavit diligenter, non ut floride sed ut Latine posset 
scribere, et vim verborum cogitatis congruentem invenire, 
itaque verba disponere ut lectio perspicua et facilis esset. 
Inter Historias Graecas, Thucididem prae caeteris dilexit 
et vacuis horis in sermonem Anglicum paulatim con- 
versum cum nonnuUa laude circa annum Christi 162H 
in publicum edidit, eo fine ut ineptiae democraticorum 
Atheniensium concivibus suis patefierent. 

Eo anno comes Devoniae, cui jam servierat viginti annos, 
diem obiit, patre ejus biennio ante defuncto. 

Anno sequente, qui erat Christi 1629, cum attigisset 
annum quadragesimum, rogatus a nobilissimo viro domino 
Gervasio Clinton ut vellet filium adolescentem suum 
comitari in Galliam, accepit conditionem. In peregrina- 
tione ilia inspicere coepit in elementa Euclidis ; et delecta- 
tus methodo illius non tam ob theoremata ilia quam ob 
artem rationandi diligentissime perlegit. 



Thomas Hobbes 397 



Anno Christ! 1631 revocatus est in familiam comitissae 
Devoniae ut filium suum comitem Devoniae, natum annos 
13, in literis instrueret; quern etiam circiter triennium 
post comitatus est in Galliam et Italiam, studiorum ejus 
et itinerum rector. 

Dum moraretur Parisiis, principia scientiae naturalis 
investigare coepit. Quae cum in natura et varietate 
motuum contineri sciret, quaesivit inprimis qualis motus is 
esse posset qui efficit sensionem, intellectum, phantasmata, 
aliasque proprietates animalium, cogitatis suis cum reve- 
rendo patre Marino Mersenno, ordinis Minimorum, in omni 
genere philosophiae versatissimo viroque optimo, quotidie 
communicatis. 

Anno Christi 1637 cum patrono suo in Angliam rediit et 
apud ilium mansit ; unde de rebus naturalibus commercia 
cum Mersenno per literas continuavit. 

Interea Scoti, depulsis episcopis, sumpserunt arma contra 
regem, faventibus etiam ministris Anglis illis qui vocari 
Solent Presbyteriani. Itaque convocatum est in Anglia 
Parlamentum illud notissimum quod inceptum est Nov. 3, 
1640. Ex iis quae in illo Parlamento tribus quatuorve 
diebus primis consulta viderat, Bellum Civile ingruere et 
tantum non adesse sentiens, retulit se rursus in Galliam, 
scientiarum studio Parisiis tutius vacaturus cum Mersenno, 
Gassendo, aliisque viris propter eruditionem et vim in 
rationando celeberrimis— non enim dico philosophis, quia 
nomen illud, a plurimis nebulonibus jamdiu gestatum, 
tritum, inquinatum, nunc infame est. 

Cum jam Parisiis ageret, libellum scripsit De Give, quem 
edidit anno 1646, quo tempore, praevalentibus Parlamen- 
tariis, multi eorum qui partes regis sequuti erant, et in illis 
princeps Walliae (qui nunc est rex Angliae), Parisiis con- 
fluxerunt. Statuerat circa idem tempus, * hortatu amici 
cujusdam nobilis Languedociani, migrare in Languedociam, 
et praemiserat jam quae sibi necessaria erant, sed com- 
mendatus principi ut elementa Mathematicae illi praelegeret, 
substit<it) Parisiis. 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 23'. 



398 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Quod ab hoc munere temporis habuit vacui consumpsit 
in scribendo librum qui nunc non solum in Anglia sed in 
vicinis gentibus notissimus est, nomine Leviathan ; quern 
etiam in Anglia edendum curavit, ipse manens adhuc 
Parisiis, anno 1651, annum agens 63™. In eo opere jus 
regium tum spirituale tum temporale ita demonstravit turn 
rationibus tum authoritate scripturae sacrae, ut perspicuum 
fecerit pacem in orbe Christiano nusquam diuturnam esse 
posse nisi vel doctrina ilia sua recepta fuerit vel satis mag- 
nus exercitus cives ad concordiam compulerit : opus ut ille 
sperabat concivibus suis, praesertim vero illis qui ab epi- 
scopis steterant, non ingratum. Quanquam enim unicuique, 
illo tempore, scribere et edere theologica quae vellet liberum 
erat, quia regimen ecclesiae (potestate declarandi quae 
doctrinae essent haereses, ipsius regis authoritate sublata, 
episcopis exutis, rege ipso trucidato) tum nullum erat, dili- 
genter tamen cavit ne quid scriberet non modo contra 
sensum scripturae sacrae sed etiam contra doctrinam 
ecclesiae Anglicanae qualis ante bellum ortum authoritate 
regia constituta fuerat. Nam et ipse regimen ecclesiae per 
episcopos prae caeteris formis omnibus semper approbaverat, 
atque hoc duobus signis manifestum fecit. Primo, cum in 
oppido Sti. Germani prope Parisios morbo gravissimo lecto 
affixus esset, venit ad eum Mersennus, rogatus a quodam 
amico communi ne amicum suum extra ecclesiam Romanam 
mori pateretur. Is lecto assidens (post exordium consola- 
torium) de potestate ecclesiae Romanae peccata remittendi 
aliquantisper disseruit, cui ille ' Mi pater,' inquit. ' haec 
omnia jamdudum mecum disputavi, eadem disputare nunc 
molestum erit : habes quod dicas amoeniora, — quando 
vidisti Gassendum ? ' Quibus auditis, Mersennus sermonem 
ad alia transtulit. Paucis post diebus accessit ad ilium 
Dr. Johannes Cosenus, episcopus (post) Dunelmensis,obtulit- 
que se illi comprecatorem ad Deum. Cui ille cum gratias 
reddidisset, ' Ita,' inquit, ' si precibus praeiveris juxta ritum 
ecclesiae nostrae.' Magnum hoc erga disciplinam episcopa- 
lem signum erat reverentiae. 

Anno 1651 exem.plaria aliquot illius libri, Londini recens 



Thomas Hobbes 399 



editi, in Galliam transmissa sunt, ubi theologi quidam 
Angli doctrinas quasdam in illo libro contentas, turn ut 
haereticas turn ut partibus regiis adversas, criminati sunt ; 
et valuere quidem aliquamdiu calumniae illae in tantum ut 
domo regia prohibitus fuerit. Quo factum est ut, protec- 
tione regia destitutus, metuensque ne a clericis Romanis, 
quos praecipue laeserat, male tractaretur, in Angliam cona- 
tus sit refugere. 

Rediens in Angliam concionantes quidem invenit in 
ecclesiis sed seditiosos ; etiam preces extemporarias, et illas 
audaces et nonnunquam blasphemas ; symbolum autem 
fidei nullum, decalogum nullum ; adeo ut per tres primos 
menses non invenerit quibuscum in sacris communicare 
potuerit. Tandem ab amico ductus ad ecclesiam a suo 
hospitio * plusquam mille passus distantem ubi pastor erat 
vir bonus et doctus, qui et coenam Domini ritu ecclesiastico 
administravit, cum illo in sacris communicavit. Alterum 
hoc signum erat non modo hominis partium episcopalium 
sed etiam Christiani sinceri ; nam illo tempore ad ecclesiam 
quamcunque legibus aut metu cogebatur nemo. Quae 
igitur episcopo cuiquam cum illo causa irae esse potuit, 
nisi ei qui neminem a se dissentire pati per superbiam 
posset ? 

Interea doctrinam ejus academici et ecclesiastic! condem- 
nabant fere omnes ; laudabant nobiles, et viri docti, ex 
laicis. Refellebat nemo : conati refellere, confirmabant. 
Scripsit enim non ex auditione et lectione ut scholaris, sed 
ex judicio proprio cognita et pensitata omnia, sermone 
puro et perspicuo, non rhetorico. Stantem inter amicos et 
inimicos quasi in aequilibrio, fecerunt illi ne ob doctrinam 
opprimeretur, hi, ne augeretur. Itaque fortuna tenui, fama 
doctrinae ingenti, in patroni sui, comitis Devoniae, hospitio 
per caeterum vitae tempus perpetuo delituit, studio vacans 
geometriae et philosophiae naturalis ; ediditque jam senex 
librum quendam quern inscripsit De Corpore, continentem 
Logicae, Geometriae, Physicae (tum sublunaris, turn coeles- 
tis) fundamenta, deducens Logicam quidem a significaticne 
* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 24. 



400 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

nominum, Geometriam autem et Physicam ex figurarum 
et effectuum naturalium generationibus. 

Hominis ergo neque genere neque opibus neque negotiis 
belli aut pacis assueti vitam scribo et in publicum emitto, 
sed in omni genere scientiae excellentis et fere singularis. 
Cujus ingenium ut cognoscerent, partim etiam ut sua osten- 
tarent, convenerunt (ad) eum viri innumeri turn nostrates 
turn exteri, et inter illos nonnulli legati principum aliique 
viri nobilissimi ; adeo ut conjectura inde facta de voluntate 
hominum eruditorum qui posthac erunt, non ingratum fore 
posteritati existimavi si quern vidisse voluerunt illius vitam 
Uteris posteritati tradiderim, praecipue quidem ut quae 
scientiis ille primus addidit, deinde etiam caetera vitae ejus 
quae a lectoribus desiderari posse videbuntur cognoscerent. 

Quae scripsit de jurenaturali, de constitutione civitatum, 
de jure eorum qui summam habent potestatem, et de 
officiis civium, in libris Leviathan et De Cive (quia domi 
forisque nota et maxime celebrata sunt) praetereunda 
censeo. 

In Physicis causam sensuum, praecipue visus, una cum 
doctrina omni optica et natura lucis, refractionis reflectio- 
nisque causas naturales, ignotas ante, primus demonstravit, 
in libro De Homine. Item causas qualitatum sensibilium 
nimirum colorum, soni, caloris, et frigoris. Somnia autem 
et phantasmata quae antea pro spiritibus et mortuorum 
animis habebantur et rudi vulgo terriculamenta erant, 
omnia profligavit. Causam autem aestuum marinorum et 
descensionis gravium, a motu quodam telluris praecipue 
derivavit. Nam phaenomena ilia omnia ad motum refert, 
non ad rerum ipsarum potentias intrinsecas neque ad qua- 
litates occultas, ut ante ilium omnes physici. De motu 
autem in libro De Corpore satis fuse scripsit et profundis- 
sime. In Ethicis ante ilium nihil scriptum est praeter 
sententias vulgares. At ille mores hominum ab humana 
natura, virtutes et vitia a lege naturali, et bonitatem 
* maliciamque actionum a legibus civitatum, derivavit. In 
Mathematicis principia geometriae nonnulla correxit ; 

* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 24'. 



Thomas Hobbes 401 

problemata aliquot difficillima, a summis geometris (ab 
ipsis geometriae incunabulis) summo studio frustra quae- 
sita, invenit, nimirum haec — 

1°. arcui circuli lineam rectam, areae circuli quad- 
ratuni aequale, exhibere, idque variis methodis — in diversis 
libris. 

■i°. datum angulum dividere in data ratiohe ; 

3°. cubi ad sphaeram rationem invenire— in Problematibus 
Geoinetricis. 

4°. inter duas rectas datas medias continue proportionales 
invenire quotcunque — in Problematibus Geoinetricis. 

5°. polygonum regulare desci'ibere quotcunque laterum — 
in Roseto. 

6°- centrum gravitatis invenire quadrantis circuli et 
bilinei quod continetur arcu quadrantis et subtenta ejus — 
in Roseto. 

7°. centra gravitatis invenire paraboli-formium omnium, 
in libro De Corpore. 

Haec omnia primus construxit et demonstravit, et prae- 
terea alia multa quae (quia legentibus occurrent et minoris 
sunt) praetereo. 

Facient opinor haec ut vita ejus non indigna videatur 
quae tum ad exteros tum ad posteros scientiarum studiosos 
transmittatur, praesertim hoc tempore, cum scribuntur 
vulgo vitae obscurorum hominum nulla virtute insignium, 
desiderante nemine. 

Scripsit praeterea, circa annum aetatis suae octagesimum, 
historiam belli civilis Anglicani inter regem Carolum 
primum et parlamentum ejus, anno . . .; item ortum 
et incrementa potestatis pontificiae, carmine Latino, ver- 
suum duum millium^ sed non sinebant tempora ut publica- 
rentur. 

Silentibus tandem adversariis, annum agens octagesimum, 
(pri)mum, Homeri Odyssea edidit a se conversum in 
versus Anglicanos, . . . ; deinde, proximo, etiam Iliada ; 
denique Cyclometriam, annum agens <. . .)gessimum pri- 
mum, integram nondum editam. 

Quod ad formam attinet, vultu erat non specioso sed cum 
I. D d 



402 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

loqueretur non ingrato. Effigies ejus ad vivum a pictore 
excellente descripta, qualis erat anno aetatis suae septuage- 
simo, in conclavi regis Caroli secundi conservatur. Extant 
etiam ejusdem imagines ab aliis pictoribus diversis tempo- 
ribus factae rogatu amicorum in Anglia non paucae et in 
Gallia aliquot. 

Natura sua et primis annis ferebatur ad lectionem histo- 
riarum et poetarum ; et ipse quoque carmen tentavit, nee 
(ut plurimi judicabant) infoeliciter. Postea autem cum in 
congressu quodam virorum doctorum, mentione facta de 
causa sensioiiis, quaerentem unum quasi per contemptum 
'quid esset sensus? ' nee quemquam audivisset respondentem, 
mirabatur qui fieri potuerit ut qui sapientiae titulo homines 
caeteros tanto fastu despicerent suos ipsorum sensus quid 
essent ignorarent. Ex eo tempore de causa sentiendi saepe 
cogitanti, forte fortuna mentem subiit quod si res corporeae 
et earum partes omnes conquiescerent aut motu simili sem- 
per moverentur * sublatum iri omnium rerum discrimen 
et (per eonsequens) omnem sentionem, et propterea 
causam omnium rerum quaerendam esse in diversitate 
motuum : atque hoc principio usus est primo. Deinde, ut 
cognosceret varietates et rationes motuum, ad geometriam 
cogebatur, et a principiis suis ingenio suo theoremata ilia 
quae supra commemoravi foeliciter demonstravit. Tantum 
interest inter illos qui proprio genio et illos qui in archivis 
veterum aut ad quaestum docentium scientiarum veritatem 
quaerunt. 

In colloquiis familiaribus jucundus erat, praeterquam 
illorum qui ad ilium venerant disputandi causa contra 
ea quae jam ediderat (nee revocari poterant) de jure 
summarum potestatum civili aut ecclesiastico ; nam cum 
his vehementius aliquando disputabat quam erat neces- 
sarium. 

Naturaliter apertus erat, et inter adversarios qui multi 
potentesque erant innocentia magis quam eonsilio tutus. 

Justiciae erat cum scientissimus, tum tenacissimus. Nee 
mirum, cum esset pecuniae neglegentissimus, et pro tenui- 
* MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 25. 



Wtlliam Holder 403 



tate fortunarum suarum ultra modum beneficus. Sed 
beneficio patronorum suorum et regis optimi dulcissimique 
Caroli secundi satis coplose senex vixit. 

WiHiam Holder (1616-169I). 

* William Holder!, D.D., the . . . d son^ of . . . Holder ; 
his mother's mayden name was Brudenell. He was borne 
the ... in Nottinghamshire ; went to schoole at ... ; 
went to Pembroke-hall "^ in Cambridge, where he had 
a Greeke-scholar's place. Anno (1631), Artium Bacca- 
laureus ; anno (1640) Artium Magister. 

About 1640, he maried . . . the . . . daughter of 
(Christopher) Wren, deane of Windsore and rector of 
Knowyll in Wiltshire. 

Anno Domini T642, had his institution and induction for 
the rectorie of Bletchington in com. Oxon. 

In the troublesome times he was with his father-in-Iawe 
Wren at the garrison of Bristowe. After the surrender of 
it to the Parliament, he lived . . . year at Knowyll 
with him. 

Anno about 1646", he went to Bletchington to his 
parsonage, where his hospitality and learning, mixt with 
great courtesie, easily conciliated the love of all his 
neighbours to him. The deane came with him thither, 
and dyed and is buryed there. 

He was very helpfull in the education of his brother-in- 
law, Mr. Christopher Wren (now knighted), a youth of 
a prodigious inventive witt, and of whom he was as tender 
as if he had been his owne child, who ^ gave him his first 
instructions in geometrie and arithmetique, and when he 
was a young scholar at the University of Oxford, was 
a very necessary and kind friend. 

The parsonage-house at Bletchington was Mr. Christopher 
Wren's home, and retiring-place ; here he contemplated, 
and studied, and found-out a great many curious things 

* MS. Anbr. 6, fol. 87'. "= Subst. for ' 1647.' 

* i.e. 2nd (or 3rd) son. ^ Subst. for 'whom he instructed 
^ ' hall,' subst. for ' CoUedge.' first in.' 

D d 3 



404 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

in mathematiques. About this house" he made sevei'all 
curious dialls, with his owne handes, which are still there 
to be seen. <^^ Which see, as well worthy to be seen. 

But to returne to this honest worthy gentleman — he is 
a good poet. I have some very good verses (about loc) 
in Latin on St. Vincent's-rocks and the hott-well, neere 
Bristowe. He is very musicall, both theorically and 
practically, and he had a sweet voyce. He hath writt an 
excellent treatise of musique, in English, which is writt 
both doctis et indociis, and readie for the presse. He is 
extremely well qualified for his * place, of Sub-Deane of 
the King's Chapell, to which he was preferred '' anno 
167(4), as likewise of the Sub-Almoner, being a person 
abhorring covetousnes, and full of pitty "'- 

Anno 16- (vide his ...)... Popham (the only son of 
. . . Popham, admirall for the Parliament), being borne 
deafe and dumbe'', was sent to him to learne to speake, 
which he taught him to doe : by what method, and how 
soon, you may see in the Appendix concerning it to his 
Elements of Speech, 8vo, London, printed (1669). It is 
a most ingeniose and curious discourse, and untouched by 
any other ; he was beholding to no author ; did only 
consult with nature. This booke I sent to Mr. Anthony 
Lucas, at Liege, who very much admires it and I have 
desired him to translate it into French. Dr. John Wallis 
unjustly arrogates the glory of teaching the sayd young 
gentleman to speake, in the Philosophical Transactions, 
and in Dr. Robert Plott's History of Oxfordshire ; which 
occasioned Dr. Holder to write a . . . against him, a 
pamphlet in 4to, 167- 

He has good judgement in painting and drawing. 

In anno {1652) he was made a prebendary of Ely. 
Anno (1663) had the parsonage of (Northwold) in 
Norfolk. 

He is a handsome, graceful! person, and of a delicate 

° Subst for ' Here.' ' upon . . . Jones his death.' 

* MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 88. « Dupl. with ' bowells.' 

•" Anthony Wood notes here — '' See p. 378. 



William Holder 405 



constitution, and of an even and smooth temper ; so tliat, 
if one would goe about to describe a perfect good man, 
would drawe this Doctor's character. Of a just stature ; 
greyeie; tall and well-sett ; sanguine; thin skin; roundish 
face ; gracefull elocution ; his discourse so gent, and 
obligeing ; cleer reason. 

They say that morum similitudo conci(^lV)at amicitiam ; 
then it will not be found strange that there should be such 
a conjunct friendship between this worthy gentleman and 
the right reverend father in God, Seth Ward, lord bishop 
of Sarum, his coetanean in Cambridge. 

It ought not to be forgott the great and exemplary love 
between this Doctor and his vertuose wife, who is not lesse 
to be admired, in her sex and station, then her brother 
Sir Christopher ; and (which is rare to be found in a woman) 
her excellences doe not inflate her. Amongst many other 
guifts she haz a strange sagacity as to curing of wounds, 
which she does not doe so much by presedents and reciept 
bookes, as by her owne excogitancy, considering the causes, 
effects, and circumstances. His majestie king Charles II, 
367-, had hurt his . . . hand, which he intrusted his 
chirurgians to make well ; but they ordered him so that 
they made it much worse, so that it swoll, and pained him 
up to his shoulder ; and pained him so extremely that he 
could not sleep, and began to be feaverish. . . . told the 
king what a rare shee-surgeon he had in his house ; she 
was presently sent for at eleven clock at night. She 
presently made ready a pultisse, and applyed' it, and gave 
his majestie sudden ease, and he slept well ; next day .she 
dressed him, and in . . . perfectly cured him, to the great 
griefe of all the surgeons, who envy and hate her. 

Non Illo melior quisquam, nee amantior aequi 
Vir fuit : aut Ilia reverentior ulla Deorum. 

Ovid. Metam. lib. i. 

Note. 
' Aabrey gives the coat, ' sable, a chevron between 3 anchors argent.' Anthony 
Wood adds the reference 'vide pag. 65 a,' i.e. fol. 95, of MS. Aubr. 6, in the 
life of John Wallis. 



4o6 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Hugh Holland (15 1633). 

* From Sir John Penrudock : — Hugh Holland, poeta : 
he was descended of the family of the earles of Kent, etc., 
and was a Roman Catholique. The lady Elizabeth Hatton 
(mother to the lady Purb(ec)) was his great patronesse 
(vide B. Jonson's masque of the Gipsies for these two 
beauties). 

Sir J(ohn) P(enrudock) asked him his advice as he 
was dyeing, (or he then gave it) that, the best rule for him 
to governe his life was to reade St. Hierome's Epistles. 

He was buried in Westminster Abbey*, in the south 
crosse aisle neer the dore of St. Benet's Chapell, i. e. where 
the earl of Middlesex monument is, but there is no monu- 
ment or inscription for him. He was buryed July 23, 1633. 

He was of a Lancashire family. 

Tho. Holland, earl of Kent (his sonnes, dukes of Surrey), 
tempore Rich. 2. 

Philemon Holland (1551-1637). 

** Philemon Holland was schoole-master of the free- 
schoole at Coventrey, and that for many yeares. He made 
a great many good scholars. He translated T. Livius, 
anno 15-, with one and the same pen, which the lady 
. . . (vide at the end of his translation of Suetonius) 
embellished with silver, and kept amongst her rare K6^p^^^^a^ 
He wrote a good hand, but a rare Greeke character ; 
witnesse the MS. of Euclid's Harmoniques in the library 
belonging to the schoole. He translated severall Latin 
authors, — e.g. Tit. Livius, Plinii Hist. Natur., Suetonius 
Tranquillus : quaere + . 

One made this epigram on him : — 

' Philemon with 's translations doeth so fill us, 
He will not let SUETONIUS be Tranquillus.' 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. lo. Aubrey "■ The words followed 'I thinke ; 

gives the coat, ' azure, senate of fleur- quaeredehocof A. Wood'; scored out. 

de-lys, a lion rampant argent [Hoi- ** MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 20'. 

land].' •> KdfieKia in MS. 



Wenceslaus Hollar 407 



Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677). 

* Winceslaus Hollar, natus Pragae 23 Julii, st(ilo) 
v(etere), 1607, about 8 A.M. 

** Winceslaus Hollar, Bohemus, was borne at Prague. 

His father was a Knight of the Empire : which is by 
lettres patent under the imperiall seale (as our baronets). 
I have seen it" : the seale is bigger then the broad seale of 
England : in the middle is the imperiall coate ; and round 
about it are the coates of the Princes Electors. His father 
was a Protestant, and either for keeping a conventicle, or 
being taken at one, forfeited his estate, and was ruined by 
the Roman Catholiques. 

He told me that when he was a schoole-boy he tooke 
a delight in draweing of mapps ; which draughts he kept, 
and they were pretty. He was designed by his father to 
have been a lawyer, and was putt to that profession ^, when 
his father's troubles, together with the warres, forced him 
to leave his countrey. So that what he did for his delight 
and recreation only when a boy, proved to be his livelyhood 
when a man. 

I thinke he stayd sometime in Lowe Germany, then he 
came into England, wher he was very kindly entertained 
by that great patron of painters and draughts-men (Thomas 
Howard) Lord High Marshall, earl of Arundell and Surrey, 
where he spent his time in draweing and copying rarities, 
which he did etch (i. e. eate with aqua fortis in copper 
plates). When the Lord Marshall went ambassador to the 
Emperor of Germany to Vienna, he travelld with much 
grandeur ; and among others, Mr. Hollar went with him 
(very well clad) to take viewes, landskapes, buildings, etc. 
remarqueable in their journey, which wee see now at the 
print shopps. 

He hath donne the most in that way that ever any one 
did, insomuch that I have heard Mr. John Evelyn, R. S. S., 

* MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 121". " i. e. Hollar's father's patent. 
** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 26. " Subst. for ' was bred up to it.' 



4o8 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

say that at sixpence a print his labour would come to 
li. (quaere J(ohn E(velyn)). He was very short- 
sighted (fjivoxj/^), and did worke so curiously that the curiosity 
of his worke is not to be judged without a magnifying- 
glasse. When he tooke his landskaps, he, then, had a glasse 
to helpe his sight. 

At Arundel-house he maried with my ladie's wayting 
woman, Mrs. . . . Tracy, by whom he haz a daughter, 
that was one of the greatest beauties I have seen ; his 
son by her dyed in the plague, an ingeniose youth, drew 
delicately. 

When the civil warres brake-out, the Lord Marshall had 

leave to goe beyond sea t. Mr. Hollar went 

t Italieb. . ° -^ . , , , ... 

into the Lowe-Lountnes, where he stayed till 

about 1649. 

I remember he told me that when he first came into 
England, (which was a serene time of peace) that the people, 
both poore and rich, did looke cheerfully, but at his returne, 
he found the countenances of the people all changed, 
melancholy, spightfull, as if bewitched. 

I have sayd before that his father was ruined upon the 
account of the Protestant religion. Winceslaus dyed a 
Catholique, of which religion, I suppose, he might be ever 
since he came to Arundel-howse. 

He was a very friendly good-natured man as could be, 
but shiftlesse as to the world, and dyed not rich ''. He 
maried a second wife, 1665, by whom he has severall 
children. He dyed on our Ladie-day (25 Martii), 1677, 
and is buried in St. Margaret's church-yard at Westminster 
neer the north west corner of the tower. Had he lived till 
the 13th of July following, he had been just 70 yeares old. 

John Holywood (11 — -1256). 

* Jo. de Sacro Bosco :— Dr. (John) Pell is positive that 
his name was Holybushe. 

° for fivai//. Padua, 1646. 

'i Thomas Howard, earl of Arun- " Subst. for ' dyed but poor.' 

del, Surrey, and Norfolk, died at * MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 5'. 



Thomas Hoode. Robert Hooke 409 



Thomas Hoode. 

* . . . Hood, M.D. — he practised Physick at Worcester, 
and printed a booke in 4to called The Geodeticall Staffe ". 

Bobert Hooke (1635-1703). 

** Mr. Robert Hooke, curator of the Royall Societie 
at London, was borne at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, 
A. D. (1635); his father was minister there, and of the 
family of the Hookes of Hooke in Hants. 

*** July 19"", 1635, baptized Robert Hooke, the son 
of Mr. John Hooke. 

**** Mr. Robert Hooke \ M. A.:— his father, Mr. John 
Hooke, ***** had two or three brothers all ministers : 
quaere Dr. (William) Holder. He was of the family of 
Hooke of Hooke in Hampshire, in the road from London to 
Saram, a very ancient family and in that place for many 
(3 or more) hundred yeares. 

****** His father was minister of Freshwater in the Isle 

of Wight. He maried , by whom he had two sonnes, 

viz. ... of Newport, grocer (quaere capt. Lee) and had 
been mayer there, and Robert, second son, who was borne '' 
at Freshwater aforesayd the nineteenth day of July, Anno 
Domini 1635 — vide register, et obiit patris. 

At . . . yeares old, John Hoskyns, the painter, being 
at Freshwater, to drawe pictures for ... . esqre, Mr. Hooke 
observed what he did, and, thought he, ' why cannot I doe 
so too ? ' So he getts him chalke, and ruddle, and coale, 
and grinds them, and putts them on a trencher, gott a 
pencill, and to worke he went, and made a picture : then 
he copied " (as they hung up in the parlour) the pictures 
there, which he made like. Also, being a boy there, at 

* MS. Aubr. 8, fol. ir- **** ^^- ^"'"■- ^' ''°'- 32- 

' The use of the Jacob's Staffe. ***** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 29". 

Lond. 1590. ****** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 32. 

** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 56': as also " Corrected by Anthony Wood to 

in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 270'. ' baptized.' 

*** MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 99. " Dupl. with ' drew.' 



4IO Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Freshwater, he made an . . . diall on a round trencher ; 
never having had any instruction. His father was not 
mathematical! at all. 

When his father dyed, his son Robert was but . . • old, 
to whom he left one hundred pounds, which was sent up to 
London with him, with an intention to have bound him 
apprentice to Mr. Lilly ", the paynter, with whom he was 
a little while upon tryall ; who liked him very well, but 
Mr. Hooke quickly perceived'' what was to be donne, so, 
thought he, ' why cannot I doe this by my selfe and keepe my 
hundred pounds ? ' He also had some instruction in drawe- 
ing from Mr. Samuel Cowper (prince of limners of this age); 
but whether from him before or after Mr. Lilly quaere ? 

(C^* Quaere when he went to Mr. Busby's, the schoole- 
master of Westminster, at whose howse he was ; and he 
made very much of him. With him he lodged his C /z." 
There he learnd to** play 20 lessons on the organ. He 
there in one weeke's time made himselfe master of the 
first VI bookes of Euclid, to the admiration of Mr. Busby 
(now S.T.D.), who introduced him. At schoole here he 
was very mechanicall, and (amongst other things) he invented 
thirty severall wayes of flying, which I have not only 
heard him say, but Dr. Wilkins (at Wadham College at 
that time), who gave him his Mathematicall Magique 
which did him a great kindnes. He was never a King's 
Scholar, and I have heard Sir Richard Knight (who 
was his school-fellow) say that he seldome sawe him in 
the schoole. 

Anno Domini {1658) (vide A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon.) 
he was sent to Christ Church in Oxford, where he had 
a chorister's place (in those dayes when the church 
musique was putt-downe ^), which was a pretty good 
maintenance. He was there assistant to Dr. Thomas Willis 
in his chymistry; who afterwards recommended him to 

" ? Sir Peter Lely. sons, on.' 

" Subst. for ' leamd.' « See Clark's Wood's Life and 

" i. e. ;^ioo. Times, i. 162, 163. 

•• Probably ' to play, (in) 20 les- 



Robert Hooke 411 



the hon^'^ Robert Boyle, esqre, to be useful! to him in 
his chymicall operations. Mr. Hooke then read to him 
(R. B., esqre) Euclid's Elements, and made him under- 
stand * Des Cartes' Philosophy. He was Master of Arts 
anno Domini .... 

Anno Domini i66(a> Mr. Robert Boyle recommended 
Mr. Robert Hooke to be Curator of the Experiments of 
the Royall Society, wherin he did an admirable good worke 
to the Common-wealth of Learning, in recommending the 
fittest person in the world to them. Anno (1664) he was 
chosen Geometry * Professour at Gresham College ^- Anno 
Domini 166- Sir John Cutler, knight, gave a Mechanicall 
lecture, . . . pounds per annum, which he read. 

Anno Domini 166(6) the great conflagration of London 
t < John) Oliver, happened, and then he was chosen one of the 
palnferf^was two survcyors f of the citie of London ; by 
theothkr. yN\i{c\). he hath gott a great estate. He built 

Bedlam, the Physitians' College, Montague-house, the Filler 
on Fish-street-hill, and Theatre there; and he is much 
made use of in designing buildings. 

He is but of midling stature, something crooked, pale 
faced, and his face but little belowe, but his head is lardge ; 
his eie full and popping, and not quick ; a grey eie. He 
haz a delicate head of haire, browne, and of an excellent 
moist curie. He is and ever was very temperate, and 
moderate in dyet, etc. 

As he is of prodigious inventive head, so is a person of 
great vertue and goodnes. Now when I have sayd his 
inventive faculty is so great, you cannot imagine his memory 
to be excellent, for they are like two bucketts, as one goes 
up, the other goes downe. He is certainly the greatest 
mechanick this day in the worid. His head lies much 
more to Geometry then to Arithmetique. He is (1680) 
a batchelour, and, I beleeve, will never marie. His elder 
brother left one faire daughter ^, which is his heire. In fine 
(which crownes all) he is a person of great suavity and 
goodnesse. 

" DnpL with ' and taught him.' * MS. Aubt 6, fol. 32'. 



412 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Scripsit. 



'Twas Mr. Robert Hooke that invented the Pendulum- 
Watches, so much more usefull than the other watches. 

He hath invented an engine for the speedie working of 
division, etc., or for the speedie and immediate finding out 
the divisor. 

An instrument for the Emperor of Germany, 1693. 

* The first thing he pubUshed was — An attempt for the 
explication of the phaenomena observeable in the XXXV 
experiment of the honourable Robert Boyle, esq., touching 
the aire : printed for Sam. Thomson at the Bishop's head 
in Paule's churchyard, 1661, 8vo : not now to be bought, 
and, though no bigger then an almanack, is a most in- 
geniose piece. 

The next moneth he published another little 4to pamphlet, 
— Discourse of a new instrument he haz invented to make 
more accurate observations in astronomy then ever was 
**yet made, or could be made by any instruments hitherto 
invented, and this instrument (10 or 12 li. price) performes 
more, and more exact, then all the chargeable apparatus 
of the noble Tycho Brache or the present Hevelius of 
Dantzick. 

(In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 30, 31, is this letter from Aubrey to Anthony 
Wood, enclosing a communication from Hooke.) 

Mr. Wood! Septemberi5, 1689. 

Mr. Robert Hooke, R.S.S. did in anno 1670, write 
a discourse, called, ' An Attempt to prove the motion of 
the Earth,' which he then read to the Royal Society ; but 
printed it in the beginning of the yeare 1674, a strena°- to 
Sir John Cutler to whom it is dedicated, wherein he haz 
delivered the theorie of explaining the coelestial motions 
m.echanically ; his words are these, pag. 37, 28. viz. : — 

* Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 270' : May 26, 1674. 
** Ibid., fol. 271. a i.e. New Year's gift. 



Robert Hooke 413 



['In "the Attempt to prove the motion of the earth, etc., 
printed 1674, but read to the Royall Society, 167 1 : pag. 
27, line 31 — 

' I shall only for the present hint that I have in some of 
my foregoing observations discovered some new motions 
even in the Earth it self, which perhaps were not dreamt 
of before, which I shall hereafter more at large describe, 
when further tryalls have more fully confirmed and com- 
pleated these beginnings. At which time also I shall 
explaine a systeme of the world, differing in many par- 
ticulars from any yet known, answering in all things to 
the common rules of mechanicall motions. This depends 
upon 3 suppositions ; first, that all coelestiall bodys what- 
soever have an attractive or gravitating power towards 
their own centers, whereby they attract not only their 
own parts, and keep them from flying from them, as we 
may observe the Earth to doe, but that they doe also 
attract all the other coelestial bodys that are within the 
sphere of their activity, and consequently that not only the 
Sun and the Moon have an influence upon the body and 
motion of the Earth, and the Earth upon them, but that 
Mercury also, Venus, Mars, Saturne, and Jupiter, by their 
attractive powers have a considerable influence upon its 
motion, as, in the same manner, the corresponding attrac- 
tive power of the Earth hath a considerable influence upon 
everyone of their motions also. The second supposition is 
this, that all bodys whatsoever, that are putt into direct 
and simple motion will soe continue to move forwards in 
a straight line, till they are by some other effectuall powers 
deflected and bent into a motion describing a circle, 
ellipsis, or some other uncompounded curve line. The 
third supposition is, that these attractive powers are soe 
much the more powerfull in operating, by how much nearer 
the body wrought upon is to their own centers. Now what 
these severall degrees are, I have not yet experimentally 
verified.'— ^2/!/! these degrees and proportions of the power 
of attraction in the celestiall bodys and motions, were com- 

» The paragraph enclosed in square brackets is Hooka's autograph. 



414 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

municated to Mr. Newton by R. Hooke, in the yeare 1678, 
by letters, as will plainely appear both by the coppys of the 
said letters, and the letters of Mr. Newton in answer to 
them, which are both in the custody of the said R. H., both 
which also were read before the Royall Society at their 
pnblique meeting, as appears by the Journall book of the 
said Society. — ' But it is a notion which if fully prosecuted, 
as it ought to be, will mightily assist the astronomer to reduce 
all the coelestiall motions to a certaine rule, which I doubt 
will never be done true without it. He that understands the 
natures of the circular pendulum and circular motion, will 
easily understand the whole ground of this principle, and 
will know where to find direction in nature for the true stating 
thereof. This I only hint at present to such as have ability 
and opportunity of prosecuting this inquiry, and are not 
wanting of industry for observing and calculating, wishing 
heartily such may be found, having my self many other 
things in hand, which I will first compleat, and therefore 
cannot soe well attend (to) it. But this I durst promise 
the undertaker ; that he will find all the great motions of 
the world to be influenced by this principle, and that the 
+ To- make a truc Understanding thereof will be the true 
ofMeLlwrn perfection of Astronomy.'] 
oa^r|raX"to About 9 or lo years ago, Mr. Hooke writt to 
thJci'i^Tfin?'* Mr. Isaac Newton, of Trinity College, Qs^m- 
Inad* to w?u ^ bridge, to make f a demonstration of this 
eiHpsisTnoneof theory, not telling him, at first, the proportion 
was the saiTand of the gravity to the distance, nor what was the 

that that gravi- jii- 1 t , i-h/t-ht 

tation would curv d Imc that was thereby made. Mr. Newton, 
aphelion and in his answer to the letter, did expresse that 

perihelion iii 1 \, r • 1.1.0 

opposite to each he had not known " of it ; and m his first attempt 

other in the same . 

diameter which about it, hc calculatcd the curve by supposing 

is the whole ' . .7 ri- t> 

ceiestiaii theorie the attraction to be the same at all distances : 

of which Mr. 

Newton haz upon which, Mr. Hooke sent, in his next letter, 

made a * 

demonstration, the wholc of his hypothcsis, scil. that the 
gravitation was reciprocall to the square of the distance, 

■ The text embodies Hooke's cor- ginal draft is given in the margin, 
rections of Aubrey's draft. The ori- ■> Dupl. with ' thought.' 



Robert Hooke 415 



[' which * would make the motion in an ellipsis, in one of 
whose foci the sun being placed, the aphelion and peri- 
helion of the planet would be opposite to each other 
in the same line, which is the whole coelestiall theory, 
concerning which Mr. Newton hath a demonstration,'] 
not at all owning he receiv'd the first intimation of it 
from Mr. Hooke. Likewise Mr. Newton haz in the same 
booke printed some other theories and experiments of 
Mr. Hooke's, as that about the oval figure of the earth 
and sea : without acknowledging from whom he had 
them, [' though " he had not sent it up with the other 
parts of his booke till near a month after the theory was 
read to the Society by Mr. Hooke, when it served to 
help to answer Dr. Wallis his arguments produced in the 
Royal Society against it.'] 

Mr. Wood ! This is the greatest discovery in nature 
that ever was since the world's creation. It never was so 
much as hinted by any man before. I know you will doe 
him right. I hope you may read his hand. I wish he 
had writt plainer, and afforded a little more paper. 

Tuus, 

J. Aubrey. 

Before I leave this towne, I will gett of him a catalogue 
of what he hath wrote ; and as much of his inventions as I 
can. But they are many hundreds ; he believes not fewer 
than a thousand. 'Tis such a hard matter to get people to 
doe themselves right. 

Notes.- 

• Aubrey gives in trick the coat : ' quarterly, argent and sable a cross 
between 4 escallops all counterchanged [Hooke].' 

" Aubrey used Hooke's rooms in Gresham College as the place to which he had 
his letters addressed. E.g. MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 55, is an envelope addressed :— 

'To his much honoured friend John Awbrey, esqre, these present, at Mr.. 
Hooke's lodgeings in Gresham College, London.' 

MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 48, is an envelope addressed — 

'For Mr. John Aubrey: leave these at Mr. Hooke's lodging in Gresham 
College." 

" The words in square brackets are Hooke's autograph, added at the time 
he made the corrections above. 



4i6 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

^ ' Mris. Grace Hooke, borne at Newport in the Isle of Wight 2'''' Maii, at 
8" P.M.; she is 15 next May, soil. 1676. . . . Her father died by suspending 
him selfe, anno . . ' : MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 56'. 

Charles Hoskyns (1584-1609). 

* Charles Hoskyns was brother to the Serjeant and the 
Doctor ; a very ingeniose man, who would not have been 
inferior to either but killed himself with hard study. 

Note. 
Charles Hoskins, of 'Lenwarne' parish, Hereford, was admitted probationer 
Jnly 26, 1604, and fellow of New College in 1606; took B.A. April 13, 1608 ; 
and died in 1609. 

John Hoskyns (1566-1638). 

**John Hoskyns^, serjeant-at-lawe, was borne at Mounck- 
ton in the parish of (Llanwarne) in the com. of Hereford, 
A° D"'^ <I566> [on" St. Mark's day]. 

Mounckton belonged to the priory of Llantony juxta 
Glocester, where his ancestors had the office of cupbearer 
(or ' pocillator ') to the prior. I have heard there was 
a windowe given by one Hoskyns there, as by the inscription 
did appeare. 

Whither the Serjeant were the eldest brother^ or no, 
I have forgott ; but he had a brother, John ^, D.D., a learned 
man, rector of Ledbury and canon of Hereford, who, I thinke, 
was eldest, who was designed to be a scholar, but this John 
(the Serjeant) would not be quiet, but he must be a scholar 
too. In those dayes boyes were seldome taught to read 
that were not to be of some learned profession. So, upon his 
instant importunity, being then ten yeares of age, he learned 
to reade, and, at the yeare's end, entred into his Greeke 
grammar. This I have heard his sonne, Sir Benet Hoskyns, 
knight and baronett, severall times say. 

He was of a strong constitution, and had a prodigious 

* Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, a letter of Aubrey's (MS. Wood F. 39, 
fol. 142: Oct. 27, 1671. fol. 135"). 

** Aubrey in MS. Rawl. D. 727, ' ' He was the eldest,' is added by 

fol. 93. Anthony Wood. 

• Added by Anthony Wood, from 



John Hoskyns 417 



memorie. At . . . yeares old, he went to Winton schole, 
where he was the flower of his time. I remember I have 
heard that one time he had not made his exercise (verse) 
and spake to one of his forme to shew him his, which he sawe. 
The schoolmaster presently calles for the exercises, and 
Hoskyns told him that he had writ it out but lost it, but he 
could repeate it, and repeated the other boye's exercise 
(I think 12 or 16 verses) only at once reading over. When 
the boy who really had made them shewed the -master the 
same, and could not repeate them, he was whipped for 
stealing Hoskyns' exercise. I thinke John Owen ^ and 
he were schoole-fellowes. There were many pretty stories 
of him when a schooleboy, which I have forgott. I have 
heard his son say that he was a yeare at Westminster ; and 
not speeding there, he was sent to Winton. 

The Latin verses in the quadrangle at Winton Colledge *, 
at the cocks where the boyes wash their hands, were of his 
making, where there is the picture * of a good servant, with 
hind's feet, . . . head, a padlock on his lippes, . . . 
The Latin verses describe the properties of a good servant. 

When he came to New College, he was Terrae filius ; 
but he was so bitterly satyricall that he was expelled and 
putt to his shifts. 

He went into Somersetshire and taught a schole for 
about a yeare at Ilchester. He compiled there a Greeke 
lexicon as far as M, which I have seen. He maried (neer 
there) a rich widowe, [of Mr. Bourne] ; she was a Moyle of 
Kent ; by whome he had only one sonne and one daughter. 

[After ^ his mariage] he admitted himselfe at the Middle 
Temple, London. He wore good cloathes, and kept good 
company. His excellent witt gave him letters of com- 
mendacion to all ingeniose persons. At his * first comeing 
to London he gott acquainted with the under-secretaries at 
court, where he was often usefull to them in writing their 
Latin letters. 

His great witt quickly made him be taken notice of. 

» Dupl. with 'emblem.' " Scored out. 

* MS. Rawl. D. 727, fol. 93^ 
I. E e 



4i8 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

Ben: Johnson called h\m father. Sir Benet (bishop Benet* 
of Hereford was his godfather) told me that one time 
desiring Mr. Johnson to adopt him for his sonne, ' No,' 
said he, ' I dare not ; 'tis honour enough for me to be your 
brother : I was your father's sonne, and 'twas he that polished 
me.' In shorte, his acquaintance were all the witts then about 
the towne ; e. g. Sir Walter Raleigh, who was his fellow- 
prisoner in the Tower, where he was Sir Walter's Aristarchus 
to reviewe and polish Sir Walter's stile ; John Donne, D.D. ; 
John Owen, (vide Epigr. i — 

Hie liber est mundus ; homines sunt, Hoskine, versus : 
Invenies paucos hie ut in orbe bonos ;) 

(Richard) Martyn, recorder of London ; Sir Benjamin 
Ruddyer, with whom it was once his fortune to have a 
quarrell and fought a duell with him and hurt him in the 
knee, but they were afterwards friends again ; Sir Henry 
Wotton, provost of Eaton College ; cum multis aliis. 

His conversation was exceedingly pleasant, and on the 
roade he would make any one good company to him. He 
was a great master of the Latin and Greke languages ; 
a great divine. He understood the lawe well, but worst 
at that. 

He was admitted at the Middle Temple anno . . - ; 
called to be a Serjeant at lawe anno (1633) (vide (Sir 
William Dugdale's) Origines jfuridiciales). 

His verses on the fart in the Parliament house are 
printed in some of the Drolleries. He had a booke of 
poemes, neatly written by one of his clerkes, bigger then 
Dr. Donne's poemes, which his sonn Benet lent to he knowes 
not who, about 1653, and could never heare of it since. 
Mr. Thomas Henshawe haz an excellent Latin copie in 
rhythme in the prayse of ale of his. 

He was a very strong man and active. He did the 
pomado in the saddle of the third horse in his armour 
(which Sir John Hoskins haz still) before William, earle 
of Pembroke. He was about my heigh th. 

" Robert Bennet, bishop of Hereford 1602-1617. 



John Hoskyns 



419 



He had a very readie witt, and would make verses on 
the roade, where he was the best company in the world. 
In Sir H. Wotton's Remaynes are verses (dialogue) made 
on the roade by him and Sir Henry. He made an antheme 
(gett it) in English to be sung at Hereford Minster at the 
assizes ; but Sir Robert Harley (a great Puritan) was much 
offended at it. He made the epitaph on (Peter) Woodgate 
in New College cloysters. He made the best Latin epitaphs 
of his time ; amongst many others an excellent one on 
<Sir Moyle) Finch, this earl of Winchelsey's grandfather, 
who haz a noble monument at Eastwell in Kent. 

I will now describe his seate at Morhampton (Hereff.), 
which he bought of . . . 

* At the gate-house is the picture of the old fellowe 
that made the fires, with a block on his back, boytle and 
wedges and hatchet. By him, this distich : — 

Gratus ades quisquis descendis, amicus et hospes : 
Non decet hos humiles mensa superba Lares. 

By the porch of the howse, on the wall, is the picture in 
the margent : — 




Above it are these verses : — 

Stat coelum, fateor, Copemice ; terra movetur ; 
Et mutant dominos tecta rotata suos. 
* MS. Rawl. D. 727, fol. 94. 
E e a 



420 Aubreys 'Brief Lives' 

111 the chapelle, over the altar, are these two Hebrewe 
words*, viz. : — 

T : IT T : 1.T ; - IT 1 

and underneath this distich (i Reg. 8. 30) : — 

Hac quicunque oral supplex exoret in aede, 
Nee pereant servis irrita vota tuis. 

Here is an organ that was queen Elizabeth's. 

In the gallery (is) the picture of his brother ((the) 
Doctor) in the pulpit, (of the) Serjeant in his robes, the 
howse, parke, etc. ; and underneath are these verses : — 

Est casa, sunt eolles, lateres^, vivaria", lymphae, 
Pascua, sylva, Ceres '^ : si placet, adde preces". 

In the garden, the picture of the gardiner, on the wall 
of the howse, with his rake, spade, and water-pott in his 
left hand. By it, this distich : — • 

Pascitur et pascit locus hie, ornatur et omat : 
Istud opus nondum lapsus amaret Adam. 

In the first leafe of his fee-booke he drew the picture of 
a purse as in the margent. 




and wrote ^ 60J/UJLU 0(rX\ V^\ff. 



.V v«/: 



dCO/UJ^ 



underneath, out of Theocritus. 

° ' And when thou hearest, forgive.' i Kings viii. 30. 

'' Aubrey adds the interpretation: — 'quarries.' 

<= ' Parke.' * ' Harvest.' " ' Chapelle.' 



Johi Hoskyns 421 



On his picture in the low gallery are writt on his deske 
these verses, viz. : — 

Undecies senos exegi strenuus annos, 

Jam veniet nullo mors inopina die ; 
Quae dixi, scrips!, gessive negotia, lusus, 

Obruat aeterno pax taciturna sinu. 
Si quid jure petunt homines, respondeat liaeres, 

Dissipet ut cineres nulla querela meos. 
* Ouodque Deo, decoctor iniquus, debeo, solve, 

Quaeso, Fidejussor, i =^"S."'"^ \ , Christe, *^'° \ ■ 
( nomme ) ( meo ) 

These verses with a little alteration are sett on his 
monument. 

Under severall venerable and shady oakes in the parke, 
he had seates made ; and where was a fine purling spring, 
he did curbe it with stone. 

This putts me in mind of Fr. Petrarch's villa in Italic, 
which is not long since printed, where were such devises — 
vide Tomasini Petrarcha redivivus, Lat., Amsterdam, lamo. 

Besides his excellent naturall memorie, he acquired the 
artificiall way of memorie. 

He wrote his owne life (which his grandsonne Sir John 
Hoskyns, knight and baronet, haz), which was to shew 
that wheras Plutarch, ...,..., etc., had wrote the lives 
of many generalles, etc., grandees, that he, or an active 
man might, from a private fortune byhiswitt and Industrie 
attained to the dignity of a serjeant-at-lawe — but he should 
have said that they must have parts like his too. — This 
life I cannot borrowe. 

He wrote severall treatises. Amongst others : — 
a booke of style ; 
a method of the lawe (imperfect). 

His familiar letters were admirable. 

He was a close prisoner in the Tower, tempore regis 
Jacobi, for speaking too boldly in the Parliament house 
of the king's profuse liberality to the Scotts. He made 
a comparison of a conduit, whereinto water came, and 

* MS. Rawl. D. 727, fol. 94'. 



422 Aubrey s 'Brief Lives' 

ran-out afarre-off. ' Now,' said he, ' this pipe reaches as 
far as Edinborough.' He was kept a ' close prisoner ' 
there, i. e., his windowes were boarded up. Through a 
small chinke he sawe once a crowe, and another time, a 
kite ; the sight whereof, he sayd, was a great pleasure to 
him. He, with much adoe, obtained at length the favour 
to have his little son Bennet to be with him ; and he then 
made this distich, viz. : — 

Parvule dum puer es, nee scis incommoda linguae, 
Vincula da linguae, vel tibi vincla dabit. 

Thus Englished by him : — 

My little Ben, whil'st thou art young. 
And know'st not how to rule thy tongue, 
Make it thy slave whil'st thou art free, 
Least it, as mine, imprison thee. 

* I have heard that when he came out of the Tower, his 
crest (before expressed) was graunted him, viz., ' a lyon's 
head couped or, breathing fire.' The serjeant would say 
jocosely that it was the only lyon's head in England that 
tooke tobacco. 

Not many moneths before his death (being at the assises 
or sessions at Hereford) a massive countrey fellowe trod on 
his toe, which caused a gangrene which was the cause of 
t Mr Dighton ^^^ death. One Mr. Dighton f of Glocester (an 
sa°"that'he''™^^ experienced chirurgian who had formerly been 
ob"erv'd''in the chirurgian in the warres in Ireland) was sent 
thosVmen''that^' fo'' to curc him ; but his skill and care could 
wenches'the'day "0^ save him. His toes were first cutt-off. 
battayiedther The minister of his parish had a clubbe-foote 
fiiotforTme""" or fecte (I think his name was Hugh). Said 
hlad^.'hi^iius he, ' Sir Hugh' — after his toes were cutt off — 
' I must be acquainted with your shoemaker.' 

Sir Robert Pye, attorney of the court of wardes, was his 
neighbour, but there was no great goodwill between them — 
Sir Robert was haughty. He happened to dye on Christ- 
mas day : the newes being brought to the serjeant, said 
he ' The deviU haz a Christmas pye.' 

* MS. Rawl. D. 727, fol. 95. 



John Hoskyns 423 

He was a very strong man, and valiant, and an early 
riser in the morning (scil., at four in the morning). He 
was black-eyed and had black hayre. 

He lies buried under an altar monument on the north 
side of the choire of Dowr abbey in Herefordshire. 

(In this abbey church of Dowre are two frustum's or 
remaynders of mayled and crosse-legged monuments, one 
sayd to be of a lord Chandois, th' other, the lord of 
Ewyas-lacy. A little before I sawe them a mower had 
taken one of the armes to whett his syth.) 

On his monument is this inscription : — 

Hoc tegitur tumulo totus quern non tegit orbis, 

Hoskinus, huraani prodigium ingenii, 
Usque adeo excoluit duo pugnacissima rerum 
Et quae non subeunt numjna" pectus idem, 
Pieridum Legumque potens, jucundus honesto 

Mixtus, Liticulans Musa, forense melos, 
Orando causas pariter pariterqije canendo, 
Captavit merito clarus utrumque sophos. 
Sic dum jura tenens Solymorum et gentis Idumae, 
Narratur cythara percrepuisse David; 
* Talem Thebanas^ struxisse Amphiona turres, 
Sic indefessa personuisse chely. 
Sic populos traxisse truces et agrestibus antris 

Exutos homines consociasse lyri ; 
Sic magni pectus divinujn arsisse Platonis, 
Turn, cum deplorans Astejra, jura daret ; 
Talem credibile est vixisse Solona poetam 

Et queiscunque datum est et sapere et furere °. 
Sed tu, magne, peris, dum lis certatur utrinque, 

Te Astraea suum vukque Thalia suum. 
Haec habitat coelis, sed et haec terrestribus oris, 

Ipse tui judex poneris ante Deos; 
Scilicet in partes se dividit Hoskinus ambo, 
Haec coelo potitur particula, ilia solo. 
Canoro cineri jurisprudentissimi 
Parentis pii, memoriae ergo, 
hunc posuit cippum conscriptum marmoreum 
flens Benettus, sequiturque Patrem 
non passibus acquis. 



Obiit Aug. 27 
1638 



» ' nomina ' in MS. ° ' Thebanos ' in MS. 

' MS. Rawl. D. 727, fol. 95'. " Subst. for ' vivere.' 



424 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

This epitaph was made by Thomas Bonham, of Essex, 
esquier. 

The Serjeant's epitaph on his wife at Bowe church, 
Heriff. :— 

Hie Benedicta jacet, de qua maledicere nemo 
Cui genus aut virtus vel pia lingua potest: 

Bournii et Hoskinii conjux et prolis utrique 
Mater erat, Moyli filia, serva Dei. 

On Mr. Bourne, his sonne-in-Iawe ", by him : — 

Nobilis innocuos transegit Bournius annos 
Multa legens, callens plurima, pauca loquens. 

Juridicus causis neque se ditavit ^ agendis 
Non in habendo locans sed moriendo lucrum. 

* Serjeant Hoskins : — Serviens ad legem ; quaere, if {he 
was) a knight. His crest (I believe) granted for his bold 
spirit, and (I suppose) contrived by himselfe. 

Amici < included) Egremund Thynne. 
Hie jacet Egremundus Rarus, 
Tuendis paradoxis clarus. 
Mortuus est, ut hie apparet : 
At si loqui posset, hoc negaret. 

Was wont to say that all those that came to London 
were either carrion or crowes. 

** (Memorandum) : — Hoskyns — to collect his nonsense 
discourse, which is very good. 

Notes. 

' Aubrey gives in trick the coat; — 'parted per pale gules and azure, a 
chevron between 3 lions rampant or [Hfoskyns] : the crest is a lion's head 
crowned or, vomiting flames.' 

^ John Hoskins, of ' Mownton ' (Monnington on the Wye) in ' Lanwarne ' 
parish, Hereford, was admitted probationer of New College June 22, 1584, and 
Fellow 1586. He was expelled in 1591 ' propter dicteria maledica sub persona 
Terrae fdii.' This was the Serjeant-at-Law. 

John Hoskins, of ' Mownton in Lanwarne parish,' Hereford, was admitted 
probationer of New College, Aug. 24, 1599, and fellow Aug. 24, 1601, and 
resigned his fellowship in 1613. He took D.C.L. in 1613. He died in 1631 
(buried at Ledbury, on August g). This was ' the Doctor,' 

' His step-son, more correctly. * MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 15'. 

" ' dicavit' in MS. ** MS. Aubr. 21, p. 15. 



Sir John Hoskyns. Charles Howard 425 

^ John Owen (the 'epigrammatist'), of Armon in Carnarvonshire, was 
admitted probationer of New College Oct. 20, 1583, and Fellow March 31, 1584. 
He resigned his fellowship in 1591. 

* Aubrey, writing Oct. 35', 1671, in Wood MS. F. 39, fol. 142, says :— 
' At Winton College is the picture of a servant with asses eares and hind's 
feet, a lock on month, etc., very good hi(er)oglyphick, with a hexastiqne in 
Latin underneath. ... It was done by the Serjeant when he went to school 
there; but now finely painted. It is at the fountain where the boyes wash 
their hands.' 

Sir John Hoskyns (i 634-1 705). 

* Sir John Hoskyns, knight, one of the Masters of the 
Chancery, borne at Morehampton in the countie of Here- 
ford, A.D. . . . 

Aug. 3rd, 1671, the native maryed. 

Aug. 30, 1667, the native broke his thigh; Oct. 1671, 
the native had another fall which was no lesse dangerous 
then the former. 

Sir John Hoskyns' eldest son John^, borne at . . ., 14 die 
Novembr. 1673, 4'' 48' A.M. Obiit . . . 1684. 

Mris Jane Hoskyns, daughter of Sir John Hoskyns of 
Morhamton, Hereff., borne at Harwood in com. praedict. 
March the and, about 6 a clock in the morning, A.D. 
1671. 

** Gazette de Londres : — Jean Hoskins, esq., honore du 
titre de chevalerie et I'un de maitres ordinaires de la 
cancellerie 30 Janvier 1675. 

Note. 
1 In MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 63, is a letter to Aubrey from Sir John Hoskyns, 
datedNov. 15, 1673, announcing the birth of this son onNov. 14, 4'' 48' A.M., and 
asking him to send to H. C, i.e. Henry Coley the astrologer. 

Charles Howard (16 16-). 

*** Charles Howard, eldest son of the honourable Charles 
Howard of Norfolke, borne 1664 (old style) on a Thursday 
between 3 and 4 of the clocke in the morning, the last day 
of March, London. Obiit May 5th 1677, of the small pox. 

Henry Howard, second son, borne 1668, between 8 and 

* MS. Aubr. 23, notes in foil. 65, ** MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 102. 

(5jY 6y^ 67'. *** MS. Aubr. 23, slips at fol. loC^. 



426 Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' 

9 in the morning, being Sunday 18 of Oct., St. Luke's 
day. 

Thomas Howard, 3rd son, born 12 of July, between one 
and 2 in the morning, 1670, being Thursday. Obiit, All 
Saints (day), twelvemonth after his birth. 

Elizabeth Teresa Howard borne the 6 of April, being 
Easter Eve, 22 minutes after 9 of the clock in the evening. 
Obiit August i2-moneth after her birth. 

Robert Hues (i 553-1 632). 

* My cosen Whitney, a parson, quondam Aeneinas., told 
me that Hues de Globis was of that house ^ ; which I put 
downe in the margent of the Oxford book''. 

** Mr. Ashmole thinkes that Robert Hues was of Christ 
Church. Perhaps he might be of St. Mary Hall too — for 
so my old cosin Whitney told me by tradition. 

*** Hues de Globis : — I have heard my old cosen parson 
Whitney say- — an old fellow of Brasennose (dyed la yeares 
since, aetat. 78 or 9) — (that) he was of St. Mary Hall. 

Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon (160I-1674). 

**** Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor of 
England, was borne at Dinton in com. Wilts., anno Domini 
1608, Febr. 16, as this'' earle thinkes. He told me he has 
his father s life written by himselfe, but 'tis not fitt so soon 
to publish it. 

***** I thinke I told you that this earl of Clarendon told 
me his father was writing the history of our late 
times. He beginns with king Charles 1st and brought it 
to the restauration of king Charles II, when, as he was 
writing, the penne fell out of his hand : he took it up 

* Anbrey in M.S. Wood F. 39, fol. 237 : Nov. 30, 1673. 
234 : Nov. 15, 1673. *** Ibid., fol. 343': Aug. 7, 1680. 

» Wood notes liere, 'quaere': see **** MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 2. 

the corrections in the next paragraphs. " Henry, 2nd earl. 

•■ i.e. the Oxford 1663 edition of ***** Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, 

the £>e globis. fol. 366 : June 24, 1682. 

** Aubrey in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 



Edward Hyde 



427 



again to write : it fell out again. So then he percieved he 
was attacqued by death, scilicet, the dead palsey. — They 
say 'tis very well donne ; but his sonne will not print it. 

* I advertised you, in my last, of a booke printed 
newly by . . . Royston, viz. ' A vindication of Dr. Stilling- 
fleet against Dr. Cressy, writt by a person of honour.^ Mr. 
Royston assures me the earl of Clarendon is the author. 

** The place of the Lord Chancellor Hyde's birth 
is Dinton, four miles from Chalke. 



Laurence Hyde, 

of Hatch (a hamlet), Wilts. ; caine out of Cheshire; the third son 
of Robert Hyde, prout per inscription at Tisbury Cliurch. 



. . . Hyde, 
of Hatch. 



Edward. 

I 

No sonn : 

a daughter 

and lieire. 



I 
Sir Laurence 

Hyde, of 
Hele, Wilts. 



sine 
prole. 



,^. Sir Nicholas Hyde, 
Lord Chief Justice 
of the King's Bench, 



4. ... (I thinke, Robert) Hyde of 
Purton neer Highworth : he 
M£?z rented this estate at Dinton 
of his brother Sir Laurence. 

Lord Chancellor Hyde. 



2. Sir Robert 
Hyde, Lord 
Chief Justice 
of the King's 
Bench ; sine 
prole. 



3. (Alexander 
Hyde >, 
bishop of 
Sarum. 

Robert. 

No child living. 



I 
4 

LL. Dr. 
sine 
prole. 



1 I 

5. . . ., 6. (James 

consul ; Hyde ), 

beheaded; M.D.,prin 



sine 
prole. 



cipal of 

Magdalen 

Hall. 

I 
I I 



Ibid.j fol. 250: Jan. J, 167I. 



** Ibid., fol. 365: June 24, 1G82 



OXFOKD 

PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 

BY HORACE HART, M.A. 

PRINTER TO THE aNIVERSITY