Chapter D: O. M (2)

Aurea dum volitant latè tua scripta per orbem,
Et famâ aeternùm vivis, divine Poeta,
Hic placidâ jaceas requie; custodiat urnam
Cana Fides, vigilentque perenni lampade Musae;
Sit sacer iste locus. Nec quis temerarius ausit
Sacrilegâ turbare manu venerabile bustum.
Intacti maneant, maneant per secula, dulcis
Coulei cineres serventque immobile saxum.

Sic vovet,

Votumque suum apud posteros sacratum esse voluit, qui
viro incomparabili posuit sepulcrale marmor, GEORGIUS dux
BUCKINGHAMIAE.

Abraham Cowley excessit e vitâ anno aetatis suae 49; et,
honorificâ pompâ elatus ex Aedibus Buckinghamianis, viris[LI.]
illustribus omnium ordinum exequias celebrantibus, sepultus est
die 3 mensis Augusti anno Domini 1667.

[LI.] His grace the duke of Bucks held a tassell of the pall.

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.[704] Killigrew writt,
They'd both have made a <very> good witt.

--A. C. discoursed very ill and with hesitation.

He writ when a boy at Westminster ... poems and a comedy called _Love's Riddle_, dedicated to Sir Kenelme Digby; printed, London, ..., 8vo.

[705]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 creditors for some debt. This I had from Mr. Dunning of London, a scrivener, who is an acquaintance of Dr. Cowley's 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._

[CW] Aubrey notes that he was of 'Cambridge,' and gives in trick the coat:--'..., a lion rampant ..., within a bordure engrailed ...,' wreathed in laurel.

=... Cradock.=

[706]Memorandum:--Mris Smyth[707] told me of one ... Cradock in the west (where Mris Smyth's relations or birth) from a cratch dyed worth 10,000 _li._--Quaere de hoc, e.g. <at> Taunton or Warminster.

=William Croone= (1633-1684).

[708]... 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.=

[709]Madam Curtin, a good fortune of 3000 _li._, 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.

=Robert Dalzell=, earl of Carnwarth (15..-1654).

[710]'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 Carnwath 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.

=Sir Charles Danvers= (1568-1600/1).

[711]Sir Charles Danvers was beheaded on Tower-hill with Robert, earle of Essex, February the 6th, 1600[712]. 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[CX] in Wilts to lye with his ancestors. Vide Stowe's Chronicle, where is a full account of his and the earle's deportment at their death on the scaffold.

With all their faylings, Wilts cannot shew two such[713] brothers.

His familiar acquaintance were ...[714], 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.

[715]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._

[CX] 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.

=Elizabeth Danvers.=

[716]His[CY] 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 politician; great witt and spirit, but revengefull[717].

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[718] she maryed Sir Edmund Carey, cosen-german to queen Elizabeth, but kept him to hard meate.

Smyth of Smythcotes--Naboth's vineyard--digitus Dei[CZ].

The _arcanum_--'traditio lampadis' in the family of Latimer[DA] of poysoning king Henry 8--from my lady Purbec.

_Notes._

[CY] i.e. Henry, earl 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.'

[CZ] I do not know to what circumstance, in the history of the Danvers family, Aubrey here applies 1 Kings xxi. 19.

[DA] Catherine Parr, last consort of Henry VIII, 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).

[719]Henry Danvers[DB], earl of Danby; vide his christning and epitaph in libro[DC] 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[DD] 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[720] in his armes. My great-grandfather, 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; inscription at Dantesey.

<He> gave to Sir Thomas Overbury _cloath_.

<He> perfected his Latin when a man by parson Oldham of Dodmerton. <He was a> perfect master of the French; a historian; tall and spare; temperate; sedate and solid; a very great favorite of prince Henry; lived most at Cornbury; a great improver of his estate, to 11000 _li._ per annum at the least; sold the 7 Downes, and turned the[721] ⓐ into lease; afterwards bought fee-simple neer Cirencester.

[722]Henry, earl of Danby, <was a> great oeconomist. All his servants <were> sober and wise[723] in their respective places. <He> kept ... gentlemen: <among them> colonel Legge[724] (governor of Portsmouth); and his brother; Mr. Arthur Drake (brother of Sir ... Drake, baronet).

[725]Earl of Danby--he was page to Sir Philip Sydney--from my cozen Elizabeth Villers: quaere +.

[726]Memorandum:--anno Domini, 16--, regno regis Caroli primi, Henry, earle of Danby, built an almeshowse in this parish <Dantesey, co. Wilts> for <six> poore people and[727] a schoole--quaere the salary[DE] of both.

_Notes._

[DB] 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.

[DC] i.e. in MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 46: see _supra_, p. 192. The epitaph contains English verses by George Herbert.

[DD] Henry, brother of Sir Robert, Long was killed, possibly in fair fight, by Sir Charles, brother of this Henry, Danvers: see the _Archaeological Magazine_, i. 306. In consequence, the Danvers brothers had to seek safety in France. In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 44ᵛ, Aubrey notes 'Sommerford magna--the assassination of 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.'

[DE] See Jackson's Aubrey's _Wiltshire Collections_, p. 228.

=Sir John Danvers= (15..-1594).

[728]Sir John Danvers, the father, <was> a most beautifull and good and even-tempered person. His picture <is> yet extant--my cosen John Danvers (his son[729]) haz it at ... Memorandum, George Herbert's verses on the curtaine.

He was of a mild and peaceable nature, and his sonnes' sad accident[730] brake his heart.

[731]By the same[732] (orator of the University of Cambridge), 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[733], and I have donne.

=Sir John Danvers= (1588?-1655).

[734]Sir John Danvers:--His first wife was the lady <Magdalen> Herbert, a widowe, mother of the lord Edward 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[735] was greatly displeased with him for this dis-agreable match.

[736]Sir John, his sonne, was then[737] a child about six. An ingeniose person, e.g. Chelsey house and garden, and Lavington garden[738]. 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[739] ingratiate 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 (2500 _li._ per annum), not entailed, <was> forfeited and given to the duke of Yorke.

His son, John, by his last wife (<Grace> Hughes), has 500 _li._ per annum (old land) in Oxonshire, which was part of judge[740] 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[741] <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[DF],
being the nativities of Robert Danvers, esq. (that is, Robert
Villers, son of the viscount Purbec[DG]), the lady Elizabeth
his wife, and their six children, vidᵗ. foure daughters and two
sonnes, diligently calculated according to art by the Tables
of Regiomontanus by W. C.' This paper supplies the following
dates:-->

[742]Robert Danvers[DH], esq., _m._ the lady Danvers[743], born
born 19 Oct., 1624, | Tuesday, 7 Aprill, 1629,
11ʰ 48´ P.M. | 5ʰ 26´ P.M.

Mris Frances Danvers, born Friday 12 July 1650, 0ʰ 16´ P.M.

Mris Elizabeth Danvers, born Monday 10 November 1651, 10ʰ 21´ P.M.

Mris Ann Danvers, born Sunday 23 October 1653, 5ʰ 10´ A.M.

Mris Mary Danvers, born Saturday 10 November 1655, 7ʰ 28´ A.M.

Mr. Robert Danvers, born Saturday 14 Martii 1656/7, 5ʰ 30´ A.M.

Mr. Edward Danvers, born Thursday 28 Martii 1661, 4ʰ 9´ A.M.

[744]Memorandum, 1676, July 19, P.M., about 6ʰ, my lord viscount (Robert) Purbec, filius, was hurt in the neck by Mr. Fielding[DI] 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 IIᵈ--I thinke in the month of Aprill.

_Notes._

[DF] In MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 97ᵛ, is a note:--'These,' I suppose the schemes given on the recto of the leaf, 'were done when he,' Robert Danvers, 'was in Caersbrooke Castle, prisoner, in the Isle of Wight.'

[DG] In MS. Aubr. 23, on a slip at fol. 121ᵛ, is the note:--'Lord ... Purbec,' i.e. John Villiers, created viscount Purbeck in 1619, 'natus at Godbee, Sept. 6, 12ʰ P.M., 1591: melancholy. His mother saith he was borne Sept. 6, Monday, 12ʰ P.M., 1591. Mris Toman writeth that it was 2ʰ 30´ P.M.'

[DH] 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.

[DI] Robert Fielding ('Beau' Fielding) afterwards married his widow, Margaret, daughter of Ulick Burke, marquis of Clanricarde.

=Michael Dary= (16..-1679).

[745]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[746] his fingers rotted and gangraened. He was an old man; I guesse about 66 +.

=Edward Davenant=, merchant (15..-16..).

[747]Edward Davenant, merchant: he lies buried behind the bishop's stall at Sarum with this inscription[748]:--

Literas, lyceo, rerumque usus, emporio, etc.

[749]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[750] 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..-1679/80).

[751]Edward Davenant[DJ], 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[752] man in his time, and deserves to be remembred. He was of a healthy complexion[753], rose at 4 or 5 in the morning, so 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 fishery for pilchards at Wythy Island, in Ireland, where in ... yeares he gott 10000 _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 pacis publicae
Populum ditavit inopem, emollivit ferum,
Gratus et charus Anglis et Hibernicis.
Musis dilectus Latiis, nec minus Atticis,
Studiisque fratrem, hujus ecclesiae praesulem,
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[754] bonorum, plausu omnium, exiit.
Quid multis? Scias hoc, lector: vivus memoria
Pollebat mirâ, mortuus redolet suavi.

Obiit anno { Aetatis suae ...
{ Aerae Christianae ...

[755]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[756] 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 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) maried 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[757] 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 and his predecessor, Dr. <John> Jessop, had been vicars one hundred and ... yeares, and lyes buryed in the chancell there. Obiit March 9th, 1679/80, and was buried the 31 of the same month.

He was heire to his uncle, John Davenant, bishop of Sarum. Memorandum:--when bishop Coldwell[DK] 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 unprovided for, so the king or rather duke of Bucks gave bishop Davenant the bishoprick out of pure charity[DL]. 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 heard 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 Geometric; his 2 eldest daughters, especially Mris Ettrick, was a notable Algebrist.

☞ _Memoria._ He had an excellent way of improving 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 _vivâ 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.'

[758]Edward Davenant, D.D., obiit 12 of March 1679/80, and is seated in the north side of the east end of the chancell at Gillingham, Dorset.--From Anthony Ettrick, esq.

[759]By Dr. Edward Davenant, S.T.P., _Versus mnemonici ad computationes cossicas_. Memorandum:--Dr. Davenant hath excellent explanations of these verses, which transcribe: his son James[DM], at Oriel College Oxon, hath them.

_Notes._

[DJ] Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'gules, between 9 cross-crosslets fitchée or, 3 escallops ermine [Davenant].'

[DK] John Coldwell was consecrated Dec. 26, 1591, and died Oct. 14, 1596.

[DL] Robert Tounson, consecrated July 9, 1620, died May 15, 1621, leaving a widow and fifteen children. The congé d'élire on behalf of Davenant was issued May 29, 1621.

[DM] James Davenant, matric. at Oriel, July 23, 1656.

=John Davenant= (1576-1641).

[760]John Davenant, episcopus Sarum: his epitaph made by bishop Pierson[761].

He bought the advowson of Newton-tony, Wilts, which he gave to Queene's College[762], Cambridge--quaere if not others.

He hung the choire of Sarum with purple velvet, which was plundered in the sacrilegious times.

=Sir William Davenant= (1605/6-1668).

[763]Sir William Davenant[DN], knight, Poet Laureate, was borne [about[764] the end of February--vide A. Wood's _Antiq. Oxon._--baptized 3 of March A.D. 1605/6], in ... street in the city of Oxford at the Crowne taverne.

His father was John Davenant, a vintner there, a very grave and discreet citizen: his mother was a very beautifull woman, and of a very good witt, and of conversation extremely agreable. They had three sons, viz. 1, Robert[LII.], 2, William[765]; 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).

[LII.] Robert[766] was a fellow of St. John's College in Oxon: then preferred to the parsonage of West Kington by bishop Davenant, whose chaplaine he was.

Mr. William Shakespeare was wont to goe into Warwickshire once a yeare, and did commonly in his journey lye at this house in Oxon. where he was exceedingly respected. [I[767] 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[768] contented[769] enough to be thought his son. [He[770] would tell them the story as above, in which way his mother had a very light report[771].]

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.

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[772] in it, but without the expected successe; the spider would goe over, and thorough and thorough, unconcerned.

He was next a servant (as I remember, a page also) to Sir Fulke Grevil[773] 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[774] 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 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.

[775]In 1641, 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 10000 _li._ During that warre, 'twas his hap to have two aldermen of Yorke his prisoners, who were something stubborne, and would not give the ransome 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 à 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 commision) went into France; resided 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 8vo. 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 considerable 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 _uno ore_--'_Tout tisseran!_' i.e. _We are all weavers!_ Will. <took> 36, as I remember, if not[776]more, and shipped them; and[777] 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 Caresbroke-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, upon their owne accounts and meer motion, to try what they could to save Sir William's life who had been so civill to them and a meanes to save theirs, to come to London: and acquainting the Parliament with it, upon their petition, etc., Sir William's life was saved[LIII.].

[LIII.] 'Twas Harry Martyn that saved Sir William Davenant's life in the Howse.--When they were talking of sacrificing one, then said Henry that 'in sacrifices they always offered pure and without blemish: now yee talke of making a sacrifice of an old rotten rascall.' Vide H. Martyn's Life, where by _this very jest_, then[778] forgot, the lord Falkland saved H. Martyn's Life.

Being freed from imprisonment, (because playes, scil. Tragedies and Comoedies, were in those Presbyterian times scandalous) he contrives to set-up an Opera _stylo recitativo_, wherein serjeant Maynard and severall citizens were engagers. It began at Rutland-house, in Charter-house-yard; next, (scil. anno ...) at the Cock-pitt in Drury-lane, where were acted very well _stylo recitativo_, _Sir Francis Drake's ..._, and _the Siege of Rhodes_ (1st 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 where he dyed, April the <7th> 166<8>[LIV.].

[LIV.] It is now a Tennis court again, upon the building of the duke's house in Dorset garden.

I was at his funerall. He had a coffin of walnutt-tree; Sir[779] John Denham sayd 'twas the finest coffin that ever he sawe.[780]His body was carried in a herse from the play-house to Westminster-Abbey, where, at the great west dore, he was recieved by the sing<ing> men and choristers, who sang the service of the church ('I am the Resurrection, &c.') to his[LV.] grave, which is in the south crosse aisle, on which, on a paving stone of marble, is writt, in imitation of that on Ben Johnson, '_O rare Sir Will. Davenant_.'

[LV.] Which is neer to the monument of Dr. Isaac Barrow.--Memorandum:--my honoured friend Sir Robert Moray lies by him; but _sans_ inscription.

His first lady was Dr. ...'s daughter, physitian, ... by whom he had a very beautifull 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[781]. 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 _Madagascar_.

His private opinion was that Religion at last,--e.g. a hundred yeares hence,--would come to settlement, and that in a kind of ingeniose Quakerisme.

[782]That sweet swan of Isis, Sir William Davenant, dyed the seaventh day of April last, and lyes buried amongst the poets in Westminster abbey[783], 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._

[DN] 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= (1597-1669/70).

[784]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.

[785]Sir John Dugdale saith that John Davenport was a nonconformist; and he hath enquired of his relations, who know nothing of him, if dead or alive, but they believe he is dead. He went over sea--he thinkes to the Barbadoes, or some of these plantations[786], or to Holland.

=John Davys= (1550-1605).

[787]Memorandum:--Mr. Browne, the mathematicall instrument 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= (1579-1651).

[788]'Arthur Dee,' (sonne of John Dee), a physitian at Norwych, 'was born 13 Julii 1579, manè, horâ 4. 30´ fere (vel potius, 25 min.) in ipso ortu solis, ut existimo'--Thus I find it in his father's _Ephemerides_.

Obiit Norwychi about 1650.

[789]<Arthur Dee told Dr. Bathurst and Dr. Wharton> 'that (being but a boy) he used[LVI.] to play at quoits with the plates of gold made by projection in the garret of Dr. Dee's lodgings in Prague.... When he was 9 yeares of age and at Trebona in Germany with his father, he was design'd to succede Kelly as his father's speculator.'

[LVI.] Mrs. Dee, wife to his son Mr. Rowland Dee, told me the other day that Dr. Arthur Dee hath often told her the same.

[790]<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).

[791]John Dee:--Mr. Ashmole hath his nativitie. Resp.--'tis in his _Theatrum Chemicum_. Hee had a very faire cleare rosie complexion: so had the earl of Rochester, exceeding.

[792]'Johannes Dee, natus Londini, 1527, Julii 13, 4ʰ 2´ P.M.'--this nativity[DO] I copied out of the learned John Dee's papers in the hands of Elias Ashmole, esq.

[793]From Elias Ashmole--the father of this John Dee was a vintner in ... London.

[794]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. Troutbec hath Raymund Lully's ... (a chymical tract) with John Dee's marginall notes.

[795]I left about 1674, with Mr. Elias Ashmole, 3 pages in folio concerning him[DP].

Memorandum:--Mr. Meredith Lloyd tells me that his father was Roland Dee[DQ], a Radnorshire gentleman[LVII.], and that he hath his pedegree, which he hath promised to lend to me. He was descended from Rees, prince of South Wales.

[LVII.] J. Dee's father was a vintner in London at the signe of ... in ...: from Elias Ashmole, esqre, who had it from his grandsonne (sonne of Arthur).

My great-grandfather, William Aubrey (LL.Dr.), and he were cosins, and intimate acquaintance. Mr. Ashmole hath letters between them, under their owne hands, viz. one of Dr. W. A. to him[796] (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 Norwich, an intimate friend of Sir Thomas Browne, M.D., who told me that Sir William Boswell, the Dutch ambassador, had all John Dee's MSS.: quaere his executors for his papers. He[797] lived then somewhere in Kent.

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[798] 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[799].

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 at a poole[LVIII.] in Brecknockshire, and that they found a wedge 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.

[LVIII.] Vide Almanac, about the poole in Brecon.

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[800] complexione (as Sir Henry Savile); a long beard as white as milke. A very handsome man.

Investigatio cinerum △

Old goodwife Faldo[DR] (a natif of Mortlak in Surrey), 80+ aetatis (1672[801]), 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 (marble) upon him. Her mother tended him in his sicknesse. She 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[LIX.]. 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.

[LIX.] A Brief History of Muscovia, by Mr. John Milton, Lond. 1682, pag. 100, scil. 1588. 'Dr. Giles Fletcher went ambassador from the 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.'

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 inscriptions 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_.

[802]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 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:--'Juxta Crucis
amnem (_Nant y groes_), in agro _Maessyuetiano_, apud
Cambro-brytannos, erat olim illustris quaedam _Nigrorum_
familia, unde _Joan Du_, id est, _Johannes_ ille cognomento
_Niger_, Londinensis, sui generis ortum traxit: vir certe
ornatissimus et doctissimus, et omnium hac nostra aetate tum
Philosophorum tum Mathematicorum facile princeps: monadis
illius Hieroglyphicae et Propaedeumatum aphoristicorum de
praestantioribus quibusdam Naturae virtutibus, aliorumque non
paucorum operum insignium autor eximius. Vir praeterea ob tam
multam experientiam frequenti sua in tot transmarinas regiones
peregrinatione comparatam, rerum quamplurimarum et abditarum
peritissimus.'

_Notes._

[DO] 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.

[DP] In MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 6, Aubrey notes:--'vide the new additions in John Dee's life.' This perhaps refers to MS. Aubr. 6, foll. 36-38, as being additional to the paper which he here says he left with Ashmole.

[DQ] 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 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. 36ᵛ, he gives in trick the coat for Dee's match '1578, Febr. 5,' with Jane Fromundz, viz.:--'in the 1 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.'

[DR] 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= (1639/40-16..).

[803]Thomas Deere, natus March 15º, 1639, 15ʰ 7´ P.M., at New Sarum--John Gadbury's advice, 1 April, 1676.

[804]Thomas Deare's letter:--

'From Stackton in parochia de Fordingbridge, die Jovis[805], 9
Martii, 1675/6, 2ʰ 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 followinge, 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 1663, 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 I suppose
3 or 4 or but 2 of these may doe well enough[806] etc. Yet
as to preferrment, etc.--In Aug. 1667, I was courted by the
old earle of Pembrook[807] to be his chiefe steward; but, hee
always vexed with false informations against me, I left his
ymployment.'

[808]Memorandum:--Mr. Th. Deer is now (Jan. 1677/8) in prison at Fisherton-Anger.

=Gideon de Laune= (1565?-1659).

[809]... De Laune:--he was apothecary to Mary the queen mother: came into England....

He was a very wise man, and as a signe[810] 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 John Denham= (1615-1668/9).

[811]Sir John Denham was unpolished with the small-pox: otherwise a fine complexion.

[812]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.'

[813]Sir John Denham[DS], Knight of the Bath, was borne at Dublin in Ireland, anno Domini....

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[LX.], one of the daughters of Sir Garret Moore, knight, lord baron of Mellifont, in the kingdome of Ireland, whom he maried during his service in Ireland in the place of Chief Justice there.

[LX.] She was a beautifull woman, as appeares by her monument at Egham. Sir John, they say, did much resemble his father.

From Trinity Colledge he went to Lincolnes-Inne, where (as judge Wadham Windham[814], 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 then of him, that he _broke-out like the Irish Rebellion[LXI.]--threescore thousand strong_, before any body was aware[815].

[LXI.] His play came out at that time.

He was much rooked by gamesters, and fell acquainted with that unsanctified crew, to his ruine. His father had some suspition of it, and chid him severely, wherupon his son John (only child) wrot a little essay in 8vo, printed ..., _Against[LXII.] gameing and to shew the vanities and inconveniences of it_, which he presented to his father to let him know his detestation of it[DT]. But shortly after his father's death[LXIII.] (who left 2,000 or 1,500 _li._ 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 200 _li._ one night at New-cutt. Anno ... (I ghesse 1642) he was high-sheriff of the countie of Surrey.

[LXII.] Vide Justus Turcaeus[816] _de lusu aleae_, where he proves 'tis a disease and that it proceeds from pride, and that the Spaniards (the proudest nation) are most[817] addicted to it.

[LXIII.] January 6, 1638[818], sepult. at Egham in 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 1642/3, after Edghill fight, his poeme called _Cowper's Hill_ was printed at Oxford, in a sort of browne paper, for then they could gett no better.

1646/7 (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,....