I have heard his skill in chemistry much commended; and he presented a precious extraction to king James, reputed a great preserver of health, and prolonger of life. He conceived by such helps to have added to his vigorous vivacity, though I think a merry heart (whereof he had a great measure) was his best elixir to that purpose. He died, exceeding aged, anno Domini 1641. JOHN BUCKBRIDGE was born at Draycott nigh Marlborough in this county; and bred under Master Mullcaster in Merchant Taylors' School; from whence he was sent to Saint John's College in Oxford, where, from a fellow, he became doctor of divinity, and president thereof. He afterwards succeeded doctor Lancelot Andrews, in the vicarage of Saint Giles' Cripplegate, in which cure they lived one-and-twenty years a-piece; and indeed great was the intimacy betwixt these two learned prelates. On the 9th of June 1611, he was consecrated bishop of Rochester; and afterwards set forth a learned book, in opposition of John Fisher, "De potestate Papæ in Temporalibus," of which my author doth affirm, "Johannem itaque Roffensem habemus, quem Johanni Roffensi opponamus, Fishero Buckerigium, cujus argumentis (si quid ego video) ne à mille quidem Fisheris unquam respondebitur.'"+ He was afterwards preferred bishop of Ely; and having preached the funeral sermon of bishop Andrews (extant in print at the end of his works) survived him not a full year, dying anno Domini 1631. He was decently interred, by his own appointment, in the parish church of Bromley in Kent; the manor whereof belonged to the bishopric of Rochester. STATESMEN. EDWARD SEIMOR and THOMAS SEIMOR, both sons of Sir John Seimor, of Wolfull, knight, in this county. I join them together, because whilst they were united in affection they were invincible; but, when divided, easily overthrown by their ene mies. Edward Seymor duke of Somerset, lord protector and treasurer of England, being the elder brother, succeded to a fair paternal inheritance. He was a valiant soldier for land-service, fortunate, and generally beloved by martial men. Ile was of an open nature, free from jealousy and dissembling, affable to all people. He married Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhop, knight, a lady of a high mind and haughty undaunted spirit. Thomas Seymor, the younger brother, was made baron of Sudley. By offices and the favours of his nephew, king Edward the Sixth, he obtained a great estate. He was well experienced So am I informed by Mr. Anthony Holmes, his secretary, still alive.-F. † Godwin, in his Catalogue of the Bishops of Rochester. in sea affairs, and made lord admiral of England. He lay at a close posture, being of a reserved nature, and was more cunning in his carriage. He married queen Katharine Parr, the widow of king Henry the Eighth. Very great the animosities betwixt their wives; the duchess refusing to bear the queen's train, and in effect justled with her for precedence; so that what betwixt the train of the queen, and long gown of the duchess, they raised so much dust at the court, as at last put out the eyes of both their husbands, and occasioned their executions, as we have largely declared in our "Ecclesiastical History;" the Lord Thomas anno 1548-9; the Lord Edward anno 1551-2. Thus the two best bulwarks of the safety of king Edward the Sixth being demolished to the ground, duke Dudley had the advantages the nearer to approach and assault the king's person, and to practise his destruction, as is vehemently suspected. Sir OLIVER SAINT JOHN, Knight, lord Grandison, &c. was born of an ancient and honourable family, whose prime seat was at Lediard Tregoze in this county. He was bred in the wars from his youth, and at last by king James was appointed lord deputy of Ireland, and vigorously pursued the principles of his predecessors for the civilizing thereof. Indeed the lord Mountjoy reduced that country to obedience, the lord Chichester to some civility, and this lord Grandison first advanced it to considerable profit to his master. I confess T. Walsingham writeth, that Ireland afforded unto Edward the Third thirty thousand pounds a-year paid into his exchequer; but it appears by the Irish Records (which are rather to be believed) that it was rather a burden, and the constant revenue thereof beneath the third part of that proportion. But now, the kingdom being peaceably settled, the income thereof turned to good account, so that Ireland (called by my author the land of Ire, for the constant broils therein for four hundred years) was now become the land of concord. Being recalled into England, he lived many years in great repute, and dying without issue left his Honour to his sister's son by Sir Edward Villiers; but the main of his estate to his brother's son Sir John Saint John, knight and baronet. Sir JAMES LEY, Knight and Baronet, son of Henry Ley, esquire, (one of great ancestry, who on his own cost, with his men, valiantly served king Henry the Eighth at the siege of Boulogne), was born at Teffont in this county. Being his father's sixth son (and so in probability barred of his inheritance), he endeavoured to make himself an heir by his education, applying his book in Brasen-nose College, and afterwards studying the laws of the In the Life of Richard the Second. Sir John Davies, in Discoveries of Ireland, p. 39, &c. land in Lincoln's-Inn, wherein such his proficiency, king James made him lord chief justice in Ireland. Here he practised the charge king James gave him at his going over (yea, what his own tender conscience gave himself); namely, "not to build his estate on the ruins of a miserable nation; but aiming, by the impartial execution of justice, not to enrich himself, but civilize the people, he made a good progress therein. But the king would no longer lose him out of his own land, and therefore recalled him home about the time when his father's inheritance, by the death of his five elder brethren, descended upon him. It was not long before offices and honour flowed in fast upon him, being made By king James: 1. Attorney of the Court of Wards: 2. Chief Justice of the Upper Bench, 18th of his reign, Jan. 29: 3. Lord Treasurer of England, in the 22d of his reign, December 22: 4. Baron Ley of Ley in Devonshire, the last of the same month.* By king Charles: 1. Earl of Marlborough in this county, immediately after the king's coronation : 2. Lord President of the Council; in which place he died, anno Domini 1629. He was a person of great gravity, ability, and integrity; and, as the Caspian Sea is observed neither to ebb nor flow, so his mind did not rise or fall, but continued the same constancy in all conditions. Sir FRANCIS COTTINGTON, Knight, was born nigh Mere in this county, and bred, when a youth, under Sir Stafford. He lived so long in Spain, till he made the garb and gravity of that nation become his, and become him. He raised himself by his natural strength, without any artificial advantage; having his parts above his learning, his experience above his parts, his industry above his experience, and (some will say) his success above all: so that at the last he became chancellor of the Exchequer, baron of Hanworth in Middlesex, and (upon the resignation of doctor Juxon) lord treasurer of England, gaining also a very great estate. But what he got in few years he lost in fewer days, since our civil wars, when the parliament was pleased (for reasons only known to themselves) to make him one of the examples of their severity, excluding him pardon, but permitting his departure beyond the seas, where he died about the year 1650. CAPITAL JUDGES. Sir NICHOLAS HYDE, Knight, was born at Warder in this county, where his father, in right of his wife, had a long lease of that castle from the family of the Arundels. His father, I J. Philipot, in his Catalogue of Lord Treasurers, p. 84. say (descended from an ancient family in Cheshire) a fortunate gentleman in all his children (and more in his grand-children); some of his under-boughs out-growing the top branch, and younger children (amongst whom Sir Nicholas) in wealth and honour exceeding the heir of the family. He was bred in the Middle Temple, and was made serjeantat-law the first of February 1626; and on the eighth day following was sworn lord chief justice of the King's Bench, succeeding in that office next save one unto his countryman Sir James Ley (then alive, and preferred lord treasurer, born within two miles one of another), and next of all unto Sir Randall Carew lately displaced. Now, though he entered on his place with some disadvantage (Sir Randal being generally popular), and though in those days it was hard for the same person to please court and country, yet he discharged his office with laudable integrity; and died 1631.* SOLDIERS. First, for this county in general, hear what an ancient author, who wrote about the time of king Henry the Second, reporteth of it, whose words are worthy of our translation and exposition: "Provincia Severiana, quæ moderno usu ac nomine ab incolis Wiltesira vocatur, eodem jure sibi vendicat cohortem subsidiariam, adjecta sibi Devonia et Cornubia."+ ("The Severian Province, which by modern use and name is by the inhabitants called Wiltshire, by the same right challengeth to itself to have the rear, Devonshire and Cornwall being joined unto it.") The Severian Province.—We thank our author for expounding it Wiltshire; otherwise we should have sought for it in the north, near the wall of Severus. By the same right.-Viz. by which Kent claimeth to lead the vanguard, whereof formerly. To have the rear.-So translated by Mr. Selden § (from whom it is a sin to dissent in a criticism of antiquity); otherwise some would cavil it to be the reserve. Indeed the rear is the basis and foundation of an army; and it is one of the chief of divine promises, "The glory of the Lord shall be thy rear-ward."|| We read how the Romans placed their triarii (which were veteran soldiers) behind, and the service was very sharp indeed, cùm res rediit ad triarios. We may say that these three counties, Wiltshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, are the triarii of England; yet so that in our author Wiltshire appears as principal, the others being added for its assistance. * EDWARD HYDE, earl of Clarendon, was born at Dinton in this county in the year 1608, and was created lord chancellor of Great Britain by king Charles II. -ED. + Johannes Sarisburiensis, de Nugis Curialium, vi. cap. 18. Here I dare interpose nothing, why the two interjected counties betwixt Wilts and Devon, viz. Dorset and Somerset, are not mentioned, which giveth me cause to conjecture them included in Devonia, in the large acception thereof. Now amongst the many worthy soldiers which this county hath produced, give me leave to take special notice of HENRY D'ANVERS.-His ensuing epitaph on his monument in the Church of Dantsey in this shire, will better acquaint the reader with his deserts, than any character which my pen can give of him: "Here lieth the body of Henry Danvers, second son to Sir John Danvers, knight, and dame Elizabeth, daughter and coheir to Nevill lord Latimer. He was born at Dantsey in the county of Wilts, Jan. anno Domini 1573, being bred up partly in the Low Country wars under Maurice earl of Nassau, afterward prince of Orange; and in many other military actions of those times, both by sea and by land. He was made a captain in the wars of France, and there knighted for his good service under Henry the Fourth, the then French king. He was employed as lieutenant of the horse, and serjeant-major of the whole army in Ireland, under Robert earl of Essex, and Charles baron of Mountjoy, in the reign of queen Elizabeth. By king James the First he was made baron of Dansey, and peer of this realm, as also lord-president of Munster, and governor of Guernsey. By king Charles the First he was created earl of Danby, made of his privy council, and knight of the most noble order of the Garter. In his latter time, by reason of imperfect health, considerably declining more active employments, full of honours, wounds, and days, he died anno Domini 1643.-Laus Deo." For many years before, St. George had not been more magnificently mounted (I mean the solemnity of his feast more sumptuously observed) than when this earl, with the earl of Morton, were installed knights of the Garter. One might have there beheld the abridgment of English and Scottish in their attendance: the Scottish earl (like Zeuxis' picture) adorned with all art and costliness; whilst our English earl (like the plain sheet of Apelles) by the gravity of his habit got the advantage of the gallanty of his co-rival with judicious beholders. He died without issue in the beginning of our civil wars; and by his will, made 1639, settled his large estate on his hopeful nephew Henry D'Anvers, snatched away (before fully of age) to the great grief of all good men. WRITERS. OLIVER OF MALMESBURY was (saith my author *) “in ipsius Monasterii territorio natus; so that there being few paces be Pits, de Illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus, anno 1060. |