derived her right from another statute which allowed her succession, the rather because lawyers maintain, "that a crown once worn cleareth all defects of the wearer thereof." He continued in his office about eighteen years, being a man of rare wit and deep experience: "Cui fuit ingenium subtile in corpore crasso." For he was loaden with a corpulent body, especially in his old age, so that he would be not only out of breath, but also almost out of life, with going from Westminster hall to the Starchamber; insomuch, when sitting down in his place, it was sometime before he could recover himself; and therefore it was usual in that court, that no lawyer should begin to speak, till the lord keeper held up his staff as a signal to him to begin. He gave for his motto, " Mediocria Firma" and practised the former part thereof, mediocria; never attaining, because never affecting, any great estate. He was not for invidious structures, (as some of his contemporaries), but delighted in domo domino pari; such as was his house at Gorhambury in Hertfordshire. And therefore, when queen Elizabeth, coming thither in progress, told him, "My lord, your house is too little for you "No, madam," returned he, no less wittily than gratefully, "but it is your highness that hath made me too great for mine house." Now as he was a just practiser of the first part of his motto, mediocria, so no doubt he will prove a true prophet in the second part thereof, firma, having left an estate, rather good than great, to his posterity, whose eldest son, Sir Edward Bacon, in this county, was the first baronet of England."* He died on the 20th of February, 1578, and lieth buried in the choir of St. Paul's. In a word, he was a good man, a grave statesman, a father to his country, and father to Sir FRANCIS BACON. Sir WILLIAM DRURY was born in this county, where his worshipful family had long flourished, at Hawstead. His name in Saxon soundeth a pearl, to which he answered in the preciousness of his disposition, clear and hard, innocent and valiant, and therefore valued deservedly by his queen and country. His youth he spent in the French wars, his middle in Scotland, and his old age in Ireland. He was knight marshal of Berwick, at what time the French had possessed themselves of the castle at Edinburgh, in the minority of king James. Queen Elizabeth employed this Sir William, with 1500 men, to besiege the castle, which service he right worthily performed, reducing it within few days to the true owner thereof. Anno 1575 he was appointed lord president of Munster, whither he went with competent forces, and executed impartial justice, in despite of the opposers thereof. For as the sign of * The lord keeper's eldest son (the first Baronet) was Nicholas.-ED. Leo immediately precedeth Virgo and Libra in the Zodiac; so no hope that innocency will be protected, or justice administered, in a barbarous country, where power and strength do not first secure a passage unto them. But the earl of Desmond opposed this good president, forbidding him to enter the county of Kerry, as a palatinate peculiarly appropriated unto himself. Know by the way, as there were but four palatinates in England, Chester, Lancaster, Durham, and Ely (whereof the two former, many years since, were in effect invested in the crown) there were no fewer than eight palatinates in Ireland, possessed by their respective dynasties, claiming regal rights therein, to the great retarding of the absolute conquest of that kingdom. Amongst these (saith my author) Kerry became the sanctuary of sin, and refuge of rebels, as out-lawed from any English jurisdiction. Sir William, no whit terrified with the earl's threatening, entered Kerry, with a competent train, and there dispensed justice to all persons, as occasion did require. Thus, with his seven score men, he safely forced his return through seven hundred of the earl's, who sought to surprise him. In the last year of his life, he was made lord deputy of Ireland; and no doubt had performed much in his place, if not afflicted with constant sickness, the forerunner of his death, at Waterford, 1598.* Sir ROBERT NAUNTON was born in this county, of right ancient extraction; some avouching that his family were here before, others that they came in with the Conqueror, who rewarded the chief of that name for his service with a great inheritrix given him in marriage, insomuch that his lands were then estimated at (a yast sum in my judgment) seven hundred pounds a year. For a long time they were patrons of Alderton in this county, where I conceive Sir Robert was born. He was bred fellow commoner in Trinity College, and then fellow of Trinity Hall, in Cambridge. He was proctor of the university, anno Domini 1600-1, which office, according to the Old Circle, returned not to that college but once in forty-four years. He addicted himself from his youth to such studies as did tend to accomplish him for public employment. I conceive his most excellent piece, called "Fragmenta Regalia," set forth since his death, was a fruit of his younger years. He was afterwards sworn secretary of state to king James on Thursday the eighth of January, 1617; which place he discharged with great ability and dexterity. And I hope it will be no offence here to insert a pleasant passage: One Mr. Wiemark, a wealthy man, great novellant, and constant Paul's-walker, hearing the news that day of the beheading * Camden's Elizabeth, hoc anno. Weever's Funeral Monuments, p. 751. of Sir Walter Raleigh, "His head," said he, "would do very well on the shoulders of Sir Robert Naunton, secretary of state." These words were complained of, and Wiemark summoned to the privy council, where he pleaded for himself, "that he intended no disrespect to Mr. Secretary, whose known worth was above all detraction; only he spake in reference to an old proverb, "Two heads are better than one." And so for the present he was dismissed. Not long after, when rich men were called on for a contribution to St. Paul's, Wiemark at the council-table subscribed a hundred pounds: but Mr. Secretary told him two hundred were better than one; which, betwixt fear and charity, Wiemark was fain to subscribe. He died anno Domini 1630,* leaving one daughter, Penelope, who was first married to Paul viscount Bayning, and after to Philip lord Herbert, eldest son to Philip fourth earl of Pembroke. CAPITAL JUDGES. JOHN de METINGHAM was born in this county (where Metingham is a village in Wangford hundred not far from Bungay); and was lord chief justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of king Edward the Third. It is reported, to his eternal praise, that when the rest of the judges (18 Edw. III.) were fined and ousted for corruption, this Metingham and Elias de Beckingham continued in their places, whose innocence was of proof against all accusations;† and as Caleb and Joshua amongst the jury of false spies, so these two amongst the twelve judges only retained their integrity. King Edward, in the 20th of his reign, directed a writ unto him about the stinting of the number of the apprentices and attorneys at law, well worth the inserting : "Dominus Rex§ injunxit Johanni de Metingham et sociis suis, quòd ipsi per discretionem eorum provideant et ordinent numerum certum è quolibet comitatu de melioribus et legalioribus et libentius addiscentibus, secundùm quòd intellexerint, quòd curiæ suæ et populo de regno melius valere poterit, &c. Et videtur regi et ejus concilio quòd septies viginti sufficere poterint. Apponant tamen præfati justiciarii plures, si viderint esse faciendum, vel numerum anticipent."|| ("The lord the king hath enjoined John de Metingham and his assistants, that they, according to their discretion, provide and ordain a certain number out of every county of such persons which, according to their understanding, shall appear unto them of the better sort, and most legal, and most willingly applying themselves to the learning of the law, what may better avail for He was buried in the church of Letheringham in this county; which, being private property, and out of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, was wholly demolished in the year 1789. + Spelman's Glossary, verbo Justiciarius. § Edward. Numbers xiii. 6, 8. Rot. v. in dorso, de Apprenticiis et Attornatis. their court and the good of the people of the land, &c. And it seems likely, to the king and his counsel, that seven-score may suffice for that purpose. However, the aforesaid justices may add more if they see ought to be done, or else they may lessen the number.") Some conceive this number of seven-score confined only to the Common Pleas, whereof Metingham was chief justice. But others behold it as extended to the whole land, this judge's known integrity being entrusted in their choice and number; which number is since much increased, and no wonder, our land being grown more populous, and the people in it more litigious. He died anno Domini 1301. Sir JOHN CAVENDISH, Knight, was born at Cavendish in this county (where his name continued until the reign of king Henry the Eighth); bred a student of the municipal law, attaining to such learning therein, that he was made lord chief justice of the King's (or Upper) Bench, July 15, in the 46th of king Edward the Third; discharging his place with due commendation, until his violent death, on the fifth of king Richard the Second, on this occasion: John Raw, a priest, contemporary with Jack Straw and Wat Tyler, advanced Robert Westbroome, a clown, to be king of the commons in this county, having no fewer than fifty thousand. followers. These, for eight days together, in savage sport, caused the heads of great persons to be cut off, and set on poles to kiss and whisper in one another's ears.* Chief justice Cavendish chanced then to be in the country, to whom they bare a double pique; one, because he was honest, the other learned. Besides, they received fresh news from London, that one John Cavendish, his kinsman, had lately killed their idol, Wat Tyler, in Smithfield. Whereupon they dragged the reverend judge, with Sir John of Cambridge, prior of Bury, into the market-place there, and beheaded them;† whose innocent blood remained not long unrevenged by Spencer the warlike bishop of Norwich, by whom this rascal rabble of rebels was routed and ruined, 1381. Reader, be charitably pleased that this note may (till better information) preserve the right of this county unto Sir ROBERT BROKE, a great lawyer, and lord chief justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of queen Mary. He wrote an Abridgment of the whole Law, a book of high account. It insinuateth to me a probability of his birth herein, because (lawyers generally purchase near the place of their birth) his posterity still flourish in a worshipful equipage at Nacton, nigh Ipswich, in this county. SOLDIERS. Sir THOMAS WENTWORTH, of Nettlestead in this county, of a younger family (confessed by the crescent in his coat), descended from the Wentworths of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, was created Baron Wentworth by king Henry the Eighth. He was a stout and valiant gentleman, a cordial protestant, and his family a sanctuary of such professors; John Bale* comparing him to the good centurion in the Gospel, and gratefully acknowledging him the cause of his conversion from a Carmelite. The memory of this good lord is much (but unjustly) blemished, because Calais was lost, the last of queen Mary, under his government. The manner hereof was huddled up in our chronicles (least is best of a bad business), whereof this the effect. The English being secure by reason of the late conquest at St. Quintin, and the duke of Guise having notice thereof, he sat down before the town at the time (not "when kings go forth"+ to but return from battle) of mid-winter, even on New-year's Day. Next day he took the two forts of Risebank and Newnham-bridge (wherein the strength of the city consisted); but whether they were undermined or undermonied it is not decided, and the last left most suspicious. Within three days the castle of Calais, which commanded the city, and was under the command of Sir Ralph Chamberlain, was taken. The French, wading through the ditches (made shallower by their artificial cut) and then entering the town, were repulsed back by Sir Anthony Ager, marshal of Calais, the only man, saith Stow, who was killed in the fight (understand him of note); others, for the credit of the business, accounting fourscore lost in that service.§ The French re-entering the city the next being Twelfth-day, the lord Wentworth, deputy thereof, made but vain resistance, which, alas! was like the wriggling of a worm's tail after the head thereof is cut off; so that he was forced to take what terms he could get; viz. that the townsmen should depart (though plundered to a groat) with their lives; and himself with fortynine more, such as the duke of Guise should choose, should remain prisoners, to be put to ransom. This was the best news brought to Paris, and worst to London, for many years before. It not only abated the queen's cheer for the remnant of Christmas, but her mirth all the days of her life. Yet might she thank herself for losing this key of France, because hanging it by her side with so slender a string, there being but five hundred soldiers effectually in the garrison, too few to manage such a piece of importance. The lord Wentworth, the second of June following, was † 2 Samuel xi. 1. § Speed's History, p. 856. |