skill in philosophy rendered him to the general respect of the university. He was the greatest pupil-monger in England in man's memory, having sixteen fellow commoners (most heirs to fair estates) admitted in one year in Queen's College, and provided convenient accommodations for them. As William the popular earl of Nassau was said to have won a subject from the king of Spain, to his own party, every time he put off his hat; so was it commonly said in the college, that every time when Master Preston plucked off his hat to doctor Davenant the college-master, he gained a chamber or study for one of his pupils ; amongst whom one Chambers, a Londoner (who died very young), was very eminent for his learning. Being chosen master of Emanuel College, he removed thither with most of his pupils; and I remember when it was much admired where all these should find lodgings in that college, which was so full already, "Oh!" said one, "Master Preston will carry Chambers along with him." The party called Puritan then being most active in Parliament, and doctor Preston most powerful with them, the duke rather used than loved him, to work that party to his compliance. Some thought the doctor was unwilling to do it; and no wonder he effected not, what he affected not. Others thought he was unable, that party being so diffusive, and then, in their designs (as since in their practices) divided. However, whilst any hope, none but doctor Preston with the duke, set by and extolled, and afterwards, set by and neglected, when found useless to the intended purpose. In a word, my worthy friend fitly calls him the court-comet, blazing for a time, and fading soon afterwards. He was a perfect politician, and used (lapwing-like) to flutter most on that place which was furthest from his eggs; exact at the concealing of his intentions, with that simulation, which some make to lie in the marches of things lawful and unlawful. He had perfect command of his passion; with the Caspian Sea never ebbing nor flowing; and would not alter his composed pace for all the whipping which satirical wits bestowed upon him. He never had wife, or cure of souls; and, leaving a plentiful, no invidious estate, died anno Domini 1628, July 20. Pass we now from one who was all judgment and gravity, to another (place and time making the connexion) who was all wit and festivity, viz. THOMAS RANDOLPH, born at Houghton in this county, was first bred in Westminster School, then fellow in Trinity College at Cambridge. The Muses may seem not only to have smiled, but to have been tickled at his nativity, such the festivity of his poems of all sorts. But my declining age, being superannuated to meddle with such ludicrous matters, consigneth the censure and commendation of his poems (as also of his countryman Pe ter Haulsted, born at Oundle in this county) to younger pens, for whom it is most proper. Master Randolph died anno Domini 1671. NICHOLAS ESTWICK, B.D. was born at Harrowden (the barony of the Lord Vaux) in this county. A solid Protestant: to counterpoise Kellison, a violent Papist, and native of the same village. He was bred fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge, being there beheld as a pious and judicious divine, always cheerful without the least levity, and grave without any moroseness. He was afterwards presented by the Lord Montague parson of of Warton, where he lived a painful preacher 40 years, less than a deacon in his humility, and more than an archbishop in his own contentment. Hence he was [unwillingly-willing] preferred by the earl of Rutland to Bottesford in Leicestershire, where he had hardly inned one harvest, before, like a ripe sheaf, he was brought into the barn of the grave. Thus, though young trees are meliorated with transplanting, yet old ones seldom live, and never flourish after their removal. Let his works witness the rest of his worth, some of whose books are published, others prepared for the press; and I wish them a happy nativity, for the public good. Coming to take his farewell of his friends, he preached on the forenoon of the Lord's-day, sickened on the afternoon; and was buried with his wife in the same grave, in Warton chancel, the week following, 1657. ROMISH EXILE WRITERS. MATTHEW KELLISON was born in this county, at Harrowden,* his father being a servant and tenant of the Lord Vaux, in whose family his infancy did suck in the Romish persuasions. He afterwards went beyond the seas, and was very much in motion. 1. He first fixed himself at the college of Rheims in France 2. Thence removed to the English college at Rome, where he studied in philosophy and divinity: 3. Returned to Rheims, where he took the degree of Doctor: 4. Removed to Douay, where for many years he read school-divinity: 5. Rereturned to Rheims, where he became King's Professor, and rector of the university. So much for the travails of his feet; now for the labours of his hands (the pains of his pen) those of his own opinion can give the best account of them. He wrote a book to king James, which his majesty never saw; and another against Sutliff, with many more; and was living 1611. BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC.. HENRY CHICHELY, son of Thomas and Agnes Chichely, was born at Higham Ferrers, in this county; bred in Oxford, and designed by Wickham himself (yet surviving) to be one of the * Pits, p. 811. fellows of New College. He afterwards became chaplain to R. Metford bishop of Sarum, who made him archdeacon, which he exchanged for the chancellor's place of that cathedral. This bishop, at his death, made him his chief executor, and bequeathed him a fair gilt cup for a legacy. By king Henry the Fourth he was sent to the Council of Risa, 1409, and by the Pope's own hands was consecrated bishop of St. David's at Vienna, and thence was advanced archbishop of Canterbury by king Henry the Fifth. During his reign, in the Parliament at Leicester, a shrewd thrust was made at all abbeys, not with a rebated point, but with sharps indeed, which this archbishop, as a skilful fencer, fairly put by, though others will say he guarded that blow with a silver buckler; the clergy paying to the king vast sums of money to maintain his wars in France, and so made a foreign diversion for such active spirits, which otherwise, in all probability, would have antedated the dissolution of monasteries. Under king Henry the Sixth he sat sure in his see, though often affronted by the rich cardinal Beaufort of Winchester, whom he discreetly thanked for many injuries. A cardinal's cap was proffered to and declined by him; some putting the refusal on the account of his humility, others of his pride (loth to be junior to the aforesaid cardinal); others of his policy, unwilling to be more engaged to the court of Rome. Indeed he was thorough-paced in all spiritual popery which concerned religion (which made him so cruel against the Wicklivites); but in secular Popery (as I may term it, touching the interest of princes) he did not so much as rack, and was a zealous assertor of the English liberties against Romish usurpation. Great his zeal to promote learning, as appears by three colleges erected and endowed at his expence and procurement: 1. One, with an hospital for the poor, at Higham Ferrers, the place of his nativity. 2. Saint Bernard's in Oxford, afterwards altered and bettered by Sir Thomas White into Saint John's College. 3. All-Souls in Oxford, the fruitful nursery of so many learned men. He continued in his archbishopric (longer than any of his predecessors for 500 years) full twenty-nine years; and died April 12, 1443, WILLIAM LAXTON, Son to John Laxton, of Oundle in this county, was bred a grocer in London, where he so prospered by his painful endeavours, that he was chosen lord mayor, anno Domini 1544. He founded a fair school and alms-house at Oundle in this county, with convenient maintenance, well maintained at this day by the worshipful company of grocers; and hath been, to my knowledge, the nursery of many scholars most eminent in the university. These Latin verses are inscribed in the front of the building: Oundella natus, Londini parta labore, He died anno Domini 1556, the 29th of July; and lieth buried, under a fair tomb, in the chancel of Saint Antony's, London. SINCE THE REFORMATION. NICHOLAS LATHAM was born at Brigstock,* in this county, and afterwards became minister of All-Saints' church in Baruwells. This man had no considerable estate left him from his father, nor eminent addition of wealth from his friends, nor enjoyed any dignity in the church of England, nor ever held more than one moderate benefice. And yet, by God's blessing on his vivacious frugality, he got so great an estate, that he told a friend he could have left his son, had he had one, land to the value of five hundred pounds by the year. But, though he had no issue, yet, making the poor his heirs, he left the far greatest part of his estate to pious uses; founded several small schools with salaries in country villages; and founded a most beautiful almshouse at Oundle in this county; and I could wish that all houses of the like nature were but continued and ordered so well as this is, according to the will of the founder. He died anno Domini 1620; and lieth buried in the chancel of his own parish, having lived seventy-two years. EDWARD MONTAGUE, Baron of Boughton, and eldest son to Sir Edward Montague, knight, was born in this county; a pious, peaceable, and hospitable patriot. It was not the least part of his outward happiness, that, having no male issue by his first wife, and marrying when past fifty years of age, he lived to see his son enriched with hopeful children. I behold him, as bountiful Barsillia,† superannuated for courtly pleasures, and therefore preferring to live honourably in his own country, wherein he was generally beloved, so that popularity may be said to have affected him, who never affected it: for, in evidence of the vanity thereof, he used to say, "do the common sort of people nineteen courtesies together; and yet you may lose their love, if you do but go over the stile before them." He was a bountiful benefactor to Sidney College, and builded and endowed an alms-house at Weekly in this county. "To have no bands in their death," is an outward favour many wicked have, many godly men want; amongst whom, this So saith the inscription on his monument. † 2 Samuel xix. 35. MEMORABLE PERSONS-LORD MAYORS-SHERIFFS. 521 good lord, who died in restraint in the Savoy, on the account of his loyalty to his sovereign. Let none grudge him the enjoying of his judgment, a purchase he so dearly bought, and truly paid for, whose death happened in the year of our Lord 164.. MEMORABLE PERSONS. There is a memorial entered on the wall of the cathedral of Peterborough, for one who, being sexton thereof, interred two queens therein [Katharine Dowager, and Mary of Scotland,] more than fifty years intervening betwixt their several sepultures. This vivacious sexton also buried two generations, or the people in that place twice over. Thus having built many houses (so I find graves frequently called domus æternales) for others, some (as it was fitting) performed this last office unto him. Thus though sextons often meet with bad savours arising from corpse too much (or rather too little) corrupted, yet is the instance of his long life alleged by such who maintain that the smelling to perfect mould made of men's consumed bodies is a preservative of life. LORD MAYORS. 1. John Rest, son of Will. Rest, of Peterborough, Grocer, 1516. 2. Will. Laxton, son of John Laxton, of Yongdell, Grocer, 1544. 3. Ralph Freeman, son of Will. Freeman, of Northampton, Clothworker, 1633. Reader, this is one of the twelve counties whose gentry were not returned into the Tower, in the reign of king Henry the Sixth. |