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 employment 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[230], Sir William Petty, Sir John Hoskyns, bishop of Sarum[231],
etc., to turne ecclesiastique; "but the king of France growes stronger
and stronger, and what if the Roman religion should come-in againe?"
"Why then!" say they, "_cannot you turne too?_" You, I say, know well
that I am no puritan, nor an enimy to the old gentleman on the other
side of the Alpes. Truly, if I had a good parsonage of 2 or 300 _li._
per annum, (as you told me) it would be a shrewd temptation.'--Aug. 29,
1676.
[R] Aubrey notes in the margin, (1) '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 little _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[232] to Mr. Thomas
Hobbes. He afterwards taught children here[233]. 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.'
[S] 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.
[T] In the margin Aubrey notes:--
'♄: strong impulse to ♄.' This means I suppose that the position of
Saturn at his nativity gave him a bias to the study of antiquities.
[U] This means, I suppose, that the copies he made sufficiently
resembled the pictures on the parlour wall. A note in MS. Aubr. 8, fol.
6ᵛ, perhaps refers to his own skill in drawing, 'As Mr. Walter Waller's
picture drawne after his death; è contra, I have done severall by the
life.' Walter Waller was vicar of Chalk, where Aubrey lived: see in the
life of Edmund Waller.
[V] Possibly "The mysteries of nature and art, viz.... drawing,
colouring ...," by J[ohn] B[ate], Lond. 1634, 4to.
[W] Here (fol. 3ᵛ) 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, 1679/80, 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. 3ᵛ):--'HORAT. _Epist._
2ᵈ.' <i.e. _Epist._ ii. 2. 45>:--
'Atque inter sylvas Academi quaerere verum.
Dura sed emovere loco me tempora grato.'
[X] 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. 190ᵛ, 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.
[Y] 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
Monmouthshire, 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.'
[Z] 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 Colledge in Oxon
a colledge 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
mathematicall and philosophicall books.
Item, I give to the library of Jesus Colledge in Oxon my Greeke
_Crysostomus_, Bede's 2 tomes, and all the rest of my bookes that are
fitt for a library, as Mr. Anthony Ettrick[234] 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 50_s._, with a stone in it.
Item, to Mr. William Hawes[235] of Trinity College aforsaid a ring of
the like value.
Item, to Mr. John Lydall[236] of the Colledge aforesaid a ring of the
like value.
Item, to Mr. Ralf Bathurst[237] of Trinity College aforesaid a ring of
the like value.
Item, to Mris Mary Wiseman of Westminster, my best diamond ring.'
[AA] On a slip at fol. 101 of MS. Aubr. 23 is the
jotting:--'Eston-pierse: possession given, 25 March, 1671, P.M.'
[AB] In his retirement during this year at Chalk, Aubrey tried his hand
at play-making. Writing to Anthony Wood on Oct. 26, 1671, MS. Wood, F.
39, fol. 141ᵛ, 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.
[AC] In MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 113 is a note (dated 1672/3) 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 appearance.'
[AD] i.e. which followed after this bleeding. Bleeding at the nose was
thought ominous: see Clark's Wood's _Life and Times_, iii. 289, note 1.
[AE] 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.'
[AF] 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 _li._ gives 100 per annum: take a
chymist with me, for brandy, suger, etc., and goe halfe with him.'
[AG] In consequence of this grant, Aubrey seriously thought of
emigrating. MS. Aubr. 26, p. 14:--
'Mr. Robert Welsted, goldsmith and banquier, saies 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.'
[AH] This is noticed on a slip (fragment of a letter, '8 March, 1692/3'
from Edward Harley) at fol. 113 of MS. Aubr. 23:--'J. A. vulneratus die
20 Martii inter 10 et 11 horas Londini. Deo gratias.'
[AI] This paper was acquired by Rawlinson in July ... 1746 (ibid. fol.
31ᵛ). There is an inaccurate copy of it in MS. Ballard 14, foll. 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).
[238]William Aubrey[AJ], Doctor of Lawes:--extracted from a MS.[AK] of
funeralls, and other good notes, in the hands of Sir Henry St. George,
...[239], 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 in 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 staires rising into the quire eastward from the
same pillar towards the tombe of the right honble the lord William,
earle of Pembroke, and his funeralls were performed 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[240] of
All-soules Colledge in Oxford (where the same Lawe[241] 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
25 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 esteemed worthy to be called to action in
the commonwealth. 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[242] 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.
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 preferred 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 majestie, 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 possessed
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 majestie 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[243] 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 gentlewoman
Wilgiford his wife (the first daughter of Mr. John Williams of Tainton
in the countie of Oxford, whom he 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, all
of them maried, and having issue, as followeth[IX.].
[IX.] Vide pedegre.
His eldest son Edward, maried unto Joane, daughter and one of the
heires of William Havard, in the countie of Brecon, esqre.
His second son Thomas maried Mary the daughter and heire of Anthony
Maunsell of Llantrithed, in the com. of Glamorgan, esqre.
His 3d son John,[X.] being then of the age of 18 yeares (or much
thereabouts), was maried to Rachel, one of the daughters of Richard
Danvers of Tockenham, in com. Wilts, esqre.
[X.] John Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury, was his guardian, and
the doctor's great friend. I have heard my grandmother say that her
husband told her that his grace kept a noble house, and that with
admirable order and oeconomie; and that there was not one woman in the
family.--Vide the archbishop of Canterbury's case in Sir Edward Cooke's
_Reportes_ where he is mentioned.
His eldest daughter Elizabeth, maried to Thomas Norton of Norwood 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 proceeded 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 kindnesse was remembred by King James att
his comeing-in to England, who asked after[244] him, and probably[245]
would have made him Lord Keeper, but he dyed, as appeares, a
little[246] before that good opportunity happened. His majestie sent
for his sonnes[247], 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[AL] 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 Bench, in his
Reports, about the legitimacy of the earle of Hertford.[XI.] Quaere if
it was Edward the father[AM], or els his son William, about the mariage
with the ladie Arbella Stuart?
[XI.] Memorandum: Mr. Shuter, the proctor, told me that the Doctor
appealed to Rome about the earle of Hartford's suite, tempore reginae
Elizabethae.
[248][Johannes[249] David Rhesus M.D. makes an honourable mention of
him in his Welsh grammar in folio, pag....; as also in his preface.]
[250][_Linguae Cymraecae institutiones accuratae_, J. David Rhoesus,
folio, London, 1592, pag. 182 (quaere if he is not mentioned in the
Welsh preface):--
Caeterum nunc et propter eorum authoritatem et quod huic
loco inter alia maxime quadrent, non pigebit antiquissima
Taliessini[AN] Cambrobrytannica carmina subjungere, furtim
(quae mea est audacia) et eo nesciente, a me surrepta, et
clanculum calamo commissa, ex ore, vesperi fortuitò juxta
proprium ignem pro solito in sua cathedra considentis, et haec
una cum aliis carminibus memoriter, et non sine delectatione
quadam decora, proferentis, ornatissimi et doctissimi viri
domini Gulielmi Aubraei, Cambrobrytanni ab illustrissima
Aubraeorum familia oriundi, linguae Cambrobrytannicae
peritissimi eximiique patriae suae decoris et ornamenti, Juris
utriusque Doctoris celeberrimi, ac regiae majestati à Supplicum
Libellis constituti Domini, et amici optimi perpetuoque
colendi, nobisque amicis jam strenuas et auxiliatrices manus
porrigentis, qua citius et magis prospere elucubrationes hae ad
nostratium et aliorum utilitatem proelo committebantur.
Carmina vero sunt hujusmodi.]
[251]Memorandum:--old Judge Atkins[252] (the father) told me that the
Portugall 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[253]
of Doctors Commons hath the MSS. of this bishop's tryall.
[254]_De legati deliquentis judice competente dissertatio_, autore
Richardo Zoucheo, Juris Civilis professore Oxoniae, Oxon 1657, 12ᵐᵒ,
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 Dalo, Gulielmo
Drurio, Gulielmo Awbreio, et Henrico Jones, Juris Caesarei
consultissimis, quaestio proposita fuit _An legatus, qui
rebellionem contra principem ad quem legatus est concitat,
legati privilegiis gaudeat_ et _An, ut hostis, poenae
subjaceat_, eidem responderunt, ejusmodi legatum, jure gentium
et civili Romanorum, omnibus legati privilegiis excidisse et
poenae subjiciendum.
[255]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[256].
He sate many times as Lord Keeper, durante bene placito, and made[257]
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 _Penkenol_, i.e. chiefe of the family, 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[258], also LL. Dr., who was the chiefe, plucked it off.
The learned John Dee was his great friend and kinsman, 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[259], whose advise he desired in
his writing on that subject.
He purchased Abercunvrig (the ancient seate of the family) 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 clark) 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 will, 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 maried 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 18th man in remainder, which putts me in mind of
Dr. Donne,
For what doeth it availe
To be the twentieth man in an entaile?
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.
_Heroum 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 Professori, Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis
causarum Auditori et Vicario in spiritualibus Generali,
Exercitus Regii ad St. Quentin Supremo Juridico, in Limitaneum
Walliae Consilium adscito, Cancellariae Magistro, et Reginae
Elizabethae à supplicum libellis: Viro exquisita eruditione,
singulari 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, placidè reddidit;
Optimo patri Edvardus et Thomas, milites, ac Johannes, armiger,
filii moestissimi, posuerunt.
[260]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); and it is exceeding probable that the earle was
instrumentall 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 honᵇˡᵉ the earle of Pembroke.
... Stephens, the clarke of St. Benets, Paules Wharfe, tells me that
Dr. W. Aubrey gave xx_s._ per annum for ever to that parish.
[261]Vide the register of St. Benet's, Paule's Wharfe--quaere.
Stephens, the clark, sayeth that he gave xx_s._ per annum to the parish
of St. Benet's, Paule's wharfe, for ever: quaere.
[262]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
Stᵃᵉ 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: supra, p. 59._>
[263]MY GOOD COOSEN,