an ornament and honour to their descendants than himself,
was blessed with five sonnes, (of which he lived to see four
lords and peeres of the kingdome of Ireland,[467] and a fifth,
more than these titles speak, a soveraigne and peerlesse in
a larger province,--that of universall nature, subdued and
made obsequious to his inquisitive mind), and eight daughters.
And that you may remark how all things were extraordinary in
this great personage, it will, I hope, be neither unpleasant,
nor impertinent, to add a short story I had from our lady's
own mouth:--Master Boyl, after earle of Cork (who was then a
widdower), came one morning to waite on Sir Jeofry Fenton, at
that time a great officer[XXIV.] of state in that kingdome of
Ireland, who being ingaged in business, and not knowing who it
was who desired to speake with him, a while delayed him access;
which time he spent pleasantly with his young daughter in her
nurse's arms. But when Sir Jeoffry came, and saw whom he had
made stay somewhat too long, he civilly excused it. But master
Boyl replied, he had been very well entertayned; and spent his
time much to his satisfaction, in courting his daughter, if he
might obtaine the honour to be accepted for his son-in-lawe. At
which Sir Jeoffry, smiling (to hear one who had been formerly
married, move for a wife carried in arms, and under two years
old,) asked him if he would stay for her? To which he frankly
answered him he would, and Sir Jeoffry as generously promised
him he should then have his consent. And they both kept their
words honourably. And by this virtuous lady he had thirteen
children, ten of which he lived to see honourably married, and
died a grandfather by the youngest of them.
[XXIV.] Secretary of Estate.
Nor did she derive less honour from the collateral, than the
descending line, being sister by soul and genius, as well as
bloud, to these great personages, whose illustrious, unspotted,
and resplendent honour and virtue, and whose usefull learning
and accurate pens, may attone and[468]expiate, as well as
shame, the scandalous blemishes of a debauched, and the many
impertinencies of a scribling, age:--
(1), Richard, the truly right honourable, loyal, wise, and
virtuous, earl of Burlington and Cork, whose life is his
fairest and most laudable character;
(2), the right honourable Roger earle of Orery, that great
poet, great statesman, great soldier, and great every-thing
which merits the name of great or good;
(3), Francis lord Shannon, whose _Pocket Pistol_, as he stiles
his book, may make as wide breaches in the walls of the
Capitol, as many canons;
(4), and that honourable and well known name Robert Boyl,
esquier, that profound philosopher, accomplished humanist,
and excellent divine, I had almost sayd lay-bishop, as one
hath stiled Sir Henry Savil; whose works alone may make a
librarie[XXV.].
[XXV.] Why does he not mention ... lord Killimeke[AY]; who was slain at
the great battell of Liskarrill, in Ireland?
The female branches also (if it be lawfull so to call them
whose virtues were so masculine, souls knowing no difference of
sex) by their honours and graces (by mutuall reflections) gave,
and received lustre, to, and from, her:--
the eldest of which, the lady Alice, was married to the lord
Baramore;
the second, the lady Sarah, to the lord Digby, of Ireland;
the third, the lady Laetitia, to the eldest son of the lord
Goring, who died earle of Norwich;
the fourth, the lady Joan, to the earle of Kildare, not only
primier earle of Ireland, but the _ancientest house_ in
Christendome of that degree, the present earle being the six
and twentieth, or the seaven and twentieth, of lineal descent:
and, as I have heard, it was that great antiquary King Charles
the First his observation, that the three ancientest families
of Europe for nobility, were the _Veres_ in England, earls of
Oxford, and the _Fitz-Geralds_ in Ireland, earls of Kildare,
and _Momorancy_ in France: 'tis observable[469]that the present
earle of Kildare is a mixture of blood of Fitz-Geralds and
Veres;
the fifth, the lady Katharine, who was married to the lord
viscount Ranelaugh[XXVI.], and mother to the present generous
earle of Ranelaugh, of which family I could have added an
eminent remark, I meet with in Fuller's "Worthies;" this lady's
character is so signalized by her known merit among all persons
of honour, that as I need not, so I dare not, attempt beyond
this one word--she was our lady's _Friend-Sister_;
[XXVI.] <Arthur> Jones.
the sixth, the lady Dorothy Loftus;
the seaventh, (the number of perfection) which shutt-up and
crown'd this noble train (for the eighth, the lady Margaret,
died unmaried), was our excellent lady Mary, married to
Charles, earle of Warwick; of whom, if I should use the
language of my text, I should neither despair their pardon,
nor fear the reproach of rudeness--_Many daughters_, all his
daughters, _did virtuously but thou_--PROV. xxxi. 29, 30, 31.
----But shee[XXVII.] needed neither borrowed shades, nor
reflexive lights, to set her off, being personally great in
all naturall endowments and accomplishments of soul and body,
wisdome, beautie, favour, and virtue;
[XXVII.] Mary, countess of Warwick.
great by her tongue, for never woman used one better, speaking
so gracefully, promptly, discreetly, pertinently, holily, that
I have often admired the edifying words that proceeded from her
mouth;
great by her pen, as you may (_ex pede Herculem_) discover
by that little[XXVIII.] tast of it the world hath been happy
in, the hasty fruit of one or two interrupted houres after
supper, which she professed to me, with a little regret, when
she was surprised with it's sliding into the world without her
knowledge, or allowance, and wholly beside her expectation;
[XXVIII.] Her ladyship's _Pious Meditations_.
great by being the greatest mistresse and promotress, not to
say the foundress and inventress, of a new science--the art of
obliging; in which she attain'd that sovereign perfection, that
she reigned over all their hearts with whom she did converse;
great in her nobleness of living and hospitality;
great in the unparallelld sincerity of constant, faithfull,
condescending friendship, and for that law of kindness which
dwelt in her lips and heart;
great in her dexterity of management;
great in her quick apprehension of the difficulties of her
affaires, and where the stress and pinch lay, to untie the
knot, and loose and ease them;
great in the conquest of herselfe;
great in a thousand things beside, which the world admires as
such: but she despised them all, and counted them but loss and
dung in comparison of the feare of God, and the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus.'
_Notes._
[AV] Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'per bend crenellée argent and
gules [Boyle]; impaling, ..., a cross vert between 4 fleur de lys ...
[Fenton],' surmounted by an earl's coronet.
A leaf containing an earlier draft of this life (as shown by the coat
tricked in the inner margin) has been cut out between fol. 14 and fol.
15 of MS. Aubr. 6. The excision was made by Aubrey himself, a line
being drawn by him across the excision from fol. 14ᵛ to fol. 15, to
mark the transposition of a passage. The reason for the cutting out
of this leaf is suggested in a letter of Aubrey to Anthony Wood (MS.
Wood F. 39, fol. 360, July 14, 1681), where he says his 'Lives' contain
'severe touches on the earl of Corke, Dr. Wallis, etc.' In the margin
of the excised leaf a note, given on the authority of 'Mr. A. E.' i.e.
Anthony Ettrick, seems to speak of amours and bastards of the earl.
[AW] Catherine Fenton, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, Secretary of
State for Ireland 1581-1603.
[AX] Anthony Wood, in answer to this query, suggests:--'Jeffrey,
quaere.'
[AY] Lewis Boyle, second son of Richard, first earl of Cork, created
viscount Boyle of Kynalmeaky, 1627/8.
=Robert Boyle= (1626/7-1691).
[470]Mr. Robert Boyle;--vide Oliver Hill's ..., where he is accused of
grosse plagiarisme. Dr. <Robert> Wood went to schoole with him at Eaton
Colledge.
[471]Mr. R. Boyle, when a boy at Eaton <was> verie sickly and
pale--from Dr. <Robert> Wood, who was his schoole-fellow.
[472]The honourable Robert Boyle[AZ] esq., the <fifth> son of Richard
Boyle, the first earle of Corke, was borne at Lismor[XXIX.] in the
county of Corke, the <25> day of <January> anno <1626/7>.
[XXIX.] It was anciently an University, and a great towne or city. It
had twenty churches. 'Twas the seate of king John.--From Elizabeth,
countesse of Thanet.
He was nursed by an Irish nurse, after the Irish manner, wher they putt
the child into a pendulous satchell (insted of a cradle), with a slitt
for the child's head to peepe out.
He learn't his Latin.... Went to the university of Leyden. Travelled
France, Italy, Switzerland. I have oftentimes heard him say that after
he had seen the antiquities and architecture of Rome, he esteemed
none[473] any where els.
He speakes Latin very well, and very readily, as most men I have
mett with. I have heard him say that when he was young, he read over
Cowper's dictionary: wherin I thinke he did very well, and I beleeve he
is much beholding to him for his mastership of that language.
His father in his will, when he comes to the settlement and provision
for his son Robert, thus,--
_Item, to my son Robert, whom I beseech God to blesse with a particular
blessing, I bequeath, &c._
Mr. R. H.[474], who has seen the rentall, sayes it was 3000 _li._ per
annum: the greatst part is in Ireland. His father left him the mannor
of Stalbridge in com. Dorset, where is a great freestone house; it was
forfeited by the earle of Castlehaven.
He is very tall (about six foot high) and streight, very temperate, and
vertuouse, and frugall: a batcheler; keepes a coach; sojournes with his
sister, the lady Ranulagh. His greatest delight is chymistrey. He haz
at his sister's a noble laboratory, and severall servants (prentices
to him) to looke to it. He is charitable to ingeniose men that are
in want, and foreigne chymists have had large proofe of his bountie,
for he will not spare for cost to gett any rare secret. At his owne
costs and chardges he gott translated and printed the New Testament in
Arabique[BA], to send into the Mahometan countreys. He has not only
a high renowne in England, but abroad; and when foreigners come to
hither, 'tis one of their curiosities to make him a visit.
_Notes._
[AZ] Aubrey gives in colours the Boyle coat (_supra_, p. 119), with a
mullet gules for difference. Anthony Wood adds the reference:--'see
in the first sheet of the second part,' i.e. of MS. Aubr. 7, viz. the
excerpts _supra_ from Anthony Walker's sermon.
[BA] The Gospels and Acts in Malay (in Arabic character), Oxford, 1677.
=William Brereton=, 3rd baron, (1631-1680).
[475]William, lord Brereton, obiit March 17, 1680[476]; buried at St.
Martin's-in-the-fields: scripsit _Origines Moriens_ in Latin verse.
[477]William, lord Brereton[BB] of <Leighlin>:--this vertuous and
learned lord (who was my most honoured and obligeing friend) was
educated at Breda, by John Pell, D.D., then Math. Professor there of
the Prince of Orange's 'ilustrious schoole.' Sir George Goring, earl of
Norwich (who was my lord's grandfather), did send for him over, where
the <Doctor> (then Mr. John Pell) tooke great care of him, and made him
a very good Algebrist.
He hath wrote a poem called _Origines Moriens_, a MS.
Obiit March 17, 1679/80, London, and is buried at St Martin's church in
the fields.
He was an excellent musitian, and also a good composer.
_Note._
[BB] Anthony Wood adds the reference 'quaere in Coll. Exon.' Wood seems
to have thought that Sir William Brereton of Honford in Cheshire (an
officer in the Parliamentary army, mentioned in the _Athenae_) might be
found among the Exeter College matriculations and might be connected
with this peer's family.
=Edward Brerewood= (1565-1613).
[478]Mr. Edward Brerewood[BC] was borne....
He was of Brasen-nose College in Oxon. My old cosen Whitney[BD], fellow
there long since, told me, as I remember, that his father was a citizen
of W<est> Chester; that (I have now forgot on what occasion, whether
he had outrun the exhibition from his father, or what), but he was for
some time in straightes in the College; that he went not out of the
College gates in a good while, nor (I thinke) out of his chamber, but
was in slip-shoes, and wore out his gowne and cloathes on the bord and
benches of his chamber, but profited in knowledge wonderfully.
He writ his _Logica_, and ..., _de meteoris_, _de ponderibus et nummis_
(which he dedicates to his countryman, Lord Chancellor Egerton, who was
no doubt his patron).
He was astronomie professor at Gresham College, London, where he died
anno 1613, and was buried in Great Saint Helen's chancell: so _Hist.
and Antiq. of Oxon._, lib. 2. pag. 219 b.
'Tis pity I can pick-up no more of him.
_Notes._
[BC] Anthony Wood added the reference 'vide A. W.'s _<Hist. et>
Antiq._'; but scored it out, finding himself anticipated in the text of
the notice.
[BD] James Whitney, matric. April 19, 1611 at St. Mary Hall, but took
his degrees from Brasenose (Clark's _Reg. Univ. Oxon._ II. iii. 334).
=Arthur Brett= (16..-1677).
<In MS. Aubr. 22 (Aubrey's Collection of Grammars) is a tract
of 6 pp.
'A demonstration how the Latine tonge may be learn't'; Lond.
1669; 'by Arthur Bret, M.A. of Ch. Ch. in Oxford and of
Westminster Schoole.'>
=Henry Briggs= (1556-1630/1).
[479]Henry Briggs was borne at ... (vide Anthony Wood's _Oxon.
Antiquit._: quaere his nephew who is beadle to Stationers' Hall; quaere
_Vaticinium Carolinum_, an English poem).
He was first of St. John's College in Cambridge. Sir Henry Savill
sent for him and made him his geometrie professor. He lived at Merton
College in Oxon, where he made the dialls at the buttresses of the east
end of the chapell with a bullet for the axis.
He travelled into Scotland to comune with the honourable ... lord
Nepier[BE] of Marcheston about making the logarithmicall tables.
☞ Looking one time on the mappe of England he observed that the[480]
two rivers, the Thames and that Avon which runnes to Bathe and so to
Bristowe, were not far distant, scilicet, about 3 miles--vide the
mappe. He sees 'twas but about 25 miles from Oxford; getts a horse
and viewes it and found it to be a levell ground and[481] easie to be
digged. Then he considered the chardge of cutting between them and the
convenience of making a mariage between those rivers which would be of
great consequence for cheape and safe carrying of goods between London
and Bristow, and though the boates[482] goe slowly and with meanders,
yet considering they goe day and night they would be at their journey's
end almost as soon as the waggons, which often are overthrowne and
liquours spilt and other goods broken. Not long after this he dyed and
the civill warres brake-out. It happened by good luck that one Mr.
Matthewes of Dorset had some acquaintance with this Mr.[483] Briggs
and had heard him discourse of it. He was an honest simple man, and
had runne out of his estate and this project did much run in his head.
He would revive it (or els it had been lost and forgott) and went into
the country to make an ill survey of it (which he printed) about anno
..., but with no great encouragement of the countrey or others. Upon
the restauration of King Charles II he renewed his designe and applyed
himselfe to the king and counsell. His majestie espoused it more (he
told me) then any one els. In short, for want of management and his
non-ability, it came to nothing, and he is now dead of old age. But Sir
Jonas Moore ( ☞ an expert mathematician and a practicall man), being
sent to survey the mannor of Dantesey in Wilts (which was forfeited to
the crowne by Sir John Danvers his foolery), went to see these streames
and distances. He told me the streames were too small unlesse in
winter; but if some prince or the Parliament would rayse money to cutt
through the hill by Wotton-Basset which is not very high, then there
would be water enough and streames big enough. He computed the chardge,
which I have forgott, but I thinke it was about 200,000 _li._
Insert his letter to Dr. John Pell _de logarithmis_ written anno Dni
1628.
Mr. William Oughtred calls him the English Archimedes in....
An epitaph on H. Briggs among H. Burched's poems[BF].
[484]Mr. Briggs--vide and quaere Dr. Whitchcot, behind St. Lawrence
Church; he knew him.----Respondet quod non.
[485]Mr. Norwood to the reader, before his Trigonometrie:--'of the
construction and divers applications of Logarithmes Mr. Brigs hath
written a booke called _Arithmetica Logarithmica_, and since again
began another excellent worke of like nature entituled _Trigonometria
Britannica_. I have onely seen (in the hands of a friend of his) a
printed copie of so much as he had done, namely the tables: but whilest
he was in hand with the rest, he departed this life. It was writ in
Latin.'
_Notes._
[BE] John Napier, of Merchiston, born 1550, died 1617. His son
Alexander was created baron Napier in 1627.
[BF] MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 48 is two leaves, pp. 49-52, sign. I, of a
printed book, a miscellany of Greek and Latin verses. The first piece
on p. 49 is six Greek lines 'Epitaphium D. Henrici Briggi ob mathesin
et pietatem famigerati, denati 1631. Januar. ult.' The second piece
is 32 Latin verses 'in bibliothecam Oxoniensem tertio amplificatam
MDCXXXVI.'
=Thomas Brightman= (1562-1607).
<_A Letter from Edward Gibson about Thomas Brightman[BG]._>
[486]Hawnes, Dec. 21, <16>81.
Sir,
Since you have desired and have been put into an expectation of
receiving some information concerning Mr. Brightman, tho I have litle
or nothing to serve you and your freind with, I send this to let you
know that I find nothing of his arms; that upon the stone is engraven
'Here lyeth the body of Thomas Brightman, deceased, minister of
this parish, who dyed Aug. 24, 1607.'
Over his head are these sad rimes (I hope they are Oxford, tho not much
for the honour of it).--
Christ cals his churches candlestiks of old,
Altho the candlesticks but the candles hold.
The lights on them hee calleth angels pure,
Not barely candles, for those must endure.
Candles when burn't out are soon forgott,
But ministers, as angels, must not rot.
Sith God doth ministers so eternize,
Let not us mortals give them lower prize.
And specially to Brightman's recommendacion
And bee entomed a light to th' revelation
Wee must, wee ought, to make such saints last
In whom wee know the times to come and past.
I am, Sir, Yours to serve you,
Edw. Gibson.
Dr. Fuller, amongst his _Worthies_, hath something of Mr. Brightman.
[487]For Mr. John Aubrey: leave this at Mr. Hooke's lodging in Gresham
College.
_Note._
[BG] In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 3, Anthony Wood has jotted down 'quaere Mr.
Aubrey of Thomas Brightman, Dr. <William> Butler, Henry Billingsley,
Sir George Wharton'--Aubrey's notes, so far, about these four having
been scanty.
In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 48ᵛ, opposite Gibson's letter Wood notes an odd
omission in it:--'Quaere _in what church_ Mr. Thomas Brightman was
buried?'
=Alexander Brome= (1620-1666).
[488]H. Brome assured me that his brother Alexander was in his
accedence at 4 yeares old and a quarter[BH].
_Note._
[BH] This is a marginal note opposite the life of Katherine Philips,
and is intended to be a parallel instance of precocious reading, the
boy being taken, first, through the Psalter, and then through the
Bible, before beginning his 'accidence' (i.e. Latin Grammar): cp. the
course of Anthony Wood's education, Clark's Wood's _Life and Times_, i.
46, 47, 48. Henry Brome was a London bookseller.
=Christopher Brookes= (16..-1665).
[489]Christopher Brookes, of Oxford, a mathematical instrument maker.
He was sometime manciple of Wadham College: his widowe lived over
against the Theatre.
This C. B. printed[490] 1649 an 8vo of about 2 sheetes, scil. 'A new
quadrant of more natural easie and manifold performance than any other
heretofore extant': but it was his father-in-lawe's[491] invention. I
had it from his widow about 1665.
=Elizabeth Broughton.=
[492]In the Heralds' Office--Heref<ordshire>--
Edward Broughton, _m._ Isabell, daughter of
of Kington, eldest | Rafe Beeston, of
son, 1634 | Warwickshire.
|
Elizabeth.
<Arms[493]:--> 'argent, 2 bars gules, on a canton of the second a cross
of the field, a martlet or for difference.'
Mris. Elizabeth Broughton was daughter of ... Broughton of ... in
Herefordshire, an ancient family. Her father lived at the mannour-house
at Canon-Peon. Whether she was borne there or no, I know not: but
there she lost her mayden-head to a poor young fellow, then I beleeve
handsome, but, in 1660, a pittifull poor old weaver, clarke of the
parish. He had fine curled haire, but gray. Her father at length
discoverd her inclinations and locked her up in the turret of the
house, but she (like a ...) getts downe by a rope; and away she gott to
London, and did sett-up for her selfe.
She was a most exquisite beautie, as finely shaped as nature could
frame; and had a delicate witt. She was soon taken notice of at London,
and her price was very deare--a second Thais. Richard, earle of Dorset,
kept her (whether before or after Venetia[494], I know not, but I
guesse before). At last she grew common and infamous and gott[495] the
pox, of which she died.
I remember thus much of an old song of those dayes, which I have seen
in a collection--'twas by way of litanie--viz.:--
From the watch at twelve a clock,
And from Bess Broughton's buttond[496] smock,
_Libera nos, Domine_.
In Ben Johnson's execrations against Vulcan, he concludes thus:--
Pox take thee, Vulcan! May Pandora's pox
And all the ills that flew out of her box
Light on thee. And if those plagues will not doe
Thy wive's pox take thee, and _Bess Broughton's_ too.
--In the first edition in 8vo her name is thus at length.
I see that there have been famous woemen before our times.
Vixêre fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi, etc.
HORACE, lib. 4, ode 9.
I doe remember her father (1646), neer 80, the handsomest shaped
man that ever my eies beheld, a very wise man and of an admirable
elocution. He was a committee-man in Herefordshire and Glocestershire.
He was commissary to colonel Massey. He was of the Puritan party
heretofore; had a great guift in praying, etc. His wife (I have heard
my grandmother say, who was her neighbor) had as great parts as he. He
was the first that used the improvement of land by soape-ashes when he
lived at Bristowe, where they then threw it away.
=William Brouncker=, 2nd viscount (1620-1684).
[497]William, lord viscount Brouncker of Lions in Ireland: he lived
in Oxford when 'twas a garrison for the King: but he was of no
university, he told me. He addicted himselfe only to the study of the
mathematicks, and was a very great artist in that learning.
His mother was an extraordinary great gamester, and playd all, gold
play; she kept the box herselfe. Mr. ... Arundall (brother of the lord
Wardour) made a song in characters of the nobility. Among others, I
remember this,
Here's a health to my lady Brouncker and the best card in her hand,
And a health to my lord her husband, with ne're a foot of land.
He was president of the Royall Society about 15 yeares[BI].
He was ... of the Navy office[BJ].
He dyed April the 5th, 1684; buried the 14th following in the vault
which he caused to be made (8 foot long, 4 foot broad, and about 4 foot
high) in the middle of the quire of Saint Katharine's, neer the Tower,
of which convent he was governour. He gave a fine organ to this church
a little before his death; and whereas it was a noble and large choire,
he divided <it> in the middle with a good skreen (at his owne chardge),
which haz spoiled <it>.
<_A note written by him[BK]._>
[498]Sir,
These are to give notice that on Friday next the thirtieth day of
this instant November, 1677, being St. Andrew's day, the council and
officers of the Royal Society are to be elected for the year ensuing.
At which election your presence is expected in Gresham Colledge at nine
of the clock in the forenoon precisely.
(For John Aubrey, esq.)
Brouncker, P. R. S.
_Notes._
[BI] He was President, 1663, from the incorporation of the Royal
Society, to 1677.
[BJ] He was a Lord of the Admiralty in 1680, and again in 1682.
[BK] The signature is in long sloping letters, like the children's
puzzles of thirty years' back, which could be read only when the
paper was held edgeways. It has beaten Anthony Wood, who notes at the
side:--'What this name is I know not.'
=William Browne= (1591-1645).
[499]The earle of Carnarvon does not remember Mr. Brown[BL], and I
ask't his lordship lately again if any of his servants doe: he assures
me _no_.
_Note._
[BL] The inquiry was made of Charles Dormer, second earl of Carnarvon.
William Browne, author of _Britannia's Pastorals_, had been tutor in
1624 to Robert Dormer (created earl of Carnarvon in 1628) in Exeter
College.
=Robert Burton= (1576/7-1639/40).
[500]Memorandum. Mr. Robert Hooke of Gresham College told me that he
lay in the chamber in Christ Church that was Mr. Burton's, of whom 'tis
whispered that, _non obstante_ all his astrologie and his booke of
Melancholie, he ended his dayes in that chamber by hanging him selfe.
=Thomas Bushell= (1594-1674).
[501]Mr. Thomas Bushell was an ... shire man, borne ...: quaere Thomas
Mariet, esq. [He[502] was borne at Marston in ... shire, neer him.]