[According to the Bodleian Catalogue, it was written by Sir
Bartholomew Shower; but we have seen it attributed to William
Binkes, the Prolocutor to the Convocation of 1705.]
_Nicholas Thane._--Dr. Browne Willis, in his _History of the Town of
Buckingham_, published London, 1755, says (p. 49.):
"About the year 1545, as we are told in the _Peerage of
England_, in the account of the Earl of Pomfret's family, his
ancestor Richard Fermour of Easton Neston in Northamptonshire,
Esq., had his estate seized on and taken away from him upon his
having incurred a _præmunire_, by relieving one Nicholas Thane,
an obnoxious Popish priest, who had been committed a close
prisoner to the gaol in the town of Buckingham."
Can any of your readers inform me what crime or offence this "obnoxious
priest" had been guilty of, as to be committed a "close prisoner;" and
that {359} Richard Fermour, Esq., who had relieved him during his
incarceration, should, for this apparently simple act of charity, have
incurred a _præmunire_, for which he was subjected to so heavy a fine as
the forfeiture of his estate? I should be glad of any further
particulars respecting him, or to be referred to any work in which an
account of him is recorded; and also to be informed by whom the _Peerage
of England_, quoted by Dr. Willis, was compiled, when published, and
whether it contains a more copious account of this reprehensible
ecclesiastic.