_Sir John Cheke_ (Vol. v., p. 200.).--C. B. T. will find an account of
Sir John Cheke in Harwood's _Alumni Etonenses_, under the head of
"Provosts of King's College." I send also from an old MS. the following
account; not being responsible for its accuracy, nor for the correctness
of the references:
"Sir John Cheke put into the Provostship by Edward VI., April 1,
1548, though not qualified, as not of the Society, nor in orders.
See his _Life_ by Strype; Fuller, _Hist. Camb._, 119.; Burnet, ii.
115., who says that in consequence of the controversy with
Gardiner about the Gr. Pronuntiation he was either put from the
chair, or willingly left it. This was not the case. He did not
quit it till sent for by the King, as appears from the Life of his
successor, Nic. Carr, p. 59.; see, too, Wood _Hist. and Antiq._,
lib. i. p. 26. His mother stood godmother to the child of a poor
woman in Cambridge Gaol on suspicion of murder. (See Latimer's
_First Serm._ p. 125., edit. 1635; Burnet, ii. 213.; Wood, _Hist.
and Antiq._, I. ii. 251.; Burnet, ii. 51., and _App._ 150.;
Fuller, 29. 127.; and Fox, _Mart._; Burnet, ii. 155.; Burnet, ii.
8. 203.; _Benefices conferred on Laymen, Walker's Attempt_, ii.
68.; Wood, _Athen._, i. 111.) Burnet and Fuller's account of his
retiring on the King's death do not agree. For his works see Bale,
and his Life, by Dr. Gerard Langbaine, before a work of Cheke's,
_The True Subject to the Rebel, or the Hurt of Sedition_: Oxon,
1641, 4to. Haddon wrote his epitaph. See Ascham's _Letters_: Oxon,
1703, p. 436., about his recantation. See Leland's _Cygnea
Cantio_, 1558, p. 21.; and Preface to Hickes's _Thesaurus_, 1. 2."