[BF] Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'argent, on a bend sable, 3 owls
of the field [Savile].'
[BG] Aubrey seems to have had a special interest in this story.
He notes it twice in MS. Aubr. 21 (fol. 2, and fol. 4):--'Sir H.
Savile--If you'l have witts, goe to Newgate.'
[BH] Leonard Yates, fellow of Merton in 1593, rector of Cuxham, co.
Oxon., 1608, died 1662, aged _circ._ 92. His son, John Yates, was M.A.
of Trinity in 1639, and probably Aubrey knew him there.
[BI] This Collection was incorporated with the Bodleian in 1884:
Macray's _Annals of the Bodleian_, p. 329. Stephen Peter Rigaud
(Savilian Professor of Geometry 1810-1827, and of Astronomy 1827-1839)
had, in his time, thoroughly examined it, and found many books missing.
=Sylvanus Scory= (15-- -1617).
[936]Sylvanus Scory (quaere if he was not knighted?) was the son and
heire of <John> Scory, bishop of Hereford.
His father, John Skory, in the raigne of King Edward the Sixt, was
bishop of Rochester, and translated from thence to Chichester, and
afterwards to Hereford; 'who departed this life, at his house, at
Whitburn, in com. Hereff., 26 Junii, Anno Domini 1585'--this out of an
epitaph on his wife Elizabeth, who hath an inscription in St. Leonard's
Shoreditch church.
He was a very handsome gentleman, and had an excellent witt, and his
father gave him the best education, both at home and beyond the seas,
that that age would afford, and loved him so dearly that he fleeced
the church of Hereford to leave him a good estate, and he did let
such long, and so many, leases, that, as Mʳⁱˢ Masters (daughter of
Herbert Westphaling, esq., eldest son and heir to bishop Westphaling,
of Hereford) told me, they were not out till about these 60 yeares.
To my best remembrance, she told me the estate left him was 1500 _li._
per annum, which he reduced to nothing (alloweing himselfe the libertie
to enjoy all the pleasures of this world), and left his sonne so poor,
that when he came among gentlemen, they would fancy a crowne or ten
shillings[937] for him.
I have heard Sir John Denham say (at Chalke, 1652), that he haz been
well enformed that he was the most accomplished gentleman of his time.
'Tis a good testimoniall of his worth, that Mr. Benjamin Johnson (who
ever scorned an unworthy patrone) dedicated his ... to him. I have
heard Sir John Denham also say that he was the greatest confident and
intimate favorite of Monsieur of France (brother to the French king),
who was a suitor to queen Elizabeth, and whom her majestie entirely
loved (and as a signall of it one time at St. Paule's church, London,
openly kissed him in time of divine service) and would have had him for
her husband, but only for reasons of state. When her majestie dismissed
him, 'twas donne with all passion and respecte imaginable. She gave him
royall presents; he was attended to Dover by the flower of the court;
among others, by this sparke of whom I now write. When Monsieur tooke
his leave of him he told him that though 'twas so that her majestie
could not marie him (as aforesayd), yet he knew that she so much loved
him that she would not deny him any request, wherby he might honour
and benefit a friend; and accordingly writes his love-letter to his
mistresse, the queen of England, and in it only begges that single
_bôn_[938], to looke upon Mr. Scorie (the bearer) with a particular
and extraordinary grace, for his sake; delivered[939] him the letter
(and as I take it, gave him a jewell). As Sylvanus returned to London,
through Canterbury, the mayer there (a shoemaker), a pragmaticall
fellow, examined him, who and whence, etc. and what his business was,
and if he had a passe? 'Yes,' quod he, 'I have a passe,' and produces
Monsieur's letter, superscribed to her majestie, which, one would
have thought, had been enough to have shewen. The mayor presently[940]
breakes open the love-letter, and reades it. I know not how, this
action happened to take wind, and 'twas brought to court, and became so
ridicule that Sylvanus Scory was so laughed at and jeer'd that he never
delivered the letter to the queen, which had been the easiest and most
honourable step to preferment that mortall man could have desired.
=John Securis.=
[941]I have heard my old great-uncle, Mr. Thomas Browne, say that when
he was a school boy there was one Dr. Securis a noted physitian at
Salisbury (who was contemporary with this Dr. Mouffett[942]). He writt
Almanacks--I have only seen two, which Henry Coley haz, which were for
the yeares of our Lord 15[81[943]].
1580, a prognostication for the yeare of our Lord God MDLXXX, made and
written in Salisbury by John Securis, Maister of Artes and Physick.
London, cum privilegio regiae majestatis.
1581, eodem autore, wherunto is joynd a compendium or brief instruction
how to keepe a moderate diet. London, etc.--Vide his preface wherin he
speakes ☞ of haile-stones neer Salisbury as big as a child's fist of
three or fower yeeres old.
=Dorothy Selby.=
[944]From Mr. Marshall[945]:--
Dedicated
to the pious memory
of
Dame Dorothy Selby
[etc.]
She was a Dorcas
Whose curious needle turn'd the abused stage
Of this lewd world into a golden age:
Whose pen of steele, and silken inke, enroll'd
The acts of Jona in records of gold;
Whose art disclos'd that plott, which had it taken,
Rome had triumph't and Britaine's walls had shaken.
Shee was
In heart a Lydia, and in tongue a Hanna,
In zeale a Ruth, in wedlock a Susanna.
Prudently simple, providently wary,
To the world a Martha, and to heaven a Mary.
=John Selden= (1584-1654).
[946]Mr. John Selden when young did copie[947] records for Sir Robert
Cotton--from Fabian Philips.
[948]John Selden, esq., was borne (as appeares by his epitaph, which
he himselfe made, as I well remember archbishop Usher, Lord Primate,
who did preach his funerall sermon, did then mention scil. as to _spe
certae resurrectionis_) at Salvinton, a hamlet belonging to West
Terring, in the com. of Sussex.
His father was a yeomanly man, of about fourty pounds per annum, and
played well on the violin, in which he tooke delight, and at Christmas
time, to please him selfe and his neighbours, he would play to them as
they danced. My old lady Cotton[LXXXII.] (wife to Sir Robert Cotton,
grandmother to this Sir <John> Cotton) was one time at Sir Thomas
Alford's, in Sussex, at dinner, in Christmas time, and Mr. John Selden
(then a young student) sate at the lower end of the table, who was
lookt upon then to be of parts extraordinary, and some body asking who
he was, 'twas replyed, his son that is playing on the violin <in> the
hall[LXXXIII.]. I have heard Michael Malet (judge[BJ] Malet's son) say,
that he had heard that Mr. John Selden's father taught on the lute. He
had a pretty good estate by his wife.
[LXXXII.] She was living in 1646, or 1647, an old woman, 80+.
[LXXXIII.] This from Sir William Dugdale, from the lady Cotton.--Mr.
Fabian Philips told me that when J. Selden was young he did copie
records for Sir Robert Cotton.
He (vide A. Wood's _Antiq. Oxon._) was of Hart-hall in Oxon, and Sir
Giles Mompesson told me that he was then of that house[BK], and that he
was a long scabby-pold boy, but a good student.
Thence he came to the Inner Temple. His chamber was in the paper
buildings which looke towards the garden, ... staire-case, uppermost
story, where he had a little gallery to walke in.
He was quickly taken notice of for his learning, and was sollicitor and
steward to the earl of Kent[BL], whose countesse (was) an ingeniose
woman....[949] After the earle's death he married her. He had a
daughter[950], if not two, by ...; one was maried to a tradesman in
Bristowe.... Mris. Williamson, one of my lady's woemen, a lusty,
bouncing woman, ... robbed him on his death-bed....
His great friend heretofore was Mr. ... Hayward, to whom he dedicates
his _Titles of Honour_; also Ben Johnson.
His treatise that Tythes were not _jure divino_ drew[951] a great deale
of envy upon him from the clergie. W. Laud, archbishop of Canterbury,
made him make his recantation before the High Commission Court, of
which you may have an account in Dr. Peter Heylen's Historie. After,
he would never forgive the bishops, but did still in his writings
levell them with the presbyterie. He was also severe and bitter in his
speeches against ship-money, which speeches see.
He was one of the Assembly of Divines, and <Bulstrode> Whitlock, in
his memoires, sayes that he was wont to mock the Assembly men about
their little gilt Bibles, and would baffle them sadly: sayd he, 'I doe
consider the original.'
[952]<Richard> Montague, <bishop> of Norwich, was his great
antagonist; vide the bookes writt against each other.
He never owned the mariage with the countesse of Kent till after her
death, upon some lawe account. He never kept any servant peculiar,
but my ladie's were all at his command; he lived with her _in Aedibus
Carmeliticis_ (White Fryers), which was, before the conflagration, a
noble dwelling.
He kept a plentifull table, and was never without learned company. He
rose at ... clock in the morning (quaere Sir J. C.[BM]) and went to bed
at....
He was temperate in eating and drinking. He had a slight stuffe, or
silke, kind of false carpet, to cast[953] over the table where he read
and his papers lay[954], when a stranger came-in, so that he needed not
to displace[955] his bookes or papers.
He wrote ...: vide A. Wood's _Antiq. Oxon._ for the catalogue of the
bookes writt by him.
He dyed of a dropsey; he had his funerall scutcheons all ready ...
moneths before he dyed.
When he was neer death, the minister (Mr. <Richard> Johnson) was
comeing to him to assoile him: Mr. Hobbes happened then to be there;
sayd he, 'What, will you that have wrote like a man, now dye like a
woman?' So the minister was not let in.
He dyed _in Aedibus Carmeliticis_ (aforesayd) the last day of November,
Anno Domini 1654; and on Thursday, the 14th day of December, was
magnificently buryed in the Temple church. His executors were Matthew
Hales (since Lord Chiefe Justice of the King's Bench), John Vaughan
(since Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas), and Rowland Jewkes,
Esq.: quaere the fourth executor[BN]. They invited all the Parliament
men, all the benchers, and great officers. All the judges had[956]
mourning, as also an abundance of persons of quality. The Lord Primate
of Ireland, <James> Usher, preach't his funerall sermon.
His grave was about ten foot deepe or better, walled up a good way
with bricks, of which also the bottome was paved, but the sides at the
bottome for about two foot high were of black polished marble, wherein
his coffin (covered with black bayes) lyeth, and upon that wall of
marble was presently lett downe a huge black marble stone of great
thicknesse, with this inscription:
_Heic jacet corpus Johannis Seldeni, qui
obiit 30 die Novembris, 1654._
Over this was turned an arch of brick (for the house would not loose
their grownd), and upon that was throwne the earth, etc. and on the
surface lieth another faire grave-stone of black marble, with this
inscription: