now in use; and where some of the titles of Chapters did not appear sufficiently appropriate, he endeavoured to remedy that defect. More finished translations of some of the classical quotations were also, in some instances, substituted from other writers. In all these alterations, it was the object of the Editor, to render his Author better adapted for general use. The whole of that impression (which was a large one) having been called for, several years ago, the Editor has much gratification in again committing the work to the press; which he would have earlier done, if he could have commanded the time necessary for that purpose.

In the present Edition of the Resolves, he has been induced, to insert a few not included in the former one, which he considers to have well deserved a place in it; and he has subjoined to it, some of the poetic productions of Owen Felltham; both of which, he flatters himself, will prove acceptable to those who may read the Volume now presented to the Public. The Editor has also enlarged the Account of the Author and his Writings, prefixed to the former impression of the Resolves; but without being able to add much to the few particulars which he then gave of his private history.

May 1820.

SOME ACCOUNT

OF

Owen Felltham,

AND HIS WRITINGS.

THERE

HERE are few English writers, perhaps none, of any considerable celebrity in the ages in which they lived, of whom less is known, than of the Author of the Resolves; and what is particularly remarkable, though this production of his pen, had passed through no less than twelve Editions, (the greater part of which appeared during his life) when I formerly ventured to present it to the world, yet the name of Owen Felltham had not been made the subject of an article in any one of our printed Biographical Collections.

The Fellthams were a family of high antiquity in Norfolk and Suffolk; and were seated, according to

Blomefield, at Felltham's Manor, in the former county, as early as the reign of Henry III. A branch of them, it seems, remained in Norfolk in 1664: and, I am informed by my friend Edmund Lodge, Esq. Herald at Lancaster, that there is, in the College of Arms, a pedigree of the Fellthams, of four descents, made, in a visitation of that year; which sets forth, that Thomas Felltham of Sculthorpe, in Norfolk, who married Mayant daughter of Jackson, of in Derbyshire, had issue Thomas Felltham of Mutford, in Suffolk, who married Mary daughter of Ufflett of Somerleyton, in Suffolk, who had Robert Felltham of Sculthorpe, who married Christian daughter of William Lucas, of Horniger, in Suffolk, and had a numerous issue, of which the second son was named Owen. The above-mentioned Thomas Felltham of Mutford in Suffolk, must in all probability, have been the father of our author; and the Owen described as the second son of Robert Felltham of Sculthorpe, the nephew of him who wrote the Resolves, from whom that Owen derived his Christian

name.

That the name of Felltham's father was Thomas, that he resided in Suffolk, that he died on the 11th of March, 1631, aged 62, and was buried at Babram, in Cambridgeshire, appears from the following Epitaph written by his son Owen, and preserved in the supplementary matter to the later impressions of the Resolves; from which it also appears, that his father had three children; and that he was a gentleman of worth.

["Upon my Father's Tomb at Babram in Cambridgeshire.”] M. P. Q. S. Memoriæ Posterisque Sacrum.

Ex

Suffolciæ ortus Comitatu

THOMAS FELLTHAM

Vir probus, generosus, sciens
Ubique colendus.
Bonis,

Malis,

Adjutor, Obstes;

Amicisque fidelis.

Bene vivens, moriens pie,
Filios tres, totitemque Natas,
Superstites relinquens,

11. Martii, Salutis Anno 1631.
Sed militiæ suæ 62.

Per natu Filium minorem,
Hic,

In vitam beatiorem

Ad Resurgendum,

Positus.

The monument is still in existence in the Church of Babram. The parish clerk who, in the year 1806, when I made my inquiries concerning the Fellthams, distinctly recollected events and circumstances as far back as 1734, had never heard of any of the name having been settled at that place or its neighbourhood; nor could I learn that any traces of the family remained in Norfolk, or even at Mutford in Suffolk, which was in latter times the seat of their residence. The minister at Mutford examined his registers; but could find nothing in them respecting the family, of a more recent date than 1590. It was the baptismal entry of a female. The Church contained no memorials of the Fellthams of any kind;

and as the minister believed "there was no estate "that could have been in their possession, for very

66

many years.” The name is by no means an uncommon one; and I have endeavoured to learn of several who bear it, whether they were descended from our author Owen; but I have not met with a single Felltham who could trace his lineage to that source or who set up any pretensions to a connection with his family*.

Owen Felltham must have been born either at the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, or at the beginning of James the first's.

Of his private history, I have not been able (and I have not been indolent in my researches) to collect any further information than what is afforded by Oldys, in his manuscript notes to a copy of Langbain preserved in the British Museum. "Of this Fell"tham," says Oldys, "there has been little written,

It may be worth while to mention, that about two years ago, my attention was attracted by the name of "Owen Felltham," placed over a ginger-bread booth at Croydon Fair, where I happened to be with a party of children. The proprietor of it, being present, (who appeared to me to be a respectable and intelligent man,) I talked to him about his eminent name-sake. I found he was a native of Suffolk; and that he had heard of the Resolves, which not many years before had been put into his hands by a schoolmaster in that county, with whom he had placed a son; but he was not conscious of having sprung from the family; and could not carry his genealogy further back than his own father and mother. If he could have traced it back but two generations further, it is not improbable be would have turned out to be a near relative of our Owen. The coincidence of christian name and county of birth is, at all events, curious.