IV.

setting it down in the English for the benefit of the SECT. reader, though written originally in elegant Latin; which cannot be reached in a translation.

66

Anno 1547.

to him. In

Ex universo illo numero, &c. "Of all that number of The University's very eminent men, most eminent Cheke, that ever went congratula"forth from this University into the commonwealth, you tory letter "alone are the man, whom she, above all others, loved be- ter Asch. "ing present, and being absent admired: which you also Epist. II.55. 66 in recompense had adorned more than all the rest, when

66

66

you were present, and now being absent afford your help "unto. For being present, you delivered such rules of "learning for all instruction, and propounded such examples of ingenuity to all imitation, as when every one "followed for their greatest benefit, none perfectly and completely attained. There is none indeed among us all, either so ignorant as knows not, or so envious as to "deny it, that these most fortunate fountains of our stu"dies, which many with great industry, pains, and hope, "have drunk at, have flown from your wit, tuition, ex"ample, and counsel. And the perpetual preservation of your memory, is consecrated to those monuments of "your humanity, parts, and learning. But being gone, "you have heaped upon us greater assistance, and surer 66 defence, than either the rest of our friends could ever "think, or we ourselves expect. For whilst a King, in"structed by your precepts, becomes such a patron of "learning by your counsel, we are not ignorant what the 66 rest either will, or at least ought to contribute to our "University. We have drawn this our hope, and this dis

cipline out of your Plato, to Dionysius, a very bad king; 66 yet we have had experience lately of the fruit and use of "it, by your aid in our best Prince Edward. Therefore, "since so many mutual offices, so many pious closenesses "and ties are between you and the University, that in fetching back the remembrance of it from your very cradle, to the honour in which you now are, there is no "benefit of nature, or fruit of industry, or praise of wit, or "defence of fortune, or ornament of honour to be found in

66

D

II.

CHAP. " you, whereunto our University either hath not contri“buted for your use, or whereof it hath not partaken to Anno 1547.❝ her glory: we do not doubt, but the University may "hope and receive from you this fruit of the ornaments "she hath conferred on you; that whatever interest and "power your honourable place and station may hereafter "put into your hands, you will employ it all in preserving "the dignity of the University. We do not commend any 66 one, but all our causes to you, wherein we hope you will "take such pains, as either you ought to bestow upon us, "or we to expect from you.'

Marries.

Mrs.

ther.

In this year I place Mr. Cheke's marriage, being confirmed by a passage in his eldest son's letter to Cecil, that he was nine years old when his father died, which was in the year 1557. She whom he chose for his consort was Mary, a young gentlewoman, daughter and heiress of Richard Hill, by Elizabeth, daughter of Ilsley, Esq. Cheke's fa- This Hill lived, as it seems, in the Vintry, London, and was a wine merchant, and died young; yet not before he had ten or eleven children by his wife. He had also a place of credit at Court, being master or sergeant of the wine cellar to King Henry VIII. as appears by his monumental inscription in the church of St. Michael, Queenhithe, London, where he was buried: which was to this Weev. Mon. tenor: RICHARDO HILL potentiss. Regis HENRICI Octavi

p. 405.

cellæ vinaria prefecto, Elizabetha conjux mœstissima, facta jam undecimorum liberorum mater, marito optimo, immatura tandem morte sublato, (quod solum potuit) posteritati commendaturum cupiens hoc monumentum, posuit. Obiit, an. Dom. 1539, die mensis Maii 12.

As for this young lady, (daughter to this good widow Mrs. Hill,) we shall meet with a passage concerning her hereafter.

SECT. V.

His preferments and benefits obtained from King

Edward.

THE first benefit I find bestowed on Cheke by the

V.

grants

hundred

King, was an hundred mark rent for twenty-one years, by SECT. a patent dated at Westminster, Aug. 26, an. 2. Edward VI. which, it seems, was the way of gratifying the King's Anno 1548. instructors. So I find John Belmain, who was his master The King for the French language, had, in the year 1550, a lease Cheke one granted for twenty-one years, (that is, of the same space marks yearof time that Cheke's grant was,) of the parsonage of Mine- ly. head and Cotcomb, with the appurtenances in the county of Somerset, and divers other lands, but with a certain yearly payment out of it. But this grant to Mr. Cheke was followed soon after with others.

vost of

George Day, a learned man, Bishop of Chichester, was Made ProProvost of King's college in Cambridge; which provost- King's; ship he had held in commendam from King Henry VIII. to this time: but was deprived of his bishopric in the year 1548, for his disobedience to the King's proceedings, in refusing to take down the Popish altars in his diocese. It was also thought convenient to displace him from his provostship. Then all the talk was, that Cheke should be made Provost of King's. And in St. John's college there was great and glad expectation and desire that it might be so. For thus I find a one of the chief of that house expressed his mind in this matter to the Lord Protector's Master of Requests; ❝b It is the common wish among us "here at Cambridge, that at length, yea, very shortly, we 66 may see John Cheke Provost of King's college. That "Bishop [i. e. the Bishop of Chichester, the present Pro"vost] does not promote studies; I wish he hindered them "not. And this I do not speak for any one's favour, but "for the benefit of the whole University. There are many things that make us of this judgment, and many more 66 your own prudence sees. Thus we friends talk among ❝ourselves, perhaps not so very wisely, yet warily, and at "least very affectionately. Think, Sir, as you please of "this affair, yet further it as much as you can." Nor was

66

a Ascham.

b Commune votum est apud nos, &c. Asch. ad Cicell. int. Epist. MSS.

iii. 35.

CHAP. it long after that this preferment, according to these his II. friend's good wishes, fell upon him. For the King, his Ann. 1548, loving scholar, in that year granted him a mandamus, diBy the rected to the college, (upon Day's resignation,) to elect him King'sman- their Provost. A place which suited best with his stu

et seq.

damus.

The King grants him lands.

dious mind, that ever laboured for retirement, and affected contemplation. It is true, the statutes of that college were against him. And therefore the mandamus ran to dispense with three qualifications required in a Provost of this college, viz. to be a Doctor, a Priest, and of the foundation. Which they would scarcely have complied with, (as they have since refused such dispensations, being against their statutes,) had it not happened at that time, when the University wanted some notable reformers, and in respect of the extraordinary person recommended to them, so eminent for his virtue and his learning, and with some regard also to his greatness at Court. So at length he was chosen by the Vice-Provost and Fellows; who wrote letters both to the King and him. This place he held about five years, till the beginning of Queen Mary, when being found tardy, he was glad for his safety to resign, though the instrument ran ex mero motu, according to the common form.

The King expressed also his gratitude to him, by bestowing considerable lands and lordships upon him; namely, out of such as fell to the Crown by the dissolution of religious houses, colleges, and chantries. For in the third year of his reign Cheke obtained of him, (as it is expressed in the patent,) propter industriam in instituenda adolescentia Domini Regis; i. e. " for his industry in in"structing the King's youth," the house and site of the late priory of Spalding in the county of Lincoln, the manor of Hunden in the same county, and divers other lands and tenements in the counties of Lincoln and Suffolk, to the value of 1187. 11d. q. and no rent reserved. And the year before he obtained another estate of the King; wherein he and Walter Moyle were joint purchasers; and no

In respect of Popery.

V.

et seq.

Dean of

question a good pennyworth. The sum to be paid was SECT. 9581. 3s. 5d. ob. a sign that Cheke had by this time got money in his purse. It was the college of St. John Baptist Ann. 1548, de Stoke juxta Clare in Suffolk; and likewise, all the messuages, tenements, cottages, cellars, solars, chambers, stables, &c. with the appurtenances belonging to the college of Corpus Christi, in the parish of St. Laurence Poultney, London, lately dissolved; together with divers other lands and tenements in the counties of Suffolk, Devon, Kent, and in London. The Head of the foresaid college, who was styled the Dean of it, was Dr. Matthew Parker, after- Dr. Parker wards Archbishop of Canterbury. He indeed by founding Stoke. a free school in it for education of children, and by good statutes making it an useful foundation, deserved still to have enjoyed it. But by the act of Parliament in the first of the King, it fell under the same fate with the rest of the colleges superstitiously founded. So when Parker could not obtain the continuance of it, (which he endeavoured,) he gave Cheke (to whom it was granted) such friendly counsel and advice concerning the state of it, and for the better improvement of it, that he professed his great obligations to him in a letter, promising to take care that he should be the first to whom a pension should be appointed, as soon as the commission came out for stating the pensions; and so rewarded, that, as he trusted, no pensioner better: writing thus to him ;

"Mr. Doctor,

Dr. Parker,

"After most hearty commendation, I am as diligent in Cheke to 66 your behalf as I would be in my own; and labour as MSS.C.C. "sore, that you may think yourself to have found some C.C. "kind of friendship at my hand, as indeed I think I have "received at yours. When the commission is once come "out, you and yours shall be the first to whom pensions "shall be appointed: and for your part, I trust so or"dered, that no pensionary better. The time is not now 66 long, within this sevennight or more, it is thought you "shall be despatched; wherefore you need not much now