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THE
PUBLICATION'S
OF THB
SURTEES SOCIETY.
ESTABLISHED IN THE YEAR M.DCCC.XXXIV.
VOL. LIV.
FOR THE YEAR MDCCCLXIX.
, 3^/
RIPOJT :
ANt) to,, PRIN'^fiKS,- MAE^iBT'PLACB.
THE DIAEY
OF
ABRAHAM BE LA PRYME,
f0t
BY ANDREWS & CO., DURHAM;
WHITTAKER & CO., 13, AVE MARIA LANE ; T. & W. BOONS,
29, NEW BOND STREET ; BERNARD QUARITCH, 15, PICCADILLY { BLACKWOOD Sc SONS. EDINBURGH,
THE YORKSHIRE ANTIQUARY.
187A
At a Meeting of the Council of The Surtees Society, neld in the Castle of Durham, on Tuesday, December 1st, 1868, the Rev. C. T. Whitley in the chair — it was
Resolved, that The Diary of Abraham de la Pryme should form one of the publications of this Society for 1869, to be edited by Mr. Charles Jackson.
James Raine,
Secretary.
INTKODUCTION.
The Council of the Surtees Society are enabled, by the cour- teous permission of Francis Westby Bagshawe, esq., of the Oaks, near Sheffield, the owner of the original manuscript, to furnish its members with the volume now delivered to them. To that gentleman the cordial thanks of the Society are justly due, and, on their behalf, are hereby presented.
The manuscript consists of two volumes folio, in size about eleven inches by seven. Each volume is bound in rough calf, with folding flaps, originally secured by a single clasp of brass, with four catches. The pages of volume the first are alternately numbered. Including several original letters, printed papers, etc., occasionally inserted by the Diarist, and numbered as pages, they amounted to 573. Several pages are, however, now want- ing. In volume the second, not so thick a book as the first, the pages are not numbered. Inclusive of its interleaved matter it appears at present to contain 133 pages. At the end of it many pages have been cut or torn out : but, as the latest entry is under date of the 25th Jan., 1703-4, andthe writer lived only to the month of June following, and since as the later portion consists merely of entries of copies of letters to some of his antiquarian corres- pondents, without any notes of daily occurrences, it is probable that the missing leaves were for the most part blank, and only taken out for other purposes. The handwriting is bold and clear in character. In places where some of the church notes are given, trickings of arms, hastily executed, are made ; these it has not been considered worth while to represent by engraving. Upon the whole the manuscript may fairly be regarded as being in very good condition.
VI
INTRODUCTION.
Mr. Baofsliawe informs me that he is unahle to state for what length of time these two manuscript volumes have been in the possession of his family, or how, indeed, precisely they were at the first obtained. His belief is that they were given by one of the De la Pryme family'* to one of his ancestors, Mrs. Darling,^ who was connected with Thorne, the last place at which the Diarist resided, and where also he died.
The Diary has been, no doubt through the civility of its owners, lent at different times to various persons, and it is likely that transcripts of or extracts from it, printed or otherwise, may exist elsewhere. For historical purposes it was certainly, some years ago, entrusted to at least one distinguished topographical Avriter, than 'whom no one was more 'weFome, or more able, to extract the essence of it, and who has suitably acknowledged the benefits, which these, as well as other manuscripts of De la Pryme, afforded him in his compilation of the history of South Yorkshire.''
Upon undertaking the editorship of this work I had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with an existing member of the Diarist’s family, Charles de la Pryme, esq., M.A., of Trinity
“ On the outside of the cover of vol ii. is written “ Peter Pryme, his Booke.” This was the Diarist’s next brother and successor, who died 25th Nov., 1724, (See Pedigree). The Diarist’s nephew and namesake has also thus described himself within the cover of the same volume : — “Abraham Pryme, living in ye Devils of Hatfield Chace, in ye county of York, in the West Rideing thereof, near Doncaster, Anno Domini 1722.”
* Ellen, daughter and coheiress of Richard Bagshawe, of the Oaks, married at Thorne, 8th March, 1738-4, William Chambers, of Hull, M.D., whose only daughter, Elizabeth Chambers, became the wife of Ralph Darling, of Hull. Their son, William Chambers Darling, assumed the surname of Bagshawe in lieu of Darling, and, being knighted, became Sir William Chambers Bagshawe, M.D. He was the grandfather of Francis Westby Bagshawe, esq., now of the Oaks. — See Hunter's Hallamshlre, 1819, p. 234 ; Gatty's Hunter's Hallamshire, 1869, pp. 399, 400.
“At the end of the 17th century Abraham de la Pryme, a clergyman, and early fellow of the Royal Society, made some not inconsiderable collections for the history, natural and civil, of the Level of Hatfield Chace, the place of his nativity. These collections, though injured by the carelessness of some former possessor, are now in the Lansdowne department of the British Museum, and
INTRODUCTION.
Vli
College, Cambridge, who informed me that he had been contem- plating the publication of notices, collected by his family and himself, relating to his worthy ancestor. With great politeness he immediately suggested that these should be introduced as a preface to the present volume, and that such portions of the actual Diary as he had previously copied should be merged in it. This arrangement, being a great mutual advantage, has been adopted, and Mr. de la Pryme’s valuable addition accordingly appears at the conclusion of these few remarks.
In this vohiine the original Diary is not printed verbatim et totaliter. A certain license, in these cases no less needful than discretionary, has been exercised in the rejection or omission of such portions as, on various accounts, seemed unnecessary in print. For the most part the original orthography has been followed, except in some instanees, where the appearance of the book, and the more convenient perusal by non - antiquarian readers, seemed to demand a more modern variety of form.
Though not equal, either in the supply of information, or method, or general character, to the diaries of Pepys, Thoresby, and others, still it will probably be found that the references, as well to political as to private and personal occurrences, are of con- siderable interest ; and the quaint, unartificial language of an old Diarist, telling us naturally what happened in his time, is always attractive.
Next to the owner of the manuscript my best thanks, as editor, are justly due to our Secretary, the Pev. Canon Paine, M.A., of York, whose long and intimate acquaintance with compilations
there I had access to them, through the kindness of ^Ir. Ellis, before they were generally placed in the hands of those who are admitted to the reading-room of the Museum. Besides these, De la Pryme left an Ephemeris or Diary of his life, in which he has inserted many historical and biographical matters. This last has been entrusted to me by William John Bagshawe, esq., of the Oaks, in Norton.” (Mr. Hunter’s preface to SoJith Yoj'lishire, 1828). At page 179 of vol. i. the same author again recognises “ the unsolicited and kind communi- cation” of this Diary. Mr. Hunter made copious extracts from the Diary, which are now amongst his MSS. at the British Museum. — Additional MSS., 24:475, pp. 38-94.
Vlll.
INTRODUCTION.
of this character has enabled him to render material help to one who cannot lay claim to similar experience. The Rev. Dr. Thompson, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge ; the Rev.
J. E. B. Mayor, M.A., of St. John’s College, Cambridge; the Rev. George Ornsby, M.A., vicar of Fishlake, near Doncaster ; Edward Peacock, esq., F.S.A., of Bottesford Manor, near Brigg; and George William Collen, esq.. Portcullis Pursuivant at Arms, have greatly assisted me with the information supplied in the^-^ notes. For the testamentary notices of the De la Pry me family and others, to be found in the Appendix,*^ and elsewhere, I am chiefly indebted to Robert Hardisty Skaife, esq., of York, and to Colonel Chester, of London. Those who know what it is to be engaged in the compilation of Pedigrees will readily appreciate the value of being permitted a free and unrestricted access to parochial registers and other records. For this privilege I must request the Rev. Canon Brooke, M.A., vicar of the Holy Trinity Church at Hull; the Rev. Henry Hogarth, M.A., vicar of Hat- fleld; and the Rev. George Jannings, B.A., vicar of Thorne, to accept my most sincere acknowledgments. I must not omit the names of Rowland Heathcote, esq., of the Manor House, Hatfield, (for the liberal facility of inspecting the, court rolls under his charge),^ of Edward Shimells AYilson, esq., F.S.A.^and William Consitt Boulter, esq., F.S.A. And there are other gentlemen, of whose friendly aid I bear the most grateful remembrance.
In a work of this kind, involving for its elucidation references to so many scattered sources, so many old records, and so many manuscript authorities, errors are inevitable. I will only add that I have done my best to explain, for the Surtees Society and the Public, the obscurities which Time has thrown over the “observable things” recorded in this Diary by one who in his day was a remarkable man.
CHARLES JACKSON.
Doncaster^ November^ 1870.
** See Appendix, pp. 265-9. * See jfostea, p. 257, n. f See Appendix, p. 298.
PREFACE.
MEMOIR OF THE FAMILY OF DE LA PRYME, BY CHARLES HE LA PRYME.
The antiquity of families has so long been a subject of interest to some, and of ridicule to others, that it is difficult to assign its proper limits in a biographical memoir. The He la Pryme family has claimed to be the oldest of the Huguenots that have settled in this country, whether traditionally or historically considered. Were this work intended for the votaries of what has been called the science of fools with long memories,” some pleasant pages might have been written about the descent from the last king of Troy, the crossing the Mediterranean and settling in France — first at Troyes and then at Paris (hence so called), and their consequent assumption of the prefix De la.
The “ gentle reader ” will, perhaps, be quite content to pass over in respectful silence the legendary period, and descend at once to the tamer level of the twelfth century, when we find them chief magistrates of the city of Ypres, in French Flanders.
The earliest spelling of the name was Priem^ the next Prijme^ the next Pnme^ and the last Pryme; which an herald would perhaps call respectively the Trojan, the Flemish, the French, and the English variations. The prefix De la has had its vicis- situdes in this, as in some other families — as the He la Poles, Helafields, etc., where it has been, as it were, ^^on and off” for
X
PREFACE.
some time, and even finally dropped. In some cases it has been so with only the De^ and in others with only the La. The author of Robinson Crusoe ” has been accused of takino; ex- actly the contrary liberty with his name, by calling himself [De] Foe. During the seven j^ears’ war (1756-1763), the anti-Galli- can feeling here was so strong, that Francis, who, in 1749, was elected mayor of Hull as Francis De la Pryme, was, in 1766, mayor as simply Francis Pryme. Ilis son, Christopher, con- tinued the mutilated form, and gave it to his son George, who revived the original name, in its trisyllabic fulness, at the baptism of his son Charles, the present representative.
Tliere seem to have been two branches of the family, one of which possessed a chateau near Paderborn, in West])halia, in the middle of the last centurv. The other, which was the orio-inal one, resided near Ypres, of which city several of them were chief magistrates. It was then one of the most important cities of northern and western Europe ; its manufactures were cele- brated all over the Continent ; and it lent its name to the best of its fabrics, the diaper (which is merely a corruption of D^Ypres)^ just as our own worsted is so called from a place of that name in Norfolk.^
Among the MSS. belonging to the family, there is an old paper, of which it will be sufficient to give the substance.
It appears that in 1176, Philip of Alsace carried with him to the Crusade five hundred of the citizens of Yj)res. Three years
s Worstead, a parish, and formerly a market town, eastern division of Nor- folk, 2| miles (s.S.E.) from North Walsham, and 121 (n.e. by N.) from London. This place was once celebrated for the invention and manufacture of woollen twists and stuffs, thence called worsted goods ; but this branch of trade was, on the petition of the inhabitants of Norwich, removed to that city in the time of Pvichard II., where it was finally established in the reign of Henry IV.
- — Lewis Top. Diet.
^ Stated to be compiled from old papers, and considered by the family as trustworthy. Stories of the nature here given, are, however, when unsupported by evidence, generally tinctured with so much of what is romantic, that their reception is entirely a matter to be left to the judgment of the reader.
PREFACE.
XI
afterwards, four hundred and thirtj-six of these returned. These were amply rewarded by their leader, some with knighthood, some, it is said, with orrants of arms. Amono; those who were honoured with the last was the ancestor of the De la Prymes, whose coat-armour is thus described : — ^
‘‘Hereunder is the coat of arms of Alexander Priem, which is Field azure ^ with two gilt crosses and silver poinards, with a red bar in the middle. The motto, Animose certavit — He has fought as a hero. If the Turks came with so many thousand men to attack all Christian people ; and if he came with such great fury, and with numberless to cover all the fields, yet Alexander Priem has shown to many Saracens that they were not able to fight against him, for his dagger is always Priem, being a poinard, which is the name of the family, and, as before the cross, has slain upon the ground many Turks and Saracens.”
The following are the names of the persons of the family of Priem that have been in the magistracy of Ypres since the year 1179, when the first Alexander received his nobility.*
1179. Alexander Priem. 1567.
1222. Leo
1276. Arnauld 1383. Ignatius 1490. William 1468. Paul 1545. Christian 1554. Nicholas
|
1572. |
|
|
?? |
1581. |
|
1612. |
|
|
?? |
1616. |
|
J? |
1620. |
|
?? |
1628. |
|
55 |
1680. |
Priem.
??
• ')'!
George „
George „
George „
George ,,
Robert ,,
* In a similar account of the early history of the family, as furnished in Burlie's History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, 1S38, vol. iv., p. 705, it is stated that Alexander Priem “received a patent of gentility and a grant of arms.” The latter, however, it is believed, were unknown under Philip of Alsace ; and, upon enquiry, neither of these documents, if they ever existed, appear to be now in the possession of the present representative of this family in England.
Xll
PKEFACE.
James de la Pryme, of Naze House, near Kirkliam, Lanca- shire, went to Ypres, at the close of the last eentury, to enquire after any of the family — their situation, property, etc. He found two persons of the name (which they spelt Prijine), and brought back their arms, and a long pedigree from the year 1100, written in the language of the country.
In August, 1851, I went with my father and mother to Ypres with the same motive. We had obtained an introduction from Lord Palmerston to the British embassy, at Brussels,. from which we procured one to the burgomaster at Ypres, so as to enable us to inspect the archives of the city. We found several burgo- masters of the name of Priem, not only in the archives, but on the monuments in the cathedral. A widow, Madame Rix Priem, was living there, who had the same arms as we have, and she in- formed us that the ancestor who was the link between us had been ignored as a heretic. We also learnt that on the death of De la Pierre, the editor of Precis analytique des Arcldves de la Flandre occidentale, De la Priem, of Bruges, had succeeded him, and was continuing the work, in the first volume of which (in 1850), mention had been made of the family at Ypres.
Alexander De la Pryme’s descendants embraced the reformed religion, and have continued good Huguenots to this day ; and their assumption of the original name shows that in the word good they included the word liberal.
The number of good families that by religious persecution was thus lost to France, and gained to England, is very surpris- ing. Among them may be mentioned the families of Romilly, Lefevre, La Touche, Delafield, Labouchere, De la Pryme, etc.
The persecution which Richelieu had renewed against the adherents of the reformed religion, and the desperate resistance of those who were beseiged in Rochelle, in 1627, rendered a residence in French-Flanders so insecure and uncomfortable, that about eighty families fled to England, and settled in the Levels of Hatfield Chase, in Yorkshire, in 1628-9. Hatfield is a village
PREFACE.
Xlll
in the middle of Hatfield Chase, seven miles eastward of Don- caster, in the west-riding, and was formerly a royal village, in which the king had a palace,-^ of which De la Pryme says (1694) there is part of the palace standing, being an indifferent large hall, with great courts and gardens about the same.”^
Charles De la Pryme was the first of the family whose zeal induced him to take the sad alternative of sacrificing his country to his religion. The De la Prymes, however, retained an estate in French-Flanders, which, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, one of them vainly endeavoured to recover. On settling in England, he obtained a licence from Charles I. for a religious service in the French and Dutch languages, which was celebrated in my ancestor’s house till the chapel at Sandtoft was erected for that purpose ; and the French and Dutch languages were pre- served among these emigrants for two or three generations at least. Charles, probably from a feeling of persecuted religion, changed the family arms, as emigrant dissenters in America did. He adopted the coat of a sun upon an azure ground, with the crest of a wyvern, on, what has been probably originally intended for a rock, or pile of stones, but which, by the mistake or care- lessness of sculptors and engravers, has been represented on monuments, and on some of our plate, as a pile of books — folio,
j Hatfield, for nearly five centuries after the conquest, was subject to the feudal superiority of the Earls of Warren, lords of the castle of Conings- borough. It was owned by a series of earls till the 20th Edward III., 1346. It then came to the crown, and was settled on the princes of the house of York. When they ascended the throne, it became demesne of the crown. The earls of Warren were accustomed to resort hither for the enjoyment of field sports ; and, near the centre of the Chase, at what is now the town of Hatfield, they had a house at which they might remain, when, fatigued with their day’s exertion, they were unwilling to return to Coningsborough. This house, when Hatfield became royal demesne, was sometimes dignified with the appellation of a palace. But, though occasionally the residence of our kings, it never could have been considerable. Leland calls it the Lodge, or Manor Place. In this house Queen Philippa was delivered of her second son, surnamed de Hat= field. Here, also, was born Henry, eldest son of Richard Duke of York, on Friday, 10th February, 1441. — Hunter's South Yorkshire, i., pp, 153-155,
* See ^ostea, p. 114,
XIV
PREFACE.
quarto, octavo, and duodecimo, placed one upon anotlier.^
Warburton, Somerset Herald^”" published a quaint map of Yorkshire, putting the arms of some of the nobility and gentry in the margin, gives among them those of the De la Prymes.'*
\j)e Iici^rime\
These we find also on the old plate, seals, etc., belonging to the
^ On the monument of Peter De la Pryme, 1724, in Hatfield church, the crest, formerly placed over the arms, has disappeared, but on the wreath are left two of these books, one upon the other.
John Warburton, F.S.A. and F.R.S., born 28th Feb., 1681-2. Somerset, 6th June, 1720. Died 11th May, 1759. For the armorial illustrations on his Map of Yorkshire, it has been said that he has incurred some reproach, on account of having introduced several coats which are of doubtful authority. — Hunter. Note in Tkoreshfs Diary, vol. ii., p. 264.
The seals here given are copies of two now in the possession of the Rev. Edward Ryley, rector of Sarratt, Herts, who is maternally descended from the family of De la Pryme. This gentleman is also the owner of a gold and red cornelian seal, oval shaped, upon which is represented a female figure, sejant^ in an attitude of mournful contemplation, her head reclining on her right hand, the arm of which rests upon her knee. In the back-ground is a vision of a Roman soldier’s helmet, shield, and breast-plate. It is said that this was engraved for some, or one, of the family refugees, in memory of their expatri- ation from fatherland ; and, consequently, a proportionate value is placed upon it by those concerned in its history. Judging from its age and appearance, Mr. Ryley considers that it may have once belonged to Abraham De la Pryme, the Diarist.
»» In this instance, either Warburton, or his engraver, by mistake, has made the field of the arms gules, or red,
PREFACE
XV
family, and tliey are placed over ttie entrance of tlie house at Cambridge (Trinity Hostel) ; and are still used by the last des~ Cendant of the family who remained at Ypres.
The De la Prymes joined with Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, and others of their countrymen, in the draining of the great fens in the Levels of Hatfield Chase; and the knowledge they must have derived from the similar situation of their native country, rendered them peculiarly fitted for such an undertaking. But, either through the disadvantageous terms of the contract," or from unexpected obstacles in executing it, although, as our Diarist tells us, for a time they lived like princes, most of them were undone, and Charles de la Pryme lost many hundreds of pounds by it.” Vermuyden’s losses were still greater ; and losing money not only by the works, but by litigation connected with them, it is said that he died in poverty. Abraham De la Pryme has done him ample justice in his MS. Tlistory of Hatfield, where he says that he, at the incredible labor a.xd charges of 400,000/., did discharge and drain Hatfield Ohu,je, whose name deserves a thousand times more to be honorably mentioned and revered in all our histories than Scaurus’ was in those of Pome, for draining a great lake in Italy, not a quarter so big as this.”
Charles De la Pryme left two sons, Matthias, or Matthew, and Abraham, the father and uncle of the Diarist. The latter was, according to his nephew, an honest, learned, pious, wise, and understanding man, and died in 1687. Matthias was born in 1645, and married Sarah, daughter of Peter Smagge (or Smaqiie) ^‘a rich Frenchman, that, with his whole family, was forced from Paris by persecution for his faith, and was come to live on these Levels.” They were married in the great hall ^ of the Dutch
® Dated 24 May, 1626. (See Hunter's South YorhsJiire, i., p. 160). There is a copy in Lansdowne MSS.^ Brit. Mus., 205, f. 193. See also appendix to Peck's Isle of Axholme, 1815.
P 'D\2iXj, postea,
« These words, “great hall,” etc., are struck out by the Diarist in the original MS,
XVI
PREFACE.
congregation, called Mynlieer Van Valkenbnrg’s/ and came to live at Hatfield. In 1680 he removed to Crowtrees Hall, a large house on Hatfield Chase, built by Valkenburg, and died in 1694. His epitaph, so quaint and characteristic, will be found in the Appendix (page 26).
Matthias had two sons, Abraham, the Diarist, and Peter, who, on his elder brother’s death, succeeded to the family pro- perty, 13th June, 1704. Peter married, in 1695, Frances, daughter of Francis Wood, of Hatfield Levels, and died 25th November, 1724, leaving two sons, Abraham, born in 1697, from whom descends the Lancashire branch.
Francis, born in 1701, as a younger brother, went to reside at North Ferriby, seven miles west of Hull, where he became a very active and influential magistrate, and was twice mayor, and also sheriff in the important year, 1745, ‘^when the town ditches had to be cleaned, and the walls repaired and newly strengthened, in fear of the Pretender and his army.”
He died 7th July, 1769, leaving an only son, Christopher, born in 1739, who married Alice, daughter of George Hinsdale, of Nappa Hall, in Wensleydale. Pryme-street, Christopher- street, and Alice-street, in Hull, were called after them, as George-street has since been called after their son, and Charles- street after their ^rrandson ; the sixth street being very appropri- ately called Heform-street. Pryme-street, in Manchester, re- ceived its name from the Lancashire branch. Christopher died in September, 1784, leaving an only child, George,
Born at Cottingham, 4th August, 1781.
Admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge, October, 1799.
Bachelor of Arts, January, 1803.
Elected Fellow of Trinity, October, 1805.
Master of Arts, July, 1806.
Called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn, November, 1806.
Not Halhenburg, as printed in Burke^ iv., p. 706.
PREFACE.
XVll
Married Jane Townley Thackeray, August, 1813.
Elected the first Professor of Political Economy, May, 1828.
Elected M.P. for Cambridge, December, 1832.
lie-elected in two succeeding parliaments.
Resigned his seat in parliament at the dissolution in 1841.
Died 2nd December, 1868,'^ at his house, at Wistow, Hun- tingdonshire, leaving that best of all inheritances, a good name, to his only son, Charles de la Pryme, its present and only repre- sentative, by whom a volume, containing The Life and Literary Miscellanies of Professor Pryme^ is in preparation. Multis ille bonis flehilis occidit^ nulli fiebilior quarn mihiP
Abraham De la Pryme, the Diarist, was born ^Ho all the miseries of life”' in 1671. Before he was twelve years old he began the Ephemeris Vitce ; or^ a Diary of my own Life; contain- ing an account, likewise, of the most observable and remarkable things that I have taken notice of from my youth up hitherto.” In this, he says, My father can speak Dutch, and my mother French, but I nothing yet but English.”" This is the only indi- cation we have of his early education, which, under such circum- stances, must have been the “ pursuit of knowledge under difficulties.” His great eagerness for the acquirement of it induced his father to give him the benefit of an university education. His father’s inclination was in favor of Glasgow and Presbyterianism, and the son’s in favor of Cambridge and the church of England, to which, after much persuasion, he was fortunately allowed to go. He was admitted a pensioner of St. John’s College in April, 1690 ; ® and, during his residence there, was a contemporary of Sir Isaac Newton, who was a Fellow of the neighbouring college of Trinity. Of the latter he speaks in the Diary ^ and of the circumstances connected with which a separate notice is appended to this memoir.
* See notices of him in the Daily News, 5th December, 1868 ; and the Megister, for January, 1869, p. 48.
^ See ;postea, p. 1.
“ See Diary, postea, p. 4.
*' See Jiideej , postea, pp. 18-20.
e
XVI 11
PREFACE.
At Cambridgej he did not confine his attention to the ordinaiy academic studies, but applied himself diligently to natural history, chemistry, and to what was then considered by many a cognate subject, magic. Whatever smile this may now create, it was far otherwise then; and even some of the Fellows of the college, if not addicted to it, were not disbelievers in it. In the intercourse attempted to be held with the other world, by himself and some brother students, he frankly confesses his disappointment"' that nothing would appear, quamvis omnia rite peracta.^'’ This frame of mind, however, did not last long ; and, some time afterwards, he very candidly admitted this, and took pains to expose the im- probability of prmteruatural appearances. It has been wittily said, in favor of the theory of ghosts, that appearances were in their fiivor, but not even this could be said of this form of demonology. He took his B.A. degree in January, 1693; and, soon afterwards, holy orders, and obtained the curacy of Brough- ton, near Brigg, in Lincolnshire. He entered upon a new course of study, suggested by the topographical antiquities of that part of the country, into which he made great researches, and of so valuable a nature, that the principal of them were published in the Pliilosopliical Transactions.
Havino: exhausted all the materials that this neighbourhood afforded, he removed to Hatfield in 1696, with a view of writing its history ; and entered into corres])ondence with the celebrated antiquary. Dr. Gale, dean of York. He speaks of it as a much more interesting place than we now suppose. It was a true “labor of love” to him; and (as he says), he was so “ exceed- ingly busy in old deeds and charters, which they send me in on every side, that I cannot take time to think or write anything else.” The work, with some other of his MSS., is now in the British Museum, though in a somewhat imperfect state.""
His antiquarian pursuits did not divert his attention from the
“> See Diary, postea, p. 26.
* 897-899. See notices in Appendix,
PREFACE.
XIX
study of natural history, in which he corresponded with Sir Hans Sloane, and others. From his observations on marine petrifactions, he attempted to solve the problem of the connexion of these phenomena with the deluge, as recorded in Scripture, the results of which were also published in the Pliilosopliical Transactions. In estimatino; their value as contributions to science, we must not think lightly of them because they have been superseded by modern discoveries, and more extended research, for these subjects were then, as it were, in their infancy. Let us remember, as Professor Pryme has so well said, Justice requires us, while we admire the modern super- structure, not to forget the merits of those who laid the early foundations, or, by unsuccessful attempts, showed what parts of them were unsound. They laid the groundwork of what has been since done more accurately and completely ; and by narrow- ing the limits of conjecture, contributed to the discoveries of those who might otherwise have been occupied, like them, in ill- directed researches, and in deducing erroneous theories.”
In 1698, he was appointed curate and divinity reader of the High Church, Hull, where he applied himself with unusual dili- gence to methodising the records and antiquities of that town. Frost, in his notices of the early history of Hull, thus speaks of his labors in that department. The first attempt to give a detached History of Hull was made by the Rev. Abraham de la Pryme, M.A., F.R.S., who filled the office of divinity reader in the Holy Trinity Church there, between the month of Septem- ber, 1698, and the year 1701. He was attracted to the place by his taste for the study of antiquities, which he hoped to indulge by obtaining access to the numerous MSS. and old deeds there understood to be deposited. A three years’ residence afforded him sufficient opportunity, not only to arrange and make a copious analytical index of all the ancient records of the corpo- ration, but to compile from them a regular and connected detail, which has formed the basis and groundwork of all subsequent
XX
PllEFACE.
accounts and histories of the town. His labours, though evi- dently intended for publication, exist yet, in MS. only ; and a copy is to he found in the Warburton Collection, among the Lansdowne MSS.^ in the British Museum, in two volumes, folio, bearing the following promising title : The History, Antiquities, and Description of the Town and County of King ston-upon- Hull, etc., collected out of all the Records, Charters, Deeds, Mayors’’ letters, etc., of the said Town. By A. de la Pryme, Reader and Curate of the Church of the Holy Trinity of the said Town. — Lansdowne, MSS., in Bibl. Mus. Brit., No. 890-891.”
Such, however, was the labor and difficulty attending these studies, that he confesses that he began to grow somewhat weary thereof.”^ Although he inherited from his father an estate in Lincolnshire, as well as one at Hatfield, which, together with his stipend at Hull, procured him a very good income, the expensive nature of his studies, and the journies connected with them, seem to have crippled his resources. He says, “my zeal for old MSS., antiquities, coins, and monuments, almost eats me up, so that I cannot prosecute the search of them as I Avould. I am at very great charges in carrying on my studies of antiqui- ies, in employing persons at London, Oxford, etc., to search records, etc., even to the danger and hazard of my own ruin, and the casting of myself into great debts and melancholy.”*
In 1701, the Duke of Devonshire gave him the living of Thorne,'* near Hatfield, which enabled him to retire from his more laborious duties at Hull. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, which was then an honor of much greater distinction than it has since become, and he obtained it at the then very early age of thirty.
He did not, however, live long to enjoy these honors ; and, in June, 1704, we meet with the following sad record of his death
y See Diary, postea, p. 238.
* See postea, p. 236.
* See Diary, postea, p. 245.
PREFACE.
XXI
in Thoreshy's Diary ^ vol. i., p. 455 : ^^Was mucli concerned to hear of the death of my kind friend Mr. Abraham de la Pryme, minister of Thorne, who, visiting the sick, caught the new dis- temper, or fever, which seized him on Wednesday, and he died the Monday after, the 12th inst., in the prime of his age.” Tlioresby has preserved some of his letters in his valuable col- lection.
He was buried in Hatfield church, where are the monuments of most of the fiimily,^ under a plain gravestone, bearing an in- scription, which will be found in the Appendix.'^
His death shows him to have been a good man, as well as a great scholar. He was a man of high principle and strong religious feeling, as well as genuine warmth of friendship. His great simplicity of heart, and singular modesty, may account for his never having married ; and his first, and last, and only love, was literature, to which he seems to have been too much wedded to allow the divisum imperium of matrimony.
Tickell, in the preface to his History of Hull ^ says that Pryme was born at Hull.'^ Probably it might be at the time his father, Matthew, emigrated from the city of Ypres, in Flanders, pre- vious to his settling in the Levels of Hatfield Chase, soon after the same was drained by Vermuyden. This Abraham was some time divinity reader to the High Church, Hull, and minister of Thorne. I have been able to gather very little respecting the life of this respectable person ; but the ample list of works at- tached will attract the attention of the antiquarian, and awaken that respect which is due to his labours. He died in the 34th year of his age, as appears by the tablet erected to his memory in Hatfield church.
When Pryme was divinity reader to the High Church, Hull, he was employed, by the bench of mayor and aldermen, to
* See Appendix, p. 260.
* Ihid, p. 262.
^ This is, however, an error, as the Diarist himself tells us that he saw born in the Hatfield Levels. — Uiary, p. 1.
XXll
PREFACE.
inspect and arrange tlie ancient records of tlie corporation — a task he was, doubtless, well qualified to perforin, and which he has executed with the greatest diligence and attention. From these original papers he has made long extracts, which are bound up in volumes, and lodged in the Guildhall, with a general index, directing us to the originals ; so that any record, previous to the period bounded by the present century, may be as readily exam- ined here, as an enrolment in one of our register offices.”
Tickell compiled his history princijially from the preceding papers, which he published in 4to, 17G9. He adds :• —
Two folio MS. volumes of the above extracts were among Mr. Warburton’s collections concerning Yorkshire, and are now in Lord Shelb urn’s library. — Gougli s British Topography , vol. ii., p. 447.
“ In the same library are deposited the following MSS. by Pryme.
History of Hippon, Selby, Doncaster, and the W. Hiding. 1 vol.
History of Headon and the E. Riding. 1 vol.
History of York and the N. Riding. 1 vol.
History of Beverley. 1 vol.
History and Antiquities of Winterton, 4to. 1 vol. (A copy, as corrected and enlarged by Mr. Warburton, was purchased at the sale of his books, in 1859, by Mr. Goodman, coal merchant. I have seen two copies of this MS.)
History of the Drainage of the Level of Hatfield Chase, 4to. 1 vol. (There are many co]:>ies of this MS. in the country, but all of them very imperfect).
After Pryme became a member of the Royal Society, there were many of his papers published in the Transactions, some of which are the following :
Relation of two Waterspouts observed at Hatfield.
On certain Fossil-shells found in Lincolnshire, Louth, abridged, vol. ii., p. 428.
PREFACE.
XXlll
On Trees found underground in Hatfield Cliase. Vol. iv., 212.
Experiments on Vegetation. Vol. iv., 310.
On Hydrophobia. Vol. v., 366.
A Roman Pavement, near Roxby, in Lincolnshire. Vol. v.,
422.
The Roman Way, called High-street, in Lincolnshire. Vol. iii., 428.
On the Hermitage at Lindhohne, a poem. Printed by T. Outybridge.”
Joseph Hunter says of him, ^^He died before he had the opportunity of pouring upon the world the results of a medi- tative life, of which it may be truly said that in a short time he had fulfilled a long one.”^
Edmund Henry Barker wrote, on returning the MS. Diary to my father, ‘Wonr relation was a fine specimen of primitive honesty and simplicity ; learned himself, and a liberal encourager of learning ; full of generous sympathies and Christian feelings, and patriotic sentiments. The whole Diary reflects so much honor on himself, that it ought to be published entire ; and you may be proud of the publication. It contains many curious particulars of things and persons ; and men of a right anti- quarian spirit will read the book with great relish. I can furnish you with many notes by way of garnish^ or sauce to the meat.”
My father then (April, 1832) meditated the publication of this Diary, tho’ not in its entirety ; but, in December, he was elected member of parliament for Cambridge, and turned his attention to the great political questions which were then occupy- ing the public mind, and in which he took a very active part in the House of Commons. In consequence of this, the publication was postponed sme die; but, shortly before his death, in 1868, he entrusted it to myself; and the Surtees Society, without any previous communication from us, offered to include the Diary in
* South Yorkshire, i., p. 181.
XXIV
PREFACE.
their series of antiquarian works. I cannot regret this delay, as it has led to two great advantages — the publication of the Diary almost in its entirety, and the valuable assistance of Mr. Jackson, of Doncaster, to whose very great care, attention, and ability, this work is so much indebted ; and I trust he will accept this hearty and unreserved acknowledgment of his services, the value and extent of which no one has better known, or more cordially appreciahid, than his ever very faithful friend,
CHARLES DE LA PRYME.
86, Gloster-place^ Portman-sq^iare^
London.
P.S. — In reference to the illness of Sir Isaac Hewton, men- tioned in the Diary,' the following extract from Sir David Brewster’s lAfe of JLewton will be interesting. Edinburgh edition, I860. Vol. ii., p. 80, ChajJer 17 treats of the illness of Sir Isaac in 1692, and Sir David thus speaks of it: — In the autumn of 1692, when Newton had finished his letters on Fluxions, he did not enjoy that degree ot health with which he had so long been favored. The loss of appetite and want of sleep, of which he now complained, and which continued for nearly a twelvemonth, could not fail to diminish that mental vigor, and that ‘ consistency of mind ’ (as he himself calls it), which he had hitherto displayed. How fiir this ailment may have arisen from the disappointment which he experienced in the application of his friends for a permanent situation for him, we have not the means of ascertaining ; but it is impossible to read his letters to Locke, and other letters from his friends, without perceiving that a painful impression had been left uj:)on Aismind, as well as upon theirs. The state of his health, however, did not unfit him for studies that required, perhaps, more profound
/ posten, p. 23.
PREFACE.
XXV
thought than his letters on Fluxions and Fluents, for it was at the close of 1692, and during the two first months of 1693, that he composed his four celebrated letters to Dr. Bentley.”
The illness of Xewton, which increased till the autumn of 1693, was singularly misrepresented by foreign contemporary authors, to whom an erroneous account of it had been com- municated. During the century and a half which has elapsed since that event, it has never been mentioned by any of his biographers ; and it was not till 1822 that it was brought before the public as a remarkable event in the life of Xewton.
“ The celebrated Dutch philosopher. Van Swinden, made the following communication to M. Biot, who published it with comments, that gave great offence to the friends of Newton :
‘ There is among the manuscripts of the celebrated Huygens,’ says Van Swinden, ^ a small journal in folio, in which he used to note down different occurrences. It is note no. 8 in the catalogue of the library of Leyden, p. 112. The following extract is written by Huygens himself, with whose handwriting I am well acquainted, having had occasion to peruse several of his manuscripts and autograph letters : — ^ On the 29th of May, 1694, M. Colin, a Scotchman, informed me, that eighteen months ago the illustrious geometer, Isaac Newton, had become insane, either in consequence of his too intense application to his studies, or from excessive grief at having lost, by fire, his chemical laboratory and several manuscripts. When he came to the Archbishop of Cambridge,^ he made some observations which indicated an alienation of mind. He was immediately taken care of by his friends, who confined him to his iiouse, and applied remedies, by means of which he had now so far recovered his health that he began to understand the Principia.’ Huygens mentioned this circumstance in a letter to Leibnitz, dated 8th June, 1694, in the following terms : — ^ I do not know if you are acquainted with
Arcliiepiscopus Cantabrigiensis is perhaps a clerical error for Cantuar-
ensis.
XXVI
PREFACE.
the accident which has happened to the good Mr. Newton, namely, that he has had an attack of phrenitis, which lasted eighteen months, and of which they say that his friends have cured him hy means of remedies, and keeping him shut up.’ To which Leibnitz replied in a letter, dated the 22nd June : — ^ I am very fflad that I received information of the cure of Mr. Newton at the same time that I first heard of liis illness, which doubtless must have been very alarming. It is to men like you and him. Sir, that I wish a long life and much health, more than others, whose loss, comparatively speaking, would not be so great.’
The first publication of the preceding statement produced a strong sensation among the friends and admirers of Newton. They could not easily believe in the prostration of that intellectual strength which had unbarred the strongholds of the universe. The unbroken equanimity of Newton’s mind, the purity of his moral character, his temperate and abstemious life, his ardent and unaffected piety, and the weakness of his imaginative powers, all indicated a mind which was not likely to be overset by any affliction to which it could be exposed. The loss of a few experi- mental records could never have disturbed the equilibrium of a mind like his. If they were the records of discoveries, the discoveries, themselves indestructible, would have been afterwards given to the world. If they were merely the details of experi- mental results, a little time could have easily re-produced them. Had these records contained the first fruits of youthful genius, of obscure talent, on which fame had not yet shed its rays, w^e might have supposed that the first blight of early ambition would have unsettled the stability of a mind unannealed by the world.
But Newton was satiated with fame. His mightiest disco- veries were completed, and diffused over all Europe, and he must have felt himself placed on the loftiest pinnacle of earthly ambition. The incredulity which such views could not fail to encourage, was increased by the novelty of the information. No English biographer had ever alluded to such an event. History and
PREFACE.
XXVll
tradition were equally silent, and it was not easy to believe that the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, recently a member of the English Parliament, and the first philosopher and mathematician in Europe, could have lost his reason without the dreadful fact being known to his countrymen.
But if the friends of Newton were surprised by the nature of the intelligence, they were distressed at the view which was taken of it by foreign philosophers. ‘ The fact,’ says M. Biot, ‘ of the derangement of his intellect, Avhatever may have been the cause of it, will explain why, after the publication of the Principia in 1G87, Newton, though only forty-five years old, never more published a new work on any branch of science, but contented himself with giving to the world those which he had composed long before that epoch, confining himself to the completion of those parts which might require development. We may also remark, that even these developments appear always to be derived from experiments and observations formerly made, such as the additions to the second edition of the Pr incipia^ published in 1713, the experiments on thick plates, those on diffraction, and the chemical queries placed at the end of the Optics in 1704 ; for, in giving an account of these experiments, Newton distinctly says, that they were taken from ancient manuscripts which he had formerly composed ; and he adds, that though he felt the necessity of extending them, or rendering them more perfect, he was not able to resolve to do this, these matters beino; no longer in his way. Thus it appears that, though he had recovered his health sufficiently to understand all his researches, and even in some cases to make additions to them, and useful alterations, as appears from the second edition of the Principia^ for which he kept up a very active mathematical correspondence with Mr. Cotes, yet he did not wish to undertake new labours in those departments of science where he had done so much, and where he so distinctly saw what remained to be done.’
Under the influence of the same opinion, M. Biot finds ^ it
XXVlll
PREFACE.
extremely probable that his dissertation on the scale of heat was written before the fire in his laboratory ; ’ and he describes Newton’s conduct about the lono'itude bill as exhibitinix an inexplicable timidity of mind, and as ^ so puerile for so solemn an oeeasion, that it might lead to the strangest eonelnsions, particularly if we refer it to the fatal accident which befell him in 1695.’
“ The illness of Newton was viewed in a light still more painful to his friends. It was maintained that he never recovered the vigour of his intellect, and that his theological inquiries did not commence till after that afflicting epoch of his life. In reply to this groundless assertion, it may be sufficient to state, in the words of his friend John Craig, that his theological WTitings were composed ^ while his understanding was in its greatest perfection, lest the infidels might pretend that his applying himself to the studies of religion was the effect of dotage.’
Such having been the consequences of the disclosure of Newton’s illness by the manuscript of Huygens, I felt it to be a sacred duty to the memory of that great man, and to the feeling of his countrymen, to inquire into the nature and history of that indisposition which seems to have been so much misrep- resented and misapplied. From the ignorance of so extraordinary an event which has prevailed for such a long period in England, it might have been urged with some plausibility, that Huygens had mistaken the real import of the information that was conveyed to him ; or that the person from whom he received it had pro- pagated an idle and groundless rumour. But we are fortunately not confined to this very reasonable mode of defence.
There exists at Cambridge a manuscript jomaial, written by Mr. Abraham de la Pryme, who was a student in the University while Newton was a Fellow of Trinity. This manuscript is entitled ^ Ephemeris Vitce^ or Diary of my own Life, containing an account likewise of the most observable and remarkable things that I have taken notice of from my youth up hitherto.’ Mr.
PREFACE.
XXIX
A. cle la Prjme was born in 1671, and begins the Diary in 1685. This manuscript is in the possession of his collateral decendant, George Prjme, Esq., Professor of Political Economy at Cam- bridore/' to whom I have been indebted for the followincr extract, which is given verbatim, and occurs during the period when Mr. De la Pryme was a student in St. John’s College, Cam- bridge : — ^ 1692, February 3rd. What I heard to day I must relate. There is one Mr. Newton (whom I have very oft seen). Fellow of Trinity College, that is mighty famous for his learning, being a most excellent mathematician, philosopher, divine, &c. He has been Fellow of the Royal Society these many years; and amongst other very learned books and tracts he’s written one upon the mathematical principles of philosophy, which has got him a mighty name, he having received, especially from Scotland, abundance of congratulatory letters for the same ; but of all the books that he ever wrote, there was one of colours and light, established upon thousands of experiments, which he had been twenty years of making, and which had cost him many hundred of pounds. This book, wliich he valued so much, and which was so much talked of, had the ill luck to perish, and be utterly lost, just when the learned author was almost at putting a conclusion at the same, after his manner : — in a winter’s morning leaving it amongst his other papers, on his study table, whilst he went to Chapel, the candle, which he had unfortunately left burning there too, catched hold by some means of other papers, and they fired the aforesaid book, and utterly consumed it, and several other valuable writings ; and, which is most wonderful, did no further mischief. But when Mr. Newton came from chapel, and had seen what was done, every one thought he would have run mad, he was so troubled thereat that he was not himself for a month after. A long account of this his system of light and colours you
That would be, however, under loan only, as the manuscript was then the property of W. J. Bagshawe, esq., of the Oaks, near Sheffield. — See Introduction, antea.
XXX
PREFACE.
may find in tlie Transactions of tlie Royal Society, wliicli lie had sent up to them long before this sad mischance happened unto him.’'
The story of the burning of Newton’s laboratory and papers, as stated by Mr. de la Pryme, has been greatly exaggerated and misrepresented, and there can be no doubt that it was entirely unconnected with Newton’s illness. Mr. Edleston has placed it beyond a doubt that the burning of the manuscripts took place between 1G77 and 1683, and I have found amjile confirmation of the fact from other sources of information.
Dr. H. Newton, as we have seen, tells us that he had heard a report that Newton’s Optics had been burnt before he wrote his Prmcipia, and we know that no such accident took place during the five years that Dr. Newton lived with him at Cambridge. The following memorandum of Mr. Conduitt’s, written after conversing on the subject with Newton himself, appears to place the event at an early period : — ^ When he was in the warmest pursuit of his discoveries, he, going out, left a candle upon his table amongst his papers : he went down into the bowling-green, and meeting somebody who diverted him from returning, as he intended, the candle set fire to his papers, (and he could never recover them). Upon my asking him whether they related to his Optics or his Method of Fluxions^ he said he believed there was some relating to both, and that he was obliged to work them all over again.’ The version of the burnt papers, in which ‘ Diamond ’ is made the perpetrator, and in which the scene of the story is laid in London, and in Newton’s later years, we may consign to a note, with the remark of Dr. Humphrey Newton, that Sir Isaac never had any communion with dogs or cats.
* See Diary, fostea^ p. 23.
3 It should be observed, en passant, that what De la Pryme “relates” in his Diary, 3rd February, 1692, is only what he “ heard today ; ” but he appears to furnish us with no information as to the time when the accident befel Newton’s papers by the fire, further than that it occurred “ on a winter’s morn-
PREFACE.
XXXI
Bj means of this extract from Mr. de la Pryme’s Diary/ we are enabled to fix the latest date of the accident by which JSTewton lost his papers. It must have been previous to the 3rd January, 1692, a month before the date of the extract ; but if we fix it by the dates in Huygens" manuscript, we should place it about the 29th November, 1692, eighteen mouths previous to the con- versation between Colin and Huv^ens.
The manner in which Mr. de la Pryme refers to Newton’s state of mind is that which is used every day when we speak of the loss of tranquillity which arises from the ordinary afflictions of life ; and the meaning of the passage amounts to nothing more than that Newton was very much troubled by the destruction of his papers, and did not recover his serenity, and return to his usual occupations, for a month. The very phrase, that every person thought he would have run mad, is in itself a proof that no such effect was produced ; and whatever degree of indisposition may be implied in the phrase, ^ he was not himself for a month after,’ we are entitled to infer that one month was the period of its duration, and that previous to the 3rd February, 1692, the date of Mr. de la Pryme’s memorandum, ‘ Newton was himself a2:ain.’ These facts and dates cannot be reconciled with those in Huygen’s manuscript. It appears from that document, that so late as May, 1694, Newton had only so far recovered his health as to begin to again understand the Princigia. Plis supposed malady, therefore, was in force from the 3rd January, 1692, till the month of May, 1694 — a period of more than two years. Now, it is a most imj)ortant circumstance, which M. Biot ought to have known, that in the very middle of this period, Newton wrote his four celebrated letters to Dr. Bentley on the Existence of a Deity, — letters which evince a power of thought, and a serenity of mind, absolutely incompatible even with the slightest obscuration of his faculties. No man can peruse these letters without the conviction that their author then possessed the full vigour of his reason, and was capable of understanding the most profound parts of his
XXXI 1
PREFACE.
writings. The first of these letters was written on the 10th December, 1692; the second on the 17th January, 1693; the third on the 11th February, and the fourth on the 25th February, 1693. His mind was, therefore, strong and vigorous on these four occasions ; and, as the letters were written at the express request of Dr. Bentley, to assist him in preparing his lectures for publication, we must consider such a request as showing his opinion of the strength and freshness of his friend’s mental powers.”
I am happy to be enabled to add that this opinion is enter- tained by Sir John Herschell, the Astronomer Boyal, and the Rev. Dr. Edleston, to whose valuable work on Newton, the memory of that great philosopher is so much indebted.
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DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM OUGHT:
' SISTER OF
Thomas Oughtibridge,* of Hatfield, 1672 ; bur. 15 July, 1682.f 1st wife.
. York ; churchwarden
ijBRIDGE A'ND SARAH HE LA PRYME,
THE DIARIST.
a=pSusamia, dau. of Maw ; mar., at Hatfield, 17 Oct., 1672.
Sarah, dau. of Matthias (or Matthew) de la^William Oughtib idge, of Hatfield, gent. ; bap.^Margaret, dau. of Robert Parnell, of s,gent; died 27, and bur. at Hatfield; 11 [July, 1675; mar. 15 Sept. I Doncaster; mar. after 15 Aug.,
101)6 ; bur. 29 Jujly, 1728, aged t
Thomas Oughtibridge, of Hat-- field AVoodhouse, gent. ; born 1699 4 died 26, and bur. at Hat- field 28 Dec., 1753, aged 54.. Will dated 8 Dec., 1753, aud proved at York 19 June, 1754.
^Susanna, d. of William =p. Susannah, Matthias, Susanna, Sarah, .bp. Elizabeth,
Smith ; Oughti- bp. at Hat- bp. at Hat- bp. at Hat- at Hatfield bp. at Hat-
field20Jan. field 12 field 6 Aug. 10 March, field 12 1702-3; b. Dec., 1704; 1700. Wife 1707-8 ; bu. July, 1711 ;
28 Feb., bur.22Sep., of...Omb- 10 Aug., bur Aug.,
1702-3. 1705. ler,ofHull. 1708. 25,1714.
m. at Hatfield bridge ; bp. 12 May, 1734; at Hatfield | bur. there 3 7 Mar., I June, 1756. 1700-1. |
W'il- Thoinas Oughti-=pAnne,da. Martha, Peter Oughtibrid ge, -i-Martha, dau. of Sarah, ThomasOughti-=^Cathe-
liam, bridge, of [ of ' bap. 22 of Hatfield Wo«
named Thorne ; bap. 16 Turnell ; Feb., house ; bap. 8 M
in his April, 1741; | bur. at 1743-4; 1745; died 11 Ja
father’s died 22 Apr., I Thorne 6 bur. 2 1807. aged 03 ; b
Will, 1806 ; buried at Oc., 1822, Apr., in Hatfield churcth- I Ap., 1772 ; d. 13
1753. Thorne, aged 66. 1 aged 83. 1744. yard, | Jan., 1802, a. 51
d- I Joseph Youdan, bp. 15 bridge, of Bol- I rine, da. Harri-
of Hatfield July, lam, in par. of of ... ; son
AVoodhouse ; m. 1731. Clarbrough, co. | died 18 (2nd
at Hatfield 19 Notts. ; died 27 Sept., hus-
Aug., 1772, aged 1825, band)
43. M.I. I aged 78.
Thomas Mary, b.lO^John Susanna, Thomas, Susy, =Thomas Sarah; Oughti- Mar. ; bap. I Chat- bap. at born 29 bap. at Silves- bap. a
bridge, 19 Ap. 1783, | burn, Hatfield Dec., Plat- ter, of
died 11 at Thorne I of Hat- 26 Mar., 1777 ; bp. field 15 Barnby 27 Auj
andb. at (6th dau. | field 1777 ; d. 20 Feb., Aug., Don, co. 1775 ;
Thorne when bp.) ; died 2 21 July, 1778; d. 177*3; York:m. mar. a
15 Jan., cl. 30 Dec., Ma.y, 1820, un- 18 bur. d. 184.
1822, aet. 1868 ; bur. | 1848,b. married, 20 June, at field 1
50. Un- at Hatfield, at Hat- aged 43. 1780. Barnby July,
married, aged 85. | field. Don. 1794.
=James AVilIiam,of Joseph, of Ann, born 2 Stones, Sheffield ; Crowle ; May ; bap. 20 PIatfie|d died 27 b. 16 Sept., b. 4 Dec. July, 1783.
July, and bap. 24 1788; bp. Martha, born 1859, Nov., 1780; 18 Mar., 11 May; bap. ag. 84; d. at Shef- 1789; d. 10 Sept., 1786. Hat- Hatfie^ bur. at field ; mar., there 19 Elizabeth, b.
Ann- but left no May, 27 Aug., & bap.
thorpe. family. 1865, 21 Nov., 1790;
aged 77. II d. 21 Jan. 1794.
John, born 16, & bap. 17 Oct.. 1809, Richard Chatburn, of Park Lani William Oughtibridge Chat-^ at Hatfield ; died 24 July, 1820, aged in par. Hatfield ; born 2, & baf, burn, of Sandtoft ; mar. and^ 10 years ; bur. at Hatfield. 9 Jan.. 1811. Living 1870. I has issue. Living 1870.
Elizabeth.
Living
Catherine, died 9 July, 1771, aged 5 months. Thomas, died 15 July, 1771, aged 5 months. Mildred; d. 26 Dec., 1772, aged 3 yrs. & 10 months. Catherine, died 1 Jan., 1773, aged 7 months.
Mary, only surviving child; died 21 Aug., 1808, aged 41.
Su.sanna. Anne. Living Died
1870. young.
the boiindary-line of the inanor of Sheffield. Cockivell Hill to Rumbling ere was a distant or ow/e?' bridge. In times when surnames were derived orfamiliesdwellingou^ (7? or over against an oufer bridge.
for the manor c
armis, gladiis, baculis, et cultellis,” one Thomas
3., 1728, probate (
* There is a place called Oughtibridge near Slieffield. It is mentioned as one of tlv. ancient points c Clough,toOakwell.“ to a place called ptabridge.”— (Gatty’s ed. Hunter's HaUamshire, 1869.tp. 17.) Perhaps there wa from the accidental circumstances of locality, residence, &c., this one would most likely be adcited by, or given to. person The name first occurs in the Hatfield registers in U3G7-8, when Johana Vghtibrigge,” dau! of Robert Vghtibrigge, v 10 Oct., 1580, the wife of one Reginald Outbridge was amerced, for that, being a common biAver and baker, she had sola co toribus corevisife.’’ The name of Oughtibridge is found at Bermuda. Capt. Newsome, R.E.. inprms me that, when stationed had a small property of his own, which he farmed, and also kept a store. He had a traditioirthat one of his ancestor's hac Oughtibridge, of Hatfield, yeoman, was indicted, at the Doncaster Borough Sessions, for havig, on the 3rd Feb., 1837, assa Craven, so that his life was despaired of. .
t “ Wrapt in linnen contrary to Act for burying in woollen.”— Par. Reg.
§ Surrender in Hatfield Court Baron, dated 15 Aug., 171 n, from Wm. Oughtibridge, if Hatfield Woodhouse, gent, of Doncaster, spinster, “ quam, Deo volente, in uxorem ducere intendit.” Marriage not regisijred at Hatfield or Doncaster, late of Hatfield Woodhouse, was granted to Thomas Parnell.
t The authority for this is a MS. memorandum on the flyleaf of Abraham de la Prynl’s Diary. Baptismal registers at Hatfield are deficient at that date. This Thomas Oughti- bridge is stated by Hunter iSouth Yorkshire L, p. 181,) to have been “a Yorkshire artistbf no e.vtraordinavy merit, but his engravings are valuable as giving representations of objects no longer existing.” A view of Sheffield, taken from Pye-Bank, about 1730, is one o bis works.— (//a/^ami7n;-e, p. 11, note.) He seems to have been also a sculptor, several of the monuments of his connections, in Hatfield Church, appearing to be of his handiwork, an marked with his name on them.
Banns of marriage published 23 and 30 Oct. and 6 Nov., 1808, at Hatfield church, buithe rc H In Crowle churchyard are memorials for
’ ’• ’ ■ •' Mary, wifeof Geo. Oughtibride.d. Nov. 6,1858,ag. 30yrs.
Ada Theresa, dau. of the abo\i, died Dec. 2, 1858, aged 14 weeks. |
Tn Hatfield churchyard.n memory of Susanna, dau. of Thomas and .hn Oughtibridge, of Thorne, who died 21 July, 1820, ag 43,
Jolm Chatburn. 23 July, 1820, |ged 10 years.
5 not filled up and signed.
Mary Oughtibridge. who died Sept. 3, 1859, aged 27. Abraham Bellamy Oughtibridge, son of the above, aged 3 w. Martha, wife of Abraham Bellamy, who died Aug. 3, 1854,
Richard Chatburn, of Hatfield, 10 Aug., 1822, aged 93. John, son of Richard C., May 2, 1848, aged 86.
Mary, relict of John Chatburn. Dec.'SO, 1888, aged 85. Peter Oughtibridge, Jan. 11, 1807, aged 63.
Martha, wife of above-named, Jan. 13, 1802, aged 51. Thomas and Elizabeth, children of above, who died infants. Also, Peter and Joseph Silves
EPHEMEEIS VIM ABEAHAMI PEYMB,
OR,
A DIAEY OF MY OWN LIFE.
CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT, LIKEWISE,
OF THE MOST OBSERVABLE Al^D REMARKABLE THINGS THAT I HAVE TAKEN NOTICE OF FROM MY YOUTH UP, HITHERTO.
ECCL :
Vanity of vanitys. All is vanity and vexation of spirit,
Man's life is hut a vain tiling^ and a series of evils. Teach us then^ 0 Lordj so to number our days^ that we may obtain everlasting bliss in thyne eternal kingdome.
I A DIARY OF MY OWN LIFE, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOST CONSIDER- * ABLE THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPEN’D I THEREIN.
i
My father, whose name was Mathias Pry me, was the son of j Charles Pryme, my grandfather ; he was one of those that came
I over in king Charles the First clays from Flanders, from a citty
I called Eper[Ypres], upon the draining of the great fens in the Levels of Hatfield Chace f but they were most of them undon by their great undertaking, as my grandfather lost many hundred of pounds by it.
My father being grown up to man’s estate^ marryd Sara the daughter of Mr. Peter Smagge, who was a rich Frenchman,
I that with his whole family was forced from Paris by persecusion for his faith, and was coined to live also on these Levels.
They were marryed April 3rd, in the year 1670, in the Dutch congregation in the chappie at Santoft;^ for these forreigners had divine service there for many years together, before their I chappel was built at Santoft.
1 was the first born, and was born the 15 of January, in the j year IGTl'^ (to all the miserys of life) at a house about the middle I of the Levels, about the middle way on the high road side on the
! left hand as you come straight from the Isle of Axholme, or
Haxyhom, from Epworth to the little neat town of Hatfild in Yorkshire, in which parish and which county I was born.
“ For an account of the general history of the Level of Hatfield Chace, its drainage, etc., see Hunter's South Yorhshire, vol. i. pp. 150-197.
* My father was born the 31 of Aug., 1645. My mother, 17 of Nov,, 1649. — Marginal note hy diarist.
Sandtoft is a hamlet in the parish of Belton, which is in Lincolnshire, j but close to the borders of the county of York. When Sir Cornelius Vermuy-
4
THE DIARY OF
My father can speak Dutch and my mother French, but I nothing yet but Inglish.
1680.
I can remember very little observable before I was ten or eleven years old, onely my going to school and such. But in 1680 my father shifted dwelling, and went and lived at an old great larg
den took a grant of the Manor and Chace of Hatfield, he had the privilege awarded him of erecting a place for religious worship, where the Dutch and French settlers on the Levels might assemble to hear divine service performed in a foreign tongue. In IGSI a chapel was erected at this place, which was probably chosen as being centrical to the whole drainage. It was built by one Isaac Bedloe, a merchant, and, many years after, he had not received the money stipulated to be paid him. In 1650 the chapel was much defaced and injured by rioters who assembled to resist the sheriff in the execution of legal pro- cesses connected with the drainage. The noted fanatic. Col. John Lilburn, who came to reside here, is said to have employed the chapel as a stable or bam. Mr. Hunter, when he wrote in or about 1828, mentions that the register of the chapel had been carefully kept from 1611 to 1681, and was then or then lately in existence. He gives from it what he terms “a pretty complete list ” of the names of the foreign settlers. Much enquiry has been from time to time since made for this register, but it is supposed to be now lost or destroyed. The following ministers occur. M. Berchett. He died 18 April, 1655, and was buried at Crowle. Phillip Castell, “ Nantices, Franc, in Gallia,” buried at Hat- field, 5 Sept., 1655. Johnston has a notice of the inscription over his place of interment, in the south aisle of the chancel. Jean Deckerhuel was minister in 1659. M. de la Prix. Samuel Lumber was here in 1664. Jaques de la Porte was minister in 1676. John Conrad de Werneley, or Werndley, was minister in 1681. He had no successor, it is said, and the chapel itself did not long survive the ministers. It was taken down, and cattle grazed upon its site. — Hunter, S. Y., i. 165, 169, 170. Mr. W. O. Chatburn, of Sandtoft, has in his possession an oak post, which is said to have belonged to the chapel. Mr. James Dunder- dale, of Tiverton Lodge, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, is the owner of a large Bible, with the Gospels, one foot three-and-a-half inches by ten inches in size, having an engraved frontispiece, and entitled La Sainte Bible Interpretee par lean Dio- darti. Iniprimee a Geneve, m.d.c.xliiii. It is bound in brown calf leather, and fastened with two embossed brass clasps. This book is traditionally said to be the one which was used in the services of the chapel at Sandtoft, and has been handed down through the family of Le Leu, or Le Lew, from whom, I am in- formed, Mr. Dunderdale is descended. In the fly leaf is written, Appartient d Pierze le Leu ; and in several places occur the dates of births, marriages and deaths of that family. To me, however, it scarcely presents the idea of having done the hard work of a public church book. Mr. Werneley published in 1693 a book under the following title : — “ Liturgia Tigurina : or. The Book of Com- . mon Prayers, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Ecclesiastical Bites and Ceremonies, usually practised and solemnly performed in all the Churches and Chappels of the City and Canton of Zurich in Switzerland, and in some other adjacent countries ; as by their Canons and Ecclesiastical Laws they are appointed ; and as by the Supreme Power of the Bight Honourable the Senate of Zurich they are authorised, established, and commanded, with the Order of that Church. Faithfully translated out of the Helvetian into the English tongue, by John Conrad Werndly, formerly Minister of the French and
ABRAHAM DE LA PRITME.
5
hall in the Levels, which was built by Mijn Heer Van Valken- burg/ one of the great drainers of the country ; and took two hundred akers of land belonging thereto, for which he payd above one hundred pound a year, and we live now of that hall yet. It had stood empty a long while by reason of the great distur- bancys that had been there by spirits and witches, of wliome there are many dreadfull long tales ; but however we have not this five or six years, that we have lived here, heard or seen any- thing more than ordinary.
1683.
In 1683 a memorable thing happend at our house relating to the long abstinence in live creatures. The thing is this. Esquir[e]
Dutch Congregation of Sandtoff, in the Isle of Axholme, in the County of Lincoln : and now Minister of Wraisbury-cuni-Langiey, in the County of Bucks. London : printed for D. Newman, R. Baldwin, J. Dunton. 1693.” The Book has the Imprimatur of the bishops of London, Lichfield and Coventry, Bangor, Norwich,. Chichester, and Peterborough.
See Genealogical Notices in appendix.
' When the drainage of the Level of Hatfield Chace was undertaken by Cornelius Vermuyden, the celebrated Dutch Engineer, in 1626, his own capital being unequal to the design, he was supported by many of his countrymen who came over and settled in and about the neighbourhood of the works ; amongst them were the Valkenburghs, who took a principal share and acted a prominent part in the direction. Three brothers of the name, viz., Matthew, Mark, and Luke, came hither as residents. They appear to have held a large stake in the concern. It is shewn from The original MS. Boke of Accounts of the partici- pants of the dyckage of Haitfield chace of seueral taxes and aseasments hy them laide sints 1628 vntill 1634, in the possesion of Mr. Peacock, that the Van Valkenburg family possessed 3204 acres on these Levels ; Luke is returned as possessing 1247 acres, Mark 1146, and Matthew 811.
Matthew Van Valkenburgh occurs as a commissioner of sewers at a court held at Epworth, co. Lincoln, in 1635.
On the 22 Jan., 1638-9, Sampson Marples was fined £10 for serving a king’s letter on Mr. Valkenburgh, one of the commissioners of sewers, during the sessions of sewers, and was committed till he paid the money.
In 1636 Matthew married Isabella Eyre, daughter of Anthony and sister of Sir Gervas Eyre, of Hampton, Notts. He built a large house on the Middle Ing, on which he resided. In the very interesting volume of “ Depositions from the Castle of York,” published by this Society in 1861, we have (pp. 12 and 13) an account of a riot that occurred on the 11th Oct., 1648, in which one Robert Kay, a Doncaster gentleman, was charged before the justices of peace with having come to the house at “Midlins” with sixteen or eighteen men, in a warlike manner, with muskets and swords drawn, and broken open the out gate and four other doors, committing various outrages, terminating in Mr. Matthew Valkenburgh being forcibly taken from his house for a quarter of a mile. Again, on the other hand, at page 174, we have notices of indictments being preferred, in 1657 and 1661, against Mark Van Valkenburgh, of Hatfield, Esq., and others, for taking horses away from their owners, probably for distresses
6
THE DIARY OF
Kamsden^ sending from Hatfield to our house to desire us to send him half a score or a dozen of hens and cocks, he being to have some strangers, it being then about the middle of Christmas. So accordingly they were gotten up, but he sending word that his strangers did not come, so that he had no need of them, they were ordered to be turned out ; but through carelessness of the servant they were not, nor was any more thought of, till about ten days after, one [going] into that low vault or little [place where]
they were, found them, and they and had not
had anything to eat [all that] time, but being fat before, they were now poor ; but being turned out into the fould they all lived.
1684.
In this year, in Feb[ruary],^ dyed King Charles the Second,
for drainage “ scots” or rates. So unpopular was the scheme of the drainage, that these acts of violence and disorder were neither few nor trifling. In the Court of Pleas, at Doncaster, G Sept., IG49, an action was brought by John Noades, gent., against Mark Van Yalkenburgh, for having on the 7th May previ- ously, at Doncaster, publicly spoken of him these “ falsa, ficta, scandalosa, et opprobriosa verba,” viz., “ you are a thief,” to his damage of £50. The jury gave a verdict for the plaintiff for £G 13s. 4d., and costs £2 12s. 8d., making £9 Gs. Od. By patent, 2G July, 1G42, Matthew Van Yalkenburgh was created a baronet, and in April, 1G44, he died. His widow lived only to Nov. following, being then buried at Hatfield, with the addition of “ Heroina” to her name in the register. Probably her courage had been not unfrequently put to the proof in defence of the great house on the Middle Ing.
f John Eamsden, Esq., son of Win. Ramsden, a merchant of Hull, by a sister of Sir John Boynton, of Bawcliff. He built himself a handsome house at Norton, was a justice of the peace, deputy lieutenant, and member of parlia- j raent for Hull. Died 2G March, 1718, aged Gl, and was bur. at Campsal. By ^ Catherine, his wife, dau. of John, Viscount Downe, of Cowick (who d. 20 May, 1737, and was bur. in St. Martin’s, Coney-street, York), he had William Rams- den, of Norton, Esq., bap. at Hatfield, 2G Jany., 1G83-4, but died before his father, 8 June, 1717, get. 34, and was bur. at Campsal. Dorothy bp. at Hatfield, 1st, and there bur. 4 Sep., 1G82. Elizabeth, bap. at H. 9 Oct., 1G87, m. to Richd. Roundell, Esq., of Hutton Wansdley. Ann, bap. 22 Aug., 1G89, and bur. at Hat- field, 15 Feb., 1G89-90. The wife of Wm. Ramsden, the son and heir, was Mary, d. and c. of Robert Robinson, Esq., of Folkerby, co. York. She d. 5 Ap., 1745. The Norton Estate was settled on Mrs. Mary Ramsden on her marriage, and she purchased the fee simple. She also succeeded to her father’s estate at Folkerby. Both these estates she gave to trustees, for making ad- ditional buildings, and the support of six fellows and ten scholars at Catherine Hall Cambridge. She directed that they should be called Skern’s fel- lows and scholars, out of regard to the memory of her kinsman Robert Skern, who had heretofore been a benefactor to the same college ; and that natives of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire should have the preference. — See IIunter'’s S. Y., ii. 470, 473. Richard Ramsden signs the register 1G04 as minister in sacris. He was bur. 3 March, 1G28-9. Two of his children occur as baptized there, Henry, born 11 and bap. 14 Nov., 1G06. Mauleverer, bp. 28 Oct., IGIO. Matthew Appleyard, Esq,, and Mrs. Grace Ramsden were married at Hatfield 30 May, 1682.
f Charles 11. died 6 Feb., 1685.
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
7
of a disease they call an appoplexy, as they say. He is mightily lamented by every one, as well by his enemies as friends ; and [I] heard a gentleman say that came from London, that the citty was in tears, and most of the towns through which he came. Yet perhaps it may be that they wept not so much for the love they bore to him, as for fear that his brother who now reigns should be worse than he. Good God, prevent it !
1685.
This Easter I went with some relations to see Hull. I did not tak much notice of things as I went, because that we rid pretty fast. The chief towns that we went thro’ were Howden, etc. Howden is a very pretty town, there being many fine houses in it, and a pretty church. They say there [is a] mart kept there, etc. From thence we went many a long tedious mile over the woulds to Beverley, which is a larg delicate town indeed. There we stayed a day or two. The minster is a fine curius building, and there we saw several old monuments and inscriptions which [I] could not read ; and from thence we went to Hull, where we saw most of the raritys.
\_At this point three pages are wanting in the MS.^ viz., 4, 5, 6.]
1686.
This year (1686) I had leeve given me to go visite some of our relations about York, by which means I got a sight of that famous tho’ not very fine citty. The minster, I believe, is the biggest building in England, carrying with it in the inside a very majestick and awfull presence. ’Tis adorn’d within, especially in that side about the chappel, with a great many rich and costly statues and funeral monuments of those prelates and noblemen that have been buried there. The front of the chappel is adorn’d with the statues of a great many of the Saxon and other kings, if my memory faill me not. Up and down in the citty there is a great many reliques of famous and noble houses, but especialy there is one in the chappel yard which has been a prodigious larg one with delicate fine gardens, fountains, etc., and statues, seven or eight of which last (being some of the Roman emperors) are yet standing, tho’ much consumed by time.'''
* The house to which De la Pryme alludes is that of the family of Ingram, on the north side of the minster, which was one of the sights of York. The chapel is that of St. Sepulchre, on the same side, which is now destroyed.
8
THE DIARY OF
The camp at Hunslow Heath. This camp is ill resented all over, and everyone says that a standing army will be England’s ruin.
There is great dissentions amongst them ; for the papist Irish and the protestant officers are commonly striveing for superiority.
The Dutch have picter’d the army here, and K[ing J fames] at the head of them, shooting at butterflies in the air, which has given great offence to the king and court.
Being reading this day a book entitled The Countess of Kent’s receipts,” I asked my aunt Prvm, who is an ingenious woman, who this countess was, etc. Shee answer’d me that when shee, my aunt, lived in London, she lived just over against her, and knew her very well, Slie sayd that the countess was a widdow and never had a child in her life : that she was an ex- ceeding good charitable woman, and that she spent twenty thousand pound a year yearly in physick, receipts, and experi- ments, and in charity towards the poor. Shee caused every other day a huge dinner to be got, and all the poor ]ieople might come that would, and that which spared they took home with them. My aunt says shee has seen the poor at her tables several times. Sometimes there would have been sixty, sometimes eighty, sometimes more, sometimes less. And shee sent vast qnantitys of meat out to those that could not come. She would oft go to the houses of the poor, and visit them and dress their soars with her own hands ; and shee distributed a vast deal in money her- self yearly to all those that stood in need. Yet for all this, as I have since heard, lived in common whoredom with the famous Selden, who she entertained as her gallant.*
‘ It is but an act of ordinary justice to the character of the noble lady whom the diarist has named in the text, to mention that the story to which he refers, whether true or false, does not, at all events, or in any way, relate to hr)'. The “ good Countess of Kent,” so called from her deeds of charity and hospitality, was Amabel, the second wife of Henry Grey, tenth Earl of Kent (who died 1G51), daughter of Sir Anthony Benn, Recorder of London, and widow of the Hon. Anthony Fane. She lived to be 92 years of age, surviving her husband forty-seven years, and dying 17 Aug., 1698. But the “ (jountess of Kent ” who was the real subject of the evil report, was an earlier lady, viz., Elizabeth, second dau. and co-heir of Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, atid wife of Henry Grey, eighth Earl of Kent. The latter nobleman died in 1639, without issue, when the title passed to his cousin, Anthony Grey, ninth Earl, the father of Henry the tenth Earl, husband of the ''‘Good Countess” aforesaid. Elizabeth Talbot was born in or about 1581, and died 7 Dec., 1651, aged 70. John Selden. who is here (let us hope) so unjustly brought under our notice, was the famous patriot and lawyer. He was born at Salvington, near Tarring, co. Sussex. His baptism occurs at the latter place in 1584-5 — “John Selden, the sonne of John Selden the minstrell, was baptized the xxth day of January.” For the life and history of this truly eminent man, the reader must be referred to
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
9
This 25, Mr. Reading^ being new come from London, was at my father’s. I heard him say that he saw Oats that discovered the popeish plot whipt according to his condemnation, most miserably; and as he was haild up the streets the multitude would much pitty him, and would cry to the hangsman or he whose office it was to whipp him, Enough ! Enough ! Strike easily ! Enough ! ” etc. To whom Mr. Oats replyd, turning his [head] cheerfully behind him, Not enough, good people, for the truth, not enough ! ”
Mr. Woodcock, of this town, being lately come from the assizes at York, sayd before some gentlemen that he heard some Londoners say that judge Hayles did formerly say of my lord Jeffries''" ( when he was onely . . . . ) that he never saw a
man in his life have more impudence and less law. This England knows since to be very true.
This judge is reckon’d to be a very impudent, rawming, con- ceited fellow.
It happen’d once that he was judging a cause in the country, and having heard much, and laughed much, and abused the cause and witnesses, as he commonly dos, he sees another witness coming in, a grave old white-headed fellow, ^^Ho! Ho! come old gray-headed father,” (says he) ‘^What say you to this?” And, as he was declaring what he knew, “ Pish ! pish ! (says Jeffries to him) “ Old father gray-beard, you talk you know not what ; you tell what you know herein, and all you know is not
worth a , much knowledge has made you madd.” No,
no, my lord, much knowledge has not made me madd, but too
Wood's AtTience Oxon., etc. Educated for the profession of the law, Mr. Sel- den appears to have been employed as solicitor or legal steward to the Earl of Kent, the husband of Elizabeth (Talbot) above mentioned, with both of whom he was necessarily much associated, and lived for many years in the strictest degree of friendship. John Aubrey, the Wiltshire Antiquary, a great collector of the rumours of the day, has not omitted to notice that which De la Pryme had heard as to the countess and Selden. The general character furnished to us of Selden is that he possessed principles of the purest and noblest order, and that he was moreover a resolved, serious Christian, It is difficult at this day, in the absence of any positive testimony, to believe that he was likely to be a party to any shameful intrigue like that suggested. Selden died 30 Nov., 1654, at the Friary House, in Whitefriars, London, which, amongst other pro- perty, he possessed as devisee of the countess, who, by her will dated 20 June, 1649, and proved 12th Dec., 1651, appointed him her executor and residuary legatee.
j Nathaniel Reading, de quo vide Hunter's 8. 3^., i. p. 167.
* A half-length portrait, which is said to be of this notorious judge, is in the possession of the Rev. F. W. White, vicar of Crowle, Lincolnshire ; but as it bears a date which is read as 1615, there would seem to be a mistake some- where.
10
THE DIARY OF
little has made you a fool,” sayd the fellow again. So they were all fit to go together by the ears ; but the man got him gon, and whether the judge ever remembered him for it I do not know, only this I know, that they on whose sid the old man was lost the cause.
The Irish soldiers that are come over are the rudest fellows that ever was seen, and talks nothing but of killing and destroy- ing all the hereticks, and dividing their lands and goods amongst them.
This year was published an order against bonfires and fire- works upon any account whatever. The vulgar and every one soon perceived what it drove at, viz., the hindering of rejoic- ings and sports on gunpowder treason night. Therefore, that nevertheless they might not loose the priviledge of haveing some merriment, and of shewing their abhorrence of popery, they invented illuminations; that is every house, when that night came, set all their windows as full of candles as ever they could hold in all the great towns in England, which caused a most delicate spectacle.
1687.
In the year 1687 there were several memorable things hap- ]->en’d which we cannot but take notice off. Of the 28th of April it rained wheat in great abundance at Lincoln and the towns adjacent, several granes of which were sent as miraculous and prodigious presents to several gentlemen about us.^
^ This "was not the first time such a phenomenon is said to have been wit- nessed in Lincolnshire, as the following extract from Rlpherf] lJ[;in'to7i' s] Admimhle Curiosities, Rarities, and Wonders, in England, Scotland, and Ireland {&Q.cor\(i ed., p. 139), will show: — “About April 26, 1661, in Lincoln- shire, it rained wheat, some grains whereof, were very thin and hollow, but others of a more firm substance, and would grind into fine flower {sic.) Several pecks of this were taken out of church leads, and other houses that Averc leaded. Several inhabitants who were eye-witnesses brought up a con- siderable quantity to London.” Thoresby, in his Diary I., p. 85, says, that on the 11th June, 1681, in his “cousin Fenton’s best chamber, I gathered some of the corn that was rained down the chimney upon the Lord’s-day seven night, when it likewise rained plentifully of the like upon Hedingly-Moor, as was confi- dently reported ; but those I gathered with my own hands from the white hearth, which was stained with drops of blue where it had fallen, for it is of a pale red or a kind of sky colour, is pretty, and tastes like common wheat, of which I have one hundred corns. What it may signify, and whether it doth proceed from natural causes (of which some may be prescribed) or preternatural, such an ignorant creature as I am cannot aver.” — Mrs. Loudon, in her Rritlsh Mild Floorers, says : — “ The seeds of ivy when deprived of the pulpy matter which surrounds them, bear considerable resemblance to grains of wheat ; and hence the numbers which are sometimes found lying about are supposed to have given rise to the stories of wheat being rained from the clouds, which were once so popular. — P. 185, as quoted in Notes and Queries ; 2nd s. vol. ii. p, 335.”
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
11
At Thorn, a markate town about nine miles of ns, was calved in May following a calf with two heads. And at Fishlake, not far of of the aforesayd town, there came up thereto in the river near fifty miles from the sea, sea dogs, a hee and a shee, and a purpose, the last of which I saw.
In August following, it being then very hot weather, I had the good fortune to behold from the beginning to the end one of those strange works of nature called spouts, or rather hurricanes. It immediately filled the air with great black clouds, as I observed day over day. And I observed that some moved from this quarter, some from that, so that they meeting in the middle created a great circumgiration or whirling, which made a noise somewhat like the motion of a milstone. Ever and anon it darted down out of itself a long spout, in which I observed a motion like that of a skrew, so that it seem’d [to] screw up what- ever it met with. It went over a grove of trees, and made them bend like hazel wands ; then it came to a great barn, and catch- ing hold of the top thereof, pluck’d all the thatch thereoff in the twinkling of an eye, filling the whole air therewith. Thence it went to a great oak tree, and falling upon one of the branches broke a huge branch thereof, and flung it a great way of of the same in a minnit. Then it came exactly over that part of Hat- field town where I then was, so that I easily beheld the circum- giration of the clouds, and the whirling noise that they made. Thence it went about half mile further, and then dissolved. The whole length of the course that it travel’d over was about a mile and a half.
Ho ! brave ! the queen’s with child. Fine sport indeed I Is it not an abuse to God to say one thing and think another, for no one scarce believes that she is realy with barn ? Is [it] not like a sin in us to thank God for a thing under the name of a blessing which will most certainly prove a curse to us ? Kurie eleiso7i / They say that the Virgin Mary has appear’d to her, and declair’d to her that that holy thing that shall be born of her shall be a son. They say likewise that the pope has sent her the Virgin Mary’s smok, and hallowed bairn deaths.'”
Aug. 11. This day I heard some gentlemen say that the king is wholly led by the nose by the Jesuits, and that he dos anything that they bid him. This year, he says, there was great prayers and fastings, and pennancys amongst them, for the souls of all
This blasphemous aud ridiculous nonsense is printed merely to show what was the vox pojnili on this exciting topic.
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the royal liereticks ( viz., the past protestant kings of Eng[land]), and after much to do they got King Edw[ard] the Sixth, and King Charles the First, and King Charles the Second, out of purgatory ; as they reported in their sermons ; but as for Queen Eliz[abeth] and K[ing] Jam[es] the First, they were so fast in hell that there was no moving of them. God forgive them ! I mean these fools, and grant that they never come there. It seems that they are so fool- ish as to think that they can thus impose upon us,
1687.
Towards the end of this year there happened a great inunda- tion in the Levels by means of the much rains that fell, and the high tides, which increased the waters so that they broke the banks and drownded the country for a vast many miles about. My father and every one in general that dwell there lost very considerably in their winter corn ; besides the great expences they were put to by boating their chattel to the hills and firm lands, with the trouble of keeping them there two or three months. I have been several times upon these banks (which are about three yards in hight) when the water of one side has been full to the very tops, and nothing appeal’d of one side but a terrable tempestuous sea. The water remains about half a week, and sometimes a week at its full height, whose motions some hundreds of people are watching night and day. But if it chance to be so strong as to drive away before it, as it often dos, any quantity of any of the banks, then it drownds all before it, and makes a noise by its fall which is heard many miles afore they perceive the water. And in the place where it precipitates it self down it makes a pond, or hugepitt, sometimes one hundred yards about, and a vast depth, so that in that place, it being impossible for the bank to be built again, they all always build it half round about the same. Many of which pitts and banks so built may be seen beyond Thorn, a markate town a little of of my town of Hatfield, etc,”
July the 20. God be thankt, the bishops are deliverd out of prison and are clear’d, and people at London shew the greatest joy that ever was, and the soldiers at Hunsley heath are so gladd of it they know not what or how to shew it. They tost up their
" Quoted in a note p. 116 of the Hist. Isle of Axholme, 1839, by the Rev. (afterwards Dr.) W. B. Stonehouse, who in every instance where he alludes to our diarist invariably writes the name Prym/ie.
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
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hats into the air, and made loud huzzahs for two houers together. Now our eyes begin to be open’d, and everyone sees that we are yet in danger of our lives and religion. God defend us and take both or none !
Ju. 23. My uncle and godfather Prym'' is dead. He was an honest, learned, pious, wise, and understanding man.
God knows what will become of poor England. All the land quakes for fear ! never a day passes but one or other is asking concerning the French they ruin us all with, for the Jesuits and papists here bear all down before them, and many have been heard to say that they expect to wash their hands in heretick’s blood before next Christm[as]. God prevent it, for his great mercy’s sake !
This day I observed at Mr. Hatfield’s^ a dunghill cock with a cock’s spur growing upon his head like a little thorn. The way they do such things is this : — at the same minute they kill one cock they immediately cutt of one of his spurs, which they then clap upon another young cock’s head that has just in that sayd minute also had his comb cut off. Then they tye it well on, and so it remains growing. The consideration of this made me reflect upon the story of Taliacocius’s engrafting of one man’s nose upon another’s face, etc.^
® Abraham de la Pryme, died 23 July 1687. See Pedigree.
P John Hatfeild, the 3rd son of Ralph Hatfeild of Laughton-en-le-Morthing, CO. Y'ork, gent, (of whom and his ancestry see Hunters S. Y., i. pp. 178, 290, 291), was a captain in the Parliament Army. Soon after the civil wars he seated himself at Hatfield. Married 1 June, 1652, Frances, d.of Thomas Westby, Esq., of Ravenfield, She died 2 Sept., 1693, aged 62. Capt. H. died 28 Dec., 1694, aged 72. There is a monument for them in Hatfield Church, erected by their eldest son John Hatfeild, Esq., barrister-at-law, who died in 1720, aged 61. The great granddau. of this latter gentleman, Ann, became the wife of Wm. Gossip, Esq., of a family at Thorp-arch. This gentleman dying 26 March, 1830, left with other issue, an eldest son, William Hatfeild Gossip, Esq., who d. 15 Jan., 1856, leaving an only surviving son, who eventually became heir to his uncle by marriage, the Rev. Cornelius Heathcote Reaston-Rodes, of Barlborough, co. Derby, assuming, by his desire, the surname of De Rodes, in lieu of Gossip, and is the present William Hatfeild De Rodes, Esq., of Barlborough. He m. 7 Sep., 1854, Sophia Felicite, d. of the Hon. and Rev. Alfred Curzon, Rector of Kedleston, co, Derby. This lady (who had subsequently the precedence of a baron’s daughter granted to her, on her brother becoming Lord Scarsdale), died without issue, 2d April, 1869. Of the above family of Hatfeild was the Rev. George Hatfeild, Vicar of Doncaster 1762-1785. Ralph Thoresby, the eminent antiquary of Leeds, says, 19 June, 1683, he “ had the honour of a visit from Capt. Hatfield, of Hatfeild, with some pleasing discourse concerning the anti- quities of that place.” (Diary ii. appx. 417.) On 31 Aug., 1694, he rode to Hatfield, and was “ most obligingly entertained by the good family ” there. (Diary i., 262, 263.) Again 17 January. 1695. (P. 289.)
9 Tagliacozza was a learned Italian physician. For this feat of his see
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OcTOB. 2. Great talk of the prince of Orange. He is mak- ing great preparations beyond sea, and ’tis thought that they are designed for England. God’s will be done !
o o
3. They say that he has one hundred thousand men which he designs to bring over, amongst which twenty thousand are antro- pophagi, Laplanders clad in bear skins, that never lay in beds in their lives, but always like beasts under the open canopy of heaven.
20. My father being at Doncaster last Saturday I heard him say that there was a man there with a strong sort of a glass that openly for lOd. lets any one see therein whatt they will. My father took him to be a conjurer.
29. This day I heard that there wer lately arived out of Ireland six thousand Irish, the rudest fellows that ever were seen. Tyrconnel sent them.''
All the nation is in fear of being murder’d, and watch is set in all towns by the order of the magistrates to exam[ine] every passenger, etc.
1688.
Novemb. 5. About the end of this year happen’d here in England the greatest revolution that was ever known. I mean by that most bold and heroick adventure of the most illustrious and famous Will[iam] Hen[ry] Nassaw, Prince of Orange, who soon turned the scale of affairs, and delivered us out of all our fears of tyranny and popery, which, as farr as I can possibly see, would infallibly have fain upon us.
a vulgar jest in Hudihras, part i. canto i. line 280, et seqq. What he really did was to make artificial noses, lips, ears, &c,, by transplanting portions of skin from other portions of the face. At first people did not know exactly whether to treat him as a sorcerer or liar, but, after his death, his fellow citizens set up a marble statue to his memory, at Bologna, holding a nose in his hand.
^ Richard Talbot (Malahide) was created Earl of Tyrconnel, in 1685, and afterwards Duke of Tyrconnel, after James the Second’s abdication. He was slain, or at all events died, at Limerick, 14th Aug., 1691. He m. Frances, widow of Sir George Hamilton, Knt,, the sister of Sarah Jennings, wife of John Churchhill, Duke of Marlborough. These ladies were the daughters of Richard Jennings, of Sandridge, co. Hertford, Esq. Richard Talbot was son of Sir Wm. T., of Courtown, Bart., who d. in 1633, and brother of Sir Robt., of same place, Bart., and also of Sir Griffith Talbot, who died 26 Dec,, 1723, get. 82. The Earl of Tyrconnel was generalissimo of the Irish forces under King James II.
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
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Qui nescit dissimilare, nescit nec vivere^ nec regnare. Politick frauds is and always has been in action in all kingdomes, revolu- tions, and nations, which is sufficient licence for their lawfullness ; and, as for their usefullness, there needs nothing to be said about that ; any one that is wise must needs know that many a noble and excellent design would have perished in its birth had it not been brought into the world by such midwives as these. In this time of our revolution wee had many a strange story of long popish knives, gridirons, and instruments of torture found in at least a hundred popish houses up and down the land, with suppositious letters, speeches, and such like, to irritate the people and encourage them to obey the revolution.
But that which was the most observable of all was a general alarm, that was spread over all the land, of God knows how many thousands of Irish (who were disbanded by K[ing] James) wha ravaged the country and slew and burnt all before them. This rumour begun in the south, and went northward so effectually that most people believed it, for there came expresses of it every- where to get everyone in arms, and to meet at such a great town^ on such a day, where the whole country was to go and try a brush with the enemy. Now it was that the whole nation was in such a ferment that they sweat for fear ! Now all was up in arms, yet nobody knew where they were to fight ! All ways was stopt up and passes, old forts, and castles maim’d, and nothing but arms sounded in everyone’s mouth. Now it was that the papists was at the brink of the grave, for, wherever there was any, their houses was searched, examined ; and, if they were priests, were sent to prison, etc. In all this bustle there was few that offered to run away, but all joyfully and couragiously equipp’d and armed them- selves, being resolved to fight. Its almost incredible to think what a number of men there was in arms, all of them resolved to conquer or dy. Everyone when they went to exercise and meet the enemy, took their last lieves of their wives, friends, and sweethearts, with farr more sorrow than they showed for any fear they had either of an enemy or death, etc.
Thisnewse or report ran, as I sayd, quite through the country, and for all it was some weeks a running northward, yet no one letter appear’d out of the south concerning any such thing there till it was always gone past those places where these letters were to go.
Various reports there was concerning the occation of this rumour. Yet most certain it is that it was nothing but a poli- tick alarm raised and set on foot by the king and council to see how the nation stood effected to their new king.
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Yet one thing that I exceedingly wonder at is that there was no men killed in this bustle, for I have asked and examined all over wherever I came, and I could never hear of any. But indeed tho’ they kill’d nobody, yet they made most miserable of all the papist’s houses that they came near; for, under pretence of seeking for arms, they did many thousands of pounds worth of hurt, cuting down rich hangings, breaking tlmough walls, pulling in pieces of excellent ceilings, and such like. But they carried nothing away with them but what they eat or drunk, and then they secured all the papists they could get, intending to carry them all away to prison.
It is wonderful how such rumors as then was could be invented. Here came letters down from London that in a great vault hard by the parliament house they had discover’d a great many grid- irons, three yards long, with strang sorts of pincers and scrus and long knives, all of which was to torment those great parliament men that would not agree with the king towards the fulfilling of his will, etc. Then again in another place there was discovered three score horses, kept underground, that had not seen light this many years, which were fed with humane bodys, and these were to tear us in pieces. Then elsewhere there was found under the earth great coppers full of oyl, and others of pitch, and tar, and lead, all which was to boyl hereticks in : and in many popeish houses round about in the country we heard what strange instru- ments of torment was found in their possession, etc., all which the vulgar faithfully believed ; but, as for me, I gave little heed thereto, etc., for they were plainly nothing but politic frauds.
1689.
This year a strange kind of a violent and burning feaver, together with the small pox reigned so in our family that I lost two brothers and two sisters.
Towards the latter end of the aforegoing year there landed at Hull about six or seven thousand Hams, all stout fine men, the best equip’d and disciplin’d of any that was ever seen.
They brought over with them a great quantity of both money and plate, as silver tankards, tumblers, cups, spoons, pottingers, etc., which they sould up and down the country.
Their money had a great alloy of copper in it, yet, for all that, the people here took for their commoditys.
They were mighty godly and religious. You would seldome
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
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or never heard an oath or ugly word come out of their mouths. They had a great many ministers amongst them whome they call’d pastours, and every Sunday almost, ith’ afternoon, they prayed and preach’d as soon as our prayers was done.
They sung almost all their divine service, and every ministre had those that made up a quire whom the rest follow’d. Then there was a sermon of about half-an-houer’s length, all memoratimy and then the congregation broke up. When they administred the sacrament the ministre goes into the church and caused notice to be given thereof, then all come before, and he examined them one by one whether they were worthy to receive or no. If they was he admitted them, if they were not he writ their names down in a book, and bid them prepare against the next Sunday. Instead of bread in the sacrament I observed that they used wafers,' about the bigness and thickness of a sixpence.
They held no sin to play at cards upon Sundays, and common- ly did everywhere where they were suffered ; for indeed in many places the people would not abide the same, but took the cards from them.
They were mighty good-natured, and kind, and civel, and many of them where they were quarter’d would thrash or work a week for what they could get. And indeed the English were all over hereabout extream kind to them and gave them free quarter, for which they were exceeding thankful.'
Tho’ they loved strong drink yet all the while I was amongst them, which was all this winter, I never saw above five or six of them drunk.
They liked England very well, “Oh ! it was the finest country that ever they came in in all their lives,” they would oft say, and many swore that they would be bang’d before they would leave
* The wafer is still used througliout the -whole of Scandinavia. The name given to it in Sweden is Oblat, and the silver baskets in which the wafers are brought for presentation on the Holy Table are called Ohlaten schalten. — See an article on the Swedish Church in the Christian Remembrancer for April 1847.
^ A memorial of the Danish troops which were quartered in Yorkshire, after the revolution, is to be found (I quote Allen's Hist. Yorhs. v. iii., p. 285, not having seen the original), in the parish register of St. Mary’s, Beverley.
1G89, Dec. 16. — Daniel Straker, a Danish trooper buried.
„ Dec. 23. — Johannes Frederick Bellow, beheaded for killing the other, buried.
The following doggrel is on an oval tablet on the outer side of the south wall of the nave : —
“ Here two 3’ornig Danish souldiers lie,
The one in quarrel chanc’d to die ;
The other’s head, by their own law.
With sword was sever’d at one blow."
C
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it. There was snow in their country a foot thick before they came away, and they were so surprised, that when [they] came hither, they found not a bit, they scarce knew what to say.
Many of tliem at this town, while they stayed here, acted a play in their language, and they got a vast deal of monney thereby. The design of it was “ Herod’s Tyranny; ” The Birth of Christ; ” and the Coming of the Wise Men.” They built a stage in our large court-house, and acted the same thereon. I observed that all the postures were shewn first of all, viz.. The king on his throne, his servants standing about him. And then, the senes being drawn, another posture came ; the barbarous soldiers mur- dering: of the infants, and so on : And when tliev had run through all so, they then began to act both together. All which time they had plenty of all sorts of music of themselves, for [one] soldier played on one sort and one on another.
I heard some of them say that some of those players belonged to the king of Denmark’s play house that was set a fire, and burnt when most of the nobles were beholding a play several years ago, tho’ how long I cannot exactly tell.
This day I heard my father say that, as he went to Doncaster fair,” he overtook a company of godly Presbyterians who were singing salms as they rid. Was not this a great peece of affected- ness, and more out of vain glory and pride than piety ?
I have heard of a Presbyterian minister who was so precise that he would not as much as take a pipe of tobacco before that he had first saved grace over it.
My father alas ! inclines mightily this way, as does all the French and Duch of these Levels, and he would needs have me go to the University of Glasco, but I do not intend it. I hope God will so incline my father’s will as to suffer me to go to Cambridge, which tin no; I beg for Jesus Christ his sake.
One thing at ])resent which makes a great noise in the country is an act,” not for liberty of conscience, as some call it, but only to
“ 5th April.
1st W. & M., c. 18, “For exempting their Majesties Protestant subjects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the penalties of certain laws,” commonly called the Toleration Act, which enacted that neither certain acts therein specified, nor any other penal laws made against Popish recusants (except the test acts) should extend to any dissenters other than Papists and such as deny the Trinity: provided, 1. That they took the oaths of allegiance and supremacy (or made a similar affirmation, being quakers) and subscribed the declaration against popery; 2. That they repaired to some congregation cer- tified to and registered in the court of the bishop or archdeacon, or at the County Sessions ; 3. That the doors of such meeting-house should be unlocked, unbarred, and unbolted ; in default of which the persons meeting there were
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
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exempt the dissenters from the penaltys of all the former laws that have been made against them, upon condition that they swear to be true to K[ing] W[illiain] and Q[ueen] M[ary] and do not at anytime of their meeting keep the conventicle door lockd, barrd, or bolted ; and that they do subscribe to all the 34, 35, 36, and these words of the 20th Article, viz., — The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies and authority in controversys of faith : and yet : which they could not subscribe to.
1690.
In this year about the end of April I began to set forward for Cambridge, to be admitted there an accademian. The first day of our journey (which was from the Levels to Sleeford beyond Lincoln Heath) wee travelled forty-six miles, and so came through the Fenns of Ely to Cambridge. ’Tis a strange thing that great towns should so decay and be eaten up with time. I observed when I came to Lincoln that several stately houses and churches are let fall down to the ground, piece by piece ; and this which has been such a famous citty heretofore, there is scarce anything worth seeing in it now but the high street, it being indeed a most stately and excellent structure, and is the chief ornament of the tov*m. The minster indeed looks very stately too on the outside, but what it is within I do not know. There is an old open fortifica- cation against it castlewise, which might (tho’ there be guns nor nothing in it) do the town some little hurt if it was well maim’d, because it stands upon the hill of the town, etc.“'
We arrived at Cambridge (which I took to have been a much finer town than I then found it to bee) on the first of May, and I was admitted member of St. John’s College the day following. First, I was examined by my tutor, then by the senior dean,
still to be liable to all the penalties of former acts. Dissenting teachers were also to subscribe the articles of religion mentioned in the tStat. 13 Eliz., c. 12 (viz., those which only concerned the confession of the true Christian faith and the doctrine of the sacraments), with an express exception of those relating to the government and powers of the church and to infant baptism.
^ Lincoln Castle must have been one of the most majestic fortresses in England during the middle ages. It seems to have retained much of its ancient beauty until it was taken by storm on Slonday morning May 6, 164t, by the Earl of Manchester, after which it fell into ruin. Samuel Buck’s view of the castle taken in 1727, and of the city in 1743, represents it much as it is now ; neither of them show the interior of the fortifications. Probably in de la Pryrae’s time the precincts contained many interesting remains that were swept away when the present ugly shire-hall and prison were built. — See A True Relation of the Taking of the City, Minder, and Cadlc of Lincoln. R. Coates for John Bellamy. 4to. Lon. 1G44.
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then by the junior dean, and then by the master, who all made me but construe a verse or two a-piece in the Greek Testament, •except the master, who ask’d me both in that and in Plautus and Horace too. Then I went to the registerer to be registered member of the College, and so the whole work was done.
We go to lecturs every other day, in logics, and what we hear one day we give an account of the next; besides we go to his chamber every night, and hears the sophs and junior sophs dis- pute, and then some is called out to conster a chapt[er] in the New Testament ; which after it is ended, then we go to prayers, and then to our respective chambers.
Our master they say is [a] mighty high proud man, but God bo thank’d I know nothing ot that as yet by my own experience. His name is Doct[or] Gower^ and it was him that first brought up the haveing of terms in the college, without the keep of every one of which we can have no degrees.
He came from Jesus College to be made master here, and he was so sevear there that he was commonly called the divel of Jesus ; and when he was made master here some unlucky scholars broke this jest upon him, — that now the divel was entered into the heard of swine ; for us Jonians are called abusively hoggs.
In this my fresh-man’s year, by my own propper studdy, labour and industry, I got the knowledge of all herbs, trees, and simples, without any body’s instruction or help, except that of herbals : so that I could know any herb at first sight. I studdied a great many things more likewise, which I hope God will bless for my good and his honour and glory, if I can ever promote anything thereoff.^
^ Humphrey Gower, a native of Dorchester ; the son of Stanley Gower, a minister there durinjT the interregnum. Chosen Fellow of St. John’s Coll. Camb. 23rd March, 1G58 ; M.A., 16G2 ; D.D., 1G7G ; Master of Jesus Coll., 11th July, 1G79 ; and of St. .lohn’s, 3rd Dec. following. Died 27th March, 1711. — Nichols' Lit. Anecdotes, iv., 2t5, 24G ; v., 125, 128, l29. Dr. Gower was a man of great university mark, and a large benefactor to St. John’s, although not originally a member of that college.
y He was admitted Scholar of St. John’s, 7th Nov. 1690. “ Ego Abra-
hamus Prim Eboracensis juratus et admissus sum in discipulum hujus coll, pro Dre Morton decessore Dno. Proctor.” This Cardinal Morton scholarship was filled up 6th Nov., 1694, when Huraphr. Davenport was admitted “ deces- sore Dno. Primme.”
De la Pryme was never fellow, nor did he hold an exhibition.
The college entry of De la Pryme’s admission is “ Abrahamus Prym, Eboracensis, filius Matthsei Prym, generosi, natus infra Hatfield, ibidemque litteris institutus sub Mro. Eratt, setatis su» 19, admissus est pensionarius tutore et fiJejussore ejus Mro. Wigley, Maii 2ndo, 1690.”
ABRAHAM DE LA PRTME.
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]692.
Jan. : Alas ! who can refrain from tears, what learned man can but lament at the sad newse that came the other night, viz., the death of the famous and honourable Mr. Boyl,^ a man born to learning, born to the good of his country, born to every pious act, whose death can be never enough lamented and mourned for. England has lost her wisest man, wisdom her wisest son, and all Europe the man whose writeings they most desired, who well deserved .the character that the ingenious Redi gives him, who calls him. Semper veridicus^ et quavis sublimi Laiide dignus ! I have heard a great deal in his praise and commenda- tion. He was not only exceeding wise and knowing, but also one of the most religiousest and piusest men of his days, never neglecting the public prayers of the church or absenting himself therefrom upon any occasion. He was exceeding charitable to the poor and needy, and thought whatever he gave to them too little ! He was a mighty promoter of all pious and good works, and spent vast summs, as I have heard, in getting the Bible and several more religious books to be translated and printed in Irish and spred about that country, that his poor countrymen might see the light of the Gospel. He was a mighty chemist, etc.
Jan. 7 : This day was in company with a gentleman scholler Mr. Bennet'* of our coll, a very learned, ingenious, and under-
* The Hon. Robert Boyle, the 7th son and 14th child of Richard, 1st Earl of Cork; Died 13th Dec. 1G91, unmarried. — See portrait and biographical account of him in Lodge's Portraits of Illustrious Personages, J)‘e., vol. ix.
His life was written by Dr. Birch. It may be found in his edition of Boyle’s works, 5 vols. folio, 1744 ; and was in the same year issued separately in an 8vo form.
“ Thomas Bennett, son of Tho. Bennett, gent., born infra Ccesaris burgum, Wilts., at school there under Mr. Taylor, admitted sizar for his tutor, Mr. Browne, 31st May, 1(589, jet. 15. This voluminous author was elected foun- dation fellow 2Gth Mar. (admitted 27tli Mar.) 1G94, in Boughton’s room. He was catechis. 2G Febr. 1700-1 ; and appointed college preacher 12 June, 1701. Edm. Waller was elected 2G Mar. (admitted 27 Mar.) 1705 in Bennett’s room. B.A., 1G92-3 ; M.A., 1G9G ; D.D., 1715; rector of St. James’s Col- chester, when he subscribed to Strype’s Parker ; vicar of St. Giles’s, Cripple- gate, when he subscribed to Strype’s Annals, vol. 3 ; of Salisbury School XCarlile's Grammar Schools, ii. 74G), Obiit.’ 9 Oct., 1728 {Historical Picglster 1728, Chronicle p. 54) ; married to Hunt, of Salisbury, 8 Oct., 1717 {His-
torical Register'). Made rector of St. Giles’s. 4 Apr.. 1717 {Ihld.) Lecturer of St. Olave’s, Southwark, 20 Febr., 171G, p. 118). — See The Tanner JSISS.
William Gould, Fellow of St. John’s, left him L50 in 1G90, {MS. Baher, xxvi, 278). See Darling's Cgclopoedia, col. 25G9, 2840. Subscriber to Spencer De legibus Hebr. 1727. — See Lampe's Commentary on St John, i. 221. Examination of a booh lately printed by the Quakers, 8co., Lond. 1737, pgr > idefence of do.
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standing young man, who comes from Sulsbuiy, and was thcer in all the time of the late revolution, and saw most of the things that happened there. He says that when King Will[iam] came first over, for three, four, or five days, he was mightily dijected and melancholy, fearing that nobody would joyn with him : but when the Lord Cornbury and several others were come over, ho was very well content and cheered up. When he landed he wore his own hair which was long and black, and looked as to his fiice very pale and wan : but now he has got a wig,'^ and looks as brisk, ancl has good a colour as anyone.
This gentleman was at Salsbury when the late king was there, and he says all was in the greatest confusion imaginable. Ho saw K[ing] J[ames] ride backward and forward continnualy with a languishing look, his hat hanging over his eyes, and a handkerchief continnualy in one hand to dry the blood of his nose for he continnualy bledd. If he and his soldiers did but chance to hear a trumpet or eyen a post-horn they were always upon a surprise, and all fit to run away, and at last they did so.
All the nights there was nothing but tumult, and every ques- tion that was ask’d Where are the enemy ?” Where are the enemy?” “How far are they off?” “ Wliich way are they going ?” and such like.
10. Yesterday I was at Mr. Hall’s the bookseller, asking for a magical book, — “Zouns,” says he “ Doct. you’l raise the divel,” at which I laughed. “ But hark you,” says he, “ I have a friend about 7 miles off who has lost a great many cattle by witchcraft, and he is now in the town at the Three Tuns, pratheo go with me thither to him, and tell him what he shall do to save the rest?” to which I made answer that 1 was unwilling to go; and besides that 1 knew not how to help him. “No matter for that,” says he, “ you shall then have some discourse with him and hear what he says, it shall cost you nought, I’ll give you two or three jnnts of wine.” Tlien I went and we had a great deal of talk. Ho told me that ho was once, about thirteen years ago, with several otliers set to keep a witch in a room, and sayd that before them
Land., 1737, jjp. 85 seq. ; Life of A. A. Sylies, 88, 89,93 ; Nerveourt's liepertorium, ii. 170; Watts' BihUoth. Bt'it.,i. 100; Ckalvier's Bioyr. Diet.; Bodl. Catal. vols. i. and iv. Catal. Brit. Mas. ; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 171 ; Catal. Codd. MSS. Bodl. iv. 831 ; Ayscovyh's Catal. MSS. Brit. Mas. 793 ; Darling's Cyclopcedia ; Niohol's Lit. Anecd. iii., 11., i.. 412.
* In an original portrait of William III., by Sir Godfrey Kneller, in the possession of Mr. Peacock, he is represented in a long flowing wig of dark brown hair.
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
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all sliee chang’d herself into a beetle or great clock, and flew out of the chimney, and so escaped. He told me also that a neigh-' hour of his as he was once driving a loaded waggon out of the field, they came over against the place where a witch was shear- ing, and that then of a suddain (tho’ there was no ill way or any. thing to throwgh a waggon over) the waggon was in a minnit thrown down, and the shaves became as so many piggs of lead, so that nobody could for two hours lift them upright.
Febr. : What I heard to-day I must relate. There is one Mr. Newton (whom I have very oft seen), fellow of Trinity College, that is mighty flimoiis for his learning, being a most excellent mathematician, philosopher, divine, etc. He has been fellow of the Royal Society this many years, and, amongst the other very learned books and tracts that he has writt, he’s writt one upon the Mathematical Principles of Philosophy, which has got him a mighty name, he having received, especialy from Scot- land, abundance of congratulatory letters for the same : but of all the books that he ever writt there was one of colours and light, established upon thousands of experiments, which he had been twenty years of making, and which had cost him many a hundred of pounds. This book which he valued so much, and which was so much talk’d olf, had the ill luck to perish and be utterly lost just when the learned author wns almost at putting a conclusion at the same, after this manner. In a winter morning, leaving it amongst his other papers on his studdy table, whilst he w^ent to chappel, the candle which he had unfortunately left burning there too cachd hold by some means or other of some other papers, and they fired the aforesayd book, and utterly consumed it and several other valuable writings, and that wdiich is most wonderful did no further mischief. But when Mr. Newton came from chappel and had seen what was done, every one thought he would have run mad, he was so troubled thereat that he was not himself for a month after. A large account of this his system of light and colours you may find in the transactions of the Royal Society, which he had sent up to them long before this sad mis- chance happened unto him.
^ No less a personage than the great Sir Isaac Newton, de quo vide Nichols's Literanj Anecdotes, voh iv. pp. i. etc., etc. He was born 25 Dec., 1642. Admitted at Trin. Coll., Camb., 5 June, 1661, as a sub-sizar, a class which still exists in the college. He afterwards bpcame Fellow of the College, and a Professor of the University, for which he was twice elected one of the representatives in Parliament, an honour which was also attained by his illus- trious predecessor Lord Chancellor Bacon (a fact not generally known). He died 20 M.arch, 1726. — See preface of this work.
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29. Yesterday I began a work. God of His great mercy make me able to carry on the same ! It is a book of travelling, to be entitled The compleat Traveller, or full directions for travelling, and querys about almost everything memorable in all eountrys.”
30. Doct[or] Burnet Bish[op] of Sarum has given notice in all our newse letters that he will undertake to write the famous Mr. Boyl’s life, which is not to be doubted but it will be done very well, tho’ nevertheless it is impossible that it should be done so well as it deserves, he having been the [most] learned, wisest, and godliest man that England ever brought forth. He was a mighty- strict, pious man, and seldome or never missed the publick prayers in church, and was mighty charitable to the poor. Some condemns him for being too credulous and giving too much heed to the relations of his informers in philos[ophical] matters, but this springs from nothing but ignorance and envy.
April 1. The present Bish[op] of St. Asaphs,'^ Doctor [Lloyd] is a very famous man by reason of his ]:>retending to interpret and comprehend that most hard and ambiguous book of the Re- velations : for he prophesyd nothing but good therefrom, of the downfall of the French king, and the Pope, etc. It happen’d once in the present reign that there came a poor Vaudois to begg alms of him, complaining that he was forced out of his country for his religion by means of the tyranny of the French king. Well, well ” (says the honest bishop) I cann assure you that tyrant will not live long, for God has look’d uj^on your afflictions, and the tyranny of that monster, and will deliver you and every one else out of every apprehensions of danger from him, and that Avithin six months : therefore you shall go to your own country again, and I will give you money to bear your charges thither,” etc., which he accordingly did; but whether the Vaudois went home or no I cannot tell ; but the poor bishop has been sadly mistaken in many of his interpretations upon that obscure book, f Aa’ relatione filii Dr. Lloyd ejoiscop. Norwich.')
1G92
ToAvards the end of this year I went a course of chymistry with
^ William Llo}^d, S.T.P., consecrated Oct. 3, 1G80. He was translated to Lichfield and Coventry in 1692, and from thence to Worcester, 22d January, 1699-1700. He died 30th August, 1717, and is buried at Fladbury, co. Worces- ter. Le Neves Fasti., ed. 1864, vol. i. p. 558 ; iii, 68.
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
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Signior Johannes Fransiscus Vigani, a very learned chemistj and a great traveller, but a drunken fellow. Yet, by reason of the abstruceness of the art, I got little or no good thereby.
In this very time of my course it was that my very great and most intimate friend Mr. Bohun^ (of the year above me) hangd himself in his studdy. I missing him all that day began to in- quire for him, which I observed put a great many lads then in the hall going to supper in an opinion and kind of consternation that he had hanged himself, though they knew nothing of it, nor had any reason for what they spoke or imagined. Upon which I and some more got his chamber dore key of his bed- maker, and going in we found his wigg, cap, and gown hanging over the chairs that were in his chamber : and not finding him there wee forced his studdy door open, but none of them durst go in to see if he was there. Upon which I rushed in, and found him hanging at the end of his studdy with his feet not above half or three quarters of a foot of the ground, having hung so all the day, for it appear’d afterwards that he hanged himself in chapel time in the morning. The rope that he hang’d himself in was one that he us’d to hano^ dogs in when he anatomized them.
Just before he dy’d he writt a very serious letter to his father, and dated it, and seal’d it up too, lying it on the table just at the door, desiroing in another piece of paper that it might be sent home to his father, saying that he had given a sufficient reason to his father for tlie sayd act. But wdiat this reason was I could never certainly learn. Sure I am that it was not out of any evil ac- tions that he had committed, for he w^as never given to any, neither was it for want of monney, or any unkindness of his parents, for they loved him very well and gave him what he desired. He was a great student also, and a good scholar, having made great proficiency in most arts and sciences. I was one of those that was brought in to give my evidence what I knew of his nature. I depos’d that I had heard him several times talk that he was melancholly, but he knew not for what, it was his nature that led him to it, as he thought. He loved to take walks in the dark, but yet neverthe- less was of as merry and jovial a nature as any one I ever see.
The night before he did this, he, I, and two or three more of us, had been walking into the town after supper, and when we were got home again he took his leave of us, and shak’d us all by
' Humfrey Bohun, son of Edmund Bohun, esq., born at Pulham, Norfolk, educated at Woodbridge school under Mr. Candler, admitted pensioner 30 May, 1689, aet. 19, under Mr. Browne. (See on him, who died 1 Dec., 1692, Bohun’s. Autobiography and pedigree prefixed).
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the hand, clenching them (as I observed) something hard in his (just as a dying man will catch hold of anything in his reach and hold it fast), but this we did not take much notice of because he was so free and merry ; but so all o’ us bid him a good night, as he also did us. And he having a chum, he saj’d that ho went to bed and slept very well till the morning, and arising then he put on his studdying gown and cap and his stockings and shoos, and going into his studdy lock’d the dore after him, and so having written the aforesayd letter bang’d himself with- out making any noise or struggling.
He was the eldest son to Edm. JBolmn, esq. him that has writt so many books.
Dec. 23. Tho’ my friend came to this so suddain and unfor- tunate end, yet I desisted not from mystuddysand searchings into the truth and knowledge of things : for 1 and my companion yester night try’d again what we could do, but nothing would appear, quamvis omnia sacra rite peracta fuerunt ; iterum ii- erumque adjuravimus.
Last week I got two or three vol. of tho Turkish Spy.^ As soon as I had read a little I suspected it to be a cheat, and the further I read I discover’d it the more. There are English proverbs in it, as — let him laugh that wins, vol. 2, etc. And it says in several places, — such a year according to the Christian Hegira — which is nonsence, and could never proceed out of the mouth of a Mahometan, etc. However, it is a book that sells exceedingly, and my bookseller says that the ingenious Doct. Midgley that has been licencer of the press several years is the author thercoff.
1693
Jan. 1. This year begins very ill for it is exceeding cold, the Parliament are fitt to fall out together by the ears. God prevent it I
2. I dream’d yesternight that methought as I was walking I
/ A well known person, and for some time licencer of the press.
^ Letters writ ly a lurldsh spy who lived Jive and forty years undiscovered at Paris. First edit. 8 vols. 8vo., 1691. The work has gone through upwards of twenty-eight editions, the last of which was in 8 vols. 12mo., 1801. The work is usually attributed to Jean Paul Marana, a native of Genoa. It seems to be quite certain that the first thirty letters are his composition. — Gent. Mag* 1840, pt. ii. p. 409 ; 1841 ; pt. i. p. 265, 270 ; Notes and Queries, 1st series, vol. i; p. 834 ; 3rd. series, vol. v., p. 260.
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
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overtook my old friend Mr. Bohun, but he seemed to be melan- choly, and as we were v/alking, “ Oh, Abraham ! ” says he (cal- ling me by my name), I could never have imagined that my father would have taken my death so ill, or else 1 would never have done the act.’' And so me-thought we parted. I observed also in my dream hoAv he had the exact gate that he used in his life- time, flinging out an elbow as he walked, and shaking his head when he spake.
This year, I being soph, I began to look more about me than before, and to take better notice of things, as having got more knowledge and experience than I had before.
I went lately to take a view of the new library of Trinity College in this University, and it is indeed a most magnificent piece of work within, and it is very vrell built without. ’Tis raised from the foundations wholy of Portland stone, and has cost finish- ing thusfarr above three thousand pounds. ’Tis... yards long, ...
broad, and high. It is bore up by three rows of pillars
each foot about. The starecase up into the library is ex-
cellently carved, and the steps are all of them of marble, which staircase alone cost above fifteen hundred pounds.
Jan. 8. This day I received a very kind tho’ a very severe letter from the famous Mr. Edm[und] Bohun, tlie father to him whose unhappy death I have already related. He persuaded me exceed- ingly to desist from all magical studdys, and lays a company of most black sins to my charge, which (he sayd) I committed by darrino^ to search in such forbidden thinors.
JuL. 9. Beading this day in Father Kircher’s'^ iEd. A3g., how that the ancient Egyptians us’d commonly to have four or five or six children, it brought into my mind several relations of such great births, and, to speak the truth, it is not half so strange to have so many at a birth in England as it is beyond sea. About eight years ago the milner wife of the Leavels had four at a birth, two of which lived till they were thirty years old. Rich. More, now living at Hatfield in Yorkshire, his wife had three at a birth, about fifteen years ago,* and going to the parson to get
* The iEdipns ^gyptiacus of this celebrated scholar, a work in four volumes, folio, published at Rome, 1652-4.
* This appears to have occurred earlier than the diarist names. In the parish register of Hatfield, No. III., I find in 1659-60 there were baptized “ Richard, Susanna, and Anne, children of Richard Moore, jun., and of Anne his wife, ye 6t d. of Jan.” and the same three were buried on the 10th of the same month. In 1718-19, Feb. 10th, at the same place “ Elihue, Guliel., Carolus, Elinna, and Ricardus filige[sic] Guliel. Waller,” were baptized. And on tliic 18th Dec., 1720, “ Robertas, Abrahamus, et Isaacus filii Gulielmi Fox,”
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them christened, he told him — that — that — that — he had got a few children to christen, at which the minister laugh’d ; but they were all of them christened; but how long they lived I know not. J. Tompson’s wife, about nine years ago, had three; and, about a year before I came to Cambridge, there was another woman in the sayd town that had four together. All this in but a little time and within our little parish where I was born.
I have oft enough heard of women in the country round about that has likewise had sometimes two and sometimes more at a birth, but they being out of our parish I shall not relate them.
I have likewise very oft heard of women who by superfcetation have had three, four, and some five, and some six or seven children in a year. There is now living at Bramwith, by our toAvn of Hat- field, two sisters who were both born together, and the same year their mother was again of three more, which all dy’d.
This year there was admitted of our college one Needham,-^ a freshman of about twelve years old, a meer child, but had indeed been so well brought up that he understood very perfectly the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew tongues. But this is nothing in com- parison to one of our present fellows called Mr. Wotten,'^ who
J Peter Needham, the well-known scholar, co. 'Chester, son of the Pev. Sam. Needham of Stockport, educated at a private school at Bra nam, Norfolk, under Mr. Needham, was admitted sizar for Dt. Bury, 18th Apr., 1G93, ffit, 12, under Mr. Orchard. On his death (I suppose at least that he is meant, and not Wm. Needham,) Sec Thesauriuf JEjjistolictis Sacrori/m i. 137 ; see also Index to vol. ii. He was elected foundation fellow llth April, 1698, admitted 12th April in Wigley’s room. On 19th Mar., 1715-G, Jo. Peake was elected (ad- mitted 20th Mar.) in Needham’s room. B.A., 1G96-7 ; M.A., 1700 ; B.D., 1707 ; D.D., by royal mandate, 1717 ; was rect. of Stanwick, Northants, when he sub- scribed to Knight’s Life of Colet., rect. of Conington. Subscriber to Spencer De Legibus Hebr., 1727. Vicar of Madingley in 1711 ( Madingley Tteri'ister.) Blomejield' s Norfolk, iii., 459. J. A. Fabricius sent him a collation of Hierocles, which was lost on the road, afterwards published by Wolf {Fahricii Vita, 54, 55). His collections for an ed. of Hilschylus {Fahrwil Vita, p. 335; MSS. Nn.. i, IG, and Nn. ii., 32, in Cambridge University Library, described in the Catalogue of Adversaria, preserved in the library of the University of Cambr., Cambr., 1864, pp. 5, 11 seq). Monk's Life of Bentley, Svo., ed ii. i., 226 seg. Bentley's Corres^ pond. 'pp. 477, 572, 534, 812.
In Baker’s MS. xlii. 2G5, is a Latin epitaph by Sam Drake, D.D., on P. N. ridiculing his corpulence. Ob. Ash-Wednesday, 1730, Baker copied it from “a half sheet of paper, privately printed 8vo. ” ; and says “ These are libels upon two men of worth, both of ’em my friends ; I conceal their names.” (The other was Ric. Rawlinson.) — Watt's BihUoth. BritAi. G97 ; Catal. Brit. Miis.', Bailing' s Cyclop, p. 2166 ; 3IS. Lansd. 989, 13 ; Blomefield's Norf. (8vo.) ii. 267 ; vi. 145 ; Nichols' Lit. Anecd., iv. 271.
* ' Wm. Wotton, son of Rev. Henry Wotton, was admitted, pensioner, 20th June 1682 under Mr. Verdon. “ We ye fellows of St Katherine’s Hall in Cambridge, the master being absent, doe certefye yt William Wotton, who commenced Bat- chelor of Arts in January 1679-80, hath behaved himself e soberly and studiously during his residenc amongst us, and hath free liberty to admitte himself of any other
ABTIAHAM DE LA PETME.
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when he came up to be admitted was but eleven years old/ and understood (as I have heard from all the colledge and multitudes of hands besides), not only the aforesaid languages, but also the French, Spanish, Italian, Assirian, Chaldean, and Arabian tongues. When the master admitted him, he strove to pose him in many books but could not. He is yet alive, and I have seen him frequently, he being a most excellent preacher, but a drunken whoring soul. It is him that has lately translated Du Pin’s new Ecclesiastic Bibliotheke into English.
July 28. It is a true and excellent saying of the learned iEneas Sylvius — De regimine civitatum^ de mutatione regnorum^ de orhis imperio^ minimum est quod homines possunt ( him vero de re~ ligionis constitutione multo minus') magna magnus disponit Deus. This saying pleased me mightly, and it is really owing to a good consideration of it that I was satisfyd with the present govern- ment, etc.
The prophet Daniel likewise has a most excellent saying, which yielded me a great deal of satisfaction, ch. ii., v. 20, 21, 22, —
Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever ; for wisdom and mio^ht are His : and He chaimeth the times and the seasons : He removeth kings and setteth up kings : He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding : He re- vealeth the deep and secret things : He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him.”
Many more were the places of Scripture which I collected and compared, and blessed be God, for He at length opened my eyes. Blessed be His Holy Name for ever and ever.
college. In testimony whereof wee have hereunto subscribed our names, June 20, 1G82. — Gath. Hall. Nicholas Gouge, Jo. Warren, W, Miller.” B.A. (St. Gath.) 1G79-80 ; M.A. (St. John’s) 1G83 ; B.D., 1691. Darling's Cgclopoedia, col. 2622, St. John'.<( Coll. Library, pp. 9, 25, and 33. Subscriber to Spencer de Leg. Feb., 1727. Evelyn and many others attest his extraordinary proficiency. Admitted Beresford fellow, 8th Apr., 1685, in Turner’s room. Bob. Grove was elected in Wootton’s (sic) place, 26th Mar., 1694 (admitted 27th Mar.) His correspondent Dr. Thos. Dent (Birch's Life of Boyle., 298) ; Wotton intended to write Boyle’s Life {^Lbid. 396-9). In the preface to the reprint of Stanley’s poems he is said to have written an eulogium on Stanley, published at the end of Sccerolcc Sammarthanl Elogia Gallomim. Letter to him from Tancred Bobinson. Bodl., Catal.iii., 2^\b. Bentley's Correspondence {e,^. Wordsworth, index and p. 719). Index to Tanner MSS. Wm. Wotton, M.A., of St. John’s has verses in Academim Gantabrig. Atfectus, 1684-5. sign. Q Zb. — See Nichols' Lit. Anecd.., iv., 253-259 ; Dr. Goner's Testimony to his Precocity ib., 258.
^ Aubrey says that Dr. Kettle, President of Trin. Coll., Oxon., came to be scholar there at eleven years of age. Also, that Sir John Suckling went to the University of Cambridge at eleven years of age, where he studied for three or four years, as he had heard.
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Sept. 3. This day I was with a gentleman that was wateing man to Coll. Kirk, him that saved Londonderry from being taken by King James. He was with his master likewise all the while that he commanded at Tangiers, while the great fort there was in the English hands. Amongst a great deal of other talk that we had, he said that his master, that is Coll. Kirk, was closseted by King James, and that the king, after he had told him a great many things, spoke plain unto him, and told him he would have him change his religion. Upon which the coll, began to smile, and answered him thus — Oh, your majesty has spoke too late, your majesty knows that I was concern’d at Tangier, and being oftentimes with the Emperor of Morocco about the late king’s affairs, he oft desired the same thing of me, and I pass’d my word to him that if ever I changd my religion I would turn Mahometan,” etc.
Oct. 29. This month came out a book at London, entitled the Oracles of Reason, written by Sir Charles Blount, which was sent to Cambridge and elsewhere by whole parcels, for those that sent them durst not be known ; and because they were aitheistical, the Vice Chancellor sent the bedel to demand them all from the booksellers, and caused them to be burnt. The author a while after shot himself, because that a woman refused to have him, but the bullet did not mortally wound him, as he deserved.’”
Charles Blount was not an atheist hut his opinions were very far from orthodox. He seems to have been an idealist of the school of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. He was the brother of Sir Thomas Pope Blount, son of Sir Henry Blount, a Hertfordshire gentleman, known as an author by his “Voyage into the Levant.” Charles Blount was born in 1654, educated in his father’s house. In 1679 he published a book called “ Anima Mundi, an Historical Narration of the opinions of the Ancients concerning Man’s Soul after this Life according to Unenlightened Nature.” In this wor’K he was supposed to have received the assistance of his father. The book created great excitement and was con- demned by the Bishop of London. In 1680 appeared the most celebrated of his works, “ The Two First Books of Philostratus, concerning the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus,” written originally in Greek, and now published in English. This book was suppressed immediately on its appearance, and is now very rare. There is a copy of it in the library of the British Museum, and also one in the libraiy of Lincoln College, Oxford, but the Bodleian does not possess one. It was supposed, at the time of its appearance, to contain notes drawn from the manuscripts of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. After this appeared “ Great is Diana of the Ephesin.ns, Eeligio Laici.” “ Janua Scientiarum.” “ A Just Vindication of Learning,” a treatise advocating freedom of the press, and a pamphlet maintain- ing the claims of .William and Mary to the crown of England, Scotland, and Ireland, on the ground of the right of conquest. This book was burned by order of the House of Commons. He also wrote a pamphlet defending mar- riage with a deceased wife’s sister. His last work published after his death was “ The Oracles of Reason.” Charles Blount had a personal object in writing
ABRAHAM DE LA PRTME.
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Nov. the 3rd. This day I beheld a strange experiment, which I cannot think upon without admiration. Being in company and talking of Mr. Boyl book of the strange effects of languid motion, and some stoiys that he mentions therein, one amongst us, a musitioner, told us that he would shew us as strange a thing as any of those there mentioned. So the company breaking up, the before say’d fellow led us to that exceedingly strong quadrangular portico of Kaius Colledge, that looks towards the publick schools. And when we was got there he began to sing the note of a dubble c/o, so/, rc, which he had no sooner sounded but that the whole portico manifestly and visibly trembled, as if there had been a kind of earthquake, and I observed that the air round about (for I stood about half a dozen yards of of the sayd portico), was put into such a tremulous motion that I could perceive several hairs of my head to tremble and shake. This is a property that has been observed to be in this portico this hundred years together.
Dec. 19, 1693. Yesternight we had good sport! There came a great singer of Israel into the college. He was a little, well- sliap’d, good-like man, in handsome deaths. He had a long beard and a sheephard crook in one hand, a Psalm-book in meeter in the other, and wherever he went he kept singing. I as[ked] him where he came from, he say’d out of the land of sin and desolation. I asked him then where he was going : to the Holy Land of Canan (says he) and the new Jerusalem that’s just now descending out of Heaven. And then he began to sing again. Several such like answers about many things I had, that I urg’d to him. The lads got him into the kitchin, and there they were as joyfull of him as if he was a mountebank, and they made him sing all their supper time, and then they gave him his. And after that they carried him in tryumph, as it was, into the hall, and set him on his feet on the high round table there, and made him sing to them for an bower together, and then what became of him I do not know.
his tract on marriage with the sister of a former wife. He was anxious to form a contract of this nature with the sister of his own deceased wife. The Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and other theologians, having declared against it, the lady refused to marry him, and the unfortunate author died by his own hand in consequence — shooting himself with a pistol at a house in the Strand. He survived three days after this sad act of madness. His death occurred in August, 1693. See Sir Alexander Croke’s Genealogical Hist, of the House of Blount, vol. ii., pp. 321, 331 ; Biograph. Universelle, and Biegraph. Britt., sub, nom.
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Awliile ago another sort of an enthusiast, viz., a Quaker, ran up and down the streets of this town, crying out, “ Repent, re- pent, the day of judgment is att hand, and you must all be tryed for your abominations,’" etc.
1694.
January. This month it was that w^e sat for our degree of batchelors of arts. We sat three days in the colledge and were examin’d by two fellows thereof in retorick, logicks, ethicks, physicks, and astronomy ; then we were sent to the publick schools, there to bo examined again three more days by any one that would. Then wdien the day came of our being cap’d by the Vice- Cliancellor, wee were all call’d up in our sopli’s gowns and our new square caps and lamb-skin hoods on. There we were pre- sented, four by four, by our father to the Vice-Chancellor, saying out a sort of formal presentation speech to him. Then we had the oaths of the dutys we are to observe in the university read to us, as also that relating to the Articles of the Church of England, and another of allegiance, which we all swore to. Then we every one register’d our own names in the university book, and after that, one by one, we knecl’d down before the Vice-Chancellour’s knees, and he took hold of both of our hands with his, saying to this effect, Admitto &c. I admitt you to be batchellour of arts, upon condition that you answer to your questions ; rise and give God thanks.” Upon that as he has done with them one by one they rise up, and, going to a long table hard by, kneel dowm there and says some short prayer or other as they please.
About six days after this (which is the end of that day’s work, we being now almost batchellors) we go all of us to the schools, there to answer to our questions, which our father always tells us what we shall answer before we come there, for fear of his puting us to a stand, so that he must be either necessitated to stop us of our degrees, or else punish us a good round summ of monny. But we all of us answer’d without any hesitation ; we were just thirty-three of us, and then having made us an excel- lent speech, he (I mean our father) walk’d home before us in triumph, so that now wee are become compleat battchellors, praised be God !
I observed that all these papers of statutes was thus imperfect at the bottom, which makes me believe that they were very much infected with Jacobiteism.
At this time Prince Lewis of Baden was highly caress’d in
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33
bur court by tlie king and all the nobility. He had twenty dishes a meal allowed him, and the king, to honnour him the more, delegated a great number of his gentlemen pentioners to wait upon him. He was a man, they say, that could not drink for all he was a Dutchman, yet he loved Christmas games, and I have heard that he lost 1000/. Stirling to the Earl of Mulgrave. There was bear’s baitings, bulls’ sport, and cock fighting insti- tuted for his diversion and recreation. But above all he admired cock fighting, saying that had he not seen it he never could have thought that there could have been so much vallor and mag- nanimity in any bird under heaven. He liked England very well, and once say’d, amongst some lords, that it was as happy and glorious a country as any in Europe, but easily might be the best of any in the world, if the inhabitants thereof would but understand and make use of the happiness thereoff. What he came about is as yet kept secret however. He sent an express to the Emperor tliat he had succeeded iu his negociation. He being ready now for his departure, the king has presented him with twelve of the finest horses that was ever seen, and the queen has bestow’d upon him several household vessels of gold. Since I writt the former, our letters tells us further that the king has made him another gift of 1000 five pound pieces. A noble pre- sent !
February. Being on the 3d instant in company we began to talk of the great strength of some men, both of ancient and modern times. There was some gentlem[en] by that instanced in a great many Engl[ish] of late years that we [re] prodigy s of strength. There is one Kighly now alive, a gentleman akin to the the Earl of ... . who would kill the best horse or ox
ith’ world with a stroke of his bare fist. He is of so prodigious a strength that he would easily with one hand break the iron bar of a window in piece, or shatter an oak stick in pieces by shaking of it. He would take two men from of a table upon the palm of his hand and carry them twenty yards together. I heard of several more that could take new horse-shoes betwixt their hands and easily straight them, etc. Several in our com- pany had heard of most of these things before from very good witnesses, and they confirm’d the same.
Many believes it to be certainly true that K. Charles the 2d dy’d a papist, and I have heard several gentlemen say that, as soon as ever he was perceived to be sick, the papists would not let any of the reformed come to him, but only papists. Others D
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believe charitably that he dy’d a protestant, and that this story of his dying a papist was only an invention to delude the country, and it is manifest that the papists beyond see even doubted whether it was true or no, as appears from a passage in Voyages of the Jesuites to Siam, written by father Tascard. However, let him dy as he would, how it was is unknown to us, and only known to God ; yet we all know how he lived, giving himself up to nothing but debauchery, caring not what end went foremost if he but enjoy’d his misses. But I will not say any more, these things are better buried in oblivion than committed to memory.
Febr. 14. This day I received twelve little retorts and three receivers from London, to try and invent experiments, and all the things that I shall do I intend to put them down in a proper book, and in imitation of the most learned Democritus, to give them the title of as he did his, which being interpreted im-
plys Experiments of my oivn Personal Trying.
The retorts cost me 4d. a piece at London, and the receivers 6d., and I pay’d for their carriage from thence hither Is. 6d.
March. The 29th instant I began my journey from Cambridge (having now got my degrees) into the country. From Cambridge we went to Huntington, and then leaving the high road on our right we went to Haverburough, commonly called Harburg, which is a very fine, stately, magnificent market town, having a great many good houses and tradesmen in the same. From thence wee went [to] Leicester, which is but a large open town standing in a valley, ofi‘no strength at all, nor indeed can it be of any, it is so badly situated ; neither is there a castle nor anything of defence that I could see, except a pittifull old foursquare fort, which is turn’d into a prison. There is a good many very handsome buildings in the town, and about five or six churches. From thence we went (through a great many little towns of no note) to Darby, which is a town mighty well situated, and adorned with many good and stately buildings, and is reckoned a rich town, tho’ it is but built upon an indifferent soil. There is but some two or three churches in it at most. The spring and well waters tasts mighty strong of the limestone. Here are a great many rarities to see in and near this place, but having no time I could [not] go to see them. From thence, as I went along, I chanced to observe a leaden pump, and as I rid through Andsley" by my
” Aimesley.
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35
Lord Chaworth’s park, I saw sheep therein with four horns apiece. There are also therein a great many wild beasts, etc. From thence I came to Mansfield, which is a very handsome well built town ; and from thence by mistake to Bedford, which is like- wise well built, and of great trade. It has two churches in it, etc. From thence in a few hours I came to Bautry, and then through Hatfield, and so to the Levils, where, blessed be God ! I found our whole family in indifferent good health.
In my whole journey from Cambridge hither I observed several ruins in the little towns that I went through of ancient religious houses.
Having rested myself a day or two, I went about some business to Doncaster. When Doncaster was builded is uncertain, however it sufficiently appears to be a town of considerable antiquity. Some think that it was built by the Romans, because it has a Lattine name, being derived from the word Don or Du7i^ which is the name of the river that runs through it, and castrum^ a castle or fort, which they built there : others say that it was built by the Dains, and called Doncaster, quasi Daincaster, a Daiio^nim
castris." About the year it was burnt down by
lightning, and in Cromwell’s days there was two or three valiant acts committed there by the royalists of Pomfract, etc. However, this is and always has been a town of good note, trade, and build- ings. It has had a strong castle in it, the ruins of which is visible in the walls of some houses. There has likewise been two churches, and a chappel which [has] now falln quite to ruin, except onely the great church which is dedicated to St. George. There is the reliques also of a religious house, in part of the ruins of which I have seen the entrance into a private subterranian pas- sage, which runs under the river in full length, two or three miles to another ancient monastry.
April. The 5th of this month I went to pay my respects to that ingenious gentleman Mr. Corn[elius] Lee.^ After much kind reception he carry ’d me up into the chamb[er] to see his unkle Capt.
® See Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol. i., p. 1.
P De la Pryme appears to be in error in calling Capt. E. Sandys uncle to Mr. Cornelius Lee. It was the reverse. See ped. of Lee, Hunter's South Yorkshire, I., 177. Cornelius Lee’s sister, Elizabeth, however, married Thomas, afterwards Sir Thomas Sandys, and not Edwin Sandys, as there stated. They were married at Hatfield 12th May, 1641. Robert Lee, father of Cornelius, in his will, 5th April, 1659, names his son-in-law. Sir Thos. Sandys, to whom he bequeaths Is. in satisfaction of his wife’s portion, which portion he had had with ample addition — names Edwin, Thomas, and Henry, sons
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Edwin Sandys’s armoury , which indeed was very well worth
of said Sir Thomas S. To Katherine S., dan. of Sir Thomas S., BOl., when 21. Residue to Thomas Lee, his eldest son, and he exor.
The pedigree should stand thus : —
Robert Lee, of Hatfield, Esq. Will cl. =f Frances, bnr. at Hat- 5 Ap., 1650, p. at York, 8 Ang., 1663. | field, 5th Sep., 1655.
|
1 Thomas |
1 1 Cornelius Lee, of Hat- Eliza- =i |
pSir |
1 Susan = |
=John |
|
Lee, eld. |
field, bap. 1 May,l629, beth. |
Tho- |
bap. 19 |
Walker, |
|
son, bap |
bur. 20 June, 1701, mar. |
mas |
Septem., |
of Mans- |
|
at H., 23 |
will d. 29 Oct., 1699, at Hat |
San- |
1626, m. |
field, Notts, |
|
Sep. 1624 |
pro. 6th Feb., 1701-2. field. |
dys. |
at H. 23 |
|
|
died in |
A cornet of horse in 12 th |
Ivut. |
October, |
gent. |
|
J une, |
the king’s army in May, |
1654. |
||
|
1699. |
the civil wars. 1641. |
Thomas Edwin Sandys Thomas Sandys Henry Sandys, of Elizabeth, Kath-
bap. 4th, Captain in the bap. at H. 0th the par. of St. Mar- bap. 7th erine,
bur. 9th Earl of Oxfords Nov. 1646, of tin’s in the Fields, Feb. 1648- bap. 7
Decern., Reg., bur. at Tempsford, co. London, a capt. 0. bur. 7 Feb.
1642, at Hatfield, 10th Bedford, clerk, “ Chiliarchus,” liv- January, 1648-
H. Oct., 1702. s.p. living 1701. ing 1704. 1652-3. 9.
Sir Thomas Sandys above named is described in the Hatfield register, at the baptism of his son Thomas, 1646, as Knight and Baronet (Mil. et Bar.), but that must be a mistake, for when he died, admon. of the goods etc “ Dni Thomas Sandys nuper de Hatfield militis defunct!” {York Act book) was granted to Edwin Sandys, Esq., his son, who, had his father been also a baronet, would then have succeeded to the same title.
Captain Sandys’s, baptism does not occur at Hatfield, that I can discover. Nor have I succeeded in ascertaining the dates of his commissions. The Earl of Oxford’s Regt. of Horse Guards, or “ Oxford’s Blues,” is now the Royal Regt. of Horse Guards Blue. Probably Sandys entered as captain, as men of position used in those days to do. From the Historical Records of the British Army ^ by R. Cannon, Esq., of the A. G. Office, it appears that Tangier being in 1680 threatened by the Moors, a considerable force was embarked to place that fortress in a state of defence. A troop of the Royal Regt. of H. G. under Capt. Sandys was ordered to form part of the expedition, but was afterwards counter- manded. In 1685 Capt. Sandys’s troop was at the battle of Sedgemoor. In a list of officers of the Royal Regt. of Horse, 1687, Hark MSS., No. 7018, the fol- lowing appear as his troop — Capt., Edwin Sandys ; Lieut., Charles Turner ; Cornet, Samuel Oldfield. Capt. Sandys is mentioned in the terriers of Hatfield as the donor of a clock, or “ watch,” to the church there. — An Edwin Sandys, a royalist captain in the regiment commanded by Thomas Colepeper, was, in 1663, a suppliant for the royal bounty. — List of Officers Claiming to tke Sixty Thousand Bounds Granted, by His Majesty for the Relief of his Truly Loyal and Lndigent Party, 4to, 1663, p. 29.
Cornelius Lee was a collector of antiquities, &c., Thoresby, who was on a visit at Capt. Hatfeild’s, at Hatfield, 2d Sept., 1694, says he “ made also a visit to Cornet Lee’s who shewed me his collection of rarities, pictures, and armoury,” {Diary I., 263.) On the 18th Jany., 1695, he mentions that he went “to visit my cousin, Mr. Cornelius Lee, and view his collection of curiosities, when he presented me with his grand-father’s pickadilly,” (a ruff,) {Diary I., 289.) Dr. Johnston states in his MSS. that he saw in tlie possession of Corn- elius Lee a large wooden cup which was found in the ruins of the castle at Thorne, which had this verse carved about it in old characters : —
Weel wer hym. yat mist Ln mlioani he mougkt trist.
It afterwards came into the possession of Lord Irwin. Will 29th Oct., 1699. Cornelius Lee of Hatfield, gent. All my houses and lands in Hatfield, or else-
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
37
seeing, and amongst otlier tilings I beheld a whole suit of cloathes, coat, britches, stockings, shoes, gloves, and cap, all made of badger skins withe hair on, which was outward, and told me this story of the same. The Capt., when he was in the last Irish wars, was one of those that was sent into Limerick to agree with them about articles of surrender. When he knew that he was appointed to be one of them, he put on all this apparel, and went amongst the rest into the town ; but all those that saw the Capt. were so frighted that they did not know what to do ; all their eyes were upon him, and none had any mind to come near him. But one ask’d him who he was. “ Zounds, man ” (says he) “ I am a Laplander, and there be aleim [ke., eleven] thousands of us in dis country, and if yee will not agree to surrender soon, by the eternal God I we will cut you all as small as meat for pyes. Wee be all clothed in de skins of beasts, and a piece of an Irish child’s flesh is as good as venison,” etc. And so he hector’d them itli’ town, and told several of them the same tale, which frighted the vulgar exceedingly. But, however, the town surrendered in a few days.
At this town they were put to such want of meat for their horses that they, having eaten every thing that was eatable, were forc’d at last for to send the forragers out to cut down bows of trees, and bring them to feed on, and lived of them thus for fifteen or twenty days. This I had from the cap [tain’s] own mouth.
April. The 9th instant I was at the house of Peter Lelew,'^ who
where within that manor, to John Hatfield, Esq., and Wm. Eratt, clerk, in trust (subject to a legacy of £50 to my niece Catherine Sandys, — an annuity of 24s. to sd. Cath. and dole to the poor of Hatfield and Kirk Bramwith) to the only proper use and behoof of my dear nephew, Captn. Edwin Sandys, and his heirs for ever. All my tythes, lands and ten, in Campsall, Norton and Sutton to my two nephews, Thos. and Henry Sandys, and to their heirs for ever. To my niece Lee Barker, £50. Sd. John Hatfield and Wm. Eratt, exors. They renounced 24th Jan., 1701-2, and admon. was granted, 6th Feb., 1701-2, to Capt. Edwin Sandys, nephew of sd. deed. This will is not registered.
9 The name of Lelew does not occur in the “Lyste of the seueral owners of the Dyckage of Haitfielt Chace,” Anno Domini 1635, in the before-quoted MS. in l\Ir. Peacock’s possession. It is, however, one of those given by Hunter, in his list made from the register of the chapel of Sandtoft (see N. I", i. 169-70), and it is of frequent occurence in the parish register of Hatfield. Pieter le Leu in 1681, along with others, on behalf of themselves and the rest of the ten- ants of the newly drained lands, represented to the Court of Sewers their want of a minister, in consequence of which many of the lands were at that time unoccupied. (See S.Y., i. p. 170). On 23 April, 1752, Susanna, dan. of Isaac and Mary le Leu, married Mr. Thomas Dimderdale, of the Levels, whose great grandson, Mr. James Dunderdale, of Manchester, now living, is the owner of a large French Bible formerly belonging to the Le Leu family, as noticed at page 4, ante.
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because he had been exceeding sick last summer I asked him con- cerning his distemper, and by what methods he was cured. He say’d he was taken almost of a sudden, as he was at an adjacent town, with an exceeding faintness, and by degrees a weakness in all his limbs, so that he could scarce go, attended with a pain in his syde, which increased day by day. He lay thus sick, pained, and weak, several weeks, nobody thinking he would ever recover; but at last he did by this medicine (when all others were found inefficatious). He was order’d to take the jeuice of new stoned horse dung mingled with strong beer. No sooner had he taken a draught of this down but tliat it made all the blood in his veins boil, and put all his humours into such a general fermen- tation that he seemed to be in a boyleing kettle, etc. And this it was that cured him. He coveted strong beer mightily, but when he was recovered he could not love his horse for half a year after.
It is very credibly and certainly reported that the King of France sayd to King James after some few complements when they first met, “ Come, come, King James, sit down here at my right hand. I’ll make your enemys your footstool ! ” etc. But this he sayd after that he was a little pacify’d. But at first of all when he heard that tlie king was driven out of his dominions he was in an exceeding great rage, and, drawing his sword, he swore by the blood of Christ that he would never put it up till he had re-established King James on his throne ; and the queen swore that she would never put off her smock till she either see or heard that that was done.
April 30. There came hither a while ago newse that the famous butcher of Leeds is going to run a great race on the 10th of the next month for five hundred pound. This man is the miracle of the age for running. His name is Edm. Preston,'' and yet follows his trade, for all he has thousands of pounds by his heels. His common race is ten or twelve miles, which he will easily run in less than an hower.
There was a great runner, a Cheshire man by birth, who was the king’s footman, who, hearing of this man’s fame, sent a chal- lenge to him. They both met about Leeds. The Cheshire gentle- men took their countryman’s side, and the Yorkshiremen took
•' Thoresby alludes to this man, whom he calls “ the Leeds butcher, Edward Preston, who was esteemed one, at least, of the best footmen in Eng- land. ^.3000 were said to be won by him in one day, in 1683.” — Diary I., p. 169.
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
39
their countryman’s side, and ’tis thought that there were five or six thousand spectators upon the spot. Both sides were sure, as they thought, to win, so that many of them layd all they had — houses and lands, sheep and oxen, and anything that would sell. But when they ran, the butcher outran him half in half, and broke almost the poor fellow’s heart, who lived not long after. But there was such work amongst the wagerers that they were almost all fitt to go together by the ears. Many people lost all they had. Many whole familys were ruin’d. And people that came a great many miles, that had staked their horses and lost, were forced to go home afoot. This happen’d in the last year of King James. After which he was sent up for to London, by some lord, whose name I have forgott, who kept him there under the name of a miliar, and disfigured him so that no one could know him. After that he had kept him a great while, he made a match with another man, a famous runner, telling him his miller should run with him. But, in short, the miller bet and won for his master many thousands of pounds.
Thei'e are such strange storys told of this man that they are almost incredible ; and I believe that Alexander’s footman, that was so famous, was never comparable unto him for swiftness. I long to hear what he will win at this raise, for there is no fear but he will beat. There is gone four or five hundred people from hereabouts to see him run.
May 19. Yesterday I received two letters from Cambridge, giving an account of all the newse, and whatever was most me- morable. In one of them I received a long account of a house that was pretended to be banted, to this effect : —
About a month ago it began to be rumor’d abroad that Volantine Austin’shouse^ over againstour coll [ege] began to [be] haunted, and strange noises wer-e as it were heard up and down about the house, and thus it stood for the most part of the week, but were more and more buz’d up and down the town. The second week the iio'ses began to be greater, and pebbles and little stones began to be thrown here and there through a hole under the door. Thus the sport continued most of that week The room, which was haunted, was a low ceeled room with a celler under it, having a bed in the room in which the Mr. and Mrs. lay every night. They pretended to be mighty fearfull, and gave any one liberty to go where he would and search about the house. But the third week now coming on, on Monday night, about 2 a clock
* This man is by trade a painter, but a poor man. Marginal Note by Diarist.
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TIIK DIARY OF
at night it made a great hollow noise and gingl’d monney, and broke the windows by flinging little stones at them, and raised a stink of brimstone, and frighted several old poor women that Avatched, so that they run away into the street, and came there no more. But next morning all the toAvn almost believed it, and at night there Avas aboA^e three score people flocking about the door to hear this spirit, among AA^hom there was S^- Hall,' Harrop,“ S’"- Millard," and seA^eral other scholars of our coll[ege] of my accquain- tance. Come, sals one of them, “ fetch us a good pitcher of ale, and tobacco and pipes, and Avee’l sit up and see this spirit.” With all our hearts,” say’d three or four more ; so they sent for the ale, and, as they Aventin, the peojde exclaimed against them sadly, crying “ Oh, you AAucked Avretches, Avill you haA^e the divel to fetch you?” etc. Then, as soon as they got in, the man and woman being in bed ith’ room, they exclaimed against them again, but they cared not, but sat singing and drinking there till morning, but neither heard nor saAv anvthing. But the night after, Avhich Avas Wednesday night, Mr. Walker, minister of the Hound Church, and some more Avith him, hearing of all that had pass’d, Avent to pray in the house, and, as they Avere praying, they heard a great belloAving A^oice, and in at the AvindoAv out of the fold Avas flung a great pot of paint Avith such force that it broke all the glass AvindoAv in pieces, and had like to have hitten Mr. Walker on the head. All AA-hich time there Avas at least a hundred people before the dore, but Avhen they heard such a noise, aAvay they all ran as if the divel Avas in them, and as soon as they had ended their prayers aAvay Avent they, also sadly frighted, and fully satisfy’d that it Avas the divel ! Noav the Avholetown Avas in an uproar, and nothing but the divel Avas in every one’s mouth. Nay, Mr. Walker had no more Avitt but to make a long sermon the next Sunday to his people in the Bound Church about it, and to tell them the Avhole story of the same.
Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night nothing Avas heard, tho’ there Avas a great many earnestly expecting the
< Clifford Hall, of St. John’s, son of the Rev. John Hall, born at Fording- bridge, Hants, educated at Eton, under Eodrick, admitted pensioner, 28th Aug., 1088, get. 18, under Mr. Browne. He has verses in Lacrymce Cantahrig.lG^^-o. Sign. P2.; was B.A., 1692-3 ; M.A., 1090.
“ Obadiah Harrop, of St. John’s, B.A., 1093-4, M.A., 1097. Abdias (so it is in the Latin) Harrope, son of the Rev. Jas. Harrope, born at Lamesley, Durham, educated at Usworth, under Mr. Stannick, admitted pensioner 30th May, 1690, a;t. 18, under Mr. Orchard.
John Millerd, of St. John’s, B.A., 1093-4. John Millard (so writes himself) son of Henry Millard, Esq., born at London ; educated at St. Paul’s under Dr. Gale ; admitted sizar for Mr. Armstrong, 1st May, 1690, get. 17, under Mr. Orch- ard.
ABRAHAM DE LA PRYME.
41
same. But, Sunday night there being hut few watchers, viz., four old women, it made a great noise and gingled money, and flung 6s. into the room, which lay there all the following day, and nobody durst take or meddle with it.
It being nois’d about that the disturber was come again, Mr. Kenyon,"' fellow of our coll[ege] and Mr. Hope,"' and Mr. Hedlam,-^ two of our fellows more, with young Sir Fran. Leicester, made an agreement amongst themselves to go thither exactly when the disturber was playing his pranks, and to shoot off their pistols towards any place where the noise was heard. So having on •Monday night by one of their spys had information that the dis- turber was heard, they all went, and rushing together into the room talked high and chairged their pistols before the people’s faces that were there, and protested they would discharge them towards the place where any noise was heard, saying that it was a shame that a rogue and a villane should make such a noise in a town and disturb tlie whole neighbourhood with his knavish tricks, etc.
Edward Kenyon, son of Edward Kenyon, rectoi of Prestwich, Lane., deceased. At Stockport School, under Mr. Needham : entered pensioner 6th May, 1681, set. 16, under Mr. Verdon. Admitted Gregson fellow, 8th Apr., 1685. His place was filled by Roger Kay, 19th Mar., 1688-9. B.A., 1684 ; M.A., 1688.
Roger Kenyon, son of Edward Kenyon, rector of Prestwich, Lane., deceased. At Stockport School, under Mr. Needham ; admitted pensioner 10th Apr. 1682, under Mr. Verdon, set. 15. Admitted licentiate of the Coll, of Physicians, 22d Dec., 1703. A nonjuror, died at St. Germains. Helped the publication of Chas. Leslie’s Works. Admitted Ashton fellow, 15th Mar., 1686-7, in room of Ashton, on 28th Febr., 1694-5. Roger Kenyon was elected to a medical fellowship in Dr. Stillingfleet’s room. Theobald was elected in Kenyon’s place 10th June, 1696, but gave way again to Kenyon, 19th Apr., 1697. On 15th Mar., 1713-4. Hen. Rishton was elected (admitted 16th Mar.) into Kenyon’s vacant room. B.A., 1685-6. Roger Kenyon “ an able and orthodox divine,” minister of Ac- crington, 1650 {Whitaker' s Whalley, 123, 395) must have been of the family.
John Hope, son of the Rev. Mark Hope, born at Keddlaston, Derby ; at Derby School, under Mr. Ogden ; admitted pensioner 24th Apr., 1682, set. past
16, under Mr. Coke. Admitted Plat fellow, 19th Mar., 1688-9, in Churchman’s room. On 7th April, 1707, Wm. Wigmore was elected (adm. 9 Apr., 1707) in Hope’s room. B.A., 1685-6.
y Richard Headlam, son of the late John Headlam, Esq., born at Kexby, York. Educated at Pocklington School, under Mr. Elletson. Admitted pensioner 26th May, 1682, under Mr. Billers. Admitted fellow of St. John’s, 5th Apr., 1688, in the room of Dr. Watson. On the 11th of April, 1698, Rob. Read, co. York, was elected into Headlam’s room (admitted 12th Apr., 1698). On the 31st Mar., 1707, Jo. Perkins was elected (adm. 1st. Ap., 1707), into Headlam’s room. B.A., 1685-6 ; M.A., 1696.
2 Sir Francis Leicester, Bart., son of Sir Rob. L., Bart., born at Tabley, Chester, educated at Eton, was admitted fellow commoner, 6th Apr., 1692, mt.
17, under Mr. Orchard. He took no degree. He was M.P. for Newton, co. Lane ; mar. Frances d. and h. of Joshua Wilson, Esq., of Colton., co. York, and widow of Bryan Thornhill, Esq., by whom he had one d. He died 5th Aug., 1742, when the baronetcy became extinct.
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But the divelish disturber having att this thought it best to be packing, and never to come there more, so accordingly they frighted him so that never any more disturbance was heard there, and so ended the whole scene of imposture, for every one but old wives and other such like half-witted people never reckoned it to be anything else.
On Monday night likewise there being a great number of people at the door, there chanced to come by Mr. Newton," fellow of Trinity College : a very learned man, and perceiving our fellows to have gone in, and seeing several scholars about the door, Oh ! yee fools,” says he, will you never have any witt, know yee not that all such things are meer cheats and impos- tures ? Fy, fy ! go home, for shame,” and so he left them, scorning to go in.
It is a strange and wonderful thing to consider into what enthusiastic whimseys almost all the nation fell in Cromwel’s days, but es])ecially all those that were enemys to the king, for God surely blinded them in their own ways, and confounded them in their own paths. Yet these men were the onely saints of the times, every one that was not of their party were accounted sin- ners and reprobates, and those fine times were then the days of the reforming of the church, and the rooting out of vice. But where was there more vitious times than them ? where was there more wickedness ever done under the colour of reforming than they did? For they turn’d not onlly the whole land but all religion upside down, and never was a nation surely since the world begun so infatuated as they were then. The justices of peace marryed people then, and the ceremony in many places was no more than thus — when they came before the justice, he would say thus, — “What is your name?” to the man, then, “ What is your name?” to the woman. When they had told him, then he sayd, “ Have you a mind to be marry’d together?” “Yes.” “ Well, then take you this man to your husband, and take you this woman to your wife, — of all which I myself am witness,” said he, and so the marriage was ended. They never heeded in what place they were married, but would have mett these justices a hunting, or courseing, or at the ale house or taverns, or anywhere, and they would immediately have marry’d them. Then, when a child was born, and was brought to be christened, it was thus : — The father himself brings his child to the church, to the reading-desk, where having a bason of water ready, the priest asks the father whether that be
“ Afterwards Sir Isaac Newton. — See ante p. 23,
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his son or no? then, “What will yon have him called?” and then nameing the name, he ba{)tized them with the usual words. In the name of the Father, etc. But they had such names for their children in them days that posterity will never believe, such as these, — Praise God^ Love Christy Child of God,, Faithful, Increas, Chearfull, Blessed be God, Praise, Victory, Fear God, Conquer thy Enemys, and Cromwel had a commander call’d Praise God Barebones if you Iwe, and his surname was Ironsides. And I knew two, one call’d Love the Lord all your life Wilson, and the other Deliverance Smyth, etc.*
I having oft heard that King James closeted several, nay even most, of the great men that were Protestants, and that were in office in his times, I never understood the business so thoroughly before as till this day that I chanced to be in company with a great man’s son whose father was done so hy. And this brings into my head that I have oft heard that ingenious young man, Mr. Bohun (Mr. Edm[und] Bohun’s son), who is now dead, tell how that his father, who was a justice of peace, was sent for by the king, and examined about several things very privately in his closset, and at last he told him that if he expected his favour he must be very kind to the Papists, and likewise be one of his communion. To which he answered immediately that he could not possibly be so. To which the king reply ed in a great fury, “ Well, look what follows,” and the very next day he was turned out of his office, etc., etc., etc.
I have heard of a great many more that gave the king such like answers, and they likewise were turned out of whatever office they had. Others turn’d themselves out for fear of the worst.
Cap[tain] Edwin Sandys,*" a very ingenious man, a good scholar, and one that has been almost in all engagements whether beyond sea or at home for this twenty years, being of the Earl of Oxford’s regiment, the king took occasion one day to send for him, and having brought him into his closet he begun to talk
* In the parish register of Wadworth, co. York, occurs the marriage of Samuel Cockaine with Jesset Banishment Deliverance Saunderson, 22 Jan, 1694-5. The Rev. Samuel Bower, Rector of Sprotborough, 1632-1634, had a daughter named Deliverance, wife of William Beaumont of Doncaster, Alderman, whose widow she was in 1703.
Mr. G. Steinman Steinman communicated to J^'^otes and Queries (4th S. III., p. 215), the fact that in the church register of St. Andrew, Holborn, it is re- corded that there was buried 5th Jany., 1679-80,
“ Praise God Barebone, at ye ground near ye Artillery.”
The diarist has first written Esq^., and afterwards altered it to Kt. without explanation. E. S. is described in the register of his burial, 19th Oct., 1702, as “ Capt. Edwin Sands ” only. Probably allusion was intended to be made to Sir Thomas Sandys,
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about this and that, and at last told him what he would do for him, and how great a commander he should he if he would but he a Catholik. To whom the Cap[tain] replied (in a bigghoarse voyce, as he always spoke), I understand your Majesty well enough. I fear God, and I honour the king, as I ought, but I am not a man that is given to change,” which unexpected answer so stopped the king’s mouth that he had not a word to say.
AYithin a few days after, the Cap [tain] went to the Earl of Oxford, and would needs have given his commission up and gone into Holland, etc., hut the Earl would not accept of it, hut whispered him in the ear, saying, These things will not last long,” meaning these actions of the king. And, just about a quarter of a year after, the revolution happened.
Yet for all this, when it was happening, yet this good Cap- [tain] got into Windsor Castle, and kept it for the king, untill he run out of the land, etc.
This relation of him I had from an intimate friend and rela- tion of his, and once I heard the Capt[ain] own it. But he is so modest a man that he never tells any of his actions but to his intimate friends in private.
Not being well pleased with the country, tho’ I was mighty much made on there, and had every thing that I could desire, I however begun my journey for Cambridge again on the 1st of July, 1694. The first day I ridd by Newark (which is a very handsome town, well situated, and of great trade ; there are the reliques of a mighty large and strong old castle, built after the old manner like forts, which castle held out mightily in Crom- well’s time for the king, to Grantam, w^liich place is famous for a delicate high steeple. Having lodged there that night, the next day by noon I got to Stamford, which is a pleasant town, very large and well peopled.. It has some six or seven churches in it, etc. From thence I came to Huntington, and from thence to my long wish’d for place of Cambridge.
But I had like to have forgot, as wee were coming upon the road, wee saw Belvior Castle, a castle indeed, strongly seated upon a steep mountain, and in very good repair. ’Tis the seat of the Earl of Rutland,'^ whose estate is near twenty-three thousand per annum. He keeps constantly seaven score servants in pay, and is a man mightily beloved round about in the country. At the foot of this castle on the one side is as fine gardens as can possibly bee seen, and on the other is my lord’s bakehouses, brew-
John, tenth Earl of Rutland, created 29th March, 1703, Marquess of Granby, and Duke of Rutland, died 11th January, 1711.
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houses, stables, and other such like out dwellings. All their pro- visions the[y] get up with a mighty deal of trouble, the hill is so steep, and there is no riding up it no sort of way, unless people have a mind to break their necks, but as it were by winding stairs.
The next day I got to Cambridge, and was very well pleased to find all my friends and acquaintance in health. I blessecf God for my being got out of the country, for when I was there they wearyed me almost of my life by [saying] that all learning was foolish further than that that would make the pot boyl. So little ])raise and thanks had I for studdying so much at Cambridge, etc.
4th.® This morning I enquired of several about the truth of Vol. Austin’s house being banted, and I found it confirm’d on every hand, and that it was all just so as I had it written to me some months ago from Cambridge. But none that I can meet with, except old foolish women, believes that it was any thing else than a meer cheat and imposture.
5th. Memorandum. I have heard Capt[ain] Sandys, a learned ingenious man, protest that he himself has seen Will[iam] Pen the great Quaker’s name up in King James’s days amongst the name of the Jesuit converts at Doway. I heard likewise from one who had been several times at Pen’s house that he lives like a king, and had always plenty of all sorts of wine in his house, and good victuals, and that commonly, when he had any strangers, their meat was all served up in silver plates. I have heard likewise several times how he came to turn Quaker, from several good hands, which was this. He being brought up in Oxford was a fellow commoner there, and after that he had been there a great while desired something of them, which they would not grant. Upon which he swore he would make them all re- pent it. Upon which, in a great huff, he left the college, and, going down into the country, joyn’d himself to the seism of the Presbiterians ; but they having cross’d him in one of his projects, he turns to the Quakers, and immediately they made him their head; and he could rule them, foolish enthusiasts, as he pleased, and so he has continued amongst them unto this day. He carried many hundreds of familys with him into Pensilvania, which he so called from himself, and gave them land there. But, alas ! they were in a few years most of them either pined to dead, or else knock’d oth’ head by the wild Indians.
* Month not given.
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Pen bought a great many of their estates of them, and then sent them over. He changed so many hundreds of akers there with the like number of akers here, and then sent the silly deluded people over to possess it. He did abundance of such tricks in K[mg] Ch [aides] the Second’s days.
CUi the instant there passed the seals at London a grant
to a gentleman to make and use post coaches, which he undertakes shall carry several persons a hundred miles in twenty hours.
Seller e several pages seem to he wanting^ and the diarnst next appears to he referring to P eterhoroiigli].
My observations on the famous minster, or religious house, that was formerly thereby.
The Mi[n]ster is a most stupendous piece of work, built after a most wonderfull, majestick, manner, it being almost inconciev- ahle what a prodigious deal of pains, cost, and labour has been spent in the raising and perfecting of the same. When 1 went in it, I found how much it had sulfer’d in the late damnable wars, tor here it was that they kej)t their horses, and defaced all the curious monuments therein. They pull’d some thousands of pounds of brass from the grave-stones and monuments ; and wherever there was a curious statue they pull’d it in pieces. But yet there re- mains several old tombstones with Saxon letters uj^on. They dehic’d likewise [the] tomb of Quern Oatharin wife to Har[ry] 8, who lys on the left side of the chappel in the minster, and likewise that of Mary the Queen of Scots, who lay on the right. There lay likewise two bishops of York, hard by the altar, who dvd above 690 years ago, but their curious monuments were like- wise destroyed. The altar was one of the finest in the whole world, most of black and white marble, exalted by curious pena- cles, carveing, and stately figures, almost to half the hight of the chappel, but this likewise was utterly destroy’d in Cromwell’s clays. Harry the 8th, whose covetious fury deserves condemna- tion by every one, intended to pull all this stately minster to the ground, but that one desired him not to do such a think for the love of his dear queen that lay buried therein, which he heark’ned to, and so it was saved. But, alas ! the most stately and magni- ficent monastry that in a manner encompas’d the whole minster, felt the heavy hand of covetious Harry, and was all pull’d down and defaced, onely the walls, most curiously carved, yet stands to shew what they formerly were, dwelling houses now being made out of them, and a most stately chappel or two that were in the said monastry, bigger than many churches, is converted into dwelling rooms.
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’Tis not long ago that the sexton, being digging to make a grave in the minster yard, found the body of one of the old monks, not consumed by time, buried, as it was the custome in their days, in all his best habiliments, with a sort of croiser staff in one hand and a book in the other quite rotten. He had like- wise boots and spurrs on, not in the least cankered.
While I was here a gentleman told me that, as he was lately coming over Lincoln heath, suddainly the[re] arises just before him, with a great