by John Aubrey
NORTH, DUDLEY NORTH, 3RD BARON (1588–1666), soldier and moderate Royalist, was the brother of Roger North, the famous navigator.
NORTH, ROGER (1585–1652), colonial projector, accompanied Raleigh on his last voyage to Guiana, and ten years later himself obtained letters patent to plant Guiana. His petition to plant and trade on the Amazon was opposed by the Spanish Ambassador, but sailing without permission, he made a most successful voyage, only to be imprisoned for six months on his return.
NORTH, ROGER (1653–1734), lawyer and historian, was appointed Solicitor-General to James, Duke of York, in 1684, but quitted public life at the Revolution. He wrote an Apology for Charles II.
NORTHAMPTON, SPENCER COMPTON, 2ND EARL OF (1601–43), was Master of the Robes to Charles I, whom he supported against the Scots and against Parliament. Commissioned to raise Warwickshire for the King, he fought in several actions and was killed at Hopton Heath.
NORTHUMBERLAND, JOHN DUDLEY, 1ST DUKE OF (1502–53), Joint Regent with Somerset during Edward Vi’s minority, procured the execution of Somerset in 1552 and obtained from Edward VI letters patent altering the succession to Lady Jane Grey, whom he had married to his son. He was executed for resisting Mary Tudor’s accession.
NORTHUMBERLAND, SIR HENRY PERCY, 9TH EARL OF (1564–1632), although a Protestant, was dissatisfied with James I’s treatment of the Roman Catholics, and after the Gunpowder Plot was tried for misprision of treason and condemned to imprisonment for life. Released in 1621, he took no further part in public affairs. His scientific experiments earned him the sobriquet of “the Wizard Earl.”
NORTON, THOMAS (fl. 1480), a Bristol man, obtained the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone from Alderman Canynges’ widow.
NORWICH, GEORGE GORING, 1ST EARL OF (1583–1663), Royalist, obtained from Cardinal Mazarin the promise of arms and money, for which he was impeached by Parliament and raised to the peerage by Charles I. He subsequently commanded in Kent and Essex, and on his capture was sentenced to death, but was respited by Speaker Lenthall’s casting vote.
NOTTINGHAM, CHARLES HOWARD, 1ST EARL OF (1536–1624), more famous as Lord Howard of Effingham, was Lord High Admiral in supreme command at the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
NOY, WILLIAM (1577–1634), Attorney-General, prosecuted William Prynne in the Star Chamber and incurred great unpopularity by his revival of the Forest Laws, the Soap Monopoly and the Writ of Ship Money.
OATES, TITUS (1649–1705), perjurer, was expelled from Merchant Taylors School during his first year. Imprisoned at Dover for making a disgraceful charge against a Hastings schoolmaster, he escaped before the trial and became a naval chaplain, but was expelled from the Navy. Ezreel Tonge then employed him to produce diatribes against the Jesuits. He became a Roman Catholic to procure further information and entered the Jesuit College at Valladolid, from which he was expelled after five months’ residence. He was also expelled from St. Omer. In 1678 Oates fabricated the Popish Plot (to kill Charles II and hand England over to Jesuit rule), for which he was rewarded with a pension of £40 a month and lodgings in Whitehall; and about thirty-five persons were judicially murdered as a result of his accusations. His pension was reduced in April 1682, and in August stopped altogether. On the accession of James II, Oates was tried for perjury and condemned to stand in the pillory annually and to be flogged and imprisoned for life, but after the Revolution this sentence was reversed and he was released. In 1698 he joined the Wapping Baptists and frequently preached, but was expelled in 1701 “as a disorderly person and a hypocrite.”
OLDENBURG, HENRY (1615–77), born and educated at Bremen, became first Secretary of the Royal Society and edited its Transactions from 1664 to 1677.
ONSLOW, SIR RICHARD (1601–64), a member of the Short and Long Parliaments, raised a regiment for Parliament during the Civil War and was a member both of Cromwell’s Upper House and of the Convention Parliament.
OPPIAN (c. A.D. 200), was the name of the authors of two Greek hexameter poems, one on fishing and the other on hunting.
ORANGE, HENRY FREDERICK, PRINCE OF (1584–1647), succeeded his brother as Stadtholder in 1625, but was prevented by the States from helping Charles I during the Civil War.
ORLEANS, HENRIETTA, DUCHESS OF (1644–70), daughter of Charles I, married Philippe, Due d’Orleans, brother of Louis XIV, and the latter often consulted her on state affairs. She was said to have been poisoned by agents of her husband’s favourite.
OVERBURY, SIR THOMAS (1581–1613), poet, joined many intrigues and was sent to the Tower in 1613, where he was slowly poisoned by agents of Lady Essex, whose marriage with the Earl of Somerset he had opposed. Ben Jonson said he introduced culture at Court.
OVID (43 B.C.–A.D. 18), author of Metamorphoses and Ars Amatoria, wrote in elegiacs and was the favourite Latin poet of the Middle Ages.
OWEN, JOHN (1616–83), theologian, became Dean of Christ Church during the Protectorate, but was dismissed at the Restoration. Indicted for holding religious assemblies at Oxford in 1665, he removed to London and published anonymous tracts in defence of religious liberty.
OWTRAM, WILLIAM (1626–79), preacher and rabbinical scholar, was successively Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, Rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, London, and Archdeacon of Leicester.
OXENBRIDGE, JOHN (1608–74), Puritan divine, had a congregation in the Bermudas for some time and in 1652 became a Fellow of Eton, but was ejected on the Restoration, when he emigrated to the Barbadoes and finally to Boston, where he became a preacher.
PACKER, PHILIP (1620–83), son of John Packer, Clerk of the Privy Seal, was a barrister of the Middle Temple and an original F.R.S.
PAGETT, NATHAN (1615–79), nominated Physician to the Tower in 1649, was a friend of Milton.
PARTRIDGE, JOHN (1644–1715), astrologer and almanack-maker. Originally a shoemaker, he began to publish his astrological calendars in 1678 and his almanack in 1680; but an almanack predicting his death and a pamphlet and epitaph chronicling the fulfilment of the prophecy were issued by Jonathan Swift, under the name of Isaac Bickerstaff, in 1708, and Partridge spent the rest of his days attempting, without much success, to demonstrate that he was still alive.
PASCHALL, ANDREW (fl. 1660–85), Rector of Chedzoy in Somerset, with whom Aubrey went to stay just that night as Monmouth began his Rebellion. Monmouth’s soldiers came into my friend’s house and tooke away horses and armes and came into my chamber as I was abed: but Deo gratias that Clowd is overblown.
PAULET, SIR AMIAS (d. 1538), soldier, was attainted after Buckingham’s rebellion in 1483, but was restored in 1485, knighted in 1487 and served in France during Henry VIII’s reign.
PEARSON, JOHN (1613–86), the ablest scholar and best systematic theologian among Englishmen in the seventeenth century, joined the last remnant of Charles I’s party in the west. He devoted himself to study during the Commonwealth, becoming at the Restoration successively Chaplain to the King, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, Master of Trinity College and Bishop of Chester.
PEMBROKE, THE YOUNGER COUNTESS DOWAGER OF (d. 1678), was Catherine, daughter of Sir William Villiers, Bart., of Brooksby, Leicestershire, and widow of Philip, 5th Earl of Pembroke (1619–1669).
PEMBROKE, HENRY HERBERT, 2ND EARL OF (1534–1601), married Catherine, the sister of Lady Jane Grey, in 1553, and Mary Sidney in 1577. He was prominent at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, and became President of Wales in 1586.
PEMBROKE, PHILIP HERBERT, 7TH EARL OF (1653–83), was notorious for his barbarous conduct, for he killed two men in drunken scuffles and attacked many others, besides being imprisoned in the Tower for blasphemy. He died without male issue and was succeeded by his brother, Thomas.
PEMBROKE, THOMAS HERBERT, 8TH EARL OF (1656–1733), succeeded his two elder brothers in the title in 1683, and held many high political posts. He was President of the Royal Society in 1689.
PEMBROKE, WILLIAM HERBERT, 6TH EARL OF (1640–74), often referred to by Aubrey as Lord Herbert of Cardiff, was M.P. for
Glamorgan from 1660 until he succeeded to the earldom in 1669. He died unmarried and was succeeded by his brother, Philip.
PENN, SIR WILLIAM (1621–70), Admiral and General at Sea under the Commonwealth, captured Jamaica in 1655, but was committed to the Tower on his return. Released after making an abject submission, he retired to his country estate and entered into correspondence with the Royalists. At the Restoration he was knighted and appointed Commissioner of the Navy, where he was Pepys’ superior officer.
PEPYS, SAMUEL (1633–1703), the diarist, became Clerk of the King’s Ships in 1660 and later Surveyor-General of the Victualling Office. He was committed to the Tower and deprived of his office in 1679 on a charge of complicity in the Popish Plot, but was released next year. Appointed Secretary to the Admiralty in 1686, he was deprived of this post at the Revolution, after which he lived in retirement. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was a friend of Aubrey.
PETER THE GREAT (1672–1725), became Tsar of Russia jointly with his half-brother Ivan in 1682. During a visit to England, where he worked in the shipyards at Deptford, he desecrated John Evelyn’s house, which he had leased.
PETERBOROUGH, HENRY MORDAUNT, 2ND EARL OF (1623–97), Royalist and an original F.R.S., became a Roman Catholic, for which he was impeached in 1689 “of High Treason in departing from his allegiance, and being reconciled to the Church of Rome.”
PHILIP II (1527–98), King of Spain and husband of Mary Tudor, on whose death he made overtures to Queen Elizabeth, sent the Spanish Armada against England in 1588.
PHILIPS, EDWARD (1630–80), edited Theatrum Poetarium, an anthology of the poetry of all ages, under the guidance of his uncle, John Milton.
PHILIPS, FABIAN (1601–90), antiquary and friend of Aubrey, was responsible for the filing of writs for London and other districts. His writings were chiefly devoted to Royalist apologetics.
PHILIPS, JOHN (1631–1706), author, was a nephew of John Milton whose biography he wrote.
PIGOTT, THOMAS (1657–86), Fellow of Wadham College and chaplain to the Earl of Ossory, helped Aubrey in his researches.
PLATO (427–348 B.C.), the great Greek philosopher, was a pupil of Socrates, who figures in several of the Dialogues that Plato composed.
PLAUTUS (c. 254–184 B.C.), a celebrated Roman comic poet, whose plays have been imitated by Molière, Shakespeare and other modern writers.
PLINY (23–79), the author of the Historia Naturalis, was an intimate friend of the Emperor Vespasian.
PLOT, ROBERT (1640–96), antiquary and friend of Aubrey, was the author of The Natural History of Oxfordshire and of Staffordshire. Besides being the first Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, he was Professor of Chemistry at Oxford, Historiographer Royal and Mowbray Herald Extraordinary.
POPE, SIR THOMAS (1507–59), held many offices about the Court of Henry VIII, and was enriched by grants of monastic lands. He retired from public life during Edward VI’s reign, due to lack of sympathy with the Reformation, but became a Privy Councillor on Mary’s accession and retained Queen Elizabeth’s favour after her succession. On 28th March 1555, he executed a deed of erection for Trinity College, Oxford, which he endowed with the site and buildings of Durham College, the Oxford house of the Abbey of Durham. His wife, Lady Elizabeth, outlived him.
POPHAM, EDWARD (1610–51), Admiral and General at Sea, threw in his lot with the Parliament during the Civil War. He commanded in the Downs and the North Sea in 1649, and later joined Blake in blockading Prince Rupert at Lisbon.
POPHAM, SIR FRANCIS (1573–1644), soldier and politician, sat in every Parliament from 1597 to 1644, except for the Short Parliament, and took an active interest in the settlement of Virginia and New England.
PORTER, ENDYMION (1587–1649), a Royalist and the patron and friend of poets, was in the service of the Duke of Buckingham and was also Charles I’s agent to collect paintings on the Continent.
PORTSMOUTH AND AUBIGNY, LOUISE RENÉE DE KEROUALLE, DUCHESS OF (1649–1734), accompanied Henrietta, Duchess of Orléans, the sister of Charles II, to England as Maid of Honour in 1670, and was established as Charles II’s mistress en titre by the next year. Becoming naturalised in 1673, she was created Duchess of Portsmouth, and Louis XIV, at Charles II’s persuasion, also granted her the fief of Aubigny. She exerted all her influence to keep Charles dependant on France.
POTTER, HANNIBAL (1592–1664), President of Trinity College, Oxford, from 1643, was a close friend of Aubrey. He was deprived of the Presidentship in 1647 by the Parliamentary Visitors, but was restored in 1660.
POYNTZ, CAPTAIN (fl. 1690). Amongst Aubrey’s papers there is a note: The Earle of Abingdon to buy of Captain Poyntz the property of the island of Tobago, now regnante Giulemo III.
POYNTZ, SIR ROBERT (1589–1665), Royalist and sometime M.P., published A Vindication of Monarchy in 1661.
PRICE, DANIEL (1581–1631), divine, was educated at Oxford, “where, by the benefit of a diligent tutor, he became a smart disputant.” He subsequently became Chaplain to James I and Prince Charles and Canon of Hereford, and was famous as “a frequent and remarkable preacher, especially against Papacy.”
PRIDE, THOMAS (d. 1658), regicide and colonel in the Parliamentary Army, was active on behalf of the Army against the Parliament, and in 1648, in order to frustrate the intended agreement with Charles I, he prevented about a hundred and thirty members from entering the House of Commons (Pride’s Purge).
PUGH, ROBERT (1609–79), Roman Catholic controversialist, served in the army of Charles I and, during the Popish Plot panic, was committed to Newgate, where he died.
PURCHAS, SAMUEL (1575–1626), was author of Purchas his Pilgrimes, a record of travel that is a continuation of Hakluyt’s work.
PYE, SIR WALTER (1571–1635), a favourite of Buckingham, who made him Attorney-General of the Court of Wards and Liveries.
PYTHAGORAS (fl. 550 B.C.), the Greek philosopher, assigned a mathematical basis to the universe and adopted the Orphic doctrine of transmigration of souls from man to man, or man to animals, in a process of purification or punishment.
QUINTUS CALABER (fl. 491), a Greek epic poet, wrote a continuation of Homer.
RACINE, JEAN (1639–99), French dramatic poet, presented his characters in a more human and natural form than did Corneille, and depicted the society around him.
RADER, MATTHEW (1561–1634), German Jesuit and scholar, caused the nudes in the illustrations to his books to be covered with vast fig leaves.
RADFORD, WILLIAM (1623–73), scholar and Fellow of Trinity College, where he was a contemporary of Aubrey. Ejected from his fellowship by the Parliamentary Visitors, he opened a school at Richmond.
RALEIGH, CAREW (1605–66), only surviving son of Sir Walter Raleigh, was restored in blood in 1628, and sat as M.P. for Haslemere from 1648 to 1653 and again in 1659. He was nominated Governor of Jersey in 1660.
RALEIGH, WALTER (1593–1617). Aubrey says Sir Walter Ralegh’s eldest son, Walter, by his first Wife, was killed in America, as you may find in the Historie of the World. My cosen Whitney was coetanean with this Walter Ralegh at Oxon. I have now forgot of what house he was of: but I remember he told me that he was a handsome lusty stout fellow, very bold, and apt to affront. Spake Latin very fluently; and was a notable disputent and courser, and would never be out of countenance nor baffeled.
RANELAGH, LADY (d. 1691), was a daughter of the great Earl of Cork and wife of Arthur, 2nd Viscount Ranelagh. Robert Boyle lived with her in Pall Mall from 1669 until their deaths within seven days of each other.
RAWLINSON, RICHARD (1690–1755), topographer and non-juring bishop, devoted himself to antiquarian pursuits and foreign travel, and was Aubrey’s earliest editor.
RAY, JOHN (1627–1705), naturalist and friend of Aubrey, agreed with Francis Willughby in 1662 to attempt a systematic description of the whole organic world, himself undertaking the plants. On the death of Willughby (1672) Ray took up his friend’s unfinished zoological labours. He devoted himself to insects from 1690 and at his deat
h left a completed classification of the group. His varied labours have caused him to be considered the father of natural history in this country, and as a botanist he has won the highest commendation from his greatest successors.
RICHARDSON, SIR THOMAS (1569–1635), judge and Speaker of the House of Commons. As Chief Justice of the Common Pleas he refused in 1628 to allow Felton to be racked to induce confession, a step which marks an epoch in the history of criminal jurisprudence. He later came into conflict with Laud for suppressing “wakes” or Sunday revels.
RICHELIEU, ARMAND JEAN DU PLESSIS, DUC DE (1585–1642), French Cardinal and statesman, became chief minister of Louis XIII and founded the Académie de France.
RICHMOND, MARY, DUCHESS OF (d. 1685), was the daughter of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the widow of Lord Herbert of Shurland and the wife of James Stuart, 4th Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond (1612–55).
RIDGELY, THOMAS (C. 1580–1656), Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, obtained his M.D. in 1608.
ROBERTS, FRANCIS (1609–75), Puritan divine and author, joined the Presbyterian party at the outbreak of the Civil War and was instituted to Wrington, where he was left undisturbed, after conforming, at the Restoration.
ROBINSON, JOHN (1617–81), a lieutenant-colonel in the Royalist forces, was deprived of his estates by Parliament and fled to France. He became Vice-Admiral of North Wales in 1666.
ROLLE, HENRY (1589–1656), Serjeant at law, joined the Parliamentarians and held many positions on the bench, before becoming a member of the Council of State and Commissioner of the Exchequer.
ROOKE, LAURENCE (1622–62), astronomer and Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at Gresham College, assisted in the foundation of the Royal Society. Many of his writings were published posthumously.
ROPER, SIR WILLIAM (1496–1578), married Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas More, whose biography he subsequently compiled. He was a member of six Parliaments. Summoned before the Privy Council for sympathy with the Roman Catholics in 1568, he was discharged on bond for his good behaviour.