Aubrey's Brief Lives

by John Aubrey

  VERE, SIR FRANCIS (1560–1609), soldier, accompanied Leicester’s expedition to Holland in 1585 and served in the wars there during most of his life, rising to be active commander of the English contingent in 1589. His Commentaries, an account of this service, was published in 1657.

  VERE OF TILBURY, SIR HORATIO VERE, 1ST BARON (1565–1635), succeeded his brother in command of the English in Holland in 1604, and later became Master General of the Ordnance.

  VERNON, FRANCIS (c. 1637–77), traveller, author and F.R.S., was murdered in Persia in a brawl over a pen-knife.

  VERSTEGEN, RICHARD (fl. 1565–1620), antiquary and author of Antiquities concerning the English Nation, set up a printing business in Antwerp and later at Paris, where he was imprisoned for publishing an attack on Queen Elizabeth’s treatment of the English Catholics.

  VESALIUS, ANDRÉ (1514–64), Belgian physician and anatomist.

  VILLIERS, SIR GEORGE (d. 1606), the father of the first Duke of Buckingham, was Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1591.

  VINNIUS, ARNOLD (1588–1657), a Dutch jurist, wrote a celebrated work on Justinian.

  VIRGIL (70–19 B.C.), the Roman poet, wrote the Æneid, the epic poem of the Roman people; the Georgics, a didactic poem on the cultivation of the soil; and the Eclogues, which are imitations of the pastorals of Theocritus.

  Vossius, GERARD JOHANN (1577–1649), German littérateur and philologist.

  WAKE, SIR ISAAC (1580–1632), was successively Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, Secretary of the Embassy at Venice and Turin, Ambassador at Turin, M.P. for Oxford University, and Ambassador at Paris.

  WALLER, SIR HARDRASS (1604–66), the regicide, was a Major-General in Cromwell’s reconquest of Ireland and was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Restoration.

  WALLER, SIR WILLIAM (1597–1668), Parliamentary General until removed from his command by the Self Denying Ordinance, then became the Presbyterian leader in Parliament and was regarded by the Army as their chief enemy. He gradually went over to the Royalists and actively plotted for Charles II’s restoration, but went unrewarded.

  WALLIS, JOHN (1616–1703), mathematician, was employed by the Parliament to decipher intercepted despatches, and later became Savilian Professor of Geometry and Keeper of the Archives at Oxford. He introduced the principles of analogy and continuity into mathematical science and widened the range of the higher algebra, besides taking the first steps towards the differential calculus and inventing the symbol for infinity.

  WALSINGHAM, SIR FRANCIS (1530–90), chief of the secret service in London, became Ambassador at Paris in 1570, where he protected English Protestants during the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. As Secretary of State from 1573 to 1590, he secured the conviction and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. He became deeply involved in debt through standing security for his son-in-law, Sir Philip Sidney.

  WALTER, LUCY (1630–58), the daughter of a Welsh Royalist, was taken to the Hague in 1644, where she became the mistress of Col. Robert Sidney, Charles, Prince of Wales, Henry Bennet and others. By Charles II she had a son, James, Duke of Monmouth, and a daughter, Mary. From 1673 to 1680 it was industriously reported that Charles II had legally married her and that the proofs of the marriage were concealed in a “black box”; and Charles II had to issue three declarations officially denying the marriage and affirming that the Duke of Monmouth was illegitimate.

  WALTON, IZAAK (1593–1683), the author of the Compleat Angler and the biographer of John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert and Bishop Sanderson, was a friend of Aubrey, whom he provided with information about Ben Jonson and Walter Warner.

  WASE, CHRISTOPHER (1625–90), Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, went abroad when he was ejected by the Parliament, and later became Headmaster of Dedham and Tonbridge Schools. In 1671 he became Esquire Bedell of Law and Supervisor of the University Press at Oxford.

  WEBB, GEORGE (1581–1642), Chaplain to Prince Charles and Bishop of Limerick, published theological and educational works.

  WEBBE, JOSEPH (fl. 1612–33), grammarian and physician, published works on education and translated Cicero’s Familiar Epistles.

  WESTON, SIR RICHARD (1466–1542), Governor of Jersey from 1509, was in constant personal attendance on Henry VIII as Knight of the Body. He had fought against the Moors in 1511, and was Treasurer of Calais in 1525 and Under-Treasurer of England from 1528 until his death.

  WEYMOUTH, SIR THOMAS THYNNE, 1ST VISCOUNT (1640–1714), was one of the four lords despatched to invite William of Orange to England in 1688, but voted for a regency and opposed William’s government. He was a Privy Councillor in Queen Anne’s reign and Custos Rotulorum of Wiltshire.

  WHISTLER, DANIEL (1619–84), physician and Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, was successively a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Harveian Orator, Registrar and President. He published a treatise on rickets.

  WHITNEY, JAMES (1593–1668), Aubrey’s cousin, was a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and later Rector of Dunsted Street.

  WIDRINGTON, RALPH (d. 1688) was Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge from 1654 to 1660, and later Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity.

  WILDE, SIR WILLIAM (1611–79), was Recorder of London in 1659 and later Judge of Common Pleas. He was removed to the King’s Bench in 1673 and dismissed in the year of his death.

  WILLIAM III (1650–1702), the posthumous son of William II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, daughter of Charles I, married in 1677 Mary, the daughter of James, Duke of York (later James II). Estranged by his father-in-law’s Catholic zeal, he accepted an invitation to undertake an armed expedition to England in 1688, but refused to accept the crown as by right of conquest. However, he assumed the executive when he and Mary were declared King and Queen by Declaration of Right drawn up by committee of the Convention Parliament in 1689.

  WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY (C. 1090–1143), historian of England from A.D. 449 to 1142, was educated at Glastonbury Abbey, of which he later became Librarian. Not only was he an historian of great authority, but a picturesque and vivacious writer.

  WILLIAMSON, SIR JOSEPH (1633–1701), statesman, diplomatist and President of the Royal Society from 1677 to 1680, during which period he was dismissed from his position of Secretary of State due to suspicions aroused by the Popish Plot. He was Joint-Plenipotentiary at the Congresses of Cologne and Nimeghen.

  WILLIS, THOMAS (1621–75), physician, F.R.S. and Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy, practised in London from 1666 and was the first to distinguish the form of diabetes names Diabetes Mellitus.

  WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY, PEREGRINE BERTIE, BARON (1555–1601), soldier, succeeded Leicester as Commander of the English Forces in the Low Countries, and was nominated to command of the army sent to aid Henry of Navarre at Dieppe in 1580.

  WINCHELSEA, HENEAGE FINCH, 2ND EARL OF (d. 1689), provided troops for Charles I during the Civil War and money for Charles II while in exile. He was Ambassador at Constantinople from 1661 to 1669.

  WINCHESTER, JOHN PAULET, 5TH MARQUIS OF (1598–1675), was known as “the Great Loyalist” because he held his house for Charles I for two years until it was stormed by Cromwell in 1645, when he was committed to the Tower for High Treason, and his property was sequestered. He went unrecompensed at the Restoration.

  WISEMAN, MARY (1641–66), with whom Aubrey had fallen in love at first sight when she seems to have been only ten years old, was married to John Saintloe, a merchant, in 1661. In his will of 1654, Aubrey writes: Item, to Mris. Mary Wiseman of Westminster, my best Diamond ring.

  WITHERS, GEORGE (1588–1667), poet and Puritan pamphleteer, raised a troop of horse for the Parliament and became Commissioner for the Sale of the King’s Goods in 1653.

  WOOD, ANTHONY (1632–95), antiquary and historian, was educated at New College School, Oxford, Thame School and Merton College, where he submitted to the Parliamentary Visitors. He made collections for the history of Oxfordshire, and published Historia et Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis in Latin in 1674 an
d Athenae Oxoniensis in 1691–92. As a result of a libel in the latter book he was expelled from the University in 1693.

  WOOD, ROBERT (1622–85), mathematician, physician and supporter of the Commonwealth, retired to Ireland at the Restoration, where he became Chancellor of the Diocese of Meath and later Accountant-General for Ireland. Elected to the Royal Society in 1681, he published A New Al-moon-ac for Ever and The Times Mended.

  WOODFORD, SAMUEL (1636–1700), F.R.S., divine and poet, was Canon of Chichester and Winchester, and published poetical paraphrases of the Psalms and the Canticles.

  WORCESTER, CHARLES SOMERSET, MARQUIS OF (1660–98), was the son and heir of Henry, 1st Duke of Beaufort, who outlived him.

  WOTTON, SIR HENRY (1568–1639), diplomatist and poet, was Ambassador at the Court of Venice from 1604 to 1624, with two intervals during which he went on diplomatic missions to France, the Hague and Vienna. In 1624 he became Provost of Eton: and his books include The State of Christendom and Elements of Architecture; his poems Character of a Happy Life and On his Mistress the Queen of Bohemia; and his aphorisms An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country.

  WREN, SIR CHRISTOPHER (1632–1723), successively Fellow of All Souls, Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College and at Oxford, and President of the Royal Society, first applied himself to architecture in 1663. He prepared a scheme for rebuilding London after the fire, and was appointed “Surveyor General and Principal Architect for rebuilding the whole City.” Though his overall plan was not followed, he rebuilt St. Paul’s Cathedral and fifty-two other churches. He was a patron of John Aubrey.

  WRIGHT, EDWARD (1558–1615), mathematician, hydrographer and Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, accompanied George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, on his voyage to the Azores in 1589. Ten years later he published Certaine Errors in Navigation detected and corrected, which with other works by him effected a revolution in the science of navigation.

  WYATT, SIR THOMAS (c. 1503–42), held various posts at home and abroad in the service of Henry VIII. He was a lyric poet of the purest note and, with the Earl of Surrey, introduced the sonnet into England.

  WYLD, SIR EDMUND (d. c. 1632), judge, was the father of Aubrey’s patron, Edmund Wyld.

  WYLD, EDMUND (1614–96), virtuoso, F.R.S., and chief patron of Aubrey, was the eldest son of Sir Edmund Wyld. He sat in the Long Parliament and was an active supporter of the Parliamentary side in the Civil War. Hooke thought “Aubery a fool about Wild.”

  XENOPHON (c. 430–340 B.C.), a pupil of Socrates and later a general, is most famous for his history of the Persian Wars, and for his Symposium, in which he defends the doctrines and character of Socrates.

  YARRANTON, ANDREW (1616–84), a captain in the Parliamentary forces, engaged in projects for cutting canals and rendering rivers navigable, and for improving agriculture.

  YORK, ANNE, DUCHESS OF (1637–71), daughter of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, became the first wife of James, Duke of York, later James II. Of their children only two daughters survived childhood—Mary, who reigned jointly with William III, and Anne, also later Queen.

  YORKE, WILLIAM (fl. 1640–60), Member of the Middle Temple and M.P. in 1654 and 1661, married Elizabeth, the widow of Henry Danvers of Baynton. He was one of the trustees of Philip, Earl of Pembroke.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  * * *

  My thanks are due first to Bodley’s Librarian, the Corporation of the City of London, the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, the Council of the Royal Society and the Keeper of the Manuscripts at the British Museum, for permission to reproduce portions of the manuscripts in their archives.

  I am also indebted to Bertrand Russell and Messrs. George Allen and Unwin Ltd. for permission to base my biographical notes on Descartes, Erasmus, Thomas Hobbes and Sir Thomas More on material contained in A History of Western Philosophy: to Dr. G. M. Trevelyan, O.M. and Longmans Green & Co. Ltd., for their permission to quote from English Social History: to J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., for permission to base some of my biographical notes on the Everyman edition of their Dictionary of English Literature: and to the Oxford University Press for allowing me to quote from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Literature and The Dictionary of National Biography.

  I have received invaluable assistance from Mr. Eric Bligh in all parts of the book, but especially in regard to the Bibliography: and Mr. Hugh Lloyd-Jones has helped me throughout with the Latin quotations. I have also received help and information from Mr. John Bowle: Mr. James Watson-Gandy: Mr. Laurence Tanner, Keeper of the Muniments at Westminster Abbey: Mr. Charles Stuart: Mr. Arthur Bryant: Mrs. Jaqueline Hope-Nicholson: the Librarian of the House of Commons: the Librarian of the Royal Society: the Director of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum: the Librarian of the County of Surrey: Mr. James Ross, City Librarian of Bristol: Mr. H. D. Simmons: Dr. John F. Fulton of Yale: Sir Edmund Craster: Major the Hon. Rupert Craven: and Mr. Bernard Shaw.

  His Majesty the King has graciously granted me permission to reproduce the portrait of Venetia Digby by van Dyck, which is at Windsor Castle: and my thanks are also due to Cornelia, Countess of Craven: Lord de L’Isle and Dudley, V.C.: Lord Leconfield: Sir Felix Cassel, Bart.: the Dean and Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford: Bodley’s Librarian: the Council of the Royal Society: the Governors of Dulwich College: and the Directors of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, for permission to reproduce pictures from their collections.

  Bibliography

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  THE MISCELLANIES

  MISCELLANIES, VIZ. I. Day-Fatality. II. Local-Fatality. III. Ostenta. IV. Omens. V. Dreams. VI. Apparitions. VII. Voices. VIII. Impulses. IX. Knockings. X. Blow Invisible. XI. Prophesies. XII. Marvels. XIII. Magick. XIV. Transportation in the Air. XV. Visions in a Beril, or Glass. XVI. Converse with Angels and Spirits. XVII. Corps-Candles in Wales. XVIII. Oracles. XIX. Extasie. XX. Glances of XXI. Second-Sighted-Persons. Collected by J. Aubrey, Esq; LONDON: Printed for Edward Castle, next Scotland-Yard-Gate by Whitehall. 1696.

  8vo: viii (first leaf blank), 179 pp. Illustrations in text.

  The only work published during Aubrey’s lifetime, this book is nonetheless full of notes and queries and hints for further research, and the author did, in fact, make considerable additions and amendments to it before his death. Aubrey’s last recorded letter, written on 1st June, 1697, only a few days before his death, was to Mr. Churchill, the bookseller, suggesting further additions to the text. The manuscript of this book has disappeared.

  MISCELLANIES, UPON THE Following SUBJECTS. I. DAY-FATALITY. II. LOCAL-FATALITY. III. OSTENTA. IV. OMENS. V. DREAMS. VI. APPARITIONS. VII. VOICES. VIII. IMPULSES. IX. KNOCKINGS. X. BLOWS Invisible. XI. PROPHESIES. XII. MARVELS. XIII. MAGICK. XIV. TRANSPORTATION in the Air. XV. VISIONS in a Beril, or Glass. XVI. CONVERSE with ANGELS and SPIRITS. XVII. CORPS-CANDLES in Wales. XVIII. ORACLES. XIX. EXTASIE. XX. GLANCES of Love and Envy. XXI. SECOND-SIGHTED-Persons. XXII. The Discovery of TWO MURDERS by an APPARITION. Collected by JOHN AUBREY, Esq; F.R.S. THE SECOND EDITION, with large Additions. To which is Prefixed, Some ACCOUNT of his LIFE. LONDON: Printed for A. Bettesworth, and J. Battley in Pater-Noster-Row, J. Pemberton in Fleet-street, and E. CURLL in the Strand. M.D.CC.XXI. Price 4s.

  8vo: x, 236 pp. Illustrations in text. Some copies were printed on large paper.

  This is the standard text of the Miscellanies, for it contains Aubrey’s own amendments, being printed from his corrected copy of the first edition.

  MISCELLANIES UPON VARIOUS SUBJECTS BY JOHN AUBREY, Esq. F.R.S. A NEW EDITION, WITH CONSIDERABLE IMPROVEMENTS. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE. LONDON: PRINTED FOR W. OTTRIDGE, STRAND; AND E. EASTON, AT SALISBURY. MDCCLXXXIV.

  8vo: x, 292 pp. 1 plate.

  An accurate reprint of the second edition, but without Aubrey’s capitalisation. Lowndes in his Bibliographical Manual mentions that an editi
on of this work was also published in 1731.

  MISCELLANIES UPON VARIOUS SUBJECTS BY JOHN AUBREY, F.R.S. THE FOURTH EDITION. LONDON: JOHN RUSSELL SMITH. 1857.

  8vo: xvi, 227 pp. With a portrait and a view of Lower Easton Pierse.

  One of The Library of Old Authors, it is an accurate reprint of the third edition.

  MISCELLANIES UPON VARIOUS SUBJECTS BY JOHN AUBREY, F.R.S. THE FIFTH EDITION. TO WHICH IS ADDED HYDRIOTAPHIA; OR, URN BURIAL. BY SIR THOMAS BROWNE. LONDON: REEVES AND TURNER. 1890.

  8vo: xvi, 301 pp. With a view of Lower Easton Pierse.

  One of The Library of Old Authors, it is an accurate reprint of the third edition.

  Miscellanea Scotica. A COLLECTION OF TRACTS RELATING TO THE History; Antiquities, Topography AND LITERATURE OF SCOTLAND. Glasgow. PRINTED FOR AND SOLD BY JOHN WYLIE & CO. 1820.

  8vo. In four volumes.

  The third volume of this work contains a section entitled TREATISES ON THE SECOND SIGHT. BY THEOPHILUS INSULANUS, REV Mr. Fraser, Mr. Martin, AND JOHN AUBREY, ESQ. F.R.S., which reprints Section XXI of the Miscellanies.

  AN ESSAY TOWARDS THE DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTH-DIVISION OF WILTSHIRE

  MISCELLANIES On Several Curious Subjects: Now first Publish’d from their RESPECTIVE ORIGINALS. LONDON: Printed for CURLL, at the Dial and Bible over-against St. Dunstan’s Church in Fleetstreet. 1714.

  8vo: xxviii, 58 pp. With a vignette portrait of Anthony Wood on the title page.

  Besides Aubrey’s Introduction to the Survey and Natural History of the North-Division of the County of Wiltshire, this volume, which was edited by Richard Rawlinson, contains the charge, answer and sentence in the prosecution of Anthony Wood for his alleged libel on Lord Clarendon; also five letters on various matters of antiquity by Ashmole, Plot, Langbaine and Selden, and five others on similar subjects addressed to Aubrey by Andrew Paschall, John Lydall and Edmund Gibson. A further edition was published by Edmund Curll in 1718 under the title Introduction towards a Natural History of Wiltshire, with other Curious Miscellanies. Copies of the 1714 volume also exist with a 1723 title-page bearing the imprint of W. Mears of London placed before the original title.