xiv BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS. Haddoni Epistolæ. Register of the University of Oxon. Johan. Foxii MSS. Sir John Hayward's Life of King Edward VI. The Hurt of Sedition, written by Cheke. Holinshed's Chronicle. Warrant Book of King Edward VI. Of his Gifts, Grants, Sales, &c. Council Book of King Edward VI. Athenæ Oxonienses. Order of the Policy and Offices of the Realm. Bale's Centuries, first edition, in quarto. MSS. of William Petyt, Esq. Keeper of the Tower Records. The Decretals. Petri Martyris Epistolæ. Edit. Genev. MSS. of Sir Henry St. George, Knight, Garter King at Arms. H. Holland's Heroologia. Sir Thomas Chaloner's Miscellanea. Dugdale's Baronage. Dr. Thomas Wylson's English Translation of Demosthenes' Orations. Epistola Nic. Carri de Morte Buceri. Life of Sir Thomas Smith, Knight. Miscellanea D. in Biblioth. C. C. C. C. State Worthies, by Lloyd. Grotii Annotationes in Novum Testamentum. THE LIFE OF THE LEARNED SIR JOHN CHEKE. CHAP. I. A view of Sir John Cheke, from his birth to his leaving the University, and advancement at Court. SIR JOHN CHEKE was raised purely by his learned Anno 1514. abilities, and his name requires a place among the most memorable men of those times, being one of the completest scholars for Latin and Greek learning in that age; and having the happiness to be the chief instructor of the blessed King Edward's youth, a Prince so singular for learning, knowledge, and religion, that he wanted nothing but a longer life to render him one of the most illustrious monarchs in the world: in the praise whereof, Cheke, his guide and teacher, must have a share. Being minded to revive the memory of this gentleman, I shall endeavour to give a view of him; first, from his birth to his leaving of the University, and coming to Court; next, from his coming to Court, to his travels abroad and exile; and lastly, from his exile to his return and death. SECT. I. Cheke's birth and family; vindicated. Parents. His nativity. IT is one of the chief honours of the town of Cambridge, Cambridge, that Cheke was born there; at which place his father set- birth-place. B Cheke's I. CHAP. tled, upon occasion of his matching with a gentlewoman of that county. For the family was anciently of the Isle Anno 1514. of Wight, where it long flourished in wealth and reputation, and received accessions of honour by divers intermarriages. For Hayward, who wrote the life of King Edward VI. must be corrected, who, in that book, hath done this gentleman wrong, in disparaging his pedigree, as though it were obscure; where, speaking of the Prince's tutors, Dr. Cox and Sir John Cheke, he describes them to have been "of mean birth; and that they might be said to be "born of themselves, for the esteem of their virtue and "learning, by reason of the place of their employment. The family of the Chekes. Peter Cheke's stock. He was the son and heir of Peter Cheke, a younger brother of the ancient house of the Chekes of Motston in the Isle of Wight. For to fetch his genealogy for some generations backward, as it lies in the visitation-books of the heralds; Richard Cheke of Motston, in the time of Richard II. married one of the daughters of Montacute, or Montague. His son was called Edward, who married a daughter of Trenenian. By whom he had John Cheke of Motstone, that matched with a daughter of Tremain. By whom he had issue John, whose wife was a daughter of Glamorgan, of the county of Southampton. His son was Robert, who married the daughter of Bremshot of Bremshot. Whose sons were David and Peter, the father of John Cheke, the subject of our story. David's line for divers generations after him enjoyed Motstone. Peter, the second son, married Agnes, daughter of Dufford [i. e. De Ufford, a great name once] of the county of Cambridge, a grave, wise, and good woman. Ascham, in one of his epistles, styles her venerandam illam fœminam, i. e. that venerable woman. By whom Peter had Anne, married to George Allington; Alice, to Dr. Blithe, the first public King's Reader of the Physic Lecture in the University of Cambridge. He was of King's college, and sometime Proctor there; and a traveller beyond sea: Elizabeth, to Spering; Mary, matched with Sir William Cecil, afterwards Secretary of State to King Edward and Queen I. Elizabeth; and Magdalen, first married to Eresby, then SECT. to John Purefoy of Leicestershire. And besides these daughters, he had, by the same Agnes, John his son and Anno 1514. heir. the name If one were minded to seek further after this family, we Others of might be told of one Margaret Cheke, who obtained a li- of the cence from King Richard III. to found a chauntry for one Chekes. A leger Priest, in the parish church of Long Ashton, nigh Bristol; book of that which bespake her a person of quality and wealth. We King. might be told, that some of this name were dispersed in Suffolk, where, in the parish church of Debnam, anno 1440, Weev. Mon. was buried John Cheke, gentleman. There also lay buried P. 783. Robert Cheke, and Rose his wife, as appears by a monumental inscription there. The name also flourished in the city of London in Queen Elizabeth's time: where was also one John Cheke, a wealthy citizen of the Company of Mercers; who, upon a loan from the city, anno 1588, that memorable year, (when the richest sort of all the companies lent their proportions to the Queen,) for his share lent her 1007. To which I add another Cheke, named also John, ordained Deacon anno 1560, by Grindal, Bishop of London; which John is charactered in the Book of Ordinations to be liberæ conditionis, et laudabilis commendatio- Regist, Bp. nis, i. e. of genteel extract, as well as laudable life and conversation. Lond. dicated. thies. These I the rather mention, to extinguish that ill report Cheke's Sir John Hayward had suggested to the world of our family vinCheke's mean birth; whom Dr. Fuller also hath taken notice of with some just indignation, leaving him this character for his pains, that "he was a learned pen, but too Full. Wor"free in dealing disgraceful characters on the subjects "thereof:" adding this further account of Cheke's family, that the paternal estate was 300l. per annum, never increased nor diminished till twenty years ago, [that is, so many years before the time of Fuller's writing this,] when it was sold outright; and that one of those Chekes in Richard the II.'s days married a daughter of the Lord Mountague's; though it may be inquired, whether that CHAP. family were advanced to the honour of barons so anciently as that King's time. I. Ann. 1514, et seq. In what Acts and Mon. first The gentleman of whom we are to write was born in the year 1514, as I collect from his age, when he was year horn. called in for a witness to answer certain interrogatories concerning Bishop Gardiner, in December or January, anno edit. p. 807. 1550, being then set down to be thirty-six years of age: A MS. of and more certainly from his nativity, calculated by his dear friend Sir Thomas Smith, that he was born the same year, on the 16th day of June, at two of the clock five minutes afternoon. And perhaps it may not be unacceptable to some to exhibit this scheme of his nativity, drawn up by so notable a man. Dr. Sloan's. His parents' character. His parents bore a repute in Cambridge for their honesty and integrity: and that character Gardiner Bishop of Winchester himself gave of them; who, while he lived |