emulation in strangers, and preserve a noble ambition in those of his name and family, to perform actions worthy of their ancestors.

And that Sir Henry Wotton did so, might appear more perfectly than my pen can express it, if of his many surviving friends, some one of higher parts and employments had been pleased to have commended his to posterity; but since some years are now passed, and they have all (I know not why) forborn to do it, my gratitude to my dead friend, and the renewed request of some" that still live solicitous to see this duty performed, these have had a power to persuade me to undertake it; which truly, I have not done, but with some distrust of mine own abilities; yet so far from despair, that I am modestly confident my humble language shall be accepted, because I shall present all readers with a commixture of truth, and Sir Henry Wotton's merits.

This being premised, I proceed to tell the reader, that the father of Sir Henry Wotton was twice married; first to Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir John Rudstone, Knight; after whose death, though his inclination was averse to all contentions, yet necessitated he was to several suits in law; in the prosecution whereof (which took up much of his time, and were the occasion of many discontents)

- Sir Edward Bish Clarentieux, King of Arms, Mr. Charles Cotton, and Mr. Nick Oudert, sometime Sir Henry Wottoti's servant, and one of the witnesses to his last will.

he was by divers of his friends earnestly persuaded to a remarriage; to whom he as often answered. That if ever he did put on a resolution to marry, he was seriously resolved to avoid three sorts of “persons, namely,

"Those that had children;

"Those that had law-suits;

And those that were of his kindred."

And yet, following his own law-suits, he met in Westminster-hall with Mrs. Elionora Morton, widow to Robert Morton of Kent, Esquire, who was also engaged in several suits in law; and he, observing her comportment at the time of hearing one of her causes before the Judges, could not but at the same time both compassionate her condition, and affect her person (for the tears of lovers, or beauty drest in sadness, are observed to have in them a charming eloquence, and to become very often too strong to be resisted), which I mention, because it proved so with this Thomas Wotton; for although there were in her a concurrence of all those accidents, against which he had so seriously resolved, yet his affection to her grew then so strong, that he resolved to solicit her for a wife; and did, and obtained her.

By her (who was the daughter of Sir William Finch of Eastwell in Kent) he had only Henry his youngest son. His mother undertook to be tutoress unto him during much of his childhood; for whose care and pains he paid her each day

with such visible signs of future perfection in learning, as turned her employment into a pleasing trouble; which she was content to continue, till his father took him into his own particular care, and disposed of him to a tutor in his own house at Bocton.

And when time and diligent instruction had made him fit for a removal to a higher form (which was very early), he was sent to Winchester-school, a place of strict discipline and order; that so he might in his youth be moulded into a method of living by rule, which his wise father knew to be the most necessary way, to make the future part of his life both happy to himself, and useful for the discharge of all business, whether public or private.

And that he might be confirmed in this regularity, he was at a fit age removed from that school to be a Commoner of New-College in Oxford; both being founded by William Wickham Bishop of Winchester.

There he continued, till about the eighteenth year of his age; and was then transplanted into Queen's-College, where within that year he was by the chief of that college persuasively enjoined to write a play for their private use (it was the tragedy of Tancredo), which was so interwoven with sentences, and for the method and exact personating those humours, passions, and disposi

He was admitted of New College in 1584.

family of the Wottons have so long inhabited the one, and now lie buried in the other, as appears by their many monuments in that church: the Wottons being a family that hath brought forth divers persons eminent for wisdom and valour, whose heroic acts and noble employments, both in England and in foreign parts, have adorned themselves and this nation, which they have served abroad faithfully in the discharge of their great trust, and prudently in their negociations with several princes; and also served at home with much ho nour and justice, in their wise managing a great part of the public affairs thereof in the various times both of war and peace.

But lest I should be thought by any that may incline either to deny or doubt this truth, not to have observed moderation in the commendation of this family; and also for that I believe the merits and memory of such persons ought to be thankfully recorded, I shall offer to the consideration of every reader, out of the testimony of their pedigree and our chronicles, a part, and but a part, of that just commendation which might be from thence enlarged, and shall then leave the indifferent reader to judge whether my error be an excess or defect of commendations'.

* Of these monuments see “ Hasted's History of Kent,” vol II. p. 437 ;—“ Harris History of Kent,” p. 48.

Hollingshed informs us that the family of the Wottons was very ancient, and that" Some persons of that surname for their

"su.gularities

Sir Robert Wotton of Bocton Malherbe, Knight, was born about the year of Christ 1460: He, living in the reign of King Edward IV. was by him trusted to be Lieutenant of Guisnes, to be Knight Porter, and Comptroller of Calais, where he died, and lies honourably buried.

Sir Edward Wotton of Bocton Malherbe, Knight, (son and heir of the said Sir Robert) was born in the year of Christ, 1489, in the reign of King Henry VII.; he was made Treasurer of Calais, and of the Privy Council to King Henry VIII. who offered him to be Lord Chancellor of England; "But," saith Hollinshed, in his Chronicle, " out of " a virtuous modesty he refused it."

Thomas Wotton of Bocton Malherbe, Esquire, son and heir of the said Sir Edward, and the father of our Sir Henry that occasions this relation, was born in the year of Christ, 1521: He was a gentleman excellently educated, and studious in all the liberal arts; in the knowledge whereof he attained unto a great perfection; who, though he had (besides those abilities, a very noble and plentiful estate and the ancient interest of his predecessors) many invitations from Queen Elizabeth to change his country recreations and retirement for a court, offering him a knighthood (she was

singularities of wit and learning, for their honour and govern"ment in and of the realm, about the prince and elsewhere, at home and abroad, deserve such commendations, that they merit nuro nignarı lapillo," (Chron. Vol. I. p. 1402 )