In 1729, Mr. Bowyer completed the valuable Work of Dr. Drake, which will be more properly noticed under 1730; being dated, according to the custom of Printers, in the succeeding year *.

And in this year he lost one of the friends and patrons of his early life, Peter Le Neve†, esq. the celebrated Antiquary and Herald.

nished him both with money and books, which were most of them historical and geographical; but my gentleman thought fit to remove himself, and I am not sure that I have seen him since. In a little time after, was published the first volume of the Turkish Spy; and so soon as I saw it, the very stile, and manner of writing, convinced me that Bradshaw was the author. This gave me a little fresh uneasiness to find him out, and one day I met his wife in Gray's-inn; at first sight she was almost dumb-founded, but I was as civil to her as my nature would suffer me. I asked after her husband, and she gave me this account, that Dr. Midgely had engaged him in a work which would take up some years to finish; she added, the Doctor gave him 40s. per sheet, 20s. per sheet he received, and the other twenty went to pay off some old arrears betwixt him and the Doctor. Dr. Midgely owned to me he was well acquainted with Mr. Bradshaw, and said he was very ingenious, but unhappy, and something indebted to him. After this, I had no more intelligence of Mr. Bradshaw; but the Turkish Spy was for some years published, volume after volume; so that it is very probable (for I cannot swear I saw him write it) that Mr. William Bradshaw was the author of the Turkish Spy. Were it not for this discovery, which was never made known before, Dr. Midgely had gone off with the honour of that performance. If Mr. Bradshaw be yet alive, I here declare to the world, and to him, that I freely forgive him what he owes, both in money and books, if he will only be so kind as to make me a visit. But I am afraid the worthy gentleman is dead, for he was wretchedly over-run with melancholy, and the very blackness of it reigned in his countenance. He had certainly per formed wonders with his pen, had not his poverty pursued him, and almost laid the necessity upon him to be unjust."

* When a book is not finished till about the middle of November, it is usual to prefix the date of the following year.

† Peter Le Neve, son and heir of Francis Neve, alias Le Neve, citizen and draper of London, and grandson of Firmian Neve, alias Le Neve, of Ringland, in the county of Norfolk, gent. was born Jan. 21, 1661-2. He was early in life elected F. R. S. ; and was afterwards successively appointed Rouge Croix pursui yant, Jan. 17, 1688-9; Richmond herald, and Norroy King at Arms. Having a very accurate and extensive knowledge of English Antiquities, of which he was one of the most eminent preservers, he was chosen the first President of the Society of Antiquaries on its revival in 1717. Quitting that chair in 1724,

Algernon

Mr. Clarke, in a letter, dated, Aug. 11, 1729,.

Algernon Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, was elected in his room. He died Sept. 24, 1729, æt. 67; and shewed a singularity in his Will, dated May 5, 1729, which strongly marked his character. He describes himself as late one of the Under-chamberlains of the Court of Receipt in the Exchequer at Westminster; and directs that his putrid carcase should be buried in the chancel of Great Wychingham church, and that it should be carried down thither in an hearse, attended by his coach and one other coach. No mourning was to be given. He bequeathed 10. to his three nieces. To such of his servants as his wife should chuse to retain, 101. each, and 41. for mourning; ordering that the rest of his servants should be dismissed, as soon as possible after his decease, with their wages only. He desired that no rings should be given to any one; forbade any room to be hung with black, "or any undertakers of funerals, alias old rooks, to be employed; desiring to have no Upholders' Company, nor Smith in Cooky lane in Norwich, to be suffered to intermeddle in the direction or management of his funeral." He wished to have some escocheons of silk upon the pall, of the arms of his office, without the crown, impaled with the arms of his family, quartering those of Corcy of Norfolk, to which he was entitled, his grandmother's brother having deceased without issue, and also those of his grandfather, Peter Wright, of London, merchant. He forbade any funeral oration or any other monument than a plain marble stone, which he ordered should be set upon the church-wall, on the inside, opposite his grave, signifying that his body lay thereabouts. [If any such inscription has been placed there, it is not recorded by Blomefield, who has given in vol. IV. p. 450, several epitaphs of the Le Neve family; but a severe one from the pen of Mr. Wagstaffe may be seen in the fourth volume of these Anecdotes, p. 184.] Frances, his widow, remarried to Thomas Martin, esq. of Palgrave, Suffolk (of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter), who had been executor to Mr. Le Neve. His library was sold by auction, by Anthony Collins, in 1730-1; and his MSS. and records relative to the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, collected with indefatigable industry, were dispersed. A considerable part of them came into the hands of Mr. Martin, who before came into the possession of many of them at the time of his marriage. Several others were purchased by the Duke of Norfolk. His Pedigrees of all the Baronets were in the library of the Rev. Mr. Sinyth of Woodston; and are now the property of Ralph Bigland, esq. Norroy. His collections for Knights Bachelors are in the British Museum (Harl. MSS. 5801, 5802), with three volumes of Original Letters (Ib. 4712, 4713, 7525.) Mr. Thoresby expressed his great obligations to "his honoured and kind friend, Peter Le Neve, Norroy; and Richard Dale, esq. then Suffolk herald extraordinary."-It was a singu lar circumstance, that, after the death of Mr. Le Neve, his estates at Wychingham, and in the other towns of Norfolk,

were

says, "Dr. Hargrave was so pleased with your pamphlet against the Separatists, that he carried it off by force, and I must beg another upon any terms." What this pamphlet was, is not at present recollected.

The same year Mr. Bowyer ushered into the world a curious treatise, under the title of “A Pattern for young Students in the University, set forth in the Life of Mr. Ambrose Bonwicke, sometime Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge." This little volume was generally ascribed to our worthy Printer, though it was in reality the production of Ambrose's father, and came into Mr. Bowyer's hands as executor to James Bonwicke†. This assertion is confirmed by the following letter,

were claimed by John Norris, esq. whose grandfather had purchased their reversion upon failure of the male line. The purchase-money was only 30l. which it was contended was no valuable consideration; but, on the evidence of Demoivre, and others well versed in calculations, it was adjudged to be a full price for the chance at that time; there being so many remainders over. The estates so bought are about 1500l. a year. After much money spent in law, they were consigned to that gentleman in the House of Lords, the dernier resort in such cases. Such stipulations are not uncommon amongst the small Princes of Germany; but it is the only fact of the kind that is recollected in England. See Noble's History of the College of Arms, p. 385.-Of Mr. John Le Neve, see before, p. 127.-The following anecdote of Oliver Le Neve, another brother, is here preserved, merely because it has before been erroneously ascribed to Peter; namely, that, when a young man, he killed Sir Henry Hobart, bart. and that he knew nothing of the sword, but had a great coat of coarse cloth; and his adversary's weapon being entangled in it, he easily stabbed him. (See Blomefield's Norfolk, under Blickling, in South Erpingham Hundred.)

* James Hargrave, of Clare Hall, Cambridge; B. A. 1711; M.A. 1715; rector of East Hoadley, in Sussex (just by the Duke of Newcastle's seat at Halland, whose tutor he had been at Cambridge). He published "The evil Consequences of Perjury, an Assize Sermon, 1723;" 4to; and a Sermon in 1724," on the Consecration of Two Bishops." He was chaplain in ordinary to the King; obtained the degree of D. D. by royal mandate in 1728; and was rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster; which he resigned in 1734, on obtaining a prebend of that collegiate church; in 1739 he was collated to the deanry of Chichester; and died Nov. 15, 1741.

↑ See p. 313.

addressed

addressed by the Author to his wife, and found unopened at his death:

66 MY DEAREST,

[Undated.]

"You were thinking, quickly after dear Ambrose's death, that an account of his life might be of some benefit to the world. I have here drawn it up as well as I could: if any thing material be omitted, dear Jemmy, by your direction, will be able to supply it. He, therefore, must be let into the secret; and I depend upon you two, that it shall for ever be a secret to all the world beside, who was the author. He must therefore take the trouble of transcribing it as soon as he comes hither after my death, for which I bequeath him the two inclosed guineas: and if my dear friend Mr. Roper * be living, I would have that copy be shewed him by Jemmy, as of his own motion, and wholly submitted to his judgment to be altered as he shall think fit. I would have my good friend Mr. Browne's consent likewise procured (if it may be), for the publishing his letter in this account. And

*Of whom see before, p. 184.

+ Of St. John's college; B. A. 1675; M. A. 1679; B.D. 1687. + REVEREND SIR, Nov. 16, 1710.

"I WISH I had been in St. John's, to have received you when you brought your son, who I am glad gives us so very good hopes of his being a credit to the Society. He brought me your kind letter the day after the election was over; and found me very ready to give him joy of his success, which was better than his Tutor and I first expected. He is chosen into a Scholarship, the value of which will be, while corn holds a good price, pretty considerable, and was this last year to his predecessor more than double the value of the exhibition he was to have had, which I presume Mr. Anstey told you was five pounds. Himself or his Tutor may have given you some account of it already, but might not be able to give you so exactly the value of it. His exhibition would have lasted no longer than till he is Bachelor of Arts, but his Scholarship till Master; and I pray God preserve him to enjoy this favour of the College till he both deserves and receives greater. I gave Mr. Roper vour service, who joins in the return of his to you with Rev. Sir,

Your most faithful humble servant, THO. BROWNE." This conscientious Divine does not appear to have obtained VOL. I.

E E

any

if Mr. Jackson* and Mr. Newton are willing to make any alterations in their verses, pray let it be done before they are published. I hope, my dearest, you will be at the charge of printing it handsomely; and if your bookseller be faithful, it is possible that charge may be made up to you again in a little time. You will,. I know, think it proper that the Master of the College, Mr. Roper, Mr. Baker §,

any Church preferment. He was afterwards the author of "The Story of the Ordination of our first Bishops in Queen Elizabeth's Reign, at the Nag's-head Tavern in Cheapside, thoroughly examined; and proved to be a late-invented, self-contradictory, and absurd Fable. With a View of the Case between Horne and Bonner, and of the Writings of Stapleton, Harding, and Sanders. Whereby it is proved, that neither Bonner nor these Writers ever heard of the Tavern-Ordination, or called in question the Consecration of Parker, Jewell, Horne, &c. at the Archbishop's Chapel at Lambeth; in Answer to what is pretended to the contrary by F. Le Quien, in his two Treatises, in 1725 and 1730, of the Nullity of the English Ordinations, and by an English anonymous Writer of Remarks on F. Le Courayer's Dissertation in defence of their Validity. With occasional Reflections on the Author of The Nullity of the Prelatick Clergy and Church of England. By Thonas Browne, B. D. formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge." 8vo.

* B. A. of St. John's college, Cambridge, 1712; but afterwards of Sidney college, M. A. 1716; B. D. 1723. He was author of, 1. " Occasional Letters on several Subjects;" 2. "An Examination of a Book, intitled, The True Gospel of Jesus Christ asserted, by Thomas Chubb; and also of his Appendix on Protidence. To which is added, A Dissertation on Episcopacy, shewing in one short and plain View the Grounds of it in Scripture and Antiquity. By Lawrence Jackson, B.D. sometime Fellow of Sidney College in Cambridge, 1739," 8vo; and, 3. "A Letter to a young Lady, concerning the Principles and Conduct of the Christian Life, by Lawrence Jackson, B. D. Prebendary of Lincoln; addressed to the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge."

† Lancelot Newton, esq. of St. John's college, Cambridge; B. A. 1713; M. A. 1717; Bachelor of the Canon and Civil Law and Cronian Professor of Physic, was appointed Registrer April 27. 1726, in the room of Mr. Robert Grove, deceased; LL. D. Com Reg. 1728, admiss. 1729. He died Dec. 5, 1734.

66

Dr. Robert Jenkin; of whom see some memoirs in the Essays and Illustrations," vol. IV. No VIII.

§ Of this eminent Antiquary, a full account will be given in the "Essays and Illustrations," vol. V. No IV.

and