contains ten chapters; the first seven relate to Archbishop Elfric; Cap. 8. is intituled "De Elfrico Bata;" Cap. 9. "De Ælfrico Abbate Meildunensi;" Cap. 10. "De allis Elfricis." An Appendix is subjoined, containing transcripts of Saxon charters and extracts from historians concerning Archbishop Ælfric. Mr. Mores married Susannah, daughter of Mr. Bridgman, an eminent grocer in Whitechapel, who was before his father-in-law by having married the widow of his father. By this lady, who died in 1767, and is buried in the church-yard at Walthamstow, with the inscription given below*, he had a daughter, Sarah, who married, in 1774, to Mr. John Davis, house-painter at Walthamstow, and died before her father; and a son, EdwardRowe, married, in 1779, to Miss Spence. occurred to me, I am now of a different opinion. Mr. Lye has been at Oxford lately; and Messrs. Wise, Lye, Ballard, and myself, have held several consultations about republishing Cadmon entire, with a translation, and adorned with all the drawings in the Bodleian copy. Mr. Lye seems inclined to undertake the translation; and Fletcher is willing to pay all expences of printing, if we will engrave the drawings. Mr. Wise is about printing a dissertation on the true age of Cædmon, the dialects, and several other curious Saxon matters, which I hope will put some of us upon studying this part of antiquity. I know of none at present who apply their studies this way but Mr. Buckler; who, though a Mallardian, is nevertheless, I believe, a diligent and a learned Antiquary. I am, dear Sir, yours very sincerely, EDW. ROWE MORES." * "SUSANNE MORES, annorum triginta septem, liberorum binorum matri supremum mariti donum. Derelictum luctu fide solùm leniendo obruens, octavo die Jan. Incarnat. anno MDCCLXVII." Mr. Mores was buried by her, and his atchievement in Walthamstow church has, Quarterly 1. and 4. Mores. 2. Gules, a quatrefoil Or. 3. Rowe. Impaling, Sable, 10 plates, on a chief Argent a lion passant Sable gutté Argent, Bridgman. Mr. Mr. Mores' only sister was married, in 1756, to Mr. John Warburton (son of the late Antiquary and Somerset herald John Warburton, esq.); who resided at Dublin many years, and in 1780 was Pursuivant of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland. Dr. CONYERS MIDDLETON, son of William Middleton *, rector of Hinderwell in Yorkshire, was born at Richmond, in that county, on Dec. 27, * Extracts of a letter from Mr. J. Borwick, rector of Whitby, Yorkshire, to Mr. Archdeacon Blackburne, dated Jan. 1, 1761. "William Middleton was instituted to the rectory of Hinderwell, near Whitby, in Yorkshire, June 2, 1670; which it seems was the only preferment he ever had in the Church. He was twice married: the first time to a knight's sister; by whom he had William, who proved graceless, and died poor; the second time to Barbara Place, daughter of Mr. Place of Well (probably Well near Bedal, where the Places have been Hospital-Masters); by whom he had, Conyers Middleton (so named from the father's intimacy with the Conyers of Boulby Hall); Edward, who was buried at Hinderwell, May 2, 1708, before he had got any church-preferment; and John, who went into the army. Mr. Middleton, the father, lived mostly at York while his children were in their youth; supplying his church at Hinderwell by curates, till within a little time before the death of his second wife, who was buried there, Aug. 8, 1700; as her said husband the rector also was, Feb. 13, 1713-14. His children were all born at York, and all proved very expensive to him; towards the maintaining of whose extravagance his income proving insufficient (and he was at the same time very easy in the collection of his tithes), he was by their means much reduced, and greatly straitened in his circumstances towards the latter part of his life; which made him often afraid of bailiffs and arrests. The antient widow [her name Tiplady] who was his only servant during the last six years of his life, except the year in which he died [and who is now, 1764, in the 88th year of her age, and blind, but her understanding clear, her spirits good, and her memory excellent], says, concerning his son, Conyers Middleton, whom she well remembers, that he was a free good-natured man; that he yearly visited his old father from Cambridge; and that she had heard he was reckoned the best scholar in all the University;' adding, that he was particularly kind to her, for her care of his father. These accounts are taken partly from the Register of the parish of Hinderwell, according to the entries made therein. by the present Bishop of Carlisle [Dr. Osbaldeston], who was formerly rector there; and from some of the antient inhabitants of that parish, and particularly from the above-mentioned antient widow." From the MSS. of Mr. Jones of Welwyn. 1683. His father, being possessed of an easy fortune besides his preferment in the Church, gave him a liberal education; and at seventeen years of age he was sent to Trinity college in Cambridge, of which in 1706 he was chosen fellow. In 1707 he commenced master of arts; and in two years after joined with several other fellows of his college in a petition to Dr. Moore, then bishop of Ely, as their visitor, against the celebrated Dr. Bentley, their master. In the early part of his life, he was not thought to possess any very extraordinary talents; and at the time he engaged in the controversy with Bentley, his attention was more devoted to musick than to study. This occasioned Bentley to call him in contempt a fiddler *; and probably to this sarcasm the world may be indebted for the many excellent works he afterwards produced. However, he had no sooner joined in the proceedings against Bentley, than he withdrew himself from his jurisdiction, by marrying Mrs. Drake, daughter of Mr. Morris, of Oak-Morris in Kent, and widow of Counsellor Drake of Cambridge, a lady of ample fortune. After his marriage, he took a small rectory in the Isle of Ely, which was in the gift of his wife; but resigned it in little more than a year, probably because he thought it not worth keeping. In October 1717, when King George I. visited the University of Cambridge, he was created, with several others, a doctor of divinity by mandate; and was the person who gave the first motion to that famous proceeding against Dr. Bentley, which made such a noise in the Nation. Bentley, whose office it was to perform the ceremony called Crea * "Dr. Bentley, who was no great friend to musick, gave Dr. Middleton the disgraceful epithet of "fiddling Conyers," from his playing not unfrequently upon the violin. Middleton was, however, long afterwards even with the Master; for when Dr. Bentley's Proposals for his edition of the New Testament in Greek came out, he attacked him with such strength of observation and acuteness of sarcasm, that the Doctor thought fit to decline his projected undertaking." Seward's Anecdotes, vol. II. p. 314. On this head see before, in vol. I. p. 158. tion, made a new and extraordinary demand of four guineas from each of the Doctors, on pretence of a fee due to him as Divinity-Professor, over and above a broad piece, which had by custom been allowed as a present on this occasion. Upon this a warm dispute arose; the result of which was, that many of the Doctors, and Middleton among the rest, consented to pay the fee in question, upon condition that the money should be restored if it were not afterwards determined to be his right. It was determined against Bentley, but still he kept the money: upon which Middleton commenced an action against him for the recovery of his share of it. Bentley behaving with contumacy, and shewing all imaginable contempt to the authority of the University, was at first suspended from his degrees, and then degraded. He petitioned the King for relief from that sentence upon which Middleton, by the advice of friends, thought it expedient to put the publick in possession of the whole affair. This occasioned him to publish, within the year 1719, the four following pieces: 1, "A full and impartial Account of all the late Proceedings in the University of Cambridge, against Dr. Bentley." 2, "A Second Part of the full and impartial Account, &c." 3, "Some Remarks upon a Pamphlet, intituled, The Case of Dr. Bentley farther stated and vindicated, &c." The Author of the piece here remarked was the well-known Dr. Sykes; and he is treated here by Dr. Middleton with great contempt and severity: who seems, however, afterwards to have changed his opinion of him, and to have been upon very charitable terms with him: for, in his "Vindication of the Free Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers," which was published after his death, he appeals to his authority, and calls him " a very learned and judicious writer." The last tract is intituled, 4, "A true Account of the present State of Trinity College in Cambridge, under the oppressive Government of their Master Richard Bentley, late D.D.*" But this "Whereas the Master of Trinity College is prosecuting the Author and Publisher of a Book, intituled, A true Account of the present regards only the quarrel betwixt him and his College, and is employed in exposing his misdemeanors in the administration of College affairs. It seems to have been written in order to take off a suspicion which many then had, that the proceedings of the University against Dr. Bentley did not flow so much from any real demerit in the man, as from a certain spirit of resentment and opposition to the Court, the great promoter and manager of whose interest he was thought to be there; for, it must be remembered, that, in that part of his life, Dr. Middleton was a strong Tory; though, like Bishop Gooch and other considerable persons, his contemporaries in the University, he afterwards became a very zealous Whig. But Middleton had not yet done with Bentley. The latter, in 1720, published, "Proposals for a new Edition of the Greek Testament, and Latin present State of Trinity College, Cambridge, under the oppressive Government of their Master Richard Bentley, late D.D.: For the preventing all unnecessary trouble and expence in such Prosecution, I hereby voluntarily acknowledge myself to be the sole Author of the said Book; and do declare, that the several facts therein mentioned are no other than what have either been proved upon the Master at a public Trial before the late Bishop of Ely [Dr. Fleetwood] (who died before sentence was given), or will certainly, with many more of the same kind, be charged and proved upon him by the Fellows, whenever there shall be a Visitor assigned for that purpose, for which they have long been petitioning. And I solemnly protest, that I had no other design in writing the said Book but to promote and bring on such a Visitation, by shewing the necessity of it; and to do justice to my worthy oppressed friends of that College (whereof I was not long since a Fellow), which they are not able to do for themselves, but at the hazard of their Fellowships (the Master having, since the publication of this Book, attempted to deprive a reverend and learned member of the seniority for the bare suspicion of his being the author of it). And I do now affirm, that I have said nothing material in the said Book, but under the utmost conviction of its truth, either from my own knowledge, or upon the best evidence and information, as will easily appear whenever there shall be occasion. And if in the mean while the Master, or any of his friends, will undertake to answer me in print, I hereby promise either to defend and prove every article alledged against him, or to make him the satisfaction of a public recantation, CONYERS MIDDLETON, D.D." Post-Boy, Feb. 20, 1719-20. |