I find no farther particulars of him till Oct. 17, 1723, when he advertised the volume * noticed below; which I have never seen. He survived till 1733; and died at the age of 74. "Upon this Moment depends Eternity: or, Mr. John Dunton's serious Thoughts upon the present and future State, in a Fit of Sickness that was judged mortal; in which many new Opinions are started and proved; in particular this, That the sincere practice of known Duties, or dying daily to this Life and World, would of itself resolve the most ignorant Person in all the abstruse Points of the Christian Religion-being a new Directory for holy living and dying; composed of the Author's own Experience in Religion, Politicks, and Morals, from his Childhood to his Sixty-third Year (but more especially during his dangerous Disease in Ireland in the Year Ninety-eight, when his Life was despaired of); and completed in Twenty Essays upon such nice and curious points in Divinity as were never handled before. To which is added, the Sick Man's Passing-Bell, to remind all Men of that Death and Eternity to which they are hastening. Containing, 1. God be merciful to me a Sinner; or, Dunton at Confession; in which he discovers the secret Sins of his whole Life; with his Resolution in what penitent Manner (by the help of God) he'll spend the short Time he has yet to live. 2. Dunton's Legacy to his native Country; or, a dying Farewell to the most remarkable Persons and Things both in Church and State; with his last Prayer (or those very Petitions to Almighty God) with which he hopes to expire. 3. A living Man following his own Corpse to the Grave: or, Dunton represented as dead and buried, in an Essay upon his own Funeral. To which is added (for the Oddness and Singularity of it) a Copy of his last Will and Testament. His living Elegy, wrote with his own Hand; and the Epitaph designed for his Tombstone in the new Buryingplace. Together with, 4. The real Period of Dunton's Life; or, a Philosophical Essay upon the Nature of that Grand Climacteric Year Sixty-three, in which (as few Persons outlive that fatal Time) he expects to be actually buried with the best of Wives Mrs. Elizabeth Annesley alias Dunton; with their Reasons for sleeping together in the same Grave till the general Resurrection; as contained in two Letters that passed between Mr. Dunton and his Wife a few Days before she died. The whole Directory and Passing-Bell submitted to the impartial Censure of the Right Reverend Father in God William Lord Bishop of Ely. By Mr. John Dunton, a Member of the Athenian Society, and Author of the Essay intituled, 'The Hazard of a Death-bed Repentance." We are all seiz'd with the Athenian Itch, News, and New Things do the World bewitch. Dr. WILD. Printed for S. Popping in Paternoster-row, price 1. 6d.” No. III. THE FAMILY OF THE FREINDS. (See vol. I. p. 288.) WILLIAM FRIEND*, M. A. born Aug. 3, 1634, was educated at Westminster-school, elected to Christ Church, Oxford, 1656; obtained the rectory of Croughton in Northamptonshire in 1663; where he resided till his death, which is thus recorded on a handsome monument in the chancel of that church: On the frieze: *Natus Augusti iiio, 1634; obiit Septemb. xx. 1689." On the tablet: "H.S. E. GULIELMUS FRIEND, A. M. hujus parochiæ per XXVI annos Rector, } Alumnus; utrique loco charus, utriusque amantissimus. Vir ingenii acumine satis valens, in gerendâ Parochiali curâ, cui totum se devovit, diligens, indefessus: in toto vitæ cursu, quod vel parùm decuit, vel sordidi fuit animi, nihil non ausus. Neque fuit illo usquam, quoad potuit, * So spelt; but his sons wrote the name Freind. Tres, Tres, qui hodie supersunt, filios, Schola Westmonasteriensis Archididasculum, Manerii de Hitcham in Com' Buck', Dominum, JOANNEM, M.D. Londinensem, sub iisdem, in quibus ipse olim adolevit, Penetralibus erudiri probè curavit. Qui filii et ipsius exemplar, et fælicissimam suam educationem egregium fuisse Patrimonium arbitrati, marmor hoc optimo Parenti P. P." Mr. Friend, besides the three sons recorded in his epitaph, had a daughter Anne, who was married to the successor of her father in the rectory; as appears by the following epitaph: "Hic cum certâ resurgendi spe sepultus est et magni BOCHARTI ex Sorore Nepos ; hujusce parochiæ curam administravit, Obiit An. Dom. 1719, Aug. 20, æt. 53." * M. A. of Christ Church, Oxford, 1694. Two others of the family obtained the same degree in 1719 and 1752. † Of whom see p. 89. ROBERT ROBERT FREIND, the eldest son, was admitted in 1680 to Westminster-school, whence he was elected to Christ Church in 1686; where he was a student at the time of the inauguration of King William and Queen Mary; and made on that occasion a good copy of English verses, which were printed in the University Collection *. In the famous dispute between Bentley and Boyle, Mr. Freind was a warm partizan for the honour of his College+. He proceeded M.A. June 1, 1693; became second master of Westminster-school in 1699; and accumulated the degrees of B. and D.D. July 7, 1709. In 1711 he published a Sermon preached before the House of Commons, Jan. 30, 1710-11, from Jer. iii. 25. In the same year he succeeded Duke the Poet in the valuable living of Witney in Oxfordshire; became head-master of Westminster-school and is said to have drawn up the preamble to the Earl of Oxford's patent of Peerage §. March 16, 1722-3, the day after his brother (Dr. John) was committed to the Tower, Dr. Robert Freind caused much speculation in the school, and its vicinity, by giving for a theme, " Frater, ne desere Fratrem." In 1724, he published Cicero's "Orator;" and in 1728 Mr. Bowyer was indebted to him for the West * "Vota Oxoniensia pro serenissimis Guilhelmo Rege et Mariâ Regina M. Britanniæ, &c. nuncupata; Oxon. 1689."-These verses were also printed in the Select Collection of Miscellany Poems, 1781, vol. VII. p. 132. † A niece of Dr. Robert Freind was married to a son of Dr. Bentley, who, after that event, conceived a better opinion of the Christ Church men; and declared, that "Freind had more good learning in him than ever he had imagined." "I will tell you what Mr. Pope told me, who had been let into the secret concerning the Oxford performance-that Boyle wrote only the narrative of what passed between him and the Bookseller, which too was corrected for him; that Freind the Master of Westminster and Atterbury wrote the body of the criticisms; and that Dr. King of the Commons wrote the droll argument to prove Dr. Bentley was not the Author of the Dissertation on Phalaris, and the Index. And a powerful cabal gave it a surprising run." Warburton's Letters, 8vo, p. 11. § He probably revised it; but it was drawn up by Swift; and may be seen in the Dean's Works, 1808, vol. III. p. 367. minster minster Verses on the Coronation of King George the Second, which are noticed under 1761. In April 1729, Dr. Freind obtained a canonry of Windsor; which in 1731 he exchanged for a prebend of Westminster. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1733*, are some verses by Stephen Duck to Dr. Freind, on his quitting Westminster-school; by which it appears that Lord Carteret (afterwards Earl Granville), Lord Hervey, and the Duke of Newcastle, were greatly indebted to him for part of their accomplishments and future fame. In 1734, he was desirous of resigning Witney to his son (afterwards Dean of Canterbury); but could not do it without the permission of Bishop Hoadly, which he had little reason to expect. On application, however, to that Prelate, through Queen Caroline and Lady Sundon, he received this laconic answer: "If Dr. Freind can ask it, I can grant it.". * Vol. III. p. 152. This lady, more known by the name of Mrs. Clayton, was the bed-chamber woman and intimate friend of Queen Caroline ; and for a considerable time sole arbitress of Church-preferments. Several of Bp. Hoadly's Letters to her, from 1715 to 1734, are preserved in his Works. In one of them he says, "I do not, follow great precedents, and write on the outside, or in the front, To the much esteemed, To the much respected, To the highly honoured Mrs. Clayton. But it is writ within, in lasting characters. Your own virtues have writ it. Your other accomplishments are great and uncommon; but it is your sincerity. and goodness which make the deepest impression, which manage the others, and give them their agreeableness."--On the business of the living of Witney, Bp. Hoadly tells this Lady, "I had no design in my neglect of avoiding to give all the assurances that you yourself desired about Mr. Freind. If you and I continue. upon this dirty planet, you yourself shall be satisfied of the truth of what I have said to you; and I say this the rather, because, if you are not satisfied in what I do, I am very sure I shall not be so myself. You have done more in two or three words, when you tell me, You shall esteem it as done to yourself, to move and engage me (if I had not been already engaged to it) than all the oratory of all others could have done. And if that case should happen which you once put; but which my heart will not sufferme to repeat; Friendship and Honour shall most certainly act a part, which if your spirit could then look out and see, it would say, This is exactly as it would have been, had I been still there." "Dr. Freind could ask any thing. All his letters to Lady Sundon are still existing; they are trifling and low beyond conception; yet Dr. Freind was a scholar that Bentley would con, sult." T. F |