more at large appears. The rent of Danthorpe as then fixed was £2. 4s. 2d. in moneys, and three quarters of wheat and four bushels of malt in corn, and the rent of that estate is the very same in moneys and corn at this day, only so far 5 improved as the price of corn is now higher than when it was sold at 6s. 8d. or 5s. for a quarter of wheat or malt, and is such an improvement as usually makes the third part more than the whole.

Of this he took care by seconding and advancing the 10 intention of the act, as he afterwards did at Trinity college to that degree, as to have it entered upon their1 register as a part of his character. He was removed to that house May 30th an. 15772 upon the promotion of Dr Whitgift to the see of Worcester, and left St John's very reputably, 15 not carried out in a chair, according to a foolish tradition, which could be no otherwise true than if it were made use of to do him honour. It is enough to confute such a fable, were it worth confuting, that he had the queen's letters for that remove, which were a sufficient protection to guard 20 him from affronts. How he acquitted himself in that new charge is well known from their registers, which are better vouchers for his prudence, integrity and learning than any thing that I can say.

As to his other preferments, besides these two master25 ships which he enjoyed successively, he was rector of Hadley in Suffolk, where he hit upon Mr Bois then a young scholar of pregnant parts and growing hopes, and brought him hither to be a future ornament to the college, especially in the Greek tongue, then so rarely known that for part of 30 Mr Bois' time there were only two in college that understood it, Mr Downs and himself. And here, I suppose, it was he hit upon a yet greater ornament of the house, John Overall (born and bred in the town of Hadley), and brought him with him to his own lodgings, and upon his removal 35 transplanted him to Trinity college, where he became fellow, and was elected regius professor an. 1595, being then a very young man: for by an inscription he has left upon

1 Regr. coll. Trin. Cant.
Regr. ibid.

3 MS. Life of Mr Jo. Bois.
Parker, Exeλ. Cant.

the leads' of St John's chapel dated 1577, he was then eighteen years of age.

Dr Still was likewise archdeacon of Sudbury in the same county, which gave him a place in convocation, where he appeared in the year 1588: preached the sermon ad cle- 5 rum at the opening thereof and was chose' prolocutor in the same convocation, being recommended to the choice of the lower house by archbishop Whitgift then his patron, as he had formerly been his friend. He was born in Lincolnshire, as such was countryman to the archbishop, which to probably might be some ground or introduction to his favour and friendship.

He was promoted to the see of Bath and Wells an. 1592, where he grew rich, purchased an estate and raised a family. He died Feb. 26, 1607, and was buried in his own cathe- 15 dral. His epitaph was composed by Mr Cambden, and being printed with that learned man's epistles may be there met with.

1 In tectis capella coll. Jo. 2 An. 1576.

3 Doctam habuit ac edidit concionem in sermone Romano. V. Acta convocationis an. 1588.

4 Uno ore, sine mora, concorditer, unanimi consensu, nemine contradicente. Ibid.

5 Cambden. Epist. [ii.] p. 105.

RICHARD HOWLAND FIFTEENTH MASTER,

ADMITTED JULY 20TH AN. 1577.

ALTHOUGH Dr Still went off May the 30th', yet Richard Howland B.D. was not admitted master till July the 20th (a distance of time beyond the statutable allowance, and could not have been dispensed with, had not the college 5 been then in the hands of the queen's commissioners, who dispensed in this and other particulars); and this Mr Howland, a dependent of my lord Burleigh's the principal commissioner, was brought hither from the mastership of Magdalene college: a preferment he could not but be very wil10 ling to part with, his predecessor Dr Roger Kelke some time fellow of St John's college having in a manner ruined that foundation by an unreasonable grant of an estate in St Botulph's parish without Aldgate to the queen, etc., which could never afterwards be retrieved.

15

There was one thing that made his coming hither more agreeable, that as he had succeeded a St John's man at Magdalene college, so another of the fellows one Mr Henry Copinger was designed to succeed him there, and so it was only an unequal exchange; and indeed very unequal to 20 Mr Copinger, for, though he came in there by the queen's authority, yet he was so much discountenanced by the

1 The account of Dr Still's admission at Trinity college, May 30th, I had from their leiger book; that, I find since, is a mistake; bp. Whitgift did not quit his mastership there till towards the middle of June an. 1577, and so Mr Howland might

be regularly admitted at St John's within the statutable time. V. Caus. pub. acad. Cant. an. 1577.

2 Coke's Reports, unz. part. Mag. dal. col. case. [Pasch. 13 Jac. ed. 1697. fol. 66.]

3 MS. Life of Mr Jo. Bois.

hereditary patron of that house that he was forced to quit his mastership; and by accepting that having parted with his fellowship, to the which there was no return, was thereby turned out of all: a very hard fate upon so deserving a man, and might with more justice have fallen upon 5 Dr Kelke.

There could not have been a fitter man than a master of Magdalene for the designs now on foot of giving new statutes and enlarging the master's power, yet too much limited to keep the college in tolerable order. This design 10 had been thought of in Dr Still's time, but was now undertaken in earnest: I find' Dr Ithell master of Jesus and the bishop of Ely's chancellor much employed in the design, but he dying before it was effected, the affair on the college part devolved much upon the present master, who solicited 15 it with much zeal, and meeting with an inclination in the chancellor the lord Burghley, if there were any difficulties, they were easily overcome by so powerful an assistance. And to make them of more easy digestion, my lord Burghley gilded the bill by enlarging the commons of the scho- 20 lars of the foundation, as yet too small to afford a tolerable subsistence, in a manner expressed in the body of the statutes, and towards this use gave an annual rent of £30 payable for ever out of his estates in Northampton and Hertfordshire, for the which he was to be paid only in 25 honours, by verses from the scholars and sermons from the fellows at Stamford and Cheshunt or Theobald's, since altered for Hatfield and Quixwood, and these honours to be perpetual to his family, as his benefaction was to be: the nomination of two scholars of the foundation was like- 30 wise left to him and his family.

His lady the lady Mildred was also a benefactress; and about this time3 Dr Goodman dean of Westminster, who had been raised by this lord, founded two scholarships in the college, and afterwards left the nomination to a younger 35 branch of this family; and Sir Ambrose Cave's benefaction, no less considerable, was determined to the college by the same hand: besides many other favours by the interest of

1 Archiv. coll. Liber thesaurar. etc.

2 Settlement, an. regn. Eliz. 23.
3 An. regn. Eliz. 21, Febr. 20.

this great lord both to the body in common and to particular members of the college.

In this disposition and under these obligations nothing was to be refused to my lord Burghley that he could reason5 ably desire, and he having thought it for the interest of the society to have new statutes, they were thankfully to be received, and to be numbered amongst his benefactions. They were at least three years in forming and preparing1; the master had two or three journeys to London and BerkIo shire to attend the chancellor about them; after they were completely formed, they were sent down to the college an. 1580 by the queen's authority, signed by her commissioners, William Burghley chancellor of the university, Richard Cox bishop of Ely, Andrew Perne master of Peter 15 house, Edward Hawford master of Christ's and Henry Hervey master of Trinity hall. Some little alterations were afterwards made, but they were inconsiderable.

These being the statutes now in force are in every one's hands, and so well known as not to need to be explained. 20 Two alterations are pretty visible, that the master's power is much enlarged and that of the visitor is equally limited: there might be somewhat of the same reason for both, for as the masters had formerly been able to do little without having recourse to visitations, so it might reasonably be 25 supposed, that their power being now enlarged, the government of the college would be more regular and uniform, and that there would be less occasion for a visitor. And yet it seems an odd part in the bishop of Ely to part with such a share of his power, to which he was so fully and 30 variously entitled, and which, being one of the queen's commissioners, could hardly be taken from him without his consent.

In all the former statutes the bishop of Ely's power had been always preserved pretty entire, at least in a just 35 height, even by Henry the Eighth's statutes; he had not

1 Archiv. coll. Liber thesaur. The commission ad visitand. coll. S. Jo. Evang. bears date Jul. 13 an. r. Eliz. 18, 1576. Rymer, an. 1576. [Tom. xv. pp. 762, 763.]

2 Dr Whitgift, Ithell and Binge were named in the commission; but Whitgift was removed to Worcester and Ithell died within the period. 3 An. 1580.