_William Whittingham_, the successor of Knox at Geneva, was the son of William Whittingham, Esq. of Holmeside, in the county of Chester. He was born anno 1524, and educated at Oxford, where he was held in great reputation for his learning. On the accession of queen Mary, he went first to Frankfort, and afterwards to Geneva, where he married Catherine, the sister of John Calvin. He was one of the translators of the Geneva Bible, and composed several of the metrical psalms published at the same time, which have his initials prefixed to them. He fell under the displeasure of queen Elizabeth, on account of a commendatory preface which he wrote to Christopher Goodman’s book on Obedience to Superior Powers, in which, among other free sentiments, female government was condemned. But he enjoyed the protection of some of her principal courtiers. In 1560, he accompanied the earl of Bedford on an embassy to France, and, in 1562 and 1563, acted as chaplain to the earl of Warwick, during the defence of Havre de Grace. That brave nobleman was at a loss for words to express his high esteem of him. In a letter to Cecil, Nov. 20, 1562, Warwick writes: “I assure yow, we may all here thinck our selves happy in having soch a man amongest us as Mr Whyttingham is, not only for the greate vertues in him, but lykewise for the care he hath to serve our mistris besydes: wherfore, in my opynion, he doth well deserve grete thankes at her majesties handis.” And in a letter written by him, July 24, 1563, when he was in daily expectation of an assault by the French, he says to his brother, lord Robert Dudley, afterwards earl of Leicester; “My deare brother, for that I had, in my letter to the quene’s majesty, forgot my humblest thancks for the behalff of my deare frinde Mr Whittingam, for the great favour it hath pleased her to shew him for my sake: I besetch yow therefore do not forget to render them unto her {433} majesty. Farewell, my deare and loving brother, a thousand tymes, and the Lord send you well to do.” Forbes, State Papers, ii. 207, 418, 487. In 1563, Whittingham was made dean of Durham, which seems to have been the favour for which Warwick was so grateful to Elizabeth. I have already mentioned (p. 56) that an unsuccessful attempt was made to invalidate the ordination which he had received at Geneva. On that occasion, Dr Hutton, dean of York, told archbishop Sandys, that Whittingham “was ordained in a better manner than even the archbishop himself;” and the lord president said, he could not in conscience agree to “allow of the popish massing priests in our ministry, and to disallow of ministers made in a reformed church.” Whittingham never conformed fully to the English church, and died in 1579. Hutchinson’s History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, ii. 143‒152, 378. Note BB, Footnote 318.