Natural history -- England -- Wiltshire; Wiltshire (England) -- History
[*“Nosce Teipsum: this oracle expounded in two elegies. 1st. Of Human
knowledge. 2nd. Of the soule of man, and the immortality thereof;” with
acrostics on Queen Elizabeth. (London, 1609, small 8vo.) The works of
the above named Lady Eleanor Davies, the prophetess, widow of Sir John,
were of a most extraordinary kind. See a list of them in Watt’s
Bibliotheca Britannica.—J. B.]
Mr. Thomas Hobbes was born at Westport juxta Malmesbury, April the
fifth, anno 1588, he told me, between four and six in the morning, in
the house that faces or points to the horse-faire. He died at Hardwick
in Darbyshire, Anno Domini 1679, ætatis 91. [See Aubrey’s Life of
Hobbes, appended to Letters from the Bodleian, vol. iii. p. 593.—J. B.]
Thomas Willis, M.D., was born at Great Bedwin in this county, anno
[1621.] His father, he told me, was steward to my Lady Smyth there. He
dyed in London, and lies interred with his wife in Westminster Abbey.
Thomas Piers, D.D., and Dean of Salisbury, formerly President of
Magdalen College in Oxford, was born at the Devizes. His father was a
woollen draper and an alderman there.
Sir Christopher Wren, Knt., Surveyor of his Majesties buildings, the
eldest sonne of Dr. Christopher Wren, Deane of Windsor, was born at
Knoyle, in this county, where his father was rector, in the
parsonage-house, anno 1631; christened November the 10th; but he tells
me that he was born October the 20th. His mother fell in labour with
him when the bell rung eight.
[Richard] Blackmore, M.D., born in Cosham parish, the sonne of an
attorney, went to schoole to Parson…. of Dracot. Scripsit an Epique
poeme, called Prince Arthur, 1694.
Sir William Penn, Vice-Admirall, born at Minety, in the hundred of
Malmesbury. His father was a keeper in Braden forest: the lodge is
called Penn’s lodge to this day. He was father to William Penn, Esq.
Lord Proprietor of Pensylvania; it is a very ancient family in
Buckinghamshire. This family in North Wilts had heretofore a dependence
on the Abbey of Malmesbury as stewards or officers. [Sir William Penn
was buried in Redcliffe Church, Bristol. See Britten’s Account of
Redcliffe Church.—J. B.]
T. Byfield, a physician, sonn of Adoniram Byfield, the Assembly man,
born at Collingbourn Ducis, where his father was rector. He published a
book of Waters about 1684.
Mr. Edward Whatman, of Mayden Bradley, practitioner in physick, and
very successfull in his practise. By reason of the civill warrs he was
of no university, but he was a young man of great parts and great
hopes. He died shortly after his Majesties restauration, aged about 35.
He onely printed “Funerall Obsequies on the Honourable the Ladie
Elizabeth Hopton, wife to Sir Ralph Hopton,” London, 1647.
Mr. William Gardiner, the eminent schoolemaster at Blandford, about
twenty yeares; born in this county; died about 1636, aetatis 47.
MUSICIANS.-The quire of Salisbury Cathedral hath produced as many able
musicians, if not more, than any quire in this nation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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