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by John Aubrey
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In: Biographies·British Literature·History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #47791.
Brief Lives, Vol. 2 is a collection of biographical sketches assembled by the 17th‑century antiquary John Aubrey. The work opens with a dense, footnote‑laden entry about Mr Ingelbert, the modest inventor of a water‑supply scheme from Ware to London, and quickly expands to a series of intertwined anecdotes concerning merchants, clerics, judges and royal officials. Aubrey’s notes weave together parish records, personal letters and contemporary testimonies, offering a patchwork portrait of figures such as Sir Hugh Middleton, the Isaacson family of St Catherine‑Coleman, and the jurist David Jenkins, whose turbulent career under the Stuarts is recounted in vivid detail. The opening passage demonstrates the book’s focus on the lives of lesser‑known actors who shaped Britain’s political and social landscape between the Tudor and Stuart eras.
The prose reflects Aubrey’s early‑modern style: a lively, sometimes rambling narration punctuated by marginalia, Latin quotations and precise dates. Readers who enjoy genealogical sleuthing, the minutiae of early‑modern bureaucracy, or a glimpse into the networks of scholars, lawyers and courtiers of 16th‑ and 17th‑century England will find this volume rewarding. Its mixture of documentary rigor and anecdotal color appeals especially to historians, literary scholars, and anyone fascinated by the texture of everyday life in the age of James I, Charles II and the Restoration.
The opening · free to read
[A] In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 1ᵛ, Aubrey has this note:--'In Pond's Almanack, 1647, thus--"Since the river from Ware to London began by Edward Pond, Jan. 2, 35 yeares. 'Twas finished, Sept. 20, 34 yeares"--.'
=John Innocent= (14-- -1545).
[4]At Doctors Commons is 'argent on gules a mayd stark naked with a chaplet in her hand dexter.' The name I could never learn, till by chance, in Hampshire, by a courtier. It is the coate of Dr. Innocent, deane of Paule's and master of St. Crosses, tempore Henrici VII. Borne at Barkehamsted, Hertfordshire; where he built a free-schole, where this coat is in severall places. 'Tis endowed with 500_li._ per annum for 120 scholars from any part of England. The Visitor is the Warden of All Soules, Oxon.
=Henry Isaacson= (1581-1654).
[5]Mr. Henry Isaacson was secretary to Lancelot Andrews, lord bishop of Winton. Was borne in this parish (of St. Katharine Coleman) anno Domini 1581; christned--ex registro[I.]--Septemb. 17ᵗʰ; and buried in this church. He died about the 7th of December, 1654. He had severall children: four sonnes still living, one is a minister at Stoke neer Ipswych in Suffolk.
[I.] St. Catherine Coleman, 1581--'Sept. 17, Henry Isackson baptised.'--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 89ᵛ.
In the chancell here[6] I find this inscription, on a marble grave-stone, viz.:
'Here lyeth the body of Richard Isaacson, esq., Eastland merchant, and free of the Paynters Stayners of this citie of London, who having lived in this parish 58 yeares, slept in the Lord 19 January, Anno Domini 1620. [II.]Henricus filius et haeres hoc memorabile posuit pietatis ergo.'
[II.] Scil. Henricus praedictus.
[7]Memorandum:--<Thomas> Bourman, Dr. of Divinity, of Kingston upon Thames, did know Mr. Isaacson, and told me that he was a learned man, which I easily believed when I heard he was secretary to that learned prelate, who made use of none but for merit. The Dr. told me that when he presented his Chronologie to his majestie King Charles the first, 'twas in the matted gallery at White-hall[III.]. The <king> presently discerned the purpose of the treatise, and turned to his owne birth; sayd the King, '_Here's one lye to begin with_.' It seemes that Mr. Isaacson had taken it out of ... (a foreigner), who used the other account. Poor Mr. Isaacson was so ashamed at this unlucky rencounter, that he immediately sneak't away and stayd not for prayse or reward, both which perhaps he might have had, for his majestie was well pleased with it. He wrote severall little bookes, besides his Chronologie: quaere of the minister's wife (his niece) their titles. He was of Pembroke-hall, in Cambridge. He was there about Master of Arts standing.
[III.] 'Twas presented in an ill hower. An astrologer would give something to know that day and hower. He wanted a good election.
I find that my grandfather dyed in St. Cathrin Coleman's parish London, the 19ᵉ January, 1620, and to my best rememberance upon his gravestone in the chancell it was ingraven that hee had lived in the said parrish 58 yeares. He <was> fined for not serving the office of shereif of London, being chosen in the yeare 1618.
My father died in St. Cathrin Coleman's parrish above-said about the 7ᵉ of December, 1654, which is neare 34 years after my grandfather's death. I calculate from the tyme of his birth to my grandfather's death to bee 39 yeares: ad[10] the 34 yeares after my grandfather's death to the 39 before: 39 + 34 makes 73 yeares his age--which all the familie agree that hee was seaventy three yeares of age when hee died, soe that hee was borne in anno 1581. Borne in anno 1581, dyed aged 73, makes 1654 the yeare when he dyed. And in all probabillity hee was borne in St. Kathrin Coleman's parrish, my grandfather having lived soe long tyme there: the church booke, if extant, will soone resolve yow--I never heard any thing to the contrary.
My brother William Isaacson could more exactly give you an account of the degrees he tooke, if any, but the University was Cambriege and the College Pembrooke-Hall. I thinke I have heard hee was Mr. of Arts standing, but am somthing uncertayne of this.
RAND. ISAACSON.
Fifeild, the 21ᵉ Aprill 1681.
[11]In the table of benefactors in the Church of St. Catherine Colman, viz.--
'1620: Mr. Richard Isaacson'--the chronologer[12]--'2 li. 12_s._ per annum to the poor.'
=James I= (1566-1625).
<A life of 'James R.' is entered in the index to MS. Aubrey 6 (see vol. i. p. 8), as contemplated by Aubrey. If written, the life was hostile in tone, as may be seen from the following query towards it (Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 347: 8 Sept. 1680):--
'Pray search that booke[13], and see if you can find the ballad, or verses, on the coronation of king James--
And at the erse of them marched the Scotish peeres With lowzie shirts, and mangie wrists, went pricking-up their eares.'>
[14]Dr. Jaquinto: physitian to pope ..., then to king James[15]. He went into the marshes of Essex, where they putt their sheep to cure them of the rott, where he lived sometime purposely to observe what plants the sheep did eat, of which herbs he made his medicine for the consumption, which Mr. E. W.[16] haz.
=David Jenkins= (1586-1663).
[17]Judge Jenkins, prisoner in the Tower of London, Windsor, etc., <eleven> yeares, for his loyalty. He would have taken it kindly to have been made one of the judges in Westminster Hall, but would give no money for it, [so[18] the Lord Chancellor Hyde never preferred him].
He was of very good courage. Rode in the lord Gerard's army in Pembrokeshire, in the forlorne-hope, with his long rapier drawne holding it on-end.
Obiit Dec. 3, anno Domini 1663; sepult. at Cowbridge church in the south aisle in Glamorganshire. No remembrance yet (1682) set up for him.
[Quaere[19] Sir Robert Thomas whereabout in the church or chancell.]
[20]David Jenkins hath writt a learned treatise of the lawe, in folio, of cases twice judged (quaere nomen); and an 'opusculum' (Lex terrae, etc.) in 16mo.
Borne at ... in Glamorganshire. He was of Edmund Hall. Afterwards of Graye's inne. One of the judges[21] in South Wales. Imprisoned a long time in the Tower, Newgate, and Windsore. Was the only man that never complied. Dyed about 1665, at Cowbridge in Glamorganshire.
He marryed Sir John Aubrey's sister.
[22]David Jenkins, judge, was borne at Hensol, the place where he lived, in the parish of Pendeylwyn in com. Glamorgan. He was reciting this verse out of Ausonius, not long before he dyed, to Sir Llewellin Jenkins:--
Et baculo innitens, in qua reptabat arena.
Scripsit Opuscula, contayning severall little treatises, viz. Lex terrae, etc.; Rerum judicatarum censurae octo, in folio; praeter alias ejusdem naturae ineditas.
He was one of the judges of the Carmarthen, Cardigan, and Pembrokeshire circuit before the wars. In the warres he was taken prisoner at Hereford. Long time prisoner in the Tower, Newgate, Wallingford, and Windsore. Never submitted to the usurping power (I thinke, the only man). All his estate was confiscated; and was always excepted by the parliament in the first ranke of delinquents.
In his circuit in Wales at the beginning of the warres, he caused to be indicted severall men of those parts (that were parliament, etc. engaged against the king) for highe treason; and the grand jury indicted them. Afterwards, when he was prisoner in Newgate, some of these grandees came to him to triumph over him, and told him that if they had been thus in his power, he would have hanged them. 'God forbid els!' replied he--which undaunted returne they much admired.
The parliament intended to have hanged him; and he expected no lesse, but resolved to be hangd with the Bible under one arme and Magna Charta under the other. And hangd he had been, had not Harry Martyn told them in the house that
and that that way would doe them more mischiefe. So his life was saved, and they removed him out of the way to Wallingford Castle.
He dyed upwards (something[23]) of fowrscore yeares of age at Cowbridge in the county of Glamorgan,[24] on St. Nicholas day, November[25] the sixth, 1663; and in that church lyes buried, yet without a monument, but I thinke my cosen intends one.
'Tis pitty he was not made one of the judges of Westminster-hall for his long sufferings; and he might have been, he told me, if he would have given money to the Chancellor--but he scornd it. He needed it not, for he had his estate againe (1500 li. per annum), and being old and carceribus confractus. Mr. T. H., Malmesburiensis, told him one day at dinner that 'that hereafter would not shew well for somebodie's honour in history.'
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