Joseph Hirst Lupton

“ It is with that kingdom that Offa is next found at war; he defeated the Kentish army in 776 at Otford, and his victory seems to have made Kent subject to him. At this time, too, the East-Saxons were no doubt brought under his supremacy, and their subjection would imply that he gained London, where he is said, though on no good authority, to have built himself a residence. Having brought the south-eastern part of England under his dominion, he made war on the West-Saxons, and in 779 fought with their king, Cynewulf [q. v.] ”

“ Offa is the subject of legends. Some are connected with the death of Æthelberht [see under Ethelbert] . Others are contained in the ‘Vitæ duorum Offarum,’ falsely attributed to Matthew Paris, which gives, first, a wholly legendary life of one of his ancestors, also named Offa, fifth in descent from Woden; and, secondly, a life of the Mercian king, whose name, so the writer asserts, was originally Winfrith, and was changed to Offa on account of his likeness to an ancestor of that name. The story is of no historic value. ”

“ Within a few months of graduation Lumby was made Dennis fellow of his college, and began to take pupils. In 1860 he gained the Crosse scholarship, and in the same year was ordained deacon and priest in the diocese of Ely. For clerical work he had the chaplaincy of Magdalene and the curacy of Girton. In 1861 he won the Tyrwhitt Hebrew scholarship, and was appointed classical lecturer at Queens' College. ”

“ In 1530 Wakefeld was sent by the king to Oxford, at the request of that university, to teach Hebrew, and delivered an address on the subject in the hall of King's College (Christ Church) , which was printed, apparently in the same year, along with his ‘Syntagma.’ The confusion of this with his earlier ‘Oratio de Laudibus’ has been a source of frequent mistakes (see, for example, Wordsworth's Scholæ Academicæ, 1877, p. 379) . In 1532 Wakefeld was appointed to the twelfth canonry in the newly refounded King's College or Christ Church, Oxford (Wood, Hist. and Antiquities, ed. Gutch, p. 429) . ”

“ The small income, before the provision of one by statute, coupled with the want of a residence, had proved fatal to the interests of the see; but Ollivant devoted himself wholly to his diocese, only leaving it to attend convocation or to sit in parliament when church questions were under discussion, or to fulfil his duties as a member of the Old Testament revision company. The proposal in convocation in 1870 to revise the New Testament had been extended to the Old on his initiative. ”

“ Lumby's literary career showed remarkable activity. He was one of the founders of the Early English Text Society, and edited for it 'King Horn' (1866) , 'Ratis Raving' (1867) , and other pieces. For the Rolls series, being requested by the master of the rolls to continue the work of Professor Babington, he edited vols. iii-ix. of Higden's 'Polychronicon' (1871-86) , and vol. i. of the 'Chronicon' of Henry Knighton (1889) . To the Pitt Press series he contributed editions of Bacon's 'Henry VII' (1876) , 'Venerabilis Bædæ Historiæ. ... ”

“ By 1528 Lupton had completed the preparations for his great work, the foundation of a free school in his native town of Sedbergh, and the affiliation of it, after the example of Winchester and Eton, to a college in one of the universities. He had already endowed a chantry at Sedbergh, and this he now merged in a school, with his chantry priest, Sir Harry Blomer, for its first head-master (Platt, Hist. of Sedbergh, p. 43) . ”

“ Libri iii. iv.' (in conjunction with Professor John E. B. Mayor, 1878) , More's 'Utopia,' in Robynson's English translation (1879) , More's 'History of Richard III' (1883) , and Cowley's 'Essays' (1887) . As co-editor of the 'Cambridge Bible for Schools,' he edited, with commentary, 'The Acts (chaps, i-xiv., 1879; completed 1884) , '1 Kings' (1886) , '2 Kings' (1887) , 'The Acts' in the 'Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools' (1885) , also in 'The Smaller Cambridge Bible for Schools' (1889) , and for this last series '1 Kings' (1891) . ”

“ WILDERSPIN, SAMUEL (1792?–1866) , joint-founder of the infant school system in England, was the son of Alexander Wilderspin, and was born at Hornsey, Middlesex, in or about 1792. He began life as a clerk in a merchant's office, but left this occupation to devote himself to the development of infant schools. He was not the originator of the system, the credit of which is generally given to Oberlin, pastor of Waldbach in Alsace, and, in Great Britain, to Robert Owen [q. v.] ”

“ John Ward was employed by the London booksellers to draw up a revised edition, and in 1758 the book was further transformed and appropriated by Eton. A collection of various editions since 1515 is in the library of St. Paul's School, and another, formed by Dr. Bloxam, is at Magdalen College, Oxford (Bloxam, A Register of the Presidents, &c., i. 24) . Lily's famous ‘Carmen de Moribus,’ beginning ‘Qui mihi discipulus,’ has been often inserted in other works besides the Grammar. ”

“ He is reported to have been a good friend to the university, upholding its privileges and lending help to poor scholars. At Oxford he was instrumental in obtaining decisions in favour of the king's divorce, but was pelted with stones there, along with Dr. Bell and Dr. Fox (Lyte, Hist. of Oxford, p. 474, quoting Cal. State Papers, Spanish, iv. 475) . The same unpopularity attended him in the north. Marshall lamented to Cromwell that ‘poor people be indicted for small matters of pretended heresy, as by the Bishop of Lincoln in his diocese’ (Gairdner, Letters and Papers, xi. 325) ”

“ At his request Lily translated from the Italian the ‘Sorte composite per lo nobile ingegno di Lor. Spirito Perugino,’ a singular treatise on divination by throws of the dice, first printed at Brescia in 1488. He also joined More in friendly rivalry in the task of translating epigrams from the Greek Anthology into Latin elegiacs. This joint production was published in 1518 under the title of ‘Progymnasmata,’ and is an evidence of the flexibility of mind and command over both languages possessed by the two scholars. It is often hard to decide to which of the two the palm should be awarded. ”

“ He was apprenticed at an early age to a merchant-taylor and merchant of the staple, named John Mechels, described as an intimate friend of Lily. Taking up his freedom, he rose in time to be master (1547) of the Merchant Taylors' Company. ”

“ His tenure of the high mastership was not a long one, but he sent out in the course of it some very distinguished men—Lupset, Denny, Edward, first baron North, Leland, and Sir William Paget. There is no authority for the story of his barbarous severity towards his scholars, which popular authors have long accepted (see the present writer's Vitrier and Colet, App. B, and his Life of Dean Colet, p. 261) . In the summer of 1522 Lily was ready with a panegyric in Latin verse, and an address to be pronounced by one of his scholars when the Emperor Charles V rode past. ”

“ It is said that James II tried to prevent an election being made till his pleasure was known (art. in Biogr. Britannica, quoting the Rev. Osmund Beauvoir) . On the accession of William and Mary, Wake was made deputy clerk of the closet and chaplain in ordinary to the king and queen. In June 1689 he was appointed to a canonry in Christ Church, Oxford. ”

“ MALIM, WILLIAM (1533–1594) , headmaster successively of Eton and St. Paul's School, is said to have been born at Staplehurst in Kent, but in his Latin verses he more than once calls himself Cantuariensis, from which we may infer that Canterbury was his native place. The date of his birth is given as 1533. There is no reason for supposing (as in Knight, Colet, 2nd edit. p. 320) that a John Malin, a benefactor to St. Peter's, Cornhill, was his father. He was educated at Eton, and went thence to King's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted a scholar, 14 Aug. ”

“ Offa's dyke, as this earthwork is called, is, roughly speaking and reckoning Monmouthshire as Welsh, still the boundary between England and Wales, though the traces now left of it are few. Offa thus added to Mercia a large part of Powys, together with the town of Pengwern, the modern Shrewsbury (Rhys, Celtic Britain, p. 141 ; Annales Uambrenses, ann. 778-784 ; Asser, ap. Monumenta Historica Britannica, p. 471) . The native population remained in the conquered land, and lived side by side with their conquerors. ”

“ It is said that Charles asked for one of Offa's daughters in marriage for his eldest son, that Offa refused unless Charles would give his daughter in marriage to Offa's son, and that Charles was deeply angered by this assumption of equality by the Mercian king. ”

“ In 1843 he was elected to the regius professorship of divinity at Cambridge, carrying with it the rectory of Somersham, Huntingdonshire; and in 1849, on the nomination of Lord John Russell, he was raised to the see of Llandaff (nom. 29 Oct., cons. 2 Dec.) in succession to Edward Copleston [q. v.]
His long episcopate of thirty-three years was marked by much useful work and by many reforms. For many generations no bishop had been, properly speaking, resident. Copleston, as dean of St. Paul's, spent much of his time in London. ”

“ On 30 Nov. 1882, little more than a fortnight before his death, his portrait, painted by Ouless, was presented to him by Lord Aberdare in the town-hall at Cardiff in behalf of the clergy and laity of his diocese. He died at Bishop's Court, Llandaff, on 16 Dec. 1882, having been for some time the senior member of the bench, and was buried in the churchyard of his cathedral. A tomb, with his effigy in marble by Armitstead, was erected by the diocese in his memory on the north side of the altar steps. ”

“ WHITAKER, JEREMIAH (1599–1654) , puritan divine, was born at Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1599. After being educated at the grammar school there under the Rev. Philip Jack, he entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, as a sizar in 1615, two years before Oliver Cromwell. In 1619 he graduated in arts, and for a time was a schoolmaster at Oakham, Rutland. In 1630 he was made rector of Stretton, Rutland; and on the ejection of Thomas Paske from the rectory of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, in 1644, Whitaker was chosen in his stead. ”

“ LONGLAND, JOHN (1473–1547) , bishop of Lincoln, was born in 1473 at Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. His mother is described as Isabell Staveley of Burcester in the same county. Entering as a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, and graduating in due course in arts, he became a fellow, and in 1505 was made principal of Magdalen Hall. ”

“ Wessex had firmly established its independence, and the East-Angles, East-Saxons, and Kentish men were no longer subject to the Mercian king, while it is evident that the Welsh had grown formidable on his western frontier (Green) . For fourteen yean after his accession nothing is known of Offa's doings ”

“ OFFLEY, Sir THOMAS (1505?–1582) , lord mayor of London, born at Stafford, apparently about 1505, was eldest son of William Offley, a native of Staffordshire, who afterwards migrated to Chester, and became sheriff there in 1517. His mother's maiden name was Cradock. He was sent up to London at the age of twelve, and went to school under William Lily [q. v.] ”

“ Alice Wilkes was three times married : (1) to Henry Robinson, a member of the Brewers' Company, by whom she had six sons and five daughters ; (2) to William Elkin, an alderman of London, by whom she had one daughter, Ursula, married to Sir Roger Owen of Condover, Shropshire ”

“ As an upholder of the royal supremacy he had issued strict injunctions to his clergy the year before (19 June 1535) to maintain and teach the king's supremacy, and to expunge from their public offices all mention of the name or authority of the pope of Rome (Reg. Longl. p. 192, quoted by Kennett) . ”

“ His father was a man of considerable property and ancient family [see Wake, Sir Isaac] . A manuscript account of it, drawn up by the archbishop himself, was privately printed in 1833 by his great-granddaughter, Etheldreda Benett (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vi. 353) . After being educated at the grammar school of his native town under Mr. Curganven (Carlisle, Endowed Grammar Schools, i. 362) , he was entered at Christ Church, Oxford, whence he matriculated on 28 Feb. 1672–3. ”

“ At St. John's, Cambridge, he founded in the same year, on its commemoration day (6 May) , six scholarships, and in 1536 two fellowships and two more scholarships, making eight in all, for scholars educated at Sedbergh school (Baker, Hist. of St. John's Coll., by Mayor, i. 352) . His outlay on the Cambridge branch of his endowments might now be computed at some 17,000l. His fellows and scholars were enjoined to recite at every mass a special collect for their founder. ”

“ After continuing at the head of the exchequer for sixteen years he was advanced to the dignity of chief justice of the king's bench on 9 Nov. 1546. Before this time we find him residing at Southampton, and possessed of large property in Hampshire. Leland, who visited Southampton, writes: ‘The house that Master Lighster, chiefe Barne of the King's Escheker, dwellyth yn, is very fair’ (Itin. iii. 77) . ”

“ The northern rebels in the autumn of this year, in their articles addressed to the king, ‘are grieved that there are bishops of the king's late promotion who have subverted the faith of Christ. ... (They) think the beginning of all this trouble was the Bishop of Lincoln’ (ib. xi. 705) . ”