William Sancroft

“ As the Duke of York’s religious opinions had increasingly attracted the attention and excited the alarm of the nation at large, the rulers of the Church shared in the anxiety, and were very desirous, if possible, to see him reclaimed from the Roman communion. The origin of a project, with the view of accomplishing this purpose, is ascribed to the new Archbishop of Canterbury.
PROTESTANT OPPOSITION.
Upon the death of Sheldon, William Sancroft, at the time Prolocutor to the Lower House of Convocation, was elevated to the primacy, for reasons differently stated by [15] different persons. ”

“ Apparently he had declined a bishopric, but, on his kissing hands, William intimated that he was to succeed Sancroft. This was on Burnet's advice, and was contrary to the inclination of Tillotson, who honestly thought he could do more good as he was, and have more influence, ‘for the people naturally love a man that will take great pains and little preferment.’ In a later paper (13 March 1692) he allows ‘that there may perhaps be as much ambition in declining greatness as in courting it.’
The Toleration Act was carried without difficulty (royal assent 24 May 1689) ”

“ I have to-day entered my ninetieth year, with less infirmity than I could have presumed to hope, and certainly with a degree of calmness and tranquillity of mind, which is gradually increasing as I daily approach the end of my pilgrimage. I think, indeed, that my life must now be but of short duration; and, I thank God, the thought gives me no uneasiness.” [59]
Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, after he had been deprived and ejected from Lambeth, for refusing to take any new oaths to William and Mary, retired to his paternal estate, of 50l. ”

“ In 1668 he was admitted archdeacon of Canterbury upon the king's presentation, but he resigned the post in 1670. In 1677, being now prolocutor of the Convocation, he was unexpectedly advanced to the archbishopric of Canterbury. ”

“ I never saw Sanquhar again until in the autumn of 1863 (as I believe) . As I was whirled along the Glasgow and South-Western railway I witnessed just beneath me lines of building in just such a valley, and said that must be Sanquhar, which it was. My local memory has always been good and very impressible by scenery. I seem to myself never to have forgotten a scene.
I have one other early recollection to record. It must, I think, have been in the year 1815 that my father and mother took me with them on either one or two more journeys. The objective points were Cambridge and London respectively. ”

“ To the above, of course, must be added the primate and the six bishops. Dr Birch, in drawing Sancroft’s character, says:—“He was slow, timorous, and narrow-spirited; but at the same time a good, honest, and well-meaning man. ”

“ To the wretch who longs to die. At the time that Mr Holcroft was at Cockermouth, he was in Booth’s company, which he had joined at Carlisle in the autumn of 1774. He had just then left Stanton’s company, who were performing at Kendal. He was recommended to Booth by a friend of the name of Hatton, who was an excellent comedian, and the hero of the company. He had spoken in high terms of Holcroft’s talents, who himself sent off a letter as his avant-courier, in which he undertook to do a great deal for very little. He engaged to perform all the old men, and principal low-comedy characters ”

“ The Archbishop of Canterbury, when turned out of Lambeth by a judgment of the Court of King's Bench to make way for Tillotson, retired to his native village in Fressingfield, where he did not attend the parish church, nor would allow any but non-juring clergy to perform Divine service in his presence. Dr. Sancroft (who was a book-lover, and had designed a binding of his own) died on November 24, 1693, and the epitaph, of his own composition, on his tombstone may still be read with profit by time-servers of all degrees and denominations, cleric and lay, in Parliament and out of it. ”

“ Asaph, indeed, had distinguished himself by his moderation, Ken had not manifested a persecuting temper, but Sancroft, though appearing to advantage in comparison with Sheldon, cannot be defended from a charge of intolerance, for a letter exists, in which, after alluding to Conventicles at Bury and Ipswich, he expresses His Majesty’s pleasure, that effectual care should be taken for the suppression of unlawful assemblies. ”

“ But Thomas Thynne, Viscount Weymouth, though not a nonjuror, did himself honour by offering to the most virtuous of the nonjurors a tranquil and dignified asylum in the princely mansion of Longleat. There Ken passed a happy and honoured old age, during which he never regretted the sacrifice which he had made to what he thought his duty, and yet constantly became more and more indulgent to those whose views of duty differed from his. [53]
Sancroft was of a very different temper. He had, indeed, as little to complain of as any man whom a revolution has ever hurled down from an exalted station. ”

“ Titus did not dare to say, “It is feeding time for the pigeon, Higby,” for the Judge might have heard, and Titus feared that he would be exceedingly annoyed if he found out that a bird was being kept in his house.
It was really curious that such a dislike for the lower creation should have been imputed to a really benevolent and kind-hearted man like Judge Sancroft. True, he did not care particularly for animals. He had been brought up in a city, and he had never had any animals about him but horses and cows. He was not actively fond of them, but he always saw that they were well cared for. ”

“ Bishop Turner of Ely was on the S. Paul’s Commission; Bishop Lloyd of S. Asaph while rector of S. Martin’s had baptized Wren’s daughter and youngest son; Bishop White he had known in the days when he was rector. Bishop Ken at Winchester, and Archbishop Sancroft had been for years his steady friends. If he failed in dignity at one crisis, there is abundant material in Sancroft’s letters, and in the rest of his life, to show he must have been a charming companion and capable of inspiring sincere affection. ”

“ The amicable discussion with regard to this matter was still in progress while little William journeyed out to join his kinsman. A month after Nelson's funeral, Stanhope was taking the preliminary steps for his son's departure. "I brought William home to be measured," he wrote on February 9th, "and sent him back yesterday in very good spirits. His mind certainly appears to open very much and he is a good little fellow. At times he is low and said the other day how odd he should feel to be entirely with strangers." ”

“ Sancroft, as we know, was to see many startling changes in Church and State, and to experience in his own person many vicissitudes, but they were no greater than such as fell on Edward Hyde. [223]
223. He had been Chaplain to Bishop Cosin, Prebendary of Durham, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Dean of York and then of St Paul’s. He at once began to repair the cathedral, and after the fire he set to work to rebuild, giving £1400 for this purpose. He was Archbishop in 1677, deprived at the Revolution. ”

“ After penning this letter Sprat went to Sancroft to excuse his presence on the commission on the ground that he intended to restrain his fellow members from violent action. ‘My dear brother,’ said the archbishop, ‘I will tell you the reason: you cannot live on forty pounds a year as I can.’ This keen dissection of Sprat's character is confirmed by Lord Ailesbury's remark: ‘He was a man of worth, but loved hospitality beyond his purse’ (Memoirs, Roxburghe Club, i. 154) . ”

“ A Pindarique Ode. To the Reverend, my worthy friend, Dr. Wm. Sandcroft, Dean of St. Paul's': the chief variants only are recorded. The words 'now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury' are added in the fourth edition. In the earlier editions—even that of 1682, when Sancroft had been Primate for four years—the poem is addressed 'to Dr. W. S.' The piece is a rather remarkable 'Religio Laici' for the time, and as anticipating Dryden's; and has some, though rather vague, autobiographic interest. It seems (v. Commendatory Poems) to have attracted some attention as such. ”

“ No doubt can exist of Sancroft’s sincere opposition to Popery. Wilkins, in his Concilia, gives, in addition to Royal proclamations on that subject, a letter written by the Primate to the Bishop of London, dated April 9, 1681, in which he requires that the three canons against Popish recusants, agreed upon in the Synod of London in 1605, namely, the 65th, the 66th, and the 114th, should be put in use, considering, he says, in language then so current on that topic, “how acceptable a service it will be to Almighty God, to assist His Majesty’s pious purpose herein ”

“ His father kept some kind of control over him during his life, but on his death he inherited a large sum of money, and I fear it had the usual result. He now lives in bachelor quarters in Knightsbridge, and is reported to be in a rather fast set. I happen to know he has run through most of his money, and is now considerably pinched. But he always got on well with Sir William. The old man liked him, and passed over his follies as mere youthful indiscretions. I think his disappointment in Austin rather drove him to make a friend of Cosgrove, but of that of course I can’t be sure. ”

“ Little by little the appearance of the houses had improved, until here on Grand Avenue he found himself among mansions.
Arrived near Judge Sancroft’s house, he walked more slowly, then suddenly he turned, and retracing his steps walked up the driveway leading to the stable.
His keen eyes scrutinized every window of the house. Here and there one was open. “They all like fresh air,” he murmured. Under one open window he paused. He could hear the sound of voices. Dallas was speaking—Dallas the clever English boy that the Judge had adopted—and he was scolding Bethany, dear little Bethany. ”

“ A difference with the manager (old Mr Kemble) , occasioned Mr Holcroft to leave this company; from which he went to that of Stanton, which performed at Birmingham and in the neighbourhood, and sometimes made excursions to the north of England. A memorandum of Mr Holcroft, dated 1799, gives some account of himself, and of one of his fellow-actors while in this company. ”

“ CHAPTER IV While Mr Holcroft was in this company, or a short time before he entered it, he married again. His second wife was the sister of a Mr Tipler, of Nottingham: by her he had two children, William, born in 1773, and Sophy, born at Cockermouth, in 1775. Her mother either died in child-bed of her, or shortly after. ”

“ The gradual ascendancy, however, obtained by Don Quixote over Sancho, is as finely managed as it is characteristic. Credulity and a love of the marvellous are as natural to ignorance, as selfishness and cunning. Sancho by degrees becomes a kind of lay-brother of the order; acquires a taste for adventures in his own way, and is made all but an entire convert, by the discovery of the hundred crowns in one of his most comfortless journeys. Towards the end, his regret at being forced to give up the pursuit of knight-errantry, almost equals his master’s ”

“ After paying the driver he followed Higby, who was taking his bag into the hall.
Titus, in his confusion, was saying nothing, and the boy, turning to him, remarked courteously, “I suppose you are Judge Sancroft’s grandson?”
“Yes,” replied Titus, simply, “I am.” Then he continued staring at his guest, until a half smile on the stranger’s face recalled him to himself.
117“Take off your coat,” he said, suddenly, “and come in to the fire. There isn’t any in the parlor,” and he thrust his head in the doorway, “but come in the dining room—there’s sure to be a good one there.” ”

“ In April 1694 he settled at Chartham, and was clearly to some extent a disappointed man. He wrote to Dr. Barker, Tillotson's chaplain, in 1692 of his ‘vast labour’ at the Lambeth manuscripts and Sancroft's designs for publication, adding that all were ‘now frustrated, and all my zeal for the public service must be employed in teaching a few plough-joggers who look upon what I say to concern them but little.’ In the autumn of 1694 signs of consumption appeared, and, after an unavailing visit to Bath (visiting Oxford on the way, Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, p. 694) , he died on 5 March 1694–5. ”

“ All nature, in fact, was vocal of Sanchia by day; and at night, presently, she stole white-footed down the slant rays of the moon and fed his soul upon exhalations of her own. Idle as he might have appeared to one who did not know the man—for beyond the routine of his handiwork he did nothing visible—he was really intensely busy. Out of the stores reaped and garnered in those meditative years was to come the substance of his after-life.
But no man in England may live three years in a grass valley unreported; his fame will spread abroad, scattered as birds sow seeds. ”

“ I am sure you would be happy. Why will you not come? Billy has written to you, as you will see; you know he loves you, he has reason to do so; and though a child, I hope he will not forget his obligation. [10] Pray do not fail to tell M. and Madame Mercier, that though I do not write, I remember them as they would wish to be remembered, that is, I remember their virtue and their friendship, and shall do while I live.’
Mr Holcroft had about this time considerable intimacy with several French literary characters ”

“ It would be tedious and unprofitable to follow our two antiquarians, as we may for the present consider them, in their further researches that day. It will suffice to say that they returned to their late dinner at the George—Mr. Foster rather disgusted with the general stolidity of the inhabitants of Saddlebrook, the more so that his inquiries had hitherto produced no palpable result; and John Tincroft thinking he should be much happier with another companion, and wondering how they got on at High Beech Farm without him. ”