, an eminent English grammarian, was born at Odiham, in Hampshire,
, an eminent English grammarian, was born at Odiham, in Hampshire, about 1468.
After a good foundation of school-learning, he was sent to
Magdalen -college, Oxford, and admitted a demy there at
the age of eighteen. Having taken the degree of B. A. he
quitted the university, and went, for religion’s sake, to
Jerusalem, as Pits, and after him Wood, Tanner, and
others have asserted; but Bale, from whom Pits copied,
gives no such reason for Lily’s journey. It is indeed most
probable, that he travelled eastward with an intention to
acquire some knowledge of the Greek language, especially
as he continued five years in the island of Rhodes with no
other design. At Rhodes he found several learned men
who had taken refuge there, under the protection of the
knights, after the taking of Constantinople; and here he
became acquainted with the domestic life and familiar
conversation of the Greeks. He went thence to Rome;
and improved himself farther in the Latin and Greek
tongues under John Sulpitius and Pomponius Sabinus. On
his arival in England, in 1509, he settled in London, and
taught a private grammar-school, being the first teacher of
Greek in the metropolis. In this he had so much success
and reputation, that he was appointed first-master of St.
Paul’s school. by the founder, Dr. Culet, in 1510. This
laborious and useful employment he filled for the space of
twelve years; and in that time educated a great many
youths, some of whom proved the greatest men in the nation, as Thomas Lupset, sir Anthony Denny, sir William
Paget, sir Edward North, John Leland, &c. He died of
the plague at London in February 1523, aged 54, and was
buried in the north yard of St. Paul’s. He is highly praised
by Erasmus for his uncommon knowledge in the languages,
and admirable skill in the instruction of youth. He was
very intimate with sir Thomas More, to whose Latin translations of several Greek epigrams are prefixed some done
by Lily, printed with this title, “Progymnasmata Thorns
Mori & Gulielmi Lilii, Sodalium,
” Basil,