George Abbot

, younger brother to Rob. Abbot, whom I have mention’d under the year 1617. was born in the same Town and house where Robert was, bred also in the same School, under Mr. Franc. Taylor, entred a student in Ball. coll. 1578. aged 16. or thereabouts, elected Probationer-Fellow thereof, 29. Nov. 1583. being then Bach. of Arts; and afterwards proceeding in that faculty, he entred into holy Orders, and became a celebrated preacher in the University. In 1597. he was licensed to proceed in Divinity, and in the same year being elected Master of Vniversity coll. gave up all right that he had to his Fellowship. In the latter end of 1599. he was made Dean of Winchester in the place of Dr. Martin Heton promoted to the See of Ely: Which Dignity he keeping till 1609. succeeded then Dr. Thom. Morton Dean of Glocester. On the third of Dec. 1609. he was consecrated Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and had restitution (c)(c) Pat. 7. Jac: 1. p. 4. of the Temporalities belonging thereunto, made to him on the 29. of the same month. In Febr. following he was translated to London, and being elected soon after to the See of Canterbury, had the Kings (d)(d) Pat. 9. Jac. 1. p. 29. consent to it, 29. March 1610. On the 9. of Apr. 1611. he was (e)(e) Camden in Annal. R. Jac. 1. MS. sub. an. 1611. translated to the said See of Canterbury, and on the 4. of May following had restitution (f)(f) Ib. in pat. 9. Ja. 1. p. 43. made to him of the Temporalities belonging thereunto. On the 23. of June ensuing, he was (g)(g) Ib. in Camd. in Annal Reg. Jac. 1: sub eod. an. sworn a member of his Majesties Privy Council, and accordingly took his place. So that he having never been Rector or Vicar of a parish, and so consequently was in a manner ignorant of the trouble that attended the ministers of Gods word, was the cause (as some think) why he was harsh to them, and why he shew’d more respect to a Cloak, than a Cassock. He was a person pious and grave, and exemplary in his life and conversation. He was also a learned man, and had his erudition all of the old stamp. He was stiffly (*)(*) Hist. of the reign of K. Ch. 1. by Ham. L’estrange—Lond. 1656. p. 13 [•] : principled in the doctrine of S. Augustine, which they who understand it not, call Calvinism, and therefore disrelish’d by them who incline to the Massilian and Arminian Tenets. Those that well remember him have said, that tho he was a plausible preacher, yet his brother Robert was a greater Scholar, and tho an able Statesman, yet Robert was a deeper Divine. The things that he hath written are these, which shew him to be a man of parts, learning, vigilancy, and unwearied study, tho overwhelm’d with business.

Questiones sex, totidem praelectionibus in Schola Theologicâ Oxomiae, pro formâ habitis, discussae & disceptatae, an. 1597; in quibus, è sacra scriptura & Patribus, quid statuendum sit, definitur. Oxon 1598. qu. Francof. 1616. qu. which last edition was published by Abrah. Scultetus.

Exposition on the Prophet Jonah, contained in certain Sermons preached in S. Maries Ch. in Oxon. Lond. 1600. and 1613.

The reasons which Dr. Hill hath brought for the upholding of Papistry, unmasked, and shewed to be very weak, &c. Oxon. 1604. qu. Which book was in answer to one intit. A quartron of reasons of Cath. Religion, with as many brief answers of refusal. Antw. 1600. qu. written by Tho. Hill. D. D. then living at Phalempyne beyond the Sea, who a little before had left the Church of England to embrace the Doctrine of that of Rome. He was also answer’d by Franc. Dillingham Bac. of Div. of Cambridge, in a book intit. A quartron of reasons composed by Dr. Hill unquartered, and proved a quartron of follies. Cambridge 1603. qu.

Preface to the examination of George Sprot. London 1608. qu.

Sermon at Westminster 26 May, 1608. at the funeral solemnities of Thomas Earl of Dorset Lord High Treasurer of England, on Isaiah 40. 6. London 1608. qu.

Brief description of the whole world. Lond. 1617. qu: the 9th edition. Other editions in oct. followed, and the book is commonly called Abbots Geography.

Treatise of perpetual visibility, and succession of the true Church in all ages. Lond. 1624. qu. His name is not set to this book, only his Arms empaled by those belonging to the See of Canterbury are put before it; and ’tis generally reputed to be his and none but his.

History of the Massacre in the Valtoline.—At the end of the third vol. of Joh. Fox hs book of Acts and Mon. of the Church. Lond. 1631. 41. &c.

His Judgment of bowing at the name of Jesus. Ham. 1632. oct.

Several Speeches and Discourses in Parliament and elsewhere.—At length he being found guilty of casual homicide (the particulars of which are mention’d by Historians) he retired for a time to Guildford in Surrey, the place of his nativity, where he had erected an Hospital for men and women. Afterwards removing to Croyden, he gave way to fate, in his Pallace there, on the fourth day of August, 1633 in sixteen hundred thirty and three, aged 71. Whereupon, according to his desire, his body was buried in the Chappel of our Lady, within Trinity Church in Guildford. Over his grave was soon after built a sumptuous Altar, or Table-monument, with his proportion in his Pontificalia lying thereon, supported by six pillars of the Dorick order, of black Marble standing on six pedestals of piled books, with a large inscription thereon, beginning thus. Sacrum memoriae honoratiss. Archipraesulis, &c. At the east end of the said Mon. is another large inscript. which begins also thus. Aeternae memoriae Sacrum. Magni hic (Hospes) Hospitis monumenta vides, &c. Besides this Dr. George Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury, I find another of both his names to have been a writer also, but later in time; and author of The whole book of Job Paraphrased, &c. London 1640. qu. Dedicated to his Father-in Law, Will. Purefey Esꝫ as also of Vindiciae Sabbathi, &c.—Lond. 1641. qu. as I shall tell you farther in Tho. Broad, under the year 1635. And of Brief notes upon the whole book of Psalms, &c. Lond. in qu. besides other things. But whether this George Abbot was ever of Oxford, I cannot as yet tell. A third George Abbot I find to have been elected Probationer Fellow of Merton coll. 1622. and admitted Bach. of the Civil Law in 1630. but he hath written nothing, and nothing else do I know of him only that he was Son of Sir Maurice Abbot sometimes Lord Mayor of London, brother to Dr. Geo. Abbot Archb. of Canterbury.