Robert Burhill

or Burghill received his first breath at Dymock in Glocestershire, but descended from those of his name, as I conceive, that lived at Thinghill in Herefordshire, was admitted Scholar of Corp. Ch. Coll. 13 Jan. 1587 aged 15 years, Probationer Fellow thereof 20 Mar. 1584, being then M. of A. and about that time in holy orders. At length having a parsonage confer’d on him in Norfolk, and a Residentiaryship in the Church of Hereford, he proceeded D. of Divinity. He was a person of great reading and profound judgment, was well vers’d in the Fathers and Schoolmen, right learned and well grounded in the Hebrew Tongue, an exact Disputant, and in his younger years a noted Latin Poet. He was much respected and valued by Sir Walt. Raleigh for his scholastical accomplishments, who finding him a person of great learning, had his assistance in Criticisms, in the reading and opening of Greek and Hebrew Authors, when he was composing the History of the World, during his confinement in the Tower of London. But let those things which he hath published, that have been taken into the hands of very learned men, speak his worth and excellency. The titles of which follow.

Invitatorius panegyricus, ad regem optimum de Elizabethae nuper reginae posteriore ad Oxoniam adventu, &c. Oxon. 1603. in two sh. in qu.

In controversiam inter Jo. Howsonum & Thomam Pyum S. T. Doctores de novis post divortium ob adulterium nuptiis &c. in sex commentationes, & Elenchum monitorium distinctus. Ubi & ad excusam D. Pyi ad D. Howsonum Epistolam, quâ libri Howsoniani refutationem molitur, & ad ejusdem alteram manu scriptam Epistolam ejusd. argumenti, quâ contra Alb. Gentilem disputat, diligenter respondetur. Oxon. 1606. qu. In the general Title before the second Edit. of Dr. Howson’s Thesis printed herewith, the aforesaid large Title is thus abbreviated, Theseos defensio contra reprehensionem Thomae Pyi S. T. Doctoris. The Elenchus Monitorius at the end, contains 4 sheets.

Responsio pro Tortura Torti contra Mart. Becanum Jesuitam. Lond. 1611. oct.

De potestate regiâ & usurpatione papali pro Tortura Torti contra Parellum Andr. Eudaemon-Johannis Jesuitae. Oxon. 1613. oct.

Assertio pro jure regio contra Martini Becani Jesuitae controversiam Anglicanam. Lond. 1613. oct.

Defensio responsionis Jo. Buckridgii ad apologiam Roberti Card. Bellarmini. printed with the Assertio &c.

Comment. in difficiliora Job. MS. in two folio’s in Corpus Ch. Coll. Library. Which book Elias Wrench of the said Coll. transcribed in a fair character, and put the Hebrew into Hebrew letters, which before were in Latin. At the end of the said Commentary, in the second Vol. was added Paraphrasis poetica on the said book of Job by E. Wrench before mention’d, born in Glocestershire, Son of Elias Wrench, if I mistake not, Prebendary of Glocester, admitted scholar of C. C. Coll. 5 Jan. 1621, afterwards Fellow, Bach. of Div. and in Apr. 1644 Rector of Trent in Somersetshire, (by the presentation of the President and Fellows of his house) where he died and was buried in the month of June 1680. Our Author Burhill also wrot a book entit.

Tractatus contra Monarchomachos & Hierarchomachos pro Regibus & Episcopis. MS. in the Archives of Bodlies Library; also,

Britannia Scholastica: vel de Britanniae rebus scholasticis lib. 10. ’Tis a Lat. Poem in qu. dedicated to Sir Tho. Bodley, and is reserved as a rarity (for ’tis a MS.) in the Archives of his Library. The said ten books are thus entit. 1. Heroicus. 2. Provincia. 3. Heptarchia. 4. Alfredus. 5. Neotus. 6. Elfleda. 7. Parallismus. 8. Itinerarium. 9. Benemeriti. 10. Foxus, meaning Fox Founder of C. C. Coll. He also published a Sermon of Dr. Miles Smith B. of Gloc. preached at an Assize in Cirencester, on Jer. 9. ver. 23, 24. At length upon the approach of the Civil War in England, our Author Burhill retired for quietness sake to his Rectory of Northwold near to Thetford in Norfolk, where dying in the month of Octob. or thereabouts, in sixteen hundred forty and one, was buried in the Chancel of the Church there,1641. on the south side, near to the entrance thereof from the Church, as I have been informed by the Letters of Mr. Joh. Burrell Minister of Thetford, dated 3 May 1673, who also tells me therein, that Dr. Burhill was had in general esteem of a very great Scholar, and a right worthy Churchman—That the memory of him is pleasant to those that knew him, &c.