John Claymond

, who used to write himself Eucharistiae servus, because he frequently received the blessed Sacrament, and in the latter part of his life took it every day, was the Son of Joh. Claymond and Alice his Wife, sufficient Inhabitants of Frampton in Lincolnshire, in which Town this our Author Joh. Claymond received his first breath. From thence, when he was a Boy, he was sent to Oxon, where, after he had compleated his Grammar learning in the School near to Magd. Coll. great Gate, (being then within, and not without, the said Gate,) he was made Demie first, and in 1488, perpetual Fellow of that College. About that time entring into holy Orders, and becoming famous for his great learning, piety, and gravity, was constituted President of the said College, about 1504, took the Degree of Bach. of Divinity three Years after, and within three more after that time, supplicated the venerable Congregation of Regents, that he might be licensed to proceed in that faculty, but whether he was admitted it appears not. About that time several Dignities, and Ecclesiastical Benefices (a)(a) Vide ibid. lib. 2. p. 214. b. were bestowed on him, among which were the Rectory of West-mongton in Somersetshire, (which he obtained by the resignation of the Honourable Rich. Grey, from Richard the Abbat, and the Convent of Glastenbury in the Month of July 1506.) the Prebendship of Whitchurch in the Cathedral Church of Wells, (to which belongs the Church of Beningar in Somersetshire) and the vicaridge of the Collegiate Church of Norton in the Dioc. of Durham, which he resign’d in 1518, reserving to himself any yearly pension from it of 20 Marks, to be paid by the Abbat and Convent of Selby (of the Order of St. Bennet) in Yorkshire. At length upon the desire of Rich. Fox. Bishop of Winchester, he left his Presidentship of Magd. Coll. and was by him made President of that of C. C. when founded by him, an. 1516. Which place being of less value than the former, the said Bishop did in recompence, give him the rich Rectory of Clyve (called by some Bishops Clyve) in Glocestershire, which he kept to his dying day. He was a Person of great gravity, of most exact example in his life and conversation, very charitable and devout, and had nothing wanting in him to compleat a Theologist. And as he was esteemed a learned Divine by some, so a better Philosopher by others, as it appears by his Book intit.

Notae & observationes in Plinii naturalem historiam. In 4. Volumes in MS. in C. C. Coll. Library. Of which Book and its Author hear what Mich. Neander (b)(b) In Succincta explicatione Orbis terrae. Lips. 1597. p. 410. saith—de quo nobis retulit aliquando Operinus noster, quòd in totum Plinii opus eruditos commentarios scripserit, & ad se excudendos jam pridem miserit, cur autem non fuerint excusi ab Operino, puto sumptus ad tantum optis imprimendum defuisse, &c. Dr. Jo. Cay the Antiquary of Cambridge doth (c)(c) In lib. suo, cui tit. est, De libris suis propriis—Lond. 1570. p. 13. a. speak something to the same purpose, who stiles them Scholia eruditiss. viri Johan. Claymondi in omnes Caii Plinii Naturalis Historiae libros, &c. but adds that the Scholia on the two first Books were lost after his death. He (Claymond) also wrot,

A Treatise of repentance—This is in MS. written with his own hand, in 4 sheets in fol. which I have in my Library of MSS. The beginning of it is, It is the property and condition of every wise Man, &c. At length arriving to a good old Age, paid his last debt to nature, 19. Nov. 1537 in Fifteen hundred thirty and seven, and was buried in the choire of C. C. Coll. under that very place where the Rectors of the choire sing the Psalm, intit. Venite exultemus. Over his Grave was soon after a Marble stone laid, with an Inscription thereon, provided and made by himself, with void spaces left for the day and year when he died, to be filled up by his Executor, or Overseer of his Will, but were never performed. The Copy of the Inscription, you may see in Hist. & Antiq. Univ. Oxon. lib. 2. p. 244. b. his Character and Encomium in Jo. (*)(*) In Encomiis, Trephaeis, &c. illustr. virorum, &c. Lond. 1589. p. 43, &c. Leland, and his benefactions to Magdalen, Corp. Christi, and Brasenose, Colleges in the aforesaid Hist. & Antiq.