George Coryat

received his first being in this World in the Parish of St. Thomas within the City Salisbury, educated in Grammaticals in Wykehams School, admitted perpetual Fellow of New coll. in 1562. took the degrees in Arts, and in June 1570. became Rector of Odcombe in Sommersetshire on the death of Tho. Reade, and at length Bach. of Divinity. In 1594, he was made Prebendary of Warthill in the Church of York, and had some other Dignity, but what I cannot tell. He was a person much commended in his time for his fine fancy in Latin Poetry, and for certain matters which he had written, quoted by John (d)(d) In Speculo Moralium, lib. 4. cap. 2. Case the Philosopher, Jam. (e)(e) In octavo libro De celeberrimis Academ. Col. Agrip. 1602. p. 450, 451. Middendorp, Joh. (f)(f) In lib. 1. de Antiq. Acad. Cant. p. 45. & alibi. Cay and others. All that I have seen of his composition, are only these things following.

Poemata varia Latina, Lond. 1611. qu. Published by his Son Thomas after his death, and by him intit. Posthuma fragmenta Poematum.

Descriptio Angliae, Scotiae, & Hiberniae. Written in Lat. verse as it seems, and dedicated to Q. Elizabeth. He died in the Parsonage house at Odcombe, on the fourth of March in sixteen hundred and six:1606-7 whereupon his Son Tom, upon some design, preserving his body from stench above ground, till the 14 of Apr. following, was then buried in the Chancel of the Church at Odcombe; at which time one Gibbs Gollop M. A. who was admitted to that Rectory, 23. Mar. 1606 did officiate. Gertrude Widdow of the said G. Coryate lived many years after at Odcombe, and near to it, where dying, was buried near to the Reliques of her Husband, on the 3. Apr. 1645. (21. Car. 1.) as I have been informed by the searches, by Mr. Humph. Hody M. A. of Wadham coll. a Native of Odcombe. At the same time that George Coryat was elected Prob. Fellow of New coll. was elected also one John Mundyn, born at Maperton in Dorsetshire, who being a Civilian, and not conforming himself to the Protestant Religion, was ejected thence by the B. of Winchester in his Visitation of that coll. 1566. Afterwards he went beyond the Seas, was made a Seminary Priest, and sent into the Mission of England: But being taken on Hounslow-heath, in his journey from Winchester to London, was by Sir Fr. Walsingham Secretary of State committed to Prison. Afterwards being convicted according to the Law against Seminaries, was (with 4 other Priests) executed at Tybourne 12 Feb. 1583. See more in a book intit. Concertatio Eccles. Catholicae in Anglia. Printed at Trier 1594. fol. 140, 141.