Richard Edes

whose name, and brothers posterity did lately, if not still, live at Sewell in Bedfordshire, was born perhaps in that county, and being made full ripe for the University in Westminster School, was elected Student of Ch. Church in 1571. where going thro the usual Classes of Logick and Philosophy, proceeded in Arts in 1578. being then Junior in comitiis, or, of the Act that year. About the same time taking the sacred function on him, he became a most noted and celebrated preacher, was admitted to the reading of the sentences in 1584. (being that year installed Preb. of Yatminster prima in the Church of Sarum) made chaplain to Q. Elizabeth, Canon of Ch. Ch. in the l [•] tter end of 1586. and in 89. Doct. of Divinity. In the latter end of 1596. he was made Dean of Worcester in the place of Dr. Franc. Willys deceased, being then and ever after, to his death (for he [•] as also chapl. to K. James. 1.) held in great admiration at Court, not only for his preaching, but most excellent and polite discourse. His younger years he spent in poetical fancies and composing of plays, (mostly Tragedies) but at riper, he became a pious and grave Divine, an ornament to his profession, and a grace to the pulpit. No two men were ever more intimate than he and Tob. Mathews Dean of Ch. Ch. for they intirely loved each other for vertue and ingenuity sake: and when Mathews was to remove to the Deanery of Durham in 1584. our author Eedes intended to have him on his way thither for ones days journey; but so betrayed were they by the sweetness of each others company, and their own friendship, that he not only brought him to Durham, but for a pleasant pennace (c)(c) See A brief view of the State of the Church of England. &c. by Sir Joh. Harrington—Lond. 1653. oct. p. 147. wrote their whole journey in latin verse, intit. Iter boreale, several copies of which did afterwards fly abroad. Then also, and before in their youthful acquaintance, passed so many pretty apothegms between, that if a collection had been made of, them, they would have fill’d a manual. His works are,

Iter boreale. MS. The beginning of which is Quid mihi cum Musis? quid cum borealibus oris? A copy of this written by an unknown hand, I have in my little Library.

Various Poems—MS. in Lat. and Engl.

Six learned and godly Sermons, preached some of them before K. James, and some before Q. Elizabeth. Lond. 1604. oct. The two first are called, The duty of a King, on Micah. 6. 8. (3) A fruitful Meditation upon the sickness, on Micah. 6. 13. (4) The principal care of Princes to be nurses of the Church, on Isay 49. 23. (5) Of the difference of good and evil, on Isay 5. 20. (6) Of heavenly conversations, on Phil. 3. 20, 21.

Three Sermons. Lond. 1627. qu. One of which is on Ephes. 2. ver. 19. to 33. Another on Eph. 5. 15, &c. This learned Doctor dyed at Worcester, on the nineteenth of Nov. 1604 in sixteen hundred and four, and was buried in the chappel at the east end of the choir, leaving behind him a Widdow named Margaret, daughter of Dr. Harb. Westphaling Bishop of Hereford; who soon after was at the charge of putting a monument over his Grave, with an inscription thereon, containing a dialogue in verse between the Passenger and the Monument; a copy of which, you may see in Hist. & Antiq. Vniv. Oxon. lib. 2. p. 266. b. In this Deanery of Worcester succeeded James Mountague D. D. of Cambridge, who being made Bishop of B. and Wells, was succeeded in the said Deanery by Arth. Lake D. D. 23. Apr. 1608. who succeeded him also in B. and W. as I shall tell you elsewhere.