Thomas Master

son of Will. Master Rector of Cote near to a mercate town call’d Cirencester in Glocestershire, was born at Cote, but descended from the gentile family of the Masters living in the said town of Cirencester, initiated in Grammar learning by Mr. Henry Topp a noted Master of that place, afterward ripened for the University in Wykeham’s school near Winchester, admitted perpetual Fellow of New Coll. after he had served two years of probation, an. 1624, took the degrees in Arts, that of Master being compleated 1629, holy orders, and at length in 1640 was admitted to the reading of the Sentences. At which time he was arrived to great Learning, was esteemed a vast scholar, a general Artist and Linguist, a noted Poet, and a most florid preacher. He hath written,

Mensa lubrica Montgom. illustriss. Domino, D. Edwardo Baroni de Cherbury. Oxon. 1658. qu. second edit. the first having been printed on one side of a large sheet of paper. ’Tis a poem written in Lat. and Engl. describing the game call’d Shovel-board play, published with Sir Henry Saviles Oration to Qu. Elizab. by Mr. Tho. Ba [•] low of Qu. Coll. in Oxon. an. 1658. printed there again in Dec. 1690. in half a sh. in qu.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . This Greek Poem which is printed with Mensa lubrica, was made by him on the Passion of Christ, 19 Apr. 1633. rendred into excellent Lat. verse by Hen. Jacob of Merton Coll. and into English by Abr. Cowley the Prince of Poets of his time: which Lat. and Engl. copies are printed with the Greek. Oxon. 1 [•] 58. qu.

Monarchia Britannica sub auspiciis Elizabethae & Jacobi in oratione quam pro more habuit in capella Coll. Novi 6 Kal. Apr. 1642. Oxon. 1661. qu. 1681. oct. published by his friend and acquaintance Joh. Lamphire Doct. of Phys. sometimes Fellow of New Coll, afterwards Comdens Prof. of History.

Iter boreale: Oxon. 1675, in two sheets and an half in qu. written in prose and verse, and dedicated to his Father Will. Master beforemention’d, 25 Sept. 1637. published by George Ent of the Middle Temple, son and heir of Sir George Ent Kt. then a sojourner and student in Oxon, being about that time entred a Member of Wadh. Coll. Which George Ent. the son wrot and published The grounds of Unity in religion: or, an expedient for a general conformity and pacification. printed in 1679 in one sheet in qu. In which year (in Aug. or thereabouts) he departing this mortal life, was buried in the Church belonging to the Temples in London. Our Author Master also hath written other Poems, as (1) Carolas redux, 1623. (2) Ad regem Carolum, 1625. (3) On Bish. Lake, 1626. (4) On Ben. Johnson, 1637. and (5) On Vaulx, but these, I think, are not printed. He was a drudge to, and assisted much Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury, when he was obtaining materials for the writing the Life of K. Hen. 8. Four thick Volumes in fol. of such materials I have lying by me, in every one of which I find his hand writing, either in interlining, adding, or correcting; and one of those four, which is entituled Collectaneorum lib. secundus, is mostly written by him, collected from Parliament Rolls, the Paper Office at Whitehall, Vicar Generals Office, books belonging to the Clerks of the Councill, Mss. in Cottons Library, Books of Convocations of the Clergy, &c. printed Authors, &c. And there is no doubt, that as he had an especial hand in composing the said Life of K. Hen. 8. (which as some say he turned mostly into Latine, but never printed) so had he a hand in latinizing that Lords book De veritate, or others. At length being overtaken by a malignant feaver, the same which I have mention’d in Dud. Digges and Will. Cartwright, died thereof, to the great reluctancy of those that well knew him, in the Winter time, either in Dec. or Jan. in sixteen hundred forty and three,1643. and was buried in the north part of the outer Chappel belonging to New Coll. His Epitaph is written in Latine by the said L. Herbert in his Occasional Verses, p. 94. who hath also written a lat. Poem in praise of his Mensa lubrica, which may be there also seen. But the said Epitaph must not be understood to have ever been put over his grave.