Richard Mulcaster

, Son of Will. Mulcaster of Carlile in Cumberland Esq was born in that City, or at least in the County, educated in Grammaticals in Eaton School near Windsore, elected Scholar of Kings coll. in Cambridge, in 1548. took one degree in Arts there, retired afterwards to Oxon, where he was elected Student of Ch. Ch. an. 1555. and the next year being incorporated Bach. of Arts here, was licensed to proceed in that Faculty in Dec. 1556. Which degree being compleated by his standing in the Act celebrated 5. Jul. in the year following. he became eminent among the Oxonians for his rare and profound skill in the Greek tongue. Afterwards spending more than 4 years in Oxon, in a continual drudgery at his book, made so great proficiency in several sorts of learning, which was exceedingly advanced by his excellencies in Grammar, Poetry, and Philology, that he was unanimously chosen Master of the School erected in London 1561. in the Parish of St. Lawrence Pountney by the worshipful Company of the Merchant-Taylors of that City. In which place exercising his gifts in a most admirable way of instruction, till 1586. (28. Elizah.) in all which time it happily prospered under his vigilancy, St. Johns coll. in Oxon was supplied with such hopeful plants, that it soon after flourished, and became a fruitful Nursery. In 1596. he succeeded one Joh. Harrison in the chief Mastership of St. Pauls School in London, (being then Prebendary of Yatesbury in the Church of Sarum,) and soon after (if not happily before) had the rich Parsonage of Stanford-Rivers in Essex bestowed on him by Q. Elizabeth, which he kept to his dying day. He hath written,

Positions, wherein those primitive circumstances be examined, which are necessary for the training up of Children, either for skill in their book, or health in their body. Lond. 1581. 87. qu.

The first part of the Elementary, which intreateth chiefly of the true writing of the English tongue. Lond. 1582. qu. Whether there was a second part published I know not, for I have not yet seen such a thing.

Catechismus Paulinus, in usum Scholae Paulinae conscriptus. Lond. 1599. 1601. &c. oct. Written in long and short vers. He died at Stanford-Rivèrs before-mentioned, 15. Apr. in sixteen hundred and eleven, 1611 (having resign’d Pauls School 3 years before,) and was buried 26. of the same month in the Chancel of the Church there, under a stone, which he two years before had laid for his Wife Katherine, on which he caused to be engraven, that she was Wife to Richard Mulcaster, by ancient parentage and lineal descent an Esquire born, who by the most famous Q. Elizabeth’s prerogativegift was made Parson of this Church, &c.