Walter Raleigh

second son of Sir Carew Raleigh of Downton in Wilts Knight, (by Dorothy his wife daugh. of Will. Wroughton of Broadhinton in the same County, relict of Sir Joh. Thynne Knight) elder Brother to the famous Sir Walter Raleigh, and both the Sons of Walter Raleigh of Furdell or Fardell in Devon. Esq. was born at Downton before mention’d, educated in Grammar learning in Wykeham’s School near Winchester, became a Commoner of Magd. Coll. in Mich. Term 1602 (ult. Eliz.) being then 16 years of age. Afterwards proceeding in Arts, he was thought worthy, being a noted Disputant, to undergo the Office of Junior of the Act celebrated in 1608. About that time taking holy Orders, he became Chaplain to that most noble Count William Earl of Pembroke, in whose family spending some time, had the Rectory of Chedsey near Bridgwater in Somersetshire conferred upon him on the death of George Mountgomery, in the latter end of 1620, and afterwards a minor Prebendship in the Church of Wells, and the Rectory of Streat with the Chappel of Walton in the same County. Much about the time of the lamented death of the said Count, he became one of the Chaplains in ord. to K. Ch. 1. and by that title he was actually created D. of D. in 1636. On the 13 of January 1641, he was admitted Dean of Wells on the death of Dr. George Warburton, and on the breaking out of the Rebellion soon after, (which hindred his farther advance in the Church) he was persecuted, plunder’d, and forced to abscond for his Loyalty to his Prince. At length being taken Prisoner at Bridgwater by the Rebels 21 Jul. 1645, he was sent to Banwell house as a Captive, and after several removes to his own at Wells, where being committed to the custody of a Shoe-maker (David Barret a Constable of that City) by the Committee of the County of Somerset, was treated by him far beneath his quality and function. Soon after having occasion to write a letter to his Wife, the rude Keeper endeavoured to take it from him and read it, supposing it might be a letter of intelligence to be sent to some noted Cavalier. But the Doctor preventing his sauciness, the Keeper thrust his sword into his groyn, shedding his blood as the blood of a dog; of which wound he died about six weeks after to the great grief of the loyal party. His papers after his death, such as could be kept, were for more than 30 years reserved in obscurity. At length they coming into the hands of the worthy and learned Dr. Simon Patrick, then Rector of S. Paul in Covent Garden, Preb. of Westm. and Dean of Peterborough, (now Bish. of Ely) he viewed, amended, and methodized them: which being done they were made publick under this title,

Reliquiae Raleighanae. Being discourses and Sermons on several subjects. Lond. 1679. qu. The number of Sermons are 13. What other things he left worthy of publication were kept in Dr. Charles Gibbes’s hands, (whose sister Mary our Author had married) but whether any of them are yet made publick, I know not. ’Tis said that he wrot a Tract of Millinanism, he having for some time been much addicted to that opinion; but that, as I have been informed, was long since lost. Those that remember him, have often said that he was a person not only of gentile behaviour, but of great wit and elocution, a good Orator and a Master of a strong reason, which won him the familiarity and friendship of those great men, who were the envy of the last age, and wonder of this; viz. Lucius Lord Falkland, Dr. Hen. Hammond and Mr. Will. Chillingworth. The last of which was wont to ((a))((a)) Pref. to Reliq. Raliegh. by Sim. Patrick D. D. say, that Dr. Raleigh was the best Disputant that ever he met withal. He departed this mortal life on the tenth day of Octob. (being Saturday) in sixteen hundred forty and six,1646. and was buried on the thirteenth of the same month before the Deans stall in the Choire of the Cath. Ch. of S. Andrew in Wells. Over his grave is not yet an inscription, only a rough marble stone, which had probably been laid there many years before the Doctors death. One Standish a Clergy-Vicar of that Cathedral, was afterwards questioned by the aforesaid Committee for burying him in the Church; and his death being soon after call’d into question at an Assize or Sessions, there was a Jury of Rebels that brought in his murder either Ignoramus, or at least but Man slaughter; for they said that the Doctor to shun the Keepers reading of a letter which he wrot to his Wife, ran upon the Keepers sword, &c. Much about that time the Committee turned the Doctors Wife and Children out of doors, and his Son (as ’tis ((b))((b)) Merc. Rusti [•] rs, or Englands ruin, &c. printed 1647, at the end. said) was forced to fly the Country, for that he would have farther prosecuted the Law against the murderer of his Father.