Francis Thynne

was lineally descended from Thom. at the Inne, otherwise Thynne, of Stretton in Shropshire, Son of Ralph Botevill of the same place, descended from an ancient and gentile Family of his name living elsewhere, was educated in Grammaticals in Tunbridge School in Kent, (in which County, as it seems, he was born,) where being fitted for higher learning by Jo. Proctor Master thereof, (whom I have mentioned elsewhere,) was thence sent to this University, at which time several of his Sirname of Wilts, studied there, and one of both his names, and a Knight’s Son of the same County, was a Commoner of Magd. coll. in 1577. Whether our author Franc. Thynne went afterwards to Cambridge, or was originally a Student there before he came to Oxon, I cannot justly say it. Sure it is, that his Genie tempting him to leave the crabbedness of Logick and Philosophy, and to embrace those delightful studies of Histories and Genealogies, he became at length one of the Officers of Arms, by the title of Blanch-Lyon, and afterwards Herald by that of Lancaster, which he kept to his dying day. His works are,

The Annals of Scotland in some part, continued from the time in which Ra. Holinshed left, being an. 1571. unto the year 1586. Lond. 1586. fol. There are also the catalogues of the Protectors, Governours or Regents of Scotland during the King’s Minority, or the Minority of several Kings, or their insufficiency of Government. There are also the catalogues of all Dukes of Scotland by creation or descent, of the Chancellours of Scotland, Archbishops of St. Andrews, and divers writers of Scotland.

Catalogue of English Cardinals.—Set down in R. Holinsheds Chron. at the end of Q. Mary: Used and followed in many things by Francis Bishop of Landaff, in his Cat. or Hist. of them, at the end of his book De Praesubibus Angliae Com.

Cat. of the Lord Chancellours of England.—MS. From which, as also from the endeavours made that way by Rob. Glover sometimes Somerset Herald, and of Tho. Talbot formerly Clerk of the Records in the Tower of London, John Philpot, Som. Herald, did frame his Cat. of the Chanc. of England, &c. Lond. 1636. qu.

The perfect Embassador, treating of the antiquity, privileges and behaviour of men belonging to that function, &c.—This was published in 12o. in the times of the late Usurpation, and therefore is supposed to be very imperfect.

A discourse of Arms, wherein is shewed the blazon, and cause of divers English, Forreign, and devised Coats, together with certain Ensigns, Banners, Devises, and Supporters, of the Kings of England.—MS. sometimes in the Library of Ralph Sheldon of Beoly Esq now (by his gift 1684.) among the books of the College of Arms near St. Pauls Cath. in London. The beginning of this MS. written to Sir Will. Cecyll Lord Burghley, is this, I present unto your rare judgment (right honourable and my singular good Lord) no vulgar conceit of Armory, &c. The discourse is dated from Clarkenwell-Green, 5. Jan. 1593.

Several collections of Antiquities, notes concerning Arms, monumental Inscriptions, &c.—MS. in Cottons Lib. under Cleopatra. C. 3. p. 62.

Miscellanies of the Treasury.—MS. written to Tho. Lord Buckhurst, an. 1599.

Epitaphia, sive monumenta Sepulchrorum Anglicè & Latinè, quam Gallicè.—MS. in a thin fol. in the hands of Sir Henry St. George Clarenceaux K. of Arms. The said Inscriptions, with Arms and Epitaphs, were collected in his travels through several parts of England, and through some of France, and have been ever acceptable to such curious men, and Antiquaries, that have had the happiness to see them. Several of his collections were transferred to obscure hands, which without doubt would be useful if they might be perused; but ’tis feared by some, that they are turned to waste paper. I have seen divers collections of Monuments, made by him from Peterborough Cath. in 1592. several of which Mon. were lost and defaced before Sir Will. Dugdale, or Sim. Gunton made their respective surveys of that ancient Edifice, an. 1640. 41. What other things our author Thynne hath written I know not, nor any thing else of him, 1611 only that he died in sixteen hundred and eleven. But that which I have forgotten to let the Reader know farther of him, is, that he had several Notes on, and corrections of, Chaucer’s Works lying by him; with the helps of which, he did intend to put out that author, with a comment in our English tongue, as the Italians have Peteark and others in their language. But he having been taken off from that good work, he did assist Tho. Speght of Cambridge with his notes and directions, as also with considerable materials for the writing Chaucer’s life. Whereupon the said Speght published that author again in 1602. (having in the former edition 1597. had the notes and corrections of Joh. Stow the Chronologer for his assistance,) whereby most of Chaucer’s old Words were restored, and Proverbs and Sentences marked. See more in Will. Thynne, under the year 1542. from whom, if I mistake not, this Francis was descended.