John Underhill

is according to time to follow Tho. Godwin; but before I enter upon him, I must let the reader know that after the death of Dr. Hugh Curwyn Bishop of Oxon, that See continued void about 21. years. At the term of which, a great person (Sir Fr. Walsingham) out of pure devotion to the leases, that would yield good fines, recommended the said Vnderhill to it, perswading him to take it, as in a way to a better, but, as it should seem, it was out of his way very much, for e’re the first fruits were paid, he (a)(a) Brief view, &c. before-mention’d, p. 149. died in much discontent and poverty. Yet his preferrer to seem to do some favour to the University, for recompence of the spoil done to the Bishoprick of Oxon, erected a new lecture at his own charge, which Dr. Rainolds of C. C. coll. did for some time read, as I have (b)(b) Vide Hist. & Antiq. Univ. Oxon, lib. 1. p. 301. b. 302. a. told you elsewhere. This John Vnderhill was born in an ancient tenement or receptacle for guests called the Cross Inn in St. Martins Parish, within the City of Oxon, where his name lived two or three generations, if not more, and continued there till the daughter and heir of Vnderhill was married to one Breys or Brice. After he had been trained up in Grammar learning in Winchester school, he was sent to New coll. of which he became true and perpetual fellow in 1563. After he had taken the degree of M. of Arts, it hapned that Doctor Horne Bishop of Winchester visited the said coll. but Vnderhill making opposition by questioning the Bishops right for what he did, or should do, as to visitation, he was removed from his fellowship in 1576. Whereupon making his complaint to Robert Earl of Leycester chancellour of the University of Oxon, he hearkned to, and encouraging him to go to law with the Bishop for what he had done, the Bishop forthwith let the cause fall to the ground, knowing very well that he should be a loser by carrying on the cause, if that great Count should stand by Vnderhill. In 1577. he was elected Rector of Lincoln coll. and proceeded in Divinity in 1581. About which time he was made Chaplain to the Queen, one of the Vicars of Bampton, and Rector of Witney, in Oxfordshire. In 1589. he was nominated Bishop of Oxon upon Walsinghams motion, as I have before told you; whereupon being elected by the Dean and Chapter of Ch. C. on the 8. day of Decemb. was consecrated thereunto about the latter end of the same month in the said year. He paid his last debt to nature at London on the 12. of May, in fifteen hundred ninety and two, and soon after his body being conveyed to Oxon, 1592 was buried in the Cath. Ch. towards the upper end of the choire, just before the Bishops chair, leaving then this character of him, that he was Vir clarus eloquio, & acutus ingenio. From the time of his death to the consecration of Dr. Jo. Bridges his successor, an. 1603. the patrimony of the Bishoprick of Oxon, was much dilapidated, and made a prey (for the most part) to Robert Earl of Essex, to whom it proved as miserably fatal, as the gold of Tholouse did of old to the soldiers of Caepio. The said Joh. Bridges had been sometimes fellow of Pembr. hall in Cambridge, was D. of D. and made Dean of Salisbury in the beginning of Januar. 1577. upon the promotion of Dr. Joh. Piers to the Episcopal See there. He was a learned man in the time he lived, and wrot several books, as the Bodleian or Oxford catalogue will tell you. See more of him in Hist. & Antiq. Vniv. Oxon. lib. 2. p. 291. b.