William Whately

, Son of Tho. Whately by Joyce his Wife, was born at a market Town called Banbury in Oxfordshire, in the month of May 1583, baptized there 26. of the said month, instructed in Gramm [•] r in those parts, sent to Christs coll. in Cambridge at 14. years of age, where continuing under the tuition of Mr. Tho. Potman, till he was Bach. of Arts, an. 1601, was taken home for a time by his Father. But his pregnant parts being soon after discovered by understanding men who frequented Banbury, the Father was resolved to make him a Minister, wherefore sending him to S. Edmunds hall in Oxon, in the year following, was incorporated Bach. of Arts, and with the foundation of Logick, Philosophy, and Oratory that he had brought with him from Cambridge, he became a noted Disputant, and a ready Orator. In the year 1604. he took the degree of Master of Arts, as a Member of the said hall, being then esteemed a good Philosopher and a tolerable Mathematician, and soon after entring into holy, Orders, he became Lecturer of Banbury; which place he keeping 4 years, he was made Vicar thereof. He was an excellent Preacher, a person of good parts, well vers’d in the original Text both Hebrew and Greek; but being a Calvinist and much frequented by precise and busie People there, and in the Neighbourhood, for his too frequent Preaching, laid such a foundation of Faction in that place, that it will never be easily removed. His works are these.

Divers Sermons, as, (1) The new birth: or, a treatise of regeneration, delivered in several Sermons, Lond. 1618. qu. &c. (2) The Bride-bush, or Wedding Sermon, on Ephes. 5. 23. Lond. 1617. 19. qu. In which Sermon were noted by curious readers, two propositions, as, First, That committing the Sin of Adultery, by either of the married persons, doth dissolve, annihilate, and untye the bond and knot of marriage. Secondly, That the malicious and wilful desertion of either of the married persons doth in like manner dissolve, &c. These, I say, being noted and complained of to the Archb. he was coven’d before the High Commission to make satisfaction for what he had said and written. But he ingeniously confessing that he could not make any satisfactory answer, he recanted the 4. May 1621. and was forthwith dismissed. (3) Sin no more, on Joh. 5. 14. Lond. 1628. qu. (4) The Oyl of Gladness, in several Sermons. Lond. 1637. oct. (5) Poor Man’s advocate, in certain Sermons. Lond. 1637. oct. (6) Redemption of time, on Ephes. 5. 16. Lond. 1606. oct. (7) Caveat for the Covetuos, on Luke 12. 15. Lond. 1609. oct. (8) Samuel’s Funeral, Serm. at the Fun. of Sir Anth. Cope Kt. and Bt. Lond. 1618. 19. qu. Besides other Sermons printed in 1614. 16. 19. 1623. 24. 28. 1630. &c.

A pithy, short, and methodical way of opening of the Ten Commandments, Lond. 1622. oct.

Treatise of the cumbers and troubles of Marriage. Lond. 1624. qu.

Prototypes, or Examples out of the book of Genesis, applied to our information and reformation. Lond. 1640. fol. Published by the authors great admirers Edward Liegh Esq and Hen. Scudder Minister of Colingbourne Ducis in Wiltshire. Before which book is his character, written by the said Scudder a Presbyterian. This Will. Whately surrendred up his pious Soul to God on the tenth day of May in sixteen hundred thirty and nine, 1639 and was buried in the yard belonging to the Church at Banbury. Over his grave is a large rais’d monument of stone, and thereon a Lat. and Engl. Epitaph in verse, a Lat. and Engl. Anagram, and a double Chronogram. All which shall be now for brevity sake omitted, except part of the Engl. Epitaph, running thus,

Whatsoe’ere thoul’t say who passest by,

Why? here’s enshrin’d Celestial dust,

His bones, whose name and fame can’t dye

These Stones as Feoffees weep in trust.

It’s William Wheatly that here lies,

Who swam to’s Tomb in’s Peoples eyes,

Death was his Crown, &c.