William Whittyngham

Son of Will. Whittyngham Gent. (by his Wife the Daughter of Haughton of Haughton Tower) Son. of Will. Whittyngham of Over, Son of Seth Whittyngham of Swanlow in Cheshire, was born in the City of Chester, became a Commoner of Brasnose Coll. in the sixteenth year of his age 1540 or thereabouts, where being put under a careful Tutor, did make great proficiency in learning. In 1545 he was elected Fellow of Allsouls College, being then Bach. of Arts, in which faculty proceeding two years after, was made one of the Senior Students of Ch. Church, at what time it was founded by K. Hen. 8. and endeavoured by him to be replenish’d with the choicest Scholars in the University. On the 17. May 1550 he had leave granted to him to travel for 3 years by the Dean and Canons of the said house; whereupon he went into France, and remaining in the company of learned Men there for some time, had intentions to go into Italy, but being prevented by sickness (which took him at Lyons) he spent some time among the Students in Paris, but chiefly in the University of Orleance. About that time, if I mistake not, he took to Wife Catherine the Daughter of Lewis Jacqueine, by his Wife, the heir of Gouteron Lord of Ingrue and Turvyle near to the said City of Orleance. After he had spent more than an year there, he went to certain Universities in Germany, and thence to Geneva, where tarrying till towards the latter end of K. Ed. 6. he returned into England. But that King dying, and Religion seeming to put on another face, he went with other company into France, where hearing soon after that certain Protestant Divines of England were for Religion sake fled to Frankfort, and were about, with license from the Magistrate, to settle a Church there, did hasten thither and entred himself into their association: But they dissenting among themselves concerning matters pertaining to Religion, were forced to disjoyn, and those that did best like of the forms of government of the Church of England in the days of K. Ed. 6. were to remain at Frankfort, and those that liked better the order and discipline of the Church at Geneva, were to go to that place, among whom Whittyngham was one and the chiefest, as you may farther see in a book entit. A brief discourse of the troubles begun at Frankford 1554—Printed 1575, wherein the opposite and restless humour of this Person may easily be discern’d. Soon after their settlement at Geneva, John Knox a Scot, Minister of the English congregation there, was to leave that place and return to his Country; so that Whittyngham being look’d upon as the fittest Person to succeed, was earnestly desired by Joh. Calvin to take that employment upon him, but he alledging that in his former travels and observations, with the learning of several languages, he had fitted himself more for state employment than that, he modestly denied it. At length Calvin urging him farther, he was thereupon made a Minister according to the Geneva fashion and then took the employment upon him. Soon after Miles Coverdale, Christop. Goodman, Anth. Gilby, Tho. Sampson, Wil. Cole of C. C. Coll. and this our Author Whittyngham undertook the translation of the English Bible, but before the greater part was finished, Qu. Maary died. So that the Protestant Religion appearing again in England, the exil’d Divines left Frankfort and Geneva and returned into England. Howbeit Whittyngham with one or two more being resolv’d to go through with the work, did tarry at Geneva an year and an half after Qu. Elizab. came to the Crown. At the same time also he turned into meter those Psalmes that we to this day sing in our Churches, inscribed with W. W. They are in number five, of which the 119 Psalme is one, as large as 22 other Psalmes, as also the ten commandments, and a prayer, at the end of the book of Psalmes. At length Whittyngham returning into England, he was appointed to go in company with Francis Earl of Bedford to condole the death of the French King, an 1560, and soon after to go with Ambrose Earl of Warwick to Newhaven to be preacher there, while the said Earl defended it against the French. Where, tho he shew’d himself ready in his function, yet he spared not to perswade the English from Uniformity, and observance of the rites and ceremonies of the Church. Notwithstanding this, so great a respect had the said Earl for him, that upon writing to his Brother Robert Earl of Leycester, he procured for him from the Queen the Deanery of Durham, in 1563, in the place of Ralf Skinner. Which Deanery the Queen having partly promised Dr. Tho. Wilson one of the Secretaries of State, was forced by the over-intreaties of the said Earl to give it to Whittyngham, who enjoying it about 16 years, was then succeeded by the said Wilson, who enjoyed it not two years. After Whittyngham had remained there for some time, Sir Will. Cecill Secretary of State was made Lord Treasurer, in whose place Whittyngham was among others nominated, and had he stirred in it and made interest with his friend Robert Earl of Leycester, he might have obtained it. About the same time the order of the sacerdotal vestures being generally established for Church-men, and so pressed that they that would not use the same, should not be permitted to exercise their Ministry, he then, and not before, submitted himself thereunto. And being upbraided therewith for so doing by one that had been with him at Geneva, he answered that he, and others, knew, and had heard John Calvin say that for external matters of Order, they might not neglect their Ministry, for so should they for tithing of Mint, neglect the greater things of the Law. And as concerning singing in the Church, Whittyngham did so far allow of it, that he was very careful to provide the best songs and anthems that could be got out of the Queens Chappel to furnish his choire withal, himself being skilful in Musick. To pass by the good service he did his Country against the Popish rebels in the North-parts of England in 1569, and his Church of Durham in repelling the Archbishop of York his visiting it, an. 1578. I shall only take notice that whereas he is stiled by certain Authors (c)(c) Rich. Bancroft in his Dangerous positions lib. 2. cap. 1. and others. the false and unworthy Dean of Durham, was because he was only Master of Arts, the statutes of the Ch. of Durham requiring that the Dean thereof should be Bach. of Divinity at least, that he was not a Minister according to the form of the Church of England, but of Geneva, and that he was but a luke-warm conformist at the best. The publick works that he hath done as to learning are, (1) His Translation of the Geneva Bible (2) His turning into Meter several of the Psalmes of David, as I have before told you. (3) His translation into Latine the Liturgie of the Church of Geneva. (4) Nich. Rydleys Declaration of the Lords Supper. Genev. 1556. To which Whittyngham put (d)(d) Bal. cent. 8. num. 87. in append. a Preface of his own making. (5) N. Rydlies protestation: This I have not yet seen, and know nothing more of it. (6) His translation from Lat into English of The Book of prayer, or the English Liturgie: See more in A brief discourse of the troubles begun at Frankford, 1554, &c. Printed 1575. p. 34. 35. He also wrot the Preface to Christoph. Goodmans book entit. How superior powers ought to be obeyed, &c. with several other things, which are not yet, as I conceive, published. As for the works of impiety that he performed while he sate Dean of Durham, were very many; among which I shall tell you of these. Most of the Priors of Durham, having been buried in coffins of stone, and some in marble, and each coffin covered with a plank of marble, or free-stone, which laid level with the paving of the Church (for antiently Men of note that were laid in such coffins, were buried no deeper in the ground, than the breadth of a plank, to be laid over them even with the surface of the pavement) he caused some of them to be plucked-up, and appointed them to be used as troughs for horses to drink in, or hogs to feed in. All the marble and free-stones also that covered them, and other graves, he caused to be taken away and broken, some of which served to make pavement in his house. He also defaced all such stones as had any pictures of brass, or other imagery work, or chalice wrought, engraven upon them; and the residue he took away, and employed them to his own use, and did make a washing-house of them at the end of the Centory-garth. So that it could not afterwards be descerned that ever any were buried in the said Centory-garth, it was so plain and straight. The truth is, [•] e could not (e)(e) See a book entit. The ancient rites and monuments of the monastical and Cath. Ch. of Durham. Lond. 1672 in oct. p. 101. Which book was written by Anon (one that had belonged to the choire of Durham, at the dissolution of Abbeys) and published by Jo. Davies of [〈◊〉] . abide any thing that appertained to a goodly religiousness, or Monastical life. Within the said Abbey-church of Durham were two holy-water stones of fine marble, very artificially made and engraven, and bossed with hollow bosses, upon the ouer-sides of the stones, very curiously wrought. They were both of the same work, but one much greater than the other. Both these were taken away by this unworthy Dean Whittyngham, and carried into his kitchin, and employed to profane uses by his Servants, steeping their beef and salt fish in them, having a conveyance in the bottoms of them to let forth the water, as they had when they were in the Church to let out holy water, &c. He also caused the image of St. Cuthbert (which before had been removed from its proper place by Dean Rob. Horne, who also had a hand in such impieties) and also other antient monuments to be defaced, and broken all to pieces, to the intent that there should be no memory of that holy Man, or of any other who had been famous in the Church and great benefactors thereunto (as the Priors, his Predecessors were) left whole and undefaced. I say it again that he did this to the end that no memory or token of that holy Man St. Cuthbert should be left, who was sent, and brought thither by the power and will of Almighty God, and was thereupon the occasion of the erection of the monastical Church of Durham, where the Clergy and Servants have all their Livings and Commodities from that time to this day. At length after his many rambles in this world, both beyond and within the Seas, and his too to forward zeal for the promoting his Calvinistical (if not worse) opinion, whereby much mischief hapned to the Church of England, he did unwillingly (being then full of worldly troubles) submit himself to the stroke of death, on the tenth day of June in Fifteen hundred seventy and nine, 1579 and was buried in the Cath. Church of Durham. Soon after was a tomb-stone laid over his grave, with an Epitaph of 12 long and short verses engraven on a brass plate, fastned thereunto; which, with most if not all of the monuments which were set up after his time, were miserably defaced by the Scots when they invaded England in 1640. The first four verses run thus.

Quae Whittinghami cernis monumenta sepulti,

Et vitae & mortis sunt monumenta piae.

Anglia testis erat, testis quoque Gallia vitae

Exilis, haec vidit Praesulis illa decus.

So that as he before had in a woful manner violated the monuments of his predecessors and others, so was his by Invaders, and nothing now left to preserve his memory, or Person to shew the place where his carkase was lodg’d.