8 JOHN GOODYER 



lie together, which has many times deceived the searchers ' ; 

 and elsewhere ' under a little table is a vault, with a grate 

 of iron for a light into the garden, as it were the window 

 of a cellar, and against the grate groweth rosemarye '. 

 It is said that sometimes as many as six or seven priests 

 were in hiding at the same time. 



Goodyer may have entered the service of Sir Thomas in 

 1616 or 1617; he was certainly working for him for the 

 next seven or eight years, and he may actually have been 

 dwelling in Mapledurham House at the time that he was 

 corresponding with Johnson in 1632-3. Thus he would 

 have been correctly designated as ' of Mapledurham ', though 

 not as a landed proprietor there. 



Sir Thomas Bilson of Mapledurham, Knight, had married 

 at Wickham, 6 August 16 1 2, Susanna the youngest daughter 

 of Sir William Uvedale of Wickham, Kt. (a surname 

 which occurs among Goodyer's notes), having issue Thomas 

 Bilson of Buriton, born 1614, who married Edith Betisworth 

 of Roegatt in 1640,^ and Leonard, baptized 5 December 16 16, 

 who was named by Goodyer as one of the executors of his 

 will, and whose monument may be seen at the west end 

 of Buriton Church. 



How long Goodyer remained with Sir Thomas we do 

 not know. We deem it certain that he had periodically to 

 visit the neighbouring towns and outlying farms, and even 

 to ride up to London on his master's business. But botany 

 was his hobby, and he probably endeavoured to combine 

 so far as possible business with pleasure and visits to his 

 friends' gardens with sittings in courts. 



It would be easy to interweave writings of contemporary 

 local interest into the life of our hero. The lists of the 

 villagers assessed for tithes and taxes, the picturesque 

 roll-call of Armour-bearers and Spearmen and ' Peionors 

 of Beritun ' ( = Pioneers of Buriton), were probably all part 

 of his daily life, but we feel bound to keep within limits, 

 and have relegated most of the contemporary documents 



' Bishop of London Marr. Lie. For other children, see p. 96 note. 



