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daughter of Robert Seager, of Bromham. She was born at 
Stortly in Calne, in 1589, and therefore was only seventeen. 
We can picture the youthful pair commencing their new life 
with the unbounded energy belonging to their years. Their 
friends were only a few miles distant and through them 
they obtained the pupils, whose tuition filled up the time of 
the young husband, who compiled text books suitable for his 
charges. These were lessons and exercises out of Cicero, and 
a translation of two comedies of Terence. Webbe also at this 
time wrote his brief exposition of the principles of the 
Christian Religion. 
In the Dictionary of National Biography it is said that he 
kept a Grammar School, but as another account is that he 
taught boys Grammar, the mistake is obvious, for at Steeple 
Ashton there is no Grammar School, and Webbe never was 
Master of that at Bath. 
These works, with his sermons, must have occupied his 
time ; while he wrote he was cheered by the presence of his 
girl wife, diligent in her care of the pupils or of the babies 
which followed quickly one after the other. Theophilus was 
born on March 31st, 1607 ; Dorcas on February 12th, 1608 ; 
Abraham on December 8th, 1610 ; Hugh on November 16th, 
1612; George in February, 1614-5; and Debora baptised 
on May 6th, 1616. 
One of his sermons was entitled ‘‘ God’s controversie.” 
This sermon makes a decided epoch in Webbe’s life, for it 
was preached at St. Paul’s Cross on Trinity Sunday, June 
11th, 1609, a very great honour for a man under thirty, and 
we can appreciate the Dedication: “It was far from any 
thought or expectation of mine that ever I, the unworthiest 
of many thousands, should have been called from my 
little Anatoth at home to bewray my weakness at the 
Chiefest Watch Tower in the Land, much Jess than this 
silly mite of mine should have presumed to come into 
print.” The argument of the sermon was ‘ The Lord hath 
a controversie.’ ‘There is no truth in the land. Truth is 
wanting when the heart looketh East and the tongue runneth 
West.’ 
The sermon must have excited favourable attention, for 
it was published within a month of its being preached, and 
was followed the next year, 1610, by the Posie of Scriptural 
Flowers, a collection of six sermons taken out of the Garden of 
the Holy Scriptures, consisting of these six sorts :— 
