88 James Ley, Earl of Marlborough. 
youngest son. We do not know where he received the rudiments 
of his education, but in 1569, when he was about seventeen, he 
matriculated at B. N. C. at Oxford. It is probable that he was 
intended for the clerical profession, for his father was patron of 
Teffont Evias, to which, when it became vacant in 1569, he nomi- 
nated his son, James, who held the living until he resigned it in 
1576.1 
Aubrey mentions this, and says that Mr. Ash, of Teffont, has his 
institution and induction, and supposes that the butler mast have 
read the prayers whilst the Vicar was studying, first at Oxford, and 
then at Lincolns Inn. Canon Jackson cannot understand how such 
an abuse as the presentation of a youth of seventeen, who, of course, 
was not in holy orders, could have happened. Such abuses were 
common before the Reformation. William of Wykeham successively 
held three prebendal stalls in Salisbury Cathedral, besides other 
preferment, whilst he was only an acolyte; and Henry VIII. pro- 
vided for the education of Reginald Pole, afterwards Cardinal and 
Archbishop of Canterbury, by making him Dean of Exeter whilst 
still a youth. That the Reformation did not at once correct all these 
abuses appears from a sermon preached by Bishop Jewel, in which 
he denounces the misuse of Church patronage which was frequently 
made; “A gentleman,” he says, “ cannot keep a house unless he 
have a parsonage or two to farm in his possession.” Minutes of a 
license are in existence in Archbishop Laud’s handwriting, em- 
powering a youth, who bore the title of Dr. Tucker and Vicar of 
Old Windsor, to read divine service, although he was not in deacon’s 
orders nor twenty years of age. There is some doubt whether George 
Herbert was even a deacon when he was appointed to the Vicarage 
1That such abuses were connived at by dispensations in the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth is evident from Archbishop Grindal’s account of his Court of Faculties 
made to the Queen and Council, in which it is observed : —“ Dispensations for a 
minor (as he is termed, that is, for one whose age forbids ordination) are not 
granted to any, but to those who at the least are sixteen years old and are resident 
students in the Universities.” The Archbishop proposed to abolish dispensations 
for children and young men under age to take ecclesiastical promotions. Strype 
Grind , p. 302. Remains of Abp. Grindal, Parker Society, p. 450. 
