72 TKE MODEL MERCHANT 



Finiit ipso dies/ 

 Sis sibi Christe quies. Amen. 

 Ejus sponsa pia generosa Sophia,' 

 Jungitur, &c." 



Sweet as the spikenard's odours rise 



In fragrant columns to the skies, 



So sweet and fragrantly we sec ' 



Ascend this Richard's memory. 



He loYcd that city to adorn 



"WTiosG dignities he'd nobly worn : 



A model merchant prince was he, 



Of high soiiled liberality. 



Aid of the poor — to all and each, 



Full much may his example teach. 



Minding the Scriptures' high command, 



iUl sordid selfishness he spumed ; 



Spent fortune gcn'rously to raise 



St. Michael's Chiu-ch for prayer and praise. 



One bitter day of March cut down 



This true supporter of the crown, 



This City's Mayor, the poor man's stay. 



Was snatched from earth in one short day. 



His family his earthly years shall count, 



His soul to God's high host above shall mount. 



Richard, on all, thy bounties thou didst pour, 



Christ be thy spirit's rest for evermore. Amen. A. E. L. 



yet it destroys the presumption that he might have been a posthumous son, wliilc 

 it establishes the fact that he was undoubtedly very young at the time of his 

 father's death, probably under two years old ; at the same time it wiU fix his age, 

 at the time of his death, to have been between 63 and 65, instead of 73, as I had 

 before assumed. It has also been suggested to me, since the Pedigrees were 

 printed, that Sir Thomas dc Berkeley was the first and not the second husband of 

 Richard Whittington's mother. This again makes very little or no difference to 

 the main facts of the Biography. Thomas de Berkeley was living and High 

 SheriflF of the County in 1351, and undoubtedly completed his year of office; he 

 could not therefore have died before 1352, which leaves but little time for his 

 widow to have married again, and to have had a second family of five, if not more, 

 children, between that date and 1360, the period of Sir William de Whytj-ngton's 

 death. Nevertheless the fact of her being still called Johanna uxor Willi, de 

 WhitjTigton, in the Inqms. post mart., 46 Ed. III., rather favors the suggestion. 

 s From this wc should conclude that his last illness was of short duration. 

 t Not that his wife's name was Sophia, but wise and prudent is here meant; we 

 know from his own will and ordinances that his wife's name was Alice. 



