HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 301 



on the 26th March, 1650. He was sent to a private school at ten 

 years of age; and upon the 18th of June, 1674, when he was a 

 little past fifteen, admitted a pensioner of Sydney college, in Cam- 

 bridge. He acquired a considerable reputation for parts and learn- 

 ing ; and having taken both the degrees in arts at the proper sea- 

 sons, left the University in 1681, not without some disappointment 

 upon having missed a fellowship in his college. He had commenced 

 master of arts the summer before ; and it seems to have been about 

 this time that he took deacon's orders. In 1682 he became as- 

 sistant to the head-master of Birmingham school ; and in a short 

 time got a small lecture of a chapel about two miles distant. At 

 the end of four years he was chosen second master of the school, 

 and upon this occasion took priest's orders ; for the words of the 

 charter were interpreted to require that the masters, of whom there 

 were three, should be in those orders, and yet should take no eccle- 

 siastical preferment. In this situation and employment he conti- 

 nued till the 19th of August, 1688 ; when, by the death of a rich 

 relation of his name, he found himself possessed of a very ample 

 estate. In November following he came to London ; and about a 

 twelvemonth after, the 26th of November, 1689, married Mrs. Ca- 

 tharine Charlton, a citizen's daughter. She lived with him till the 

 21st of July, 1720 ; and he had eleven children by her, four of whom 

 died in his life-time. 



After his arrival in London, he may most truly be said to have 

 settled there, for he very seldom went out of it ; and we are told, 

 that for above thirty years before his death, he had not been absent 

 from his habitation in Charter-House-squart so much as one whole- 

 night. In this his settlement in town he chose a private and re- 

 tired life, although his carriage was ever free and open. He aimed 

 at solid and real content rather than shew and grandeur ; and ma- 

 nifested his dislike of power and dignity by refusing, when it was 

 offered to him, one of the highest preferments in the church. He 

 was very well skilled in the learned languages, Latin, Greek, He- 

 brew, Arabic, &c., and thoroughly versed in all branches of useful 

 learning, as philology, criticism, mathematics, philosophy, history, 

 antiquities, and the like. He accustomed himself to much think- 

 ing, as well as to much reading : he was indeed of opinion that a 

 man might easily read too much ; for he considered the helluo li' 

 brorum and the true scholar as two very different characters. The 

 love of truth and reason made him love free thinking ; and, as far 

 as the world would bear it, free-speaking too. He composed a great 



