HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [265 



alleged, that Dr. James obtained the receipt of this powder of a 

 German baron named Schawenberg, or one Baker, to whom Schaw- 

 enberg had sold it. 



However all this might be, it is certain that Dr. James gave a 

 credit and currency to this valuable powder, which it otherwise, 

 would probably never have obtained. It is to this day prescribed 

 by the Faculty ; and is almost the only secret medicine, or medi- 

 cine bearing the name of the inventor, which our cautious physici- 

 ans have introduced into their own practice. It has proved a noble 

 fortune, (says the editors of the General Biographical Dictionary,) 

 to Dr. James's family.* 



EDMUND DUDLEY. 



The life and death of this celebrated lawyer and statesman may 

 afford a moral lesson to posterity, by offering an illustration of the 

 danger attendant upon a deviation from rectitude, and the propriety 

 and wisdom of a strict adherence to the principles of common ho- 

 nesty. Edmund, the son of Sir John Dudley, second son of John 

 Dudley, Baron of Dudley, and Knight of the Garter, was born in 

 Staffordshire in the year 1442. After having received the first ru- 

 diments of education, he was sent in the sixteenth year of his age to 

 the University of Oxford, and was afterwards removed to Gray's Inn, 

 in London, to pursue the study of the law, for which he had a great 

 aptitude, and from his natural acuteness it was foreseen by his 

 friends that he would rise into eminence. 



Young Dudley made so rapid a progress in jurisprudence, that 

 he obtained the reputation of an able lawyer when scarcely out of 

 his minority, and was taken into the service of Henry the Seventh. 

 This was only the prelude to farther advancement, for the King 

 was so well pleased with his prudence, knowledge, and fidelity, that 

 he was sworn of the Privy Council in the 23d year of his age. 



In 1492 he went with the King to France, and was one of the 

 commissioners who were chiefly instrumental in making peace with 

 the French monarch. In the year 1494, Mr. Dudley was married 

 to Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Grey, Viscount L'Isle; and in 

 1499, he was one of the British commissioners who signed the rati- 

 fication of a peace with France. He was now in high favour with 



* Beauties, Vol. XIII. p. 1196. 



