rr 
DAV 
the world was page to the duchefs of Richmond: from 
hence he removed to the family of Greville lord Brooke, 
who would probably have become a zealous patron to the 
e himfelf fufficiently 
known to bring outa play, * bea in the following year, 
1629, with great fuccefs. From that time he was admitted 
o a famili cane biahes of ae principal. wits about 
among whom, - many years, he maintained a re- 
e the oil nce of his 
‘sey and efcaped to Fr On account of fome fe 
vices done for the king, he was ‘dea knight, in the year 
1643. This honour was conferred at Gloucefter. He foon 
after went again to France, where he embraced the Roman 
Catholic religion. This procured him the confidence of the 
queen, who ‘had fought a refuge there, and who fent Dave- 
nant to Engiand, to, perfuade the king to make bis peace 
with parliament, by giving up the interefts of the church of 
Engiand. e was 
er 
quitted his ea and undertook the project of carry~ 
ing out a colony from France to The 
fi ich he em 
armed veffel eae i the P 
Davenant was committ clofe orifon r to Cowes caftle in 
the ifle of Wight. In ahs fituation he compofed a part of 
his ‘* Gondibert;?? but in O&ober 1650 he was removed t 
as kept two y 
Upon his eeleale from confinement, he had recourfe 
e at firft a mixture of decla- 
mation ed er tests of dramatic pieces ; 
and erly _ the following reign fir W 
made of the 
coln’s ia Fields, 
hela. with the exception of « Gondi bert,”? are now ee 
gotton. This is an unfinifhed poem, entitled by the author 
an ‘heroic,’ thou he meant to affimilate it to the epic 
acne 
narration of human Leaner con 
Sir William Davenant may 
ing it a mere 
ed by ane characters. 
regarded. as one oy our firft 
lyric poets, as he furnifhed the court with more mafques, 
with incidental fongs and plays, during- the reign o Charles 
II. than any other of our dramatic writers. rit. 
AVENANT, Cnarcts, the eldeft fon of fir William, es 
born in 1656. -The firft part of his education he ha 
Cheam in Surry; ay he finifhed his fludies at Baliol er 
lege, Oxford, i 
d now isos he toa fincent 
ame time was 
DAV 
infpecion of the pieces to be ae on the flage. He 
obtained other polts of emolument in king James’s reign, but 
exports and imports 
office he tase with diligence and accur acy. d 
Nov. 6th, is wo orks are numerous: they were cola 
le€ted and publ ithed in five volumes 8vo. in the year ae 
by fir Charles Whitworth, to which is an pee co 
Coen 
fo} 
Ss 
fo] 
than could have been expected at that time. 
from his works that he had accefs to official information, 
from which he derived many advantager. He feems, how. 
ever, to have depended too much upon political arithmetic, 
or the frength of figures, which ought only to be reforted 
to when the faét itfelf cannot be afcertained, being only a 
fuccedaneum, when better evidence cannot be procured, He 
anner the be Iculated to promote the views and 
purpofes ef his political friends at the time. Every thing 
iey did was right, while every action of their enemies was 
ill-intended Be ruinous. H i € 
} 
— of language, 
whole, there are oa very few that can rival him as 
a ane author.’? rit, 
DAVENTRY, in ae s a market-town in the 
hundred of Farofley, and county of Northampton, England, 
feventy-three miles N.W. from London, containing, accord- 
ing to the returns under the late a& of Parliament, 503 
houfes, and 2582 inhabitants. It is an ancient town, ftanding 
in an angle between the rivers aie an von, Ww laa wera 
Ar, Pennant to derive the name fi m Dwy avon tref, i.e. 
the town of wo rivers 3 thus making it ot Britifhi origin ; an 
fr h calle Burverosbil, in the vici- 
nity, the conjecture is "highly probable. It is an incorpo- 
rated borough, thou t has not the paalege. of fending 
members to en a “The corporation confifts of a bai~ 
liff, twelve burgeffes, a recorder, town-clerk, two head-war- 
dens, and twenty common-council men. The bailiff, while 
in office, and the following year, a&ts asa juftice of the peace, 
d coroner of inquefts. Of the corporation the bailiff, ex- 
bailiff, ie the recorder, conftitute a quorum, and can ate 
h 1 debts under the fum of one hundred pounds ; 
and in comiuel cafes com 
was founded about 
mae of the 
Cluniac order. 
to the general downfall of monachifm in England, It was 
diffolved by the permiffion of pope Clement VII. in the fe- 
venteenth year of king Henry VIII; and Salo to care 
dinal Wolfey, towards the in of his new colleges in 
Oxford aud Ip{wich ; but, as Stow fays, * i fatal fuccefs 
to the principal actors.” The revenues were valued at the 
6 diffolution 
