By W. W. Ravenhill, Esq. 



45 



imprisoned at Exeter. It happened to be his friend's lot at that time to go to 

 the Western Cirouit ; the trial of the rebels as they were then called, was very 

 short, and nothing now remained but to pass sentenoe on them ; when the judge 

 hearing the name of his old friend, and observing his face more attentively, 

 which he had not seen for many years, asked him if he was not formerly a 

 Westminster scholar. By the answer he was soon convinoed that it was his 

 former generous friend ; and without saying anything more at that time, made 

 the best of his way to London, where employing all his power and interest with, 

 the Protector, he saved his friend from the fate of his unhappy associates. 



The gentleman whose life was thus preserved by the gratitude of his school- 

 fellow, was afterwards the father of a son, whom he lived to see promoted in the 

 church and who still deservedly fills one of the highest stations in it." 



This story is given as an argument for public education, that we 

 there contract friendships, which are of service to us for the rest 

 of our lives. He says " it is very well known to several persons 

 and which you may depend upon as a real truth/'' 



In an old edition of the Spectator there is the following note : — 



" The gent whose life was preserved in the civil war by the gratitude of his 

 schoolfellow was the father of Archbishop Wake, as Dr. Gray says in his 

 edition of Hudibras, vol. i., p. 392, and there is little doubt that Judge Nicholas 

 was the judge, as he tried Penruddock, 2 St. Tr., 260. Every reader must be 

 pleased with knowing who Erskine and Freeport were." 



Dr. Gray's note says : — 



" As Col. P. says I see Mr. J. Nicholas on the bench, it is probable he was 

 the judge who tried him, and it was he who applied to the Protector." 



Dr. Gray's statement that the judge who brought about Wake's 

 reprieve was Nicholas, sufficed for many years and many editions 

 both of Hudibras, and the Spectator, and for the author of the note 

 in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol., lv., page 163 ; but there was the 

 authority of Anthony Wood, that Sergeant Glynne was at West- 

 minster School, whereas there was nothing to connect Nicholas 

 with it. Moreover Glynne was the presiding judge at the trial. 

 However, further examination forces one to the conclusion, that 

 neither of the five judges who were present at Exeter, could have 

 been at Westminster School with William Wake, the date of whose 

 birth was 1628, some twenty years after that of the youngest of 

 them, more than twenty-five years after that of Glynne, and thirty 

 than that of Nicholas. 



