Brief Lives, Vol. 2

John Selden (1584-1654).

[946]Mr. John Selden when young did copie[947] records for Sir Robert Cotton—from Fabian Philips.

[948]John Selden, esq., was borne (as appeares by his epitaph, which he himselfe made, as I well remember archbishop Usher, Lord Primate, who did preach his funerall sermon, did then mention scil. as to spe certae resurrectionis) at Salvinton, a hamlet belonging to West Terring, in the com. of Sussex.

His father was a yeomanly man, of about fourty pounds per annum, and played well on the violin, in which he tooke delight, and at Christmas time, to please him selfe and his neighbours, he would play to them as they danced. My old lady Cotton[LXXXII.] (wife to Sir Robert Cotton, grandmother to this Sir <John> Cotton) was one time at Sir Thomas Alford's, in Sussex, at dinner, in Christmas time, and Mr. John Selden (then a young student) sate at the lower end of the table, who was lookt upon then to be of parts extraordinary, and some body asking who he was, 'twas replyed, his son that is playing on the violin <in> the hall[LXXXIII.]. I have heard Michael Malet (judge[BJ] Malet's son) say, that he had heard that Mr. John Selden's father taught on the lute. He had a pretty good estate by his wife.

He (vide A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon.) was of Hart-hall in Oxon, and Sir Giles Mompesson told me that he was then of that house[BK], and that he was a long scabby-pold boy, but a good student.

Thence he came to the Inner Temple. His chamber was in the paper buildings which looke towards the garden, ... staire-case, uppermost story, where he had a little gallery to walke in.

He was quickly taken notice of for his learning, and was sollicitor and steward to the earl of Kent[BL], whose countesse (was) an ingeniose woman....[949] After the earle's death he married her. He had a daughter[950], if not two, by ...; one was maried to a tradesman in Bristowe.... Mris. Williamson, one of my lady's woemen, a lusty, bouncing woman, ... robbed him on his death-bed....

His great friend heretofore was Mr. ... Hayward, to whom he dedicates his Titles of Honour; also Ben Johnson.

His treatise that Tythes were not jure divino drew[951] a great deale of envy upon him from the clergie. W. Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, made him make his recantation before the High Commission Court, of which you may have an account in Dr. Peter Heylen's Historie. After, he would never forgive the bishops, but did still in his writings levell them with the presbyterie. He was also severe and bitter in his speeches against ship-money, which speeches see.

He was one of the Assembly of Divines, and <Bulstrode> Whitlock, in his memoires, sayes that he was wont to mock the Assembly men about their little gilt Bibles, and would baffle them sadly: sayd he, 'I doe consider the original.'

[952]<Richard> Montague, <bishop> of Norwich, was his great antagonist; vide the bookes writt against each other.

He never owned the mariage with the countesse of Kent till after her death, upon some lawe account. He never kept any servant peculiar, but my ladie's were all at his command; he lived with her in Aedibus Carmeliticis (White Fryers), which was, before the conflagration, a noble dwelling.

He kept a plentifull table, and was never without learned company. He rose at ... clock in the morning (quaere Sir J. C.[BM]) and went to bed at....

He was temperate in eating and drinking. He had a slight stuffe, or silke, kind of false carpet, to cast[953] over the table where he read and his papers lay[954], when a stranger came-in, so that he needed not to displace[955] his bookes or papers.

He wrote ...: vide A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon. for the catalogue of the bookes writt by him.

He dyed of a dropsey; he had his funerall scutcheons all ready ... moneths before he dyed.

When he was neer death, the minister (Mr. <Richard> Johnson) was comeing to him to assoile him: Mr. Hobbes happened then to be there; sayd he, 'What, will you that have wrote like a man, now dye like a woman?' So the minister was not let in.

He dyed in Aedibus Carmeliticis (aforesayd) the last day of November, Anno Domini 1654; and on Thursday, the 14th day of December, was magnificently buryed in the Temple church. His executors were Matthew Hales (since Lord Chiefe Justice of the King's Bench), John Vaughan (since Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas), and Rowland Jewkes, Esq.: quaere the fourth executor[BN]. They invited all the Parliament men, all the benchers, and great officers. All the judges had[956] mourning, as also an abundance of persons of quality. The Lord Primate of Ireland, <James> Usher, preach't his funerall sermon.

His grave was about ten foot deepe or better, walled up a good way with bricks, of which also the bottome was paved, but the sides at the bottome for about two foot high were of black polished marble, wherein his coffin (covered with black bayes) lyeth, and upon that wall of marble was presently lett downe a huge black marble stone of great thicknesse, with this inscription:

Heic jacet corpus Johannis Seldeni, qui
obiit 30 die Novembris, 1654.

Over this was turned an arch of brick (for the house would not loose their grownd), and upon that was throwne the earth, etc. and on the surface lieth another faire grave-stone of black marble, with this inscription:

I. SELDENVS, I. C. heic situs est.

This coate[957] ('..., 3 roses on a fess, between 3 swans' necks, erased, collared' [this is the coate of Baker]) is on the flatt marble; but is, indeed, the coate of his mother, for he had none of his owne, though he so well deserved it. 'Tis strange (me thinke) that he would not have one.

On the side of the wall above, is a faire[958] inscription of white marble: the epitaph he made himselfe as is before sayd, and Marchamond Needham, making mention of it in his Mercurius Politicus, sayd 'twas well he did it, for no man els could doe it for him. He was buried by Mr. <Richard> Johnson, then Master of the Temple, the directory way, where Mr. Johnson tooke an occasion to say[BO], 'a learned man sayes that when a learned man dies a great deale of learning dies with him: then certainly in this,' etc.

[959]Joannes Seldenus
heic juxta situs,
Natus est XVI Decembris, MDLXXXIV,
Salvintoniae,
Qui viculus est Terring occidentalis
in Sussexiae maritimis,
Parentibus honestis,
Joanne Seldeno Thomae filio,
e quinis secundo,
Anno MDXLI nato,
et
Margareta filia et haerede unica
Thomae Bakeri de Rushington,
ex equestri Bakerorum in Cantio familia,
filius e cunis superstitum unicus,
aetatis fere LXX annorum.
Denatus est ultimo die Novembris,
Anno Salutis Reparatae MDCLIV,
per quam expectat heic
RESVRRECTIONEM
Felicem.

He would tell his intimate friends, Sir Bennet Hoskyns, etc., that he had nobody to make his heire, except it were a milke-mayd, and that such people did not know what to doe with a great estate. Memorandum:—bishop Grostest, of Lincoln, told his brother, who asked him to make him a grate man; 'Brother,' said he, 'if your plough is broken, I'le pay the mending of it; or if an oxe is dead, I'le pay for another: but a plough-man I found you, and a plough-man I'le leave you'—Fuller's Holy State, p....

He never used any artificiall help to strengthen his memorie: 'twas purely naturall.

He was very tall, I guesse about 6 foot high; sharp ovall face; head not very big; long nose inclining to one side; full popping eie (gray). He was a poet[LXXXIV.], and Sir John Suckling brings him in the 'Session of the Poets.'

He was one of the assembly of divines in those dayes (as was also his highnesse ... Prince Elector Palatine[BP]), and was like a thorne in their sides; for he did baffle and vexe[960] them; for he was able to runne them all downe with his Greeke and antiquities.

Sir Robert Cotton (the great antiquary, that collected the library) was his great friend, whose son, Sir Thomas Cotton, was obnoxious to the Parliament, and skulked in the countrey: Mr. Selden had the key and command of the library, and preserved it, being then a Parliament man.

He intended to have given his owne library to the University of Oxford[LXXXV.], but received disobligation from them, for that they would not lend him some MSS.; wherfore by his will he left it to the disposall of his executors, who gave it to the Bodlean library, at Oxon.

He understood ... languages:—Latin, Greeke, Hebrew, Arabique, besides the learned modern.

In his writing of ... he used his learned friend, Mr. Henry Jacob, of Merton College, who did transcribe etc. for him, and as he was writing, would many times putt-in things of his owne head, which Mr. Selden did let stand, as he does, in his preface, acknowledge.

In his younger yeares he affected obscurity of style, which, after, he quite left off, and wrote perspicuously. 'Twill be granted that he was one of the greatest critiques of his time.

I remember my sadler who wrought many yeares to that family[961] told me that Mr. Selden had got more by his marriage then he had done by his practise. He was no eminent practiser at barre; not but that he was or might have been able enough; but after he had got a dulce ocium he chiefly addicted himselfe to his more ingeniose studies and records.

I have heard some divines say (I know not if maliciously) that 'twas true he was a man of great reading, but gave not his owne sentiment.

He was wont to say 'I'le keepe myselfe warme and moyst as long as I live, for I shall be cold and dry when I am dead.'

[962]John Selden, esq., would write sometimes, when notions came into his head, to preserve them, under his barber's hands. When he dyed his barber sayd he had a great mind to know his will, 'For,' sayd he, 'I never knew a wise man make a wise will.' He bequeathed his estate (40,000 li. value) to four executors, viz. Lord Chiefe Justice Hales, Lord Chief Justice Vaughan, Rowland Jukes, and ... (his flatterer)—from Fabian Philips.