WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Brief Lives, Vol. 2 cover

Brief Lives, Vol. 2

Chapter 261: Herbert Thorndyke (16—- 1672).
By John Aubrey
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

BiographiesBritish LiteratureHistory - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)

About This Book

A collection of concise biographical sketches of contemporaries and earlier figures recorded by an antiquarian observer, combining factual entries—births, offices, publications, and inscriptions—with personal anecdotes, hearsay, heraldic and parish-register notes, bibliographic references, and occasional critical judgments. Entries range from terse records to extended reminiscences, often citing documentary sources or witness statements, and reflect an informal, detail-driven approach aimed at preserving lives, reputations, and local traditions for reference and remembrance.

Herbert Thorndyke (16—- 1672).

[1073]Mr. Herbert Thorndyke was borne at ... in Lincolnshire, went to schoole at ... (quaere if at Westminster); ..., was fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge; afterwards prebendary of Westminster[1074].

He was a good poet. I have seen a poemation of his on the death of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, in Latin hexameters, about 100 verses or better.

He was (as I am enformed by Seth Ward, Lord Bishop of Sarum, and other learned men) one of the best scholars and mathematicians of this age.

He printed ... but he does not write clearly (quaere Dr. Pell de hoc).

Richard Busby, schoolmaster of Westminster, has his MSS.; quaere what they are.

He dyed[1075] <July>, 167<2>; and lies interred in the north-east angle of Westminster cloysters, next to the grave-stone of <Thomas> Nurse, M.D., a piece of a blew marble stone on him but yet no inscription.

He made his own inscription which is mentioned by Mr. Andrew Marvell in his Rehearsall Transpros'd, viz.:—

Hic jacet corpus Herberti Thorndike
 praebendarii hujus ecclesiae, qui vivus
 veram Reformatae Ecclesiae
 rationem et modum precibus
 studiisque persequebatur.
 Tu, Lector, requiem et beatam
 in Christo resurrectionem precare.

A parallel written by the bishop[1076] and found under his owne hand and appointed for his epitaph, but I heare that Dr. <William> Lloyd his successor will have it altered to avoyd offence:—

Exuviae[1077] Isaaci, Asaphensis episcopi,
In manus Domini depositae,
In spem laetae resurrectionis
per sola Christi merita.
O vos transeuntes[1078] domum[1079] Domini,
Domum orationis,
Orate pro conservo vestro
Ut inveniam misericordiam die Domini.
June 30, 1680.