Brief Lives John Aubrey
Brief Lives John Aubrey is in Stewart Books.
Stewart Books, Brief Lives John Aubrey, Brief Lives: William Cecil 1st Baron Burghley 1520 1598
Cecil, lord Burleigh: Memorandum, the true name is Sitsilt, and is an ancient Monmouthshire family, but now come to be about the size c of yeomanry. In the church at Monmouth [Map], I remember in a south windowe an ancient scutcheon of the family, the same that this family beares. 'Tis strange that they should be so vaine to leave off an old British name for a Romancy one, which beteere Mr Verstegan did putt into their heads, telling his lordship, in his booke, that they were derived from the ancient Roman Cecilii. The first lord Burley (who was Secretary of Estate) was at first but (a) country-schoole-master, and (I thinke Dr. Thomas Fuller sayes, vide Holy State) borne in Wales. I remember (when I was a schooleboy at Blandford) Mr. Basket, a reverend divine, who was wont to beg us play-dayes, would alwayes be uncovered, and sayd that 'twas the lord Burleigh's custome for (said he) here is my Lord Chanceller, my Lord Treasurer, my Lord Chief Justice, &c., predestinated'. 'He made Cicero's Epistles his glasse, his rule, his oracle, and ordinarie pocket-booke ' (Dr. J. Web in preface of his translation of Cicero's Familiar Epistles.
Stewart Books, Brief Lives John Aubrey, Brief Lives: Charles Danvers 1568 1601
[711]Sir Charles Danvers (age 33) was beheaded on Tower-hill [Map] with Robert, earle of Essex (age 35), February the 6th, 1600[712]. I find in the register of the Tower chapell [Map] only the sepulture of Robert, earl of Essex (age 35), that yeare; wherfore I am induced to beleeve that his body was carryed to Dantesey[CX] in Wilts to lye with his ancestors. Vide Stowe's Chronicle, where is a full account of his and the earle's deportment at their death on the scaffold.
With all their faylings, Wilts cannot shew two such[713] brothers.
His familiar acquaintance were...[714], earl of Oxon (age 50); Sir Francis (age 40) and Sir Horace Vere (age 36); Sir Walter Ralegh (age 47), etc.-the heroes of those times.
Quaere my lady viscountesse Purbec and also the lord Norris for an account of the behaviour and advice of Sir Charles Danvers in the businesse of the earl of Essex, which advice had the earle followed he had saved his life.
[715]Of Sir Charles Danvers, from my lady viscountesse Purbec:-Sir Charles Danvers advised the earle of Essex, either to treat with the queen-hostages..., whom Sir Ferdinando Gorges (age 36) did let goe; or to make his way through the gate at Essex house, and then to hast away to Highgate, and so to Northumberland (the earl of Northumberland maried his mother's (age 51) sister), and from thence to the king of Scots, and there they might make their peace; if not, the queen was old and could not live long. But the earle followed not his advice, and so they both lost their heads on Tower-hill.
Note.
[711]. MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25v.
[712]. i.e. 1600/1.
[713]. Dupl. with 'shew the like two brothers,' scil. as Sir Charles Danvers and his brother Henry, earl of Danby.
[714]. Edward Vere, seventeenth earl of Oxford (age 50).
[CX]In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 46, Aubrey writes, in reference to burials at Dantesey, 'quaere, if Sir Charles Danvers that was beheaded?-He was buryed in the Tower chapell.' Aubrey's description of the burial-place of the Danvers family (MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 46), with the inscriptions, is printed in J. E. Jackson's Aubrey's Wiltshire Collections, pp. 223-225; the pedigree of Danvers is there given at p. 216.
Stewart Books, Brief Lives John Aubrey, Brief Lives: Elizabeth Danvers
[716]His[CY] mother, an Italian, prodigious parts for a woman. I have heard my father's mother say that she had Chaucer at her fingers' ends.
A great politician; great witt and spirit, but revengefull[717].
Knew how to manage her estate as well as any man; understood jewells as well as any jeweller.
Very beautifull, but only short-sighted. To obtain pardons for her sonnes[718] she maryed Sir Edmund Carey, cosen-german to queen Elizabeth, but kept him to hard meate.
Smyth of Smythcotes-Naboth's vineyard-digitus Dei[CZ].
The arcanum-'traditio lampadis' in the family of Latimer[DA] of poysoning king Henry 8-from my lady Purbec.
Notes.
Note 716. MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25.
Note 717. Aubrey, in the margin, notes 'Anne Bulleyn.'
Note 718. For the murder of Henry Long.
[CY]. i.e. Henry, earl of Danby's. She was Elizabeth, daughter of John Nevill, the last lord Latimer. 'An Italian' may mean that she knew that language, among her other accomplishments. I can make nothing of a note added by Aubrey here, which seems to read '... Cowley, crop-ear'd.'
[CZ]. I do not know to what circumstance, in the history of the Danvers family, Aubrey here applies 1 Kings xxi. 19.
[DA]. Catherine Parr, last consort of Henry VIII, was widow of John, 3rd lord Latimer; and step-mother of John, 4th lord Latimer, the father of this Elizabeth Danvers, whose grand-daughter ('viscountess Purbeck') was Aubrey's informant.