Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/230

 members of the medical profession, to whom it was addressed? Cheyne's wife and several children survived him.

 CHEYNE, WILLIAM (d. 1438?), judge, was recorder of London as early as 1378-9 but does not appear as appear before 1406-7, after which date his name occurs in the year-books in the that character with some frequency until 1410, when he was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law. Five years later he was appointed to a judgeship in the king's bench, which be retained on the accession of Henry VI (1422), and exchanged for the chief Justiceship of the same bench in 1424. In 1425-6 he was knighted at Leicester in company with William Babington and John Juyn, the latter of whom succeeded him as clue justice of the king's bench in 1438-9. The Escheat Rolls do not enable us to fix the date of his death even approximately. The family of De Cheyne was originally seated in Hertfordshire, but subseguently spread into Kent, Sussex, Somersetshire, Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, and Cheshire. That the judge did not belong to the Hertfordshire stock seems to be certain, but there the certainty ends. Philipott (Villare Cantianum, p.25) mentions one William Cheyne of Shurland in the Isle of Sheppey, who was sheriff of Kent in 1412-l4l3, and the following year, and again in 1423-4, and who was knighted in 1430-1; and Berry (County Genealogies, Kent, p. 125) Buys that this William Cheyne of Shurland was the son of Richard Cheyne of the same place by Elisabeth, daughter of  Cralle of Cralle, Sussex, and grandfathér of Sir John Cheney, who was raised to the peerege in 1458-9. He also identifies this William Cheyne with a Sir William Cheyne who was buried in the church of St. Benet, Paul's Wharf, in 1442, and whose will, a model of brevity and simplicity is included by Nicholas in his ‘Testamente Vetusta’ p. 249. The will, however, which does not read like that of a lawyer, contains nothing which serves to connect the testator with Kent, while it refers to property held by him at Stoke and Trapeseles. A Williem Cheyne of Sheppey is known to have died about 1441, as his will was then proved in the prerogative court of Canterbury (, Genealogist, iv. p. 327); and one William Cheyne of Sheppey is distinguished from the judge in the list of contributories to the expenses of the French war drawn up in l436. A Sir William Cheyne, knight, is also mentioned as tenant of the manor of Brambletye in Sussex, in 1428-9. It is of course that there was more than one William Cheyne of Sheppey, and that the judge is to be identified with the person mentioned by Philipott; but if so, it is singular that neither he nor Morant, the historian of Kent, who gives a kind of history of the family, should have noticed the fact.

 CHEYNELL, FRANCIS (1608–1666), fanatic, was the son of John Cheynell, an Oxford physician, some time fellow of Corpus Christi College. He lost his father when very young, was probably educated at the grammar school in Oxford, and became a student at Merton College in 1623. Through the interest of his mother, who after the death of his father had married Allen, bishop of Salisbury, and so was connected with Dr. Brent, then warden of Merton, Cheynell became aptrobationer fellow in 1629, and afterwards obtained a fellowship. After proceeding to the degree of M.A., he was admitted to orders, and held a curacy in or near Oxford, in conjunction with his fellowship. He continued to reside at Merton until qualified for the degree of B.D., for which be was denied the necessary grace, having, contrary to the king’s injunction, disputed concerning predestination. Upon this refusal he reflects in the dedication to his book, ‘Chillingworth Novissima,' wherein he also alludes bitterly to a visitation by which he suffered the ‘plundering of my use and little library.' This was probably on account of the open way in which be had espoused the cause of the parliament, and had denounced bishops and ecelesiastical ceremonies. About 1640 he was presented to a valuable living near Banbury, where he had some dispute with Archbishop Laud, of which no particulars have been discovered. In 1641 Cheynell avowed himself a presbyterian, and an enemy to liturgies and ceremonies; his knowledge of books and his acute intellect causing his adhesion to be gladly welcomed by the uritans. Upon the outbreak of the civil war he openly chose the side of the parliament, and exerted himself to promote the interests of his party, and,