Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/358

 ly to comfort him in his old yeres’ (, Original Letters on the Church in Ireland, p. 94). It would seem that his character suffered under some heavy moral imputations, for Adam Loftus, archbishop of Armagh, writing to Archbishop Parker 27 Sept. (1561?), expressed a hope that Curwen would be removed, as he was a ‘known enemy,’ and laboured under open crimes, ‘which, although he shamed not to do, I am,’ added Loftus, ‘almost ashamed to speak’ (, Parker, p. 111). In 1563 Queen Elizabeth proposed that he should resign his archbishopric and chancellorship, and receive a pension during life, but this project was not carried into execution (, p. 124). In 1564 he strenuously opposed the scheme so long entertained of converting St. Patrick's Church into a university (Cottonian MS. Titus B. xiii. 116). On the other hand Hugh Brady, bishop of Meath, thought no one but the devil could oppose such a scheme, and in a letter to Cecil (23 June 1565) he recommended the recall of the archbishop of Dublin, ‘the old unprofitable workman.’ Loftus also urged Curwen's removal, because he would not co-operate in the reform (, pp. 151, 226). On 3 April 1564 Curwen, writing to the queen and to Cecil, had himself desired to be disburdened of his offices by reason of his sickness, not age, and to be translated to a bishopric in England or to be presented with a pension of equal amount to his archbishopric. It is significant that he ‘fears lest her highness, upon sinister information, had conceived some misliking towards him.’ On 5 Oct. 1566 Loftus wrote from Cambridge to Cecil, begging, for the sake of Jesus Christ, the archbishopric of Dublin for himself, because Curwen did no good in preaching or in making others preach, or in reforming his diocese at all, because he appointed open enemies to livings, and because (though the writer was sorry to say it) he swore terribly in open court, not only once or twice, but frequently (ib. p. 274). In 1567 he gave up the office of lord chancellor, to which Robert Weston was appointed by patent, dated 10 June. He also resigned the archbishopric of Dublin, and was nominated bishop of Oxford, his election to that see being confirmed by the queen on 8 Oct., and he having restitution of the temporalities on 3 Dec. It is remarkable that in the grant of the bishopric no mention is made of his having been archbishop of Dublin (, Bishops of Ireland, ed. Harris, p. 353). This appointment must be regarded as a very scandalous proceeding, for there is good evidence that from his age and infirmities he was altogether unfitted to discharge the duties of the episcopate. There being no house then attached to the see of Oxford, he fixed his residence at Swinbrook, near Burford, Oxford. He did not long survive, and was buried in the church of Burford on 1 Nov. 1568.

He was uncle to [q. v.], afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, and placed him at Christ's College, Cambridge.

 CURWEN, JOHN (1816–1880), writer on music, the eldest son of the Rev. Spedding Curwen, an independent minister of an old Cumberland family, was born at Hurst House, Heckmondwike, Yorkshire, on 14 Nov. 1816. His mother was Mary, daughter of John Jubb of Leeds. Curwen's boyhood was principally spent at Hackney and (after 1828) at Frome. His earliest schools were at Ham, Surrey, and at Frome, but at the age of sixteen he entered Wymondley College to prepare for the independent ministry. A few months after his entry the college was moved to London, where the students attended University College. In 1838 Curwen was appointed assistant minister at Basingstoke, where he also kept a small school; in 1841 he held a similar post at Stowmarket, and, after living at Reading with his father for a year, in May 1844 he was ordained to the charge of the independent chapel at Plaistow, where he remained until 1864. At an early stage in his ministerial career he showed great interest in teaching: it was this which drew his attention to the educational value of music, and, though he was himself an amateur, led him to the elaboration of the system with which his name is chiefly connected. About 1840 he met at Norwich a Miss Glover, the daughter of a clergyman, who had employed in a school where she taught a very successful system of musical instruction. In the autumn of 1841, at a conference of Sunday-school teachers at Hull, the subject of school and congregational singing was discussed, and Curwen was requested 