Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/169

Latey  day (, Hist. Ireland, ii. 264, ed. 1735), and was buried in the church at Armagh. A monument was erected to his memory in St. John's College chapel by his father; the date of his death is incorrectly given as 27 July. Amhurst, in his 'Terræ Filius,' p. 185, alleges that on the monument there were these lines:

:A sero bello dives durusque vocatus,
 * A sero bello nomen et omen habet.

They are not there now. The actual inscription is given in Wood's 'History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford,' p. 566, ed. 1786.

Latewar was a famous preacher, and a Latin poet of some merit. Stow refers to his poetic gifts (Annals, ed. 1631, p. 812). Samuel Daniel [q. v.] speaks of him as his friend, and in the 'Apology' to his 'Philotas' mentions that Latewar told him that he 'himself had written the same argument and caused it to be presented in St. John's College, Oxon., where, as I afterwards heard, it was worthily and with great applause performed.' Latewar contributed verses to the Oxford 'Exequiæ' on Sir Philip Sidney, as well as to some other books. He also wrote: 1. 'Carmen ἀπομνημονευτικόν, Coll. S. Johan. Bapt.,' which was restored and augmented by Richard Andrews, a later fellow of the college. 2. 'Concio Latina ad Academicos Oxon.,' 1594, a sermon on Philippians iii. 1, preached on his admission to his B.D., and printed in 1594 with his apology in Latin. A letter from Latewar to Sir Robert Cotton, of no particular interest, is preserved in Cotton. MS. Julius C. iii. f. 231. An epitaph on him is contained in the 'Affaniæ' of Charles Fitzgeffrey [q. v.]

 LATEY, GILBERT (1626–1705), quaker, youngest son of John Latey, born at St. Issey, Cornwall, was baptised 20 Jan. 1626. His mother, whose name was Hocking, was 'a gentlewoman,' and her brother was married to a sister of Sir William Noy [q. v.], attorney-general. Latey's father was a well-to-do yeoman, maltster, and innkeeper. Latey served his apprenticeship to a tailor, and took service at Plymouth with a master 'who was afterwards mayor of the town,' but he left this employment because he had doubts of his master's religious sincerity.

In November 1648 he arrived in London, and soon commenced business as a tailor in the Strand. In 1654, although he was hearing four sermons a day, he was disturbed by religious difficulties, and attended the preaching of Edward Burrough [q. v.], Francis Howgil, and others, at the house of Sarah Matthews, a widow, in Whitecross Street. He at once joined the Society of Friends, and shortly became one of their most influential members in London. He thereupon conscientiously refused to make coats superfluously adorned with lace and ribbons. Most of his customers, who 'were persons of rank and quality,' left him, and his trade, which had been prosperous, for a time declined.

In 1659 he went to St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, and after the sermon openly charged Dr. Thomas Manton [q. v.], the preacher, to prove his doctrine. The congregation growing to 'a fermentation,' a constable was sent for and he was taken before a magistrate. The latter told him that Manton was a very learned man, and could doubtless prove by scripture what he said. 'That,' said Latey, 'is all I asked.' The magistrate accordingly dismissed him, with the remark that he had understood the quakers to be a mad sort of folk, but this one seemed rational enough. Soon afterwards Latey and sixteen others were thrown into a small dungeon at the Gatehouse, Westminster, for meeting together. They could only lie down by turns, and had neither straw to lie on, nor any light. Latey afterwards succeeded in proving charges of cruelty and extortion against Wickes, the master of the prison.

After his release Latey signed the petition of six hundred Friends, presented through Sir John Glanville, that they might 'lie body for body' in place of those already in prison. The request was refused. Latey constantly visited the numerous meetings in and around London, at Kingston, Hammersmith, Barking, and Greenwich. While riding to Greenwich he was on one occasion stoned by a mob. In 1661 he was taken by a party of the king's foot-guards from a meeting in Palace Yard, and confined under the banqueting-room at Whitehall. In 1663 he and George Whitehead procured, after a personal appeal to Charles II, the release of sixty-three quakers imprisoned at Norwich, and a remission of their fines. He was again arrested at a meeting at Elizabeth Trot's house in Pall Mall, near the Duke of York's palace (St. James's). The quakers continued, however, to meet there until 1666, when they removed to the more populous neighbourhood of Westminster.

During the plague of 1665 Latey was in constant attendance on the sick, distributing money collected among the Friends. In September 1670 he held meetings in Somerset, Devonshire, and Cornwall. But on learning Rh