Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/241

 council of the north, with an annual salary of 33l. 6s. 8d. In 1640 he was elected M.P. for Newcastle-on-Tyne, but a petition was lodged against his return, and before it was decided Melton died (Commons' Journals, 17 Dec. 1640; Official Returns of Members of Parliament, i. 491, n. 11). He was buried at Tottenham, and a monument was erected to his memory.

Melton married, apparently in 1634, a lady named Currans, who within the space of twelve months presented him with five children, two sons at the first birth, and at the second, in 1635, two sons and a daughter; the latter event she did not survive (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1635, p. 385).

Melton was author of: 1. ‘A Sixefolde Politician … together with a Sixefolde Precept of Policy,’ 1609, 8vo. This book contains commendatory lines by John Davis, and has been frequently assigned to John Milton's father, but on insufficient grounds; a pun in the first line of the introductory verses would lose its point if the author's name were Milton, not Melton. 2. ‘Astrologaster, or the Figure-Caster; rather the Arraignment of Artlesse Astrologers and Fortune-tellers,’ 1620, 4to; it is dedicated to Melton's father, Evan, and contains commendatory verses by ‘John Hancocke, bachelor of arts and student of Brazenose College, Oxford,’ and others by ‘John Malin, master of arts and sometime student of Trinity College in Cambridge.’ Hunter (New Illustr. of Shakespeare, ii. 54) says the ‘Astrologaster is now a very curious book, and in its day was no doubt a very useful book.’ Copies of both works are preserved in the British Museum Library. 

MELTON, WILLIAM (d. 1340), archbishop of York, was born of humble parentage at Melton, in the parish of Welton, near Hull; his parents' names are unknown, but he had a brother Henry, whose son, Sir William de Melton, was his heir. Melton seems to have entered the royal service, and was perhaps employed in some capacity about the person of the young Prince of Wales, for Edward II speaks of Melton as having been in his service from his boyhood (Fœdera, ii. 107). Melton is first mentioned in 1299 as rector of Repham, Lincolnshire. In 1300 he was one of the ostiarii of the king's wardrobe, of which department he became comptroller on the accession of Edward II, retaining his office till 1315. In the intervening years Melton received a variety of ecclesiastical preferments. He was rector of Hornsea, Yorkshire, 10 July 1301, Lythe 13 March 1308, Thorpland, Norfolk, 1309, and Spofforth, Yorkshire, 4 Aug. 1310. On 2 Jan. 1305 he received the prebend of Oxton with Cropwell at Southwell, which on 30 July 1309 he exchanged for that of Norwell-Palishall. He was prebendary of Louth, Lincoln, from 1309 to 1317; on 3 May 1309 exchanged a stall at Westbury, Gloucestershire, for one at Beverley; and on 23 March 1310 one at Darlington for that of Driffield, York. He was also dean of St. Martin-le-Grand, London, 27 Aug. 1308, archdeacon of Barnstaple 13 Oct. 1308 to March 1309, and provost of Beverley on 6 Oct. 1309. Soon after the accession of Edward II Melton is mentioned as the king's clerk, and in October 1307 as keeper of the privy seal (Close Rolls, Edward II, pp. 3, 42). In January 1308 he accompanied the king on his journey to France, and had charge of the great seal, being apparently at this time the king's secretary (ib. p. 57; Fœdera, ii. 29). Edward regarded him with special favour, and in May 1310 Melton had temporary charge of the great seal (Close Rolls, Edward II, p. 258). On 20 April 1310, and again on 12 Nov. 1312, the king addressed commendatory letters on Melton's behalf to the pope and to certain cardinals (Fœdera, ii. 107, 187). In 1312 he was one of the proctors of the northern convocation in refusing an aid to the king (Letters from the Northern Registers, 211–12), and on 12 Aug. of that year one of the commissioners from the king to the Cinque ports (Parl. Writs, II. ii. 43). On 3 May 1313 he was sent abroad on the royal service (Fœdera, ii. 211), and on 1 Aug. was a commissioner for the protection of the Scottish marches.

On 21 Jan. 1316 Melton, being then treasurer of the king's wardrobe, was through royal influence elected archbishop of York (Flores Historiarum, iii. 169). The royal assent was given 5 Feb., and letters commendatory to the pope issued three days later (Fœdera, ii. 285). Melton at once went abroad, but was detained at Avignon for over eighteen months before he could procure papal confirmation, despite numerous letters addressed by the king on his behalf to the pope and various cardinals (ib. ii. 300, 305, 314, 332, 337). The delay seems to have been partly due to the interregnum