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 merchant, who sent him as his factor to France; this gave him a knowledge of French (cf. entries in State Papers, Dom. 1632, 18 April, 15 June, and 18 May). He returned to London about 1610 and was elected a common councilman. Soon afterwards he was presented with the freedom of the Clothworkers' Company, and made captain of the city militia. In 1614 he joined a mercantile venture to the New England coast, sending out two ships under Thomas Hunt and John Smith, which sailed from the Downs on 3 March 1614. Roydon was keenly interested in the discovery of the North-West Passage; he was one of the first settlers or ‘planters’ in Barbados, where he is said to have buried above 10,000l. He also adventured to other parts of the West Indies and to Spain, Turkey, and the Canaries in the old world. In 1628–9 he became M.P. for Aldborough; in the civil war he fought on the king's side, raised a regiment at his own cost, and took part in the defence of Basing House (1643). On 28 Dec. of the same year he was knighted. In 1645 he was made governor of Faringdon, Berkshire, where he died on 28 April 1646. In 1611, while a ‘clothworker of All Hallows Barking,’ he married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Thorowgood of Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire; his son Thomas fought as a colonel in the royal army, and after Marston Moor found an asylum in the Canaries. His nephew, [q. v.], lived in his house for some years from 1626.



ROYDON, MATTHEW (fl. 1580–1622), poet, was possibly son of Owen Roydon who co-operated with Thomas Proctor in 1578 in the latter's 'Gorgious Gallery of Gallant Inventions.' Owen Roydon signs commendatory verses addressed to the 'curious company of sycophantes;' his initials, 'O. R.,' are attached to the first poem in the work itself, and he doubtless was responsible for many of the pieces that immediately follow. There were Roydon families settled in Kent, Surrey, Essex, and Norfolk, but to which branch Owen and Matthew Roydon belonged is doubtful. The latter is doubtless identical with 'Mathew Royden' who graduated M.A. at Oxford on 7 July 1580. He was soon afterwards a prominent figure in literary society in London, and grew intimate with the chief poets of the day, including Sidney, Marlowe, Spenser, Lodge, and Chapman. His friendship with Sidney he commemorated in his 'Elegie, or Friends passion for his Astrophill,' a finely conceived poem on Sidney's death. It was first published in the 'Phrenix Nest,' 1593, and was printed with Spenser's 'Astrophel ' in Spenser's 'Colin Clout,' 1595; and it reappears in all later editions of Spenser's works. In Nashe's 'Address to the gentlemen students of both universities,' prefixed to Greene's 'Arcadia' (1587), Roydon is mentioned with Thomas Achlow and George Peele as 'men living about London who are most able to provide poetry.' Roydon, Nashe proceeds, 'hath shewed himselfe singular in the immortall epitaph of his beloued "Astrophell," besides many other most absolute comike inuentions (made more publike by euery mans praise, then they can bee by my speech).' Francis Meres, in his 'Palladis Tamia' (1598), describes Roydon as worthy of comparison with the great poets of Italy. Apart from his elegy on Sidney, the only other compositions by Roydon in print are some verses before Thomas Watson's 'Sonnets ' (1581), and before Sir George Peckham's 'True Reporte ' (1583).

Meanwhile Roydon fell under the fascination of Marlowe, and he, Harriot, and William Warner are mentioned among those companions of the dramatist who shared his freethinking proclivities (cf. Harl. MS. 7042 f. 206; and arts., and ). Another of his literary friends, Chapman, dedicated to him his 'Shadow of Night' in 1594, and Ovid's 'Banquet of Sence' in 1595. In the former dedication Chapman recalls how he first learned from 'his good Mat' of the devotion to learning of the earls of Derby and Northumberland and of 'the heir of Hunsdon.' John Davies of Hereford addressed to Roydon highly complimentary verse in the appendix to his ' Scourge of Folly,' 1611.

In later life Roydon seems to have entered the service of Robert Radcliffe, fifth earl of Sussex, a patron of men of letters. [q. v.], when dedicating his 'Italian Taylor and his Boy' (1609) to Lady Haddington, the Earl of Sussex's daughter, refers to Roydon as 'a poetical light &hellip; which shines not in the world as it is wisht, but yet the worth of its lustre is known.' Armin expressed the hope that 'that pen-pleading poet, grave for years and knowledge, Maister Mathew Roidin,' may 'live and die beloved' in the Earl of Sussex's service. This friendly hope does not seem to have been realised. The poet fell on evil days in old age, and appealed for charity to Edward Alleyn, the actor and founder of Dulwich Hospital. From