Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/426

 parodied it (, Boswell, iv. 24). Both imitation and parody are printed in Monk's ‘Life of Bentley.’ Some of his Latin verses are contained in ‘Reliquiæ Galeanæ.’ The poem ‘Laterna Megalographica,’ included in Vincent Bourne's ‘Works’ (1772), is also attributed to Titley.

[Welch's Alumni Westmon.; Cole's Athenæ Cantabr. in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 5882; Bishop Newton's Life, prefixed to Works, p. 15; Home Office Papers, 1760–5, ed. Redington, pp. 62, 301–2; Monk's Life of Bentley, 2nd ed. ii. 173–4, 309; Pickering's edition of Bourne's Works, pref. p. xi; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.]  TITUS, SILIUS (1623?–1704), politician, born about 1623, was son of Silius Titus of Bushey, Hertfordshire. His family is said to have been of Italian origin. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, 16 March 1638, aged 15, and was admitted a student of the Middle Temple in 1639 (, Alumni Oxon. i. 1490;, Athenæ, iv. 623). Titus took up arms for the parliament at the opening of the civil war, became a captain in the regiment of Colonel Ayloffe, and took part in the siege of Donnington Castle in October 1644 (, Hertfordshire, i. 344;, Civil War in Hertfordshire, p. 124). He never served in the new model. On 4 June 1647 Titus, who seems to have been in attendance upon Charles I at Holdenby, brought the House of Commons the news of Joyce's seizure of the king, and was rewarded by a gratuity of 50l. His name appears in the list of the king's household in the Isle of Wight which was approved by the commons on 20 Nov. 1647 (Commons' Journals, v. 198, 364). By this time Titus, who was a strong presbyterian, had also become an ardent royalist, and devoted himself to contriving schemes for the king's escape. On 6 April 1648 Cromwell warned Colonel Hammond that Titus was not to be trusted, and about a fortnight later Hammond expelled him from Carisbrook. Titus, however, remained in the island, corresponding with the king, and devising fresh plans for his escape. In September 1648, when the Newport treaty came into force, he was once more allowed to attend the king, and appears to have remained with him till his seizure by the army in November (, King Charles in the Isle of Wight, 1852, pp. 108, 116, 250; the fifteen letters which Charles wrote to Titus are printed in this volume).

In December 1649 Titus was sent to Jersey as the agent of the English presbyterians, bearing an address setting forth the policy they wished him to pursue. The discovery of this intrigue by the government prevented his return to England, but the presbyterians commissioned Titus, with Major-general Massey and three others, to represent their opinions in the negotiations carried on at Breda between Charles and the commissioners of Scotland (ib. pp. 321–324; Report on the Duke of Portland's MSS. i. 585, 593; State Trials, v. 43). Thanks to the orthodoxy of his religious and political views, Titus was allowed by the Scots to be one of the king's bedchamber when Charles II came to Scotland (, Historical Discourses, p. 177). Charles sent him to France in the spring of 1651 to carry to Henrietta Maria the proposals for the king's marriage with the Marquis of Argyll's daughter (, p. 325). After the overthrow of the royalist cause at Worcester, Titus appears to have attached himself to George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham [q. v.], and is described as Buckingham's agent in his intrigues with the presbyterians, levellers, and other English malcontents (Cal. Clarendon Papers, ii. 146, iii. 109, 114). Discouraged by the defeat of the royalist cause, he applied himself to Cromwell, asking leave to return to England, and promising not to act against the government (20 Nov. 1654); but his request was not granted (, ii. 720). A year later, 16 Nov. 1655, Charles wrote to Titus thanking him for his services (Cal. Clarendon Papers, iii. 66). In October 1656 Titus, who uses the pseudonym of ‘Jennings,’ became one of Clarendon's correspondents, and was the chief intermediary between the royalists and the levellers. Colonel Edward Sexby [q. v.] was his intimate friend; he assisted him in concerting a rising against Cromwell, and kept Clarendon well informed of the plots for the Protector's assassination. It is possible that he had a hand in the composition of ‘Killing no Murder,’ though he did not as yet lay claim to its authorship (ib. pp. 189, 384, 397). Titus was specially active in concerting the royalist insurrection of August 1659 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. vi. 196).

Titus sat in the Convention parliament as member for Ludgershall (31 July 1660), distinguishing himself by his zeal against the regicides, and by proposing the disinterment of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw (Old Parliamentary History, xxiii. 16, 38, 42, 50, 56, 80). That assembly voted him 3,000l., chargeable on the excise, as a reward for his eminent services to the royal cause (ib. xxiii. 58, 77). It is doubtful, however, whether this sum was ever paid him (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1661–2, pp. 172, 284).