Page:Men of Kent and Kentishmen.djvu/110

 MARY,

PRINCESS,

"Daughter of James I, and Anne of Denmark, was born at Greenwich" says Fuller, "April 8, 1605, about eleven o'clock at night, and baptized soon after with greater state than the memory of any then alive in England could recover. King James was wont pleasantly to say that he would not pray to the Virgin Mary, but he would pray for the Virgin Mary, meaning his daughter." But his prayers, were unavailing. The princess died in her infancy, and was buried at Westminster.

[See "Fuller's Worthies" and "Stow's Chronicle."]

SIR JOHN MENNES,

TRAVELLER AND POET,

This "great traveller and noted seaman," as Wood calls him, belonged to an old family settled at Sandwich, where he was born 11th May, 1598. He was educated at the free school there, and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In the reign of James I. he was made Comptroller of the navy. In the time of the Civil War he adhered to the royal cause, and served both on land and sea, being in 1641 made a vice-admiral and knighted at Dover. After the fall of the king he joined Prince Rupert, harassing the king's enemies by sea and taking part in the Kentish insurrection in 1668, but finally joined Charles II. in his exile. At the Restoration he was made Governor of Dover Castle and chief Comptroller of the navy, appointments which he held to his death in