Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/351

 12 s. vin. APRIL 9, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 285 I was born, and 6s. 8d. among the poorest of Witton parish, and 6s. 8d. among the poorest of Great Budworth. And I bequeath 40s. to be a stock for the Almsfolk of Stratford to be em- ployed by the Chamberlains from time to time for the use of the said Almsfolk, and 10s. to be dealt amongst the other poorest of the said Stratford." The 40s. would pass through John Shake- speare's hands for investment. Bretch- girdle made bequests to his sisters and kins- folk, to his old college friend Sankey, to brother clergymen, to godsons in Cheshire Edward Wilmington and his brother Hugh of North wich (Hugh died in 1607), George Mason and Robert Venables to the children of Alderman Smith, of Stratford, farmer of the college tithes, and to a debtor and to a tenant in Stratford : " I will that if John Peate well and truly keep his day of payment of the debt specified in a bill of his hand, that then the half of the whole debt shall be forgiven him ; and I forgive my tenant, John Gray, a quarter's rent if he be so much in my debt at the time of my death, leaving the house sufficiently repaired." John Peate and his wife Joan lived until 1588, when they were buried on the same day, Feb. 19. John Gray lived in a house in Church Street which Bretchgirdle leased from the Corporation. He was a chandler and tippler. Twenty shillings owing to the Vicar from Roger Atkins of Stratford (whose wife Margaret he had buried in 1562) was to go to his cousin the executor, John Grantham (usually spelt Granams). As Bretchgirdle also left Grantham his "writing desk " we may assume that the latter was something of a scholar. Brownsword and the school were not forgotten : " I bequeath unto Master Brownsword, School- master of Stratford, ' Volfegangus Musculus upon Matthew' and 'Homiliae Nauseae.' Item I be- queath to the common use of the scholars of the Free School of Stratford upon Avon my Eliot's ' Library of Cooper's castigation.' " The Vicar's books, valued at 10Z., unfor- tunately were not catalogued, but a certain number are mentioned in the will which deserve the close attention of education- alists. They are as follows : ' Unio Dissi- dent him, Libellus ex praecipuis Ecclesiae Christianae doctoribus, selectus per vener- abilem patrem Herman Bodius' (otherwise 'The Union of Doctors,' a selection from the writings of the Fathers of the Church, Ambrose, Augustine, Bede, &c., showing their Protestant opinions on subjects like Original Sin, Infant Baptism, Predestina- tion, Justification by Faith: an heretical work, feared and hated by the Romanists almost as much as Tyndale's ' New Testa- ment in English,' and a source of trouble to scholars at Oxford, especially at Bretch- girdle's Christchurch, in 1528); 'Volfe- gangus Musculus : In Evangelistam Mat- thaeum Commentarii 1548 ' ; ' Frederici Nauseae Blancicampiani Tres Evangelicae Veritatis Homiliarum Centuriae,' Cologne,, 1530-1534: (three Centuries of Homilies,, otherwise 300 sermons, by the Bishop of Vienna;; ' Bibliotheca Eliotae,' Eliot's Dic- tionary, the second tune enriched and more- perfecibly corrected, by Thomas Cooper- In aedibus T. Bertheleti, Londini, 1552' (a revision of Sir Thomas Eliot's Latin- English Dictionary by Thomas Cooper, Master of Magdalen School, Oxford, with a " Proheme " to King Edward, in which the reviser says "When I had achieved my labours in castigating and augmenting this- Dictionary, &c.") ; 'Margarita Theologica,' both in Latin and English (Latin by John. Spangenberg, Leipzig, 1548 ; English trans- lation by Richard Hutton, with the title- 'The Sum of Divinity,' 1548); ' Apotheg- mata ' (probably of Erasmus ; though it may be of Conrad Lycosthenes, a collection of notable sayings in Latin for schoolboys,, published ^at Basle in 1555); ' Aesopi Fabulae ' (of which there were various-- editions for school use/ ; ' David's Psalms r (by Sternhold and Hopkins, 1562); ' The- Acts of the Apostles,' translated into English metre, London, 1553 ; ' Copia Ver- borum ' (a Latin phrase-book by Erasmus, compiled for the use of Dean Colet's School of St. Paul's) ; Tully's 'Offices' in English; Sallust and Justin (Justin's ' Epitome of" the History of Pompeius Trogus ') ; ' Tri- lingua Lexicon Graecum' (Bretchgirdle and Brownsword both knew Greek) ; Josephus,. ' De Antiquitatibus Judaeorum et Bello ' ; Virgil and Horace (Bracegirdle had brought up Brownsword on both) ; ' Encheiridion ' (probably 'Encheiridion Militis Christiani,' or 'Manual of a Christian Knight,' by Erasmus, translate^ into English by William Tyndale at the foot of the Cotswolds) ; 'Abcedarium Anglico-Latinum pro tyrun- culis Ricardo Huloets ex script-ore. ' Londini, in officina Gulielmi Riddell, 1552 (called by Bretchgirdle 'Ulett's Dictionary'); and John Withals, 'A Short Dictionary for Young Beginners, 1556 ' (English and Latin). Altogether the will gives an impression of scholarship and kindness (especially towards young people). The testator had "iron tools of carpentry." He built a chamber (it will be remembered) at Witton, and he-