Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/257

 1 84

THE GREEN BAG

not by special invitation, and the presump tion is supported by the absence of the Treasurer. He seems to have called casually much in the same way that Mr. Choate did on his way to the Hague Conference and to have received the congratulations of the benchers who were present upon his safe return from his expedition. The wording of the entry also supports the tradition that Drake had been admitted a member in earlier years though it is not possible to trace the exact date. Probably the admission was entered in the volume of the records which is missing for the years from 1524 to 1551. Attention may be drawn to the name of Thomas Hanham among the signatories. For years he oc cupied a chamber with Popham. In 1582 he had been Reader of the Inn and in 1589 was created serjeant at law. Hanham's second son, Thomas, also a member of the Inn, was one of the grantees of the Virginia patent of 1606. Drake was also received at the Inner Temple, but there is no mention of any occasion similar to the admission together, on Feb. 2., 1593, of Sir Martin Frobisher, Admiral Norris and Sir Francis Vere, or of Sir John Hawkins in the following year. Hawkins, we know, was a friend of the Hakluyts and the others were not likely to have been strangers to them. Sir John Popham was succeeded as Treasurer of the Inn by Miles Sandys, and Robert, younger brother of Anthony Ashley, became a member almost at the same time. He was keenly interested in travel and geographical study. Ashley made journeys into foreign parts from the Middle Temple, which served as headquarters, and the varied collection of books which he bequeathed to the Honorable' Society "to be unto them as the foundation of a library" still testifies to his desire "to get some knowledge of foreigne countries." It is reasonable to suppose that the only set now in existence of the Molyneux Globes, published in 1592, was an item in his library

and thus found a resting place in the Middle Temple. The construction of the globes was due to the munificence of William Sanderson, a wealthy merchant, who was a liberal patron of geographical exploration. The globes are 2 ft. 2 inches in diameter and were the largest that had been made up to the time of their publica tion. Upon the celestial as well as the terrestrial globe there is a dedication to Queen Elizabeth. The printing of them was entrusted to Hondius, the celebrated engraver and cartographer at Amsterdam. In 1590 an expedition consisting of three ships was sent to Virginia "at the special charges of Mr. John Wattes of London. merchant."1 On two or three occasions about that date the Benchers of the Middle Temple admitted honoris causa distinguished members of the Corporation, and Mr. Wattes, afterwards Knighted Lord Mayor and an active member of the Virginia Company, became a member of the Inn by that means in 1596. Another expedition, fitted out at the expense of Sir Walter Raleigh, sailed from Plymouth on March 25th, 1602, for Virginia under the command of Bartholo mew Gosnold, a member of the Middle Temple. He died in Virginia on August 22nd, 1607. A contemporary record tells us that "he was honourably buried, having all the Ordnance in the Fort shot off with many vollies of small shot." Anthony Gosnold, a relative of his, went to Virginia in 1605. Sir John Popham, afterwards Chief Jus tice of the King's Bench, is supposed to have prepared the first draft of the Charter of the Company in 1606, and undoubtedly took an important part in its affairs. One of the chief members of the company which sailed from England at the end of 1606 and established the settlement of Jamestown was George Percy a younger brother of the Earl of Northumberland. He had been admitted a member of the Inn 1 Hakluyts Voyages III. 288.