Peter's,) having been carefully examined for this purpose. The latter, with which we have less concern, is perfect, but contains no baptism of any of the Driden family; and the ancient register of the parish of All-Saints is unfortunately either lost or mislaid; the earliest now extant commencing in the year 1650. The constant tradition, however, has been, that John Dryden was born in the parsonage-house of Aldwinckle All-Saints; a tradition which probably arose from his mother's father having been some time Rector of that parish but the history of his preferment does not exactly suit with this account; for Mr. Pickering was not possessed of the benefice till sixteen 1 years hundred families, and comprehending part of the two parishes of All-Saints and St. Peter's. It is about a mile and a half from Tichmarsh, and near five miles from Oundle. 9 Some of his adversaries have represented him as an anabaptist, and Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, in the following lines makes it a question whether he ever was christened: "And though no wit can royal blood infuse, From the information of the Rev. Mr. Chewe, of Aldwinckle. See also Bridges's HIST. OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, vol. ii. p. 211. after Dryden's birth. He might, however, have been Curate of Aldwinckle All-Saints, at that period, and perhaps then rented the parsonage house from the Rector. Were it not inconsistent with the notices which the poet himself has left us, I should rather have supposed him to have been born at Tichmarsh, where Sir Gilbert Pickering had an ancient seat, and where Erasmus Driden resided in consequence of his connexion with a branch of that house. 2 The stock of the family of Driden was in the county of Cumberland, not in Huntingtonshire, as Dr. Johnson supposed; an errour into which he was led probably by Dr. Birch, as that writer was by Lord Lansdowne, who, in his Reply to Burnet,' has asserted that our author " was of a worthy family in Huntingtonshire, often serving as Representatives for that county." But the truth is, that John Driden, of Staffhill, in the county of Cumberland, early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, or before, migrated into Northamptonshire, where by his marriage with Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of Sir John Cope, Knight, he acquired the estate of Canons-Ashby; nor had his successors any connexion whatsoever with the county of Huntington, till the marriage of Honor, the 2 GENERAL DICT. (article DRYDEN) and ILLUSTRIOUS HEADS. 3" Letter to the Author of Reflexions Historical and Political, &c. [Thomas Burnet, Esq.] By George Granville, Lord Lansdowne," p. 6. 4to. 1732. + MSS. Harl. 1094, 1553. daughter and heir of Sir John Beville, of Chesterton, in that county, to our author's uncle, Sir John Driden, the second Baronet of this family, in or about 1632; from whom the Chesterton estate descended to his second son, John Driden, the poet's cousin-german; who did indeed frequently, between the years 1690 and 1707, represent the county of Huntington in parliament. Erasmus Driden, who was the third son of Sir Erasmus Driden, of Canons-Ashby, in the county of Northampton, the first baronet of that ancient family,' had by his wife already named fourteen children; viz. four sons, John, Erasmus, Henry, and James, and ten daughters; one of whom, as Oldys has recorded,' was married to Sher 5 Sir Erasmus Driden was thirty-one years old on the 20th of Dec. 1584, (Esc. 27 Eliz. p. 1. n. 54,) and consequently was born Dec. 20, 1553. He took the degree of B. A. at Oxford, June 17, 1577, according to Antony Wood, who however does not seem to have known of what college he was a member; and as at that time young men usually went to the University at the age of thirteen or fourteen, it is extraordinary that our author's grandfather should not have obtained his first degree in arts till he was near four-and-twenty. I suspect he was originally bred at Cambridge. He was created a Baronet in 1619, and died aged 79, May 30, (not 22d, as said on his tombstone, Hist. of Northamptonshire, i. 229,) 1632. Esc. 8 Car. p. 3. n. 31. He probably derived the name of Erasmus, which long continued in his family, from his maternal uncle, Erasmus Cope, to whom perhaps Erasmus, the celebrated writer, was godfather. "Notes on Langbaine, MSS. mardine, a bookseller in Little Britain, and Frances, the youngest, to Joseph Sandwell, a tobacconist in Newgate-street; who survived her eldest brother above thirty years, having died October 10, 1736, near ninety years old. Rose, another of the daughters, married Laughton, D. D. of Catworth, in the county of Huntington; Agnes was the wife of Sylvester Emelyn, of Stamford, in the county of Lincoln, gentleman; Lucy of Stephen Umwell, of London, merchant; and Martha of Bletso, of Northampton.-Of the other four, I have not discovered any notices. Of the sons, Erasmus, who was in trade, and resided in King-street, Westminster, succeeded at a late period of life to the title of Baronet, and died at Canons-Ashby, Nov. 3, 1718, aged eighty-two, leaving one daughter, married to →→→ Shaw, and five grandsons, the eldest of whom (John) succeeded to the title; Henry went to Jamaica, where he died, leaving a son named Richard; and James, the youngest, died in the parish of St. Dunstan's in the East, in 1694, leaving two daughters." 8 Our author received the first rudiments of learning at Tichmarsh, and probably was indebted for part of his education to the school at Oundle, in the same county; from one or the other of which places he was removed to Westminster School, where he was admitted a King's Scholar, but at what 7 The account of our author's two younger brothers is taken from Collins's BARONETAGE, vol. i. p. 352. See the Epitaph by his kinswoman, Mrs. Elizabeth Creed, in the Appendix. 8 age I have not been able to ascertain; probably, however, about the time of the Civil War's breaking out, when he was near eleven years old. After remaining some years at that excellent seminary, of which the celebrated Dr. Busby had been appointed Master in 1638," he was elected 8 The earliest Register of elections into the college of Westminster, now extant, commences in 1663. The age of those elected was not noticed in the Register till 1708. 9 Dr. Richard Busby, who was born in 1607, student of Christ-Church in Oxford, in 1624, M. A. in 1631, was appointed provisional Master of Westminster School in 1638, in the room of Lambert Osbolston, who was ejected by Laud; in which office Dr. Busby was confirmed in 1639, as appears from the Chapter-Book. He died Master of the School, April 6, 1695, at the age of eighty-eight. Locke and South, who were nearly of the same age with Dryden, Dr. Henry Stubbe, Dr. Walter Pope, Dr. John Mapletoft, Henry Bagshaw, and Edward Bagshaw, who quarrelled with Busby, and in 1659 published a narrative of their differences, were his contemporaries at Westminster. There was formerly a " faire house" at Chiswick, (the prebendal or manor-house, belonging to one of the prebendaries of St. Paul's cathedral,) which in 1593 was in possession of Dr. Goodman, Dean of Westminster, "whereunto, says Norden, (SPECULUM BRITANNIA, p. 17,) in time of common plague or sicknes, as also to take the aire, he withdraweth the schollers of the colledge of Westminster." On the walls of this house, in which Busby, with some of his pupils, used occasionally to reside, the names of Dryden and others were a few years ago to be seen. Lysons's ENVIRONS OF LONDON, ii. 192. any |