nent and well descended. Their orthography was also unsettled. We meet with Patten, Patina, and Patern". Barbour too varies; and it seems likely that the father of the bishop was intended in a deed d in the archives of Magdalen college, in which a garden with its appurtenances at Candlesby in Lincolnshire is mentioned (9 Hen. V.) as in the tenure of Richard Barbors.

e

It is observable, that no notice is taken by Dr. Budden of the surname Barbour, though he has produced for it a testimony, single indeed, but so direct and authentic that it requires no additional evidence to confirm it. This is the preamble of an instrument which affords some valuable information concerning the family, and in the sequel will be more particularly cited.

a Godwin de Præs. p. 232. edit. Richardson. Fuller's Worthies, p. 156. edit. 1662.

b Daniel Hist. p. 146. His name was Patternæ, Baker Chron. p. 188. The former surname is thus played on by Dr. Heylin in his manuscript poem :

"The father was a Patten and the sonne

A Patterne of succeeding tymes."

© MS. N° 227, in the archives of the library of Magdalen college, p. 2.-Mentioned by Gutch in his Appendix, p. 267.

Index of Deeds. Candlesby, N° 18.

P. 55. Vita Gulielmi Waynfleti.

I pass over, as unworthy of regard, the report that bishop Waynflete was of low extraction, and that his father had obtained his livelihood by a mean occupation; which Budden, who has transmitted it to us, labours to refute, without noting, what is sufficiently obvious, that it alluded to and had its origin from the surname Barbour.

The tradition which, it is said, exists at Waynflete, that Richard was a foundling, is confuted by the instrument before mentioned, from which it appears that he had a brother named Robert. The tale, also current there, that he was a merchanth, and gained riches by traffic, it will now be as difficult to establish, as to disprove by any certain argument.

Bishop Waynflete, it is commonly and more truly related, was descended of a worshipful family, ancient, and in good condition; less celebrated, says Budden, than respectable. Writers of the best authority

P. 52. Vita Gulielmi Waynfleti. Mr. Pickburn. Sepulchral Mon. h Mr. Pickburn. Dr. Wilson's MSS.

i Daniel Hist. p. 146. Baker Chron. p. 188. p. 202. Fil. R. P. antiquæ prosapiæ nobilis, Godwin. Son of R. P. esquire. Collier, in Waynfleet.

* Familiâ non perinde celebri atque honestâ natus. p. 52.

agree that his father was a gentleman; and Fuller' in the same sentence styles him an esquire and a knight. That he was no obscure person has been justly inferred from, his marriage with a lady also descended from an ancient family, and whose father, William Brereton, possessed an ample estate in Cheshire m.

This country, in consequence of its Norman territories, the patrimony of William the Conqueror, and of Anjou with its appendages, the inheritance of king Henry II., sustained in that age almost perpetual warfare in France. Brereton was enrolled among the candidates for military fame there, obtained by his valour the honour of knighthood, was appointed governor of Caen in Normandy, routed under the auspices of lord Scales a numerous army of the French near Mount St. Michael, and returned home with glory and increase of fortune".

Richard Patten and Margery Brereton had issue two sons, William and John. The year when either was born is not known.

1 P. 156.

m Gutch. A.Wood, p. 306.

n Budden, p. 52. Ex Geneal, Fundat. et Lib. Stat. p. 55. Daniel in Hist. Hall in Hen. VI. Baker Chron.

SECT.

SECT. II. IT is agreed by writers ° in general, that William Patten, after receiving the rudiments of instruction in Lincolnshire, was removed to Wykeham's school at Winchester. The register of admissions on the foundation has been carefully examined, and his name is not in it; but he might still be educated there, as Wykeham both introduced to his school, and to commons in the hall, several extraneous boys; and in his statutes permits sons of gentlemen (gentilium), a limited number, to enjoy the same privilege: but of these no mention occurs, except of the descendants of Uvedale his great patron, whose names appear in the account-books of the bursars of his time P

Budden tells us he had been more than ambitiously diligent, if he might be allowed the expression, in his endeavours to ascertain the college in Oxford to which William had belonged, but without success; that Holinshed, who has had his followers ', departed from the common belief in ascribing him to

• Budden, p. 56. land Itin. pt. 1. p. 50.

Harpsfield, p. 643. Godwin, p. 232. Le

Collier, vol. i. p. 691. A. Wood Hist. et

Antiq. ii. p. 187. Ayliffe. Birch.

P Mr. Blackstone.

9 P. 56.

Harrison in Descrip. Angliæ, p. 6. 1. 2. cap. 3. and others.

Merton,

Merton, where, as he relates, he was fellow, while Nele and Harpsfield contend for his having been a Wykehamist. He declares he would not willingly recede from this opinion, which had the consenting voice of the multitude on its side, and argues in favour of it. A. Wood, a careful examiner of ancient records, asserts that the Album of Merton college does not allow his having been of it, unless he was one of the chaplains or postmasters. As to New college, he could not be fellow, not having been a scholar on the foundation at Winchester. In his statutes Wykeham does not admit of independent members; neither were there accommodations for them before the buildings next the garden were erected. Moreover, bishop Lowth has affirmed, that he never was of that college to which he is so generally given ".

t

We shall leave the reader to collect, as he proceeds, the presumptive arguments which may be urged from this narrative to

• Mr. Blackstone. The register of New College has A.D. 1423, Hen. Barbour, alias Duke.

t Life of Wykeham, sect. vi.

u Godwin. Nicholson's English Hist. Library, p. 140. Heylin. Gale Hist. and Antiq. of the Cathedral at Winchester, p. 140. A. Wood, p. 133.