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A Citizen of London, and Member of the Grocers' Company. In early life was tutor
to the children of the Lord Protector Somerset; translated 'Calvin's Institutes' into English
in 1561; member of the Inner Temple in 1555, and subsequently called to the Bar;
jointly with Thomas Sackville (Lord Dorset), was the author of the tragedy of 'Gorboduc,' the
earliest regular drama in blank verse in the English language, performed before Queen
Elizabeth at Whitehall in 1561–2. Appointed Counsel to the Stationers' Company, Dec.
12th, 1562; M.A., Cambridge, 10th June, 1570; appointed First Remembrancer of the City
of London, 6th February, 1570–1; M.P. for London, 2nd April, 1571. In 1583 he was
committed to the Tower on a charge of treason, but was subsequently released through the
intercession of Sir Christopher Hatton and Lord Burghley. He died in March, 1583–4.
He married, first, Margaret, only daughter of Archbishop Cranmer; secondly, her cousin
Alice, daughter of Edmund Cranmer, the Archbishop's brother; thirdly, Elizabeth—, who
survived him. For further particulars of this remarkable man, see Shakespeare Society's
Papers, 'Tragedie of Gorboduc,' edited by Wm. Durrant Cooper, F.S.A., 1847; also Mr.
Cooper's further notes upon his life, 'Archæologia,' vol. xxxvi., p. 105 et seq. |