Now, this Dudley Fenner was a thoroughly worthy man, but a fanatic of most intolerant type. In 1583 we find him at Cranbrook, in Kent. An account of his sayings and doings was forwarded, says Strype, to Lord Burghley, who himself marked the following passage:—
“Ye shall pray also that God would strike through the sides of all such as go about to take away from the ministers of the Gospel the liberty which is granted them by the Word of God.”
But a curious note occurs alongside this passage in Lord Burghley’s hand:
“Names given in baptism by Dudley Fenner: Joy-againe, From-above, More-fruit, Dust.”—Whitgift, i. p. 247.
Two of these names were given to his own children, as Cranbrook register shows to this day:
“1583, Dec. 22. Baptized More-fruit, son of Mr. Dudley Fenner.”
“1585, June 6. Baptized Faint-not, fil. Mr. Dudley Fenner, concional digniss.”
Soon after this Dudley Fenner again got into trouble through his sturdy spirit of nonconformity. After an imprisonment of twelve months, he fled to Middleborough, in Holland, and died there about 1589.
The above incident from Strype is interesting, for here manifestly is the source whence Camden derived his information upon the subject. In his quaint “Remaines,” published thirty years later (1614), after alluding to the Latin names then in vogue, he adds:
“As little will be thought of the new names, Free-Gift, Reformation, Earth, Dust, Ashes, Delivery, More-fruit, Tribulation, The-Lord-is-near, More-triale, Discipline, Joy-againe, From-above, which have lately been given by some to their children, with no evill meaning, but upon some singular and precise conceite.”