'Mr. Hobbes' father was minister of Westport, to which Brokenborough and Charlton doe belong as chapells of ease, but all not worth above.... He was one of the clergie of Queen Elizabeth's time—a little learning went a great way with him and many other Sir Johns in those days—he read homilies.'
[FH] (P. [323].) On fol. 30 of MS. Aubr. 9 is another draft of this paragraph:—'He had an elder brother, Francis Hobbes, a wealthy man, and had been alderman of the borough' (dupl. with 'towne'); 'by profession a glover, which is a great trade here and was heretofore greater. He was orbus. He contributed much, or altogether maintained his nephew Thomas at Magdalen Hall in Oxon; and when he dyed gave him an agellum (vocat. "the Gasten"), which lyes neer the horse faire: valet per annum 16 li. vel 18 li.'
[FI] (P. [324].) Anthony Wood notes:—'Quaere in the register of Brakenborough when they were maried and their you'l find her Christian name.'—MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 30v.
[FJ] (P. [326].) In MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 31v, Anthony Wood suggests the following paragraph for the transition from the account of Malmsbury to the life of Hobbes:—
'As Malmsbury was famous in this respect that it gave death and buriall to that famous philosopher of his time Johannes Scotus alias Erigina who was stabd to death with penknives by his scholars, where there was a statue set up in memory of him (ut in Hist. et Antiq. Oxon. lib. 1, pag. 16 b), so much more famous in later times for the birth of that great philosopher T. H.'
In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 28, Aubrey begins his sketch of Hobbes' life thus:—'Westport juxta Malmesbury:—This place is for nothing so famous as for the birth of my honoured and learned friend and countryman, Mr. Thomas Hobbes, author of de Corpore, de Homine, de Cive, etc.
He was borne the 5th day of Aprill 1588 at his father's howse, which is the farthest on the left hand as you goe in the way or street called ..., leaving the church on the right hand.'
[FK] (P. [326].) The verses alluded to are in Hobbes's metrical life of himself (MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 28—'he writt his life last yeare, viz. 1673, in Latin verse'). Aubrey cites these lines, MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 31v:—
'T.H. Vita in verse
Oppidulum parvum est; habuit sed multa relatu
Digna, sed imprimis Coenobium celebre,
Et castrum (melius nisi sint dua castra vocanda)
Colle sita, et bino flumine cincta fere.