The birthplace of Richard Mulcaster seems to have been the old border tower of Brackenhill Castle, on the river Line. The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but it was probably 1530 or 1531. The Mulcasters had for centuries been an important family on the Border. Among the old Exchequer Records in the Tower is a letter from Sir Robert de Clifford, King’s Captain of the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, to the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer, desiring them to excuse Sir William Molcastre, Sir Thomas de Felton, Robert de Molcastre, and Richard de Molcastre from appearing in the Court of Exchequer according to their summons, by reason of their attendance on him in defence of the Marches; dated at Lochmaben Castle, 4th July, 1299. The Sir William Mulcaster here spoken of was for five years in succession High Sheriff of Cumberland, and was much engaged in the war with Scotland. An old pedigree of the Mulcasters drawn up in Queen Elizabeth’s time says that Sir William Mulcaster in the reign of “Edward Longshanks entayled his landes at Torpenham, Bolton, Bolton-Yetten, and Blennerhasset on his eldest son, Robert Mulcaster, whom he marryed to Eufemia, sister to Raphe Nevil, Erle of Westmerland, and Erle Marshal of England. He entayled his landes at Brackenhill and Solport on his second sonne, Richard Mulcaster.” The elder branch, however, did not thrive. In the next generation “Sir Robert Mulcaster became ane Unthrift, and for smale summes of present money in hand did alien his landes in parcels to his Unkel the Erle of Westmerland, who knowing the title to be weake by reson of the entayle did straytway selle the said landes. Sir Robert presently after the sayle died.” But the Richard Mulcasters have flourished on and on through the centuries, and these particulars were communicated to me by the last Richard Mulcaster, who lived to see this reprint of his ancestor’s book.
In the fifteen hundreds, St. Bees was a noted place for instruction, and Bishop Grindal and Archbishop Sandys were brought up there. But the Mulcaster of the first half of the century sent his sons Richard and James to be “frappit” by the mighty Udal at Eton. The vates sacer of Udal is Tusser, without whose help he could hardly have been remembered. As it is, his name inevitably calls up the lines——
“From Paul’s I went, To Eton sent,
To learn straightways The Latin phrase,
When fifty-three Stripes given to me,
At once I had,
For fault but small, Or none at all;
It came to pass, That beat I was,
See, Udall, see! The mercy of thee
To me poor lad.”