[17] “Before the earliest date of Parish Registers (1538). I have all the Marriage Licences issued by the Bishop of London, beginning as early as 1521; but they do not include that of Harrison’s father.”—J. L. Chester.
[18] As Harrison left by his will twenty shillings to the poor of St. Thomas the Apostle in London, Colonel Chester thinks he may have been born in that parish.——P.S. Aug. 31, 1876. I’ve just found in Harrison’s MS. Chronologie, under 1534, “The Author of this boke is borne, vpon ye 18 of Aprill, hora 11 minut 4, Secunde 56, at London, in Cordwainer streete, otherwise called bowe lane in ye [crosst thro’: house next to ye holly lambe towards chepeside, & in ye] parish of St. Thomas the Apostle.”—F.
[19] Dr. Scott, the present Head-Master, tells me that the early registers are not. “My dear Sir,—I regret to say that no early records of Westminster School are known to be in existence anywhere, except the names of those admitted to the Foundation, and even these merely from an old “Buttery Book” in the earliest times, to which Noel belongs; only those who were elected to Ch. Ch. or Trinity are recorded. There is no trace of such a name as Harrison. I have done my best to hunt up old records, but with very small result.—Faithfully yours, Chas. B. Scott.” After Harrison’s days, Dean Goodman gave the School for a time a Sanatorium at Chiswick—“Cheswicke, H. 14, belonging to a prebend of Paules now in the handes of Doctor Goodman, Deane of Westminster, where he hath a Faire house, whereunto (in the time of any common plague or sicknes, as also to take the aire) he withdraweth the schollers of the colledge of Westminster.” 1596. Jn. Norden’s Description of Middlesex, p. 17, ed. 1723.
[20] Alexander Nowell was one of the most famous divines of the Reformation. Born in Lancashire about 1507, he got a fellowship at Brasenose in 1540; in 1543 became second master of Westminster School; and in 1551 Prebendary of Westminster. He was elected M.P. for Looe in Cornwall, in the first Parliament of Queen Mary, but his election was voided because he was a Church dignitary. He then went to Strassburg; returnd on the accession of Elizabeth, and was made Dean of St. Paul’s in 1560. He publisht his celebrated Larger Catechism, and an abridgment of it, both in Latin, in 1570; and is supposed to have written the greater part of the Church of England Catechism. He was elected Master of Brasenose in 1595, and died 13 February, 1601-2. (Cooper.).—F.
[21] Cooper, in his Athenæ Cantabrigienses, says of Harrison—“He was a member of this university [Cambridge] in 1551, and afterwards studied at Oxford. We are unable to ascertain his house at either university.” ? Merton, Oxf. see p. xvi. (There’s no Merton Admission book so early as Harrison’s time, the Bursar says.)
[22] He us’d his eyes too at both places, and at school; for he says of the buildings: “The common schooles of Cambridge also are farre more beautifull than those of Oxford, onelie the diuinitie schoole at Oxford excepted, which for fine and excellent workemanship, commeth next the moold of the kings chappell in Cambridge, than the which two, with the chappell that king Henrie the seauenth did build at Westminster, there are not (in mine opinion) made of lime & stone three more notable piles within the compasse of Europe.”—F.
[23] Mr. Luard of Trinity, the Registrar of the University, has kindly copied the grace for me:—“1569. Grace Book Δ, fol. 97 b: Conceditur 10 Junii magistro Willelmo Harryson ut studium 7 annorum in Theologia postquam rexerit in artibus Oxoniæ cum oppositionibus etc. perficiendis etc. sub pœna x librarum ponendarum etc. sufficiat ei tam ad opponendum quam ad intrandum in sacra Theologia, præsentatus per D. Longeworth[24] et admissus 17 Junii.”—F.
[24] Master of St. John’s.
[25] Wood’s Ath. Ox., ed. Bliss., i. col. 537; Cooper’s Ath. Cant. ii. 164.
[26] The Manor and advowson of Great Radwinter had been part of the property of the Cobham family since 1433, if not before. (See Wright’s Hist. of Essex, II. 92; Morant’s do., II. 535.).—F.