Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Meriton, George (d.1624)

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486147Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 37 — Meriton, George (d.1624)1894Bertha Porter

MERITON or MERYTON, GEORGE, D.D. (d. 1624), dean of York, was born in Hertfordshire, probably at Braughing. His father was a tenant of Thomas Howard, first earl of Suffolk (1561-1626) [q. v.], who inherited estates in Hertfordshire from his mother, and he himself was born under the earl's roof (Meriton, Epistle to Sermon of Nobilitie). He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, graduated B.A. in 1584-5, M.A. in 1588, and was on 4 July 1589 elected fellow of Queen's College. There he filled the post of junior bursar, 1595-6, senior bursar 1596-7, and proceeded B.D. in 1596, and D.D. in 1601. During his residence at Cambridge he made known his adherence to church establishment by frequent discussions on ceremonies which he held with Thomas Brightman [q. v.] in the chapel of Queen's College. He was collated to the rectory of Hadleigh in Suffolk by Archbishop Whitgift in 1599, and was appointed to the deanery of Bocking (usually held in conjunction with the rectory) on 24 May 1599. He was made dean of Peterborough on 12 June 1612, was chaplain to Anne of Denmark, wife of James I, dean of York on 27 March 1617, and prebendary of Tockerington in the cathedral church of York on 5 March 1617. He re- signed Hadleigh in 1618, and dying on 23 Dec. 1624, was buried in York Cathedral.

Meriton married Mary Rands, granddaughter of Henry Rands, bishop of Lincoln, by whom he had several children, whose baptisms are recorded in the registers of Hadleigh.

He published : 1. 'A Sermon of Nobilitie,' London, 1607. 2. 'A Sermon of Repentance,' London, 1607. 3. 'A Sermon preached before the General Assembly at Glasgow,' London, 1611. 4. 'The Christian Man's Assuring House, and a Sinner's Conversion,' London, 1614.

[Dugdale's Visitation of Yorkshire, 1665, p. 107; Lansdowne MS. 984. f. 29; Fuller's Church Hist. 1655, bk. x. p. 49; Newcourt's Repert. ii. 68; Pigot's Hadleigh, pp. 276-7; Drake's Eboracum, pp. 510, 559, 565; Davy's Athenae Suffolc. (Add. MS. 18165, f. 293).]

B. P.