106 Additions to the Biographies of Somerset, then lord protector. Accompanying his master on his expedition towards Scotland, Smith was seized by the way with another severe fever, under which he lay at York in the utmost peril of death. At the end of his 34th year, being still unmarried, the provostship of the college of Eton and the deanery of Carlisle were given him about Christmas. On the 14th of April following (1548) he was sworn one of the King's secretaries,* and on the very next day he married. Shortly after, in June of the same year, he was sent ambassador into Flanders ; from whence he returned in August. The date of Sir Thomas Smith's knighthood has not been discovered ; but is presumed to have been between the 17th Jan. 1548-9, and the 10th April following. 11 In his 3Gth year, on the 10th of October 1549, at three o'clock in the afternoon (as he records with astrological precision), " I was dismissed from the office of secretary, at Windsor Castle. c On the 14th of the same month, I was led to prison in the Tower of London, with the greatest pomp, together with the duke of Somerset, Stanhope, Grey, and others." This, it will be remembered, was when the duke was deposed from the protectorate. Smith continued in the Tower until the 10th of March, when he was released shortly after the duke. d On the iliil not hold the office long, being succeeded by tin: celebrated Sir Thomas Smith." Memoirs of Lord Burphli-y. by the Kev Edward Nares, D.D., 4to, 1828, i. 180. In connection with the preceding note, it may be desirable to notice here the inaccuracy of Strype's passage in which he states that "in the year 1548 Dr. Smith was advanced to be Secretary of State; as in September the same year, William Cecil, Esq., was preferred to the like office, both having been servants to the Protector. This statement is at first view supported by a passage of Cecill's own auto- biographical memoranda, " Sept. 1548, cooptatus sum in oflicium Secretarii :" but the truth is that Cecil!, at that date, Wame secretary to the Protector, not secretary to the King. This point is discussed at length, but not decided, in Narcs's Life of Biirghle.y, vol. i. pp. 304 et se<j. It was in September 1550 that (Vcill first became Secretary of State, succeeding Dr. Edward Wotton, who had succeeded Smith (14 Oct. 1.VT.I). Another error made by Strype was that Smith continued Secretary until King Edward's death, and was then succeeded by Dr. John Boxall : this remains uncorrected in the Oxford edition of the Life of Smith, 1820, p. 46, except by Strype's own note to the previous chapter, p. 42. ' Lemon's C'alendar of State Papers, 1547 1580, p. 14. The " pathetic" letter which Smith wrote two days before to his fellow-secretary sir William Petre, has been published from the State Paper office by Mr. Tytler, in his " England under Edward VI. and Mary," vol. i. p. 228. At this crisis he distinguished himself as the only councillor who faithfully stood by the Protector to the last : " For my part (he writes), I am in a moste miserable case. I cannot leave the King's Majesty, and him who was my master, and of whom I have had all." 1 The friends of Somerset were released under heavy fines, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Michael Stanhope, and Mr. Fisher being mulcted in three thousand pounds, and Sir John Thynne in six thousand. (Tytler, i. 278.) As Smith received employment so soon after, it is probable that he paid but little, if any, of this fine.
