Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Natares, Edmund
NATARES or NATURES, EDMUND (d. 1549), master of Clare Hall, Cambridge, born in Richmondshire (Yorkshire), was admitted probably to Catharine Hall, Cambridge, about 1496. He graduated B.A. in 1500, M.A., by special grace, 1502, B.D. 1509, and D.D. 1516. He became a fellow of Catharine Hall, and in 1507 was one of the proctors for the university. Seven years later, 20 Oct. 1514, he was elected master of Clare Hall, and held that post till his resignation (libera cassatio) in 1530. During his mastership the master's chamber and the college treasury were burned down (1521). The whole buildings now belonging to the master were erected four years later at Natares's expense (Clare Coll. MSS.; see Willis and Clark, i. 79). During these years he was four times vice-chancellor of the university, 1518, 1521, 1526–7; and in this capacity he presided at the preliminary trial for heresy of Robert Barnes [q. v.] for his sermon preached on 24 Dec. 1525, at St. Edward's Church (Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, i. 314, seq.) Foxe styles ‘Dr. Notaries’ a rank enemy to Christ, and one of those who railed against Master Latimer.
In 1517 he became rector of Weston Colville, Cambridgeshire, and on 26 June 1522 was presented at Winchester to the rectory of Middleton-upon-Tees, Durham, void by the death of John Palswell (State Papers, 14 Henry VIII, 2356). In August of the same year he was included in a list of twenty people appointed to be surveyors in survivorship of mines in Devonshire and Cornwall (ib. pp. 24, 82). Natares's successor (William Bell) in the Middleton-upon-Tees rectory was instituted in 1549, ‘post mortem Natres.’ ‘He gave an estate or money to Clare Hall for an annual sermon at Weston Colville’ (Cooper).
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabrigienses quotes manuscript authorities; Le Neve's Fasti; Latimer's Works, II. xii. (Parker Society); Robert Barnes's Supplication to Henry VIII, 1534; Willis and Clark's Architect. Hist. of Cambridge; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, i. 314 seq.; State Papers, Henry VIII; Foxe's Acts and Monuments, v. 415, vii. 451; Hutchinson's Durham, iii. 278; extract from MS. register at Clare College, communicated by the Rev. the Master of Clare College, Cambridge; information from the Rev. John Milner, rector of Middleton-in-Teesdale, and the Rev. the Master of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge.]