Through the influence of the Earl of Shrewsbury, May was raised to the see of Carlisle, being consecrated on 29 Sept. 1577. He obtained the queen's license to hold his other preferments in commendam. His name occurs in a commission issued on 14 May 1578 for the visitation of the church of Durham. From his correspondence with George Talbot, sixth earl Shrewsbury, he appears to have taken a warm interest in Scottish affairs. In a letter to the earl, dated from the episcopal seat, Rose Castle, Cumberland, 3 Dec. 1578, he requests him to write to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester [q. v.] to back his suit to the queen for the remission of his first-fruits, having been put to excessive charges the last year by hospitality and relieving of the poor in the time of a great dearth in his country. He protested that when his year's account was made at Michaelmas preceding his expenses surmounted the year's revenues of his bishopric, 600l., and he concluded by begging to be excused from attending parliament on account of his poverty. In another letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury, dated 22 July 1587, he writes that he is in debt and danger by reason of the intolerable dearth for want of corn in his country, and on account of process against him out of the exchequer for non-payment of 146l. due to the queen for subsidy. On 15 Feb. 1592-3 the queen presented William Holland to the rectory of North Creake, which May still held. Thence arose a suit in the queen's bench, wherein it was held that the rectory might be treated as void by reason of May having been subsequently inducted to Darfield.
May died at Rose Castle on 15 Feb. 1597-8, being about seventy years of age. He was buried at Carlisle, according to the parish register of Dalston, Cumberland, a few hours after his death, which was probably caused by the plague. His wife was Amy, daughter of William Vowel of Creake Abbey, Norfolk, and widow of John Cowel of Lancashire. By her he had issue: John of Shouldham, Norfolk, who married Cordelia, daughter of Martin Bowes of Norfolk; Elizabeth, wife of Richard Bird, D.D.; Alice, wife of Richard Burton of Burton, Yorkshire; and Anne, wife of Richard Pilkington, D.D., rector of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire.
May wrote some plays, now lost, which were acted by the members of Queens' College in 1551 and 1553. He was concerned in the compilation of the statutes given to the university by Elizabeth in 1570. Among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library are some notes of a sermon which he preached at Paul's Cross the Sunday after St. Bartholomew's day, 1565 (Hackman, Cat. of Tanner MSS. p. 1022).
[Cooper's Athenae Cantabr. ii. 233-4, 549.]
MAY, JOHN (fl. 1613), economic writer, was appointed deputy aulnager about 1606. He published 'A Declaration of the Estate of Clothing now used within this Realme of England … with an Apologie for the Aulneger, shewing the necessarie use of his office,' London, 1613, 4to. In this work, which contains much information useful to the historian, he describes the means by which manufacturers evaded the statutes regulating the woollen trade.
[John Smith's Memoirs of Wool, 1757, i. 91–8; Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times, 1892, p. 42.]
MAY, THOMAS (1595–1650), poet, eldest son of Sir Thomas May of Mayfield, Sussex, by the daughter of —— Rich of Horndon-on-the-Hill, Essex, born 1595, entered at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, on 7 Sept. 1609 as fellow-commoner, and took the degree of B.A. in 1612 (Biographia Britannica, p. 3064; Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, iii. 810; Berry, Sussex Pedigrees, pp. 36, 56). On 6 Aug. 1615 May was admitted to Gray's Inn (Foster, Gray's Inn Register, p. 137). His father having spent his fortune, and sold the family estate, May 'had only an annuity left him, not proportionable to a liberal education.' 'Since his fortune,' continues Clarendon, 'could not raise his mind, he brought his mind down to his fortune by a great modesty and humility in his nature, which was not affected, but very well became an imperfection in his speech, which was great mortification to him, and kept him from entering upon any discourse but in the company of his very friends. His parts of art and nature were very good' (Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, i. § 33, ed. 1857). Prevented by his defective utterance from practising the law, May devoted himself entirely to literature. He turned first to the stage, and produced a comedy entitled 'The Heir,' acted in 1620 by the company of the revels, printed two years later, and much commended in verses prefixed to it by Thomas Carew. This was followed by another comedy and three classical tragedies, none of which obtained much success. May then betook himself to translating the classics, and published in 1628 a translation of the 'Georgics' of Virgil, and in 1629 a version of some of Martial's 'Epigrams.' His translation of Lucan's 'Pharsalia,' published in 1627, passed
