Having arrived at the upper end of the fifth form, in the sixteenth year of his age, he left Eton and became a fellow-commoner of Trinity college, Cambridge[1], into which he was admitted in Sept. 1694, though he did not matriculate until 11th July 1696. He continued at Cambridge not quite three years, and left the university without taking any degree. Having removed to London, ho there married[2] his first-cousin Frances, (second daughter of Thomas Boughton[3], of King's Cliff in Northamptonshire, and Elizabeth Le Neve[4], his father's only sister,) by whom he had issue eight children[5].
His first literary work seems to have been the "Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ;" but it does not appear at what period he commenced it, though it probably was after 1707, (the year in which Dr. White Kennett became dean of Peterborough,) for he says, "I had not proceeded far in my work before my good fortune outstripped my very hopes, by bringing me into the favour of a very reverend dean of this church, (Dr. White Kennett,) who at once laid open to my view an immense treasure in that way, the elaborate collection
- ↑ He seems to have retained a grateful recollection of his sojourn there; for he says, under Trinity college, Cambridge, "It will, during life, be the utmost satisfaction to me, to remember that I once had the honour to style myself a happy (though unworthy) fellow-commoner of this society."
- ↑ The date and place of his marriage have not been discovered.
- ↑ He died 2nd June 1688. His will, dated 26th June 1687, was proved 1st Feb. 1688-89.
- ↑ She was living, a widow, in 1693; having had five sons and three daughters by her husband. She had an estate for life in the manor of Old Paris Garden, in Christchurch, Surrey.
- ↑ Their names were John, Amy, Elizabeth, Richard, Peter, Elizabeth, Frances, Catherine. (MS. note in Mr. Nichols's copy of the "Fasti." Lit. Anecd. i. p. 128.)
