Papers of the Winthrop Family, Volume 1
1560-11-18
Derelye beloved in Christ Jesus owre onlye comfort in all extreame assawltes etc. These fewe wordes are but as a testimonie of my hartie salutacions vnto yowe contynwallye wysshinge your prosperous successe in the Lordes harvest and that many laborers maye by yowr meanes be sent forthe in that good worke to call the yonglings to the greate supper of the lambe, that was slayne from the begynninge of the worlde etc. And for yowr memento I have noted a fewe names (which have not bowed theyr knees to baall) which I comit to yowr remembrance not that I judge ye have them in Oblivion, but that I must have somwhat to blot my paper wythe to make matter. Mr. Croll,2 James Yonge, Mr. Playfer, Wyllyam Fawsset mynister of Lindseye, and thys berer Peter Forman,3 are all vertwous men fearinge god, these fewe with many others I trust shall not be forgotten. Elyzabeth my wyeffe and owr brother To. Upcher salutethe yowe. Desyringe yowe when ye speake vnto god to tell hym of vs. Thus the Eternall Spirite 16governe yowe in all yowr affaires to hys glorie and yowr everlastinge comforte in hym. Thys 18. november anno Do. 1560 in London. Yowrs in the Lorde Asswredlye
Syr yf ye can procwre some lyvinge of 50 li. a yeare or vpwarde for Robarde Croll, he ys mynded I heare to give vp where he ys and allso Rycharde Berde4a good mynister. I commyt them all to yowr Remembrance ones agayne byddinge yowe hartely farewell in Christ. Amen.
B. M., MS. Harleian 416, fo. 106; M. H. S., Proc.
, xv. 262. Cotton Mather wrote of the second Adam Winthrop as “brother to a memorable favourer of the reformed religion in the days of Queen Mary, into whose hands the famous martyr Philpot committed his papers, which afterwards made no inconsiderable part of our martyr-books.” Magnalia Christi Americana, bk. II, ch. iv. Robert C. Winthrop considered that the letter here given made the identity of William Winthrop with Mather’s “favourer of the reformed religion” fairly certain, though William was brother of the third Adam and not of the second. M. H. S., Proc.
, loc. cit.
Possibly Robert Crowley, Crole, or Croleus, admitted B.A. 19 June 1540, determined 1541, of Magdalen College, Oxford. C. W. Boase, Register of the University of Oxford, I. 197. Like Fox he had been an exile during the Marian persecution and returned to England after the death of Mary. In 1559 he was admitted to the archdeaconry of Hereford.
D. N. B.
, XIII. 241–243.
Peter Forman was rector of Groton. M. H. S., Proc.
, XV. 263.
Infra, p. 22.
In 1559 Fox printed the first edition of his Actes, all in Latin, through Johann Herbst or Oporinus, at Basel, with whom Fox had read for the press. In October of that year he returned to England. January, 1560, he was ordained priest by Grindal, Bishop of London, and in September his friend John Parkhurst, now Bishop of Norwich, promised to use his influence to obtain a prebendal stall at Norwich for him. Fox is said to have visited Parkhurst and to have preached in his diocese.
D. N. B.
, XX. 144–145.