CHAPTER XV.-1688.—The King perseveres in his measures for the establishment of Romanifm-Ken's fermon at White- hall, for which he is reproved by James-His firm reply CHAPTER XVI.-1688.-The King's Declaration of Indulgence -Order of Council to have it read in all Churches- Petition of Archbishop Sancroft, Ken, and five other Bishops Life of Thomas Ken. CHAPTER I. Birth Parentage-Brother-in-law to Izaak WaltonWilliam of Wykeham Founder of two Colleges of St. Mary at Winchester and Oxford-Ken entered at Winchester College-Elected to New College, Oxford. HE birth of Thomas Ken " gilds the humble name" of Little Berkhampstead, a retired village in Hertfordshire. It is ftated by his earliest biographer, who has fome title to be thought accurate, that he was born in July, 1637 ;t-a time of trouble and disorder in England, when the beginning of the Rebellion, and religious difputes were undermining the focial virtues. Her decline among nations began, and was well nigh effected, under the difaftrous reign of * A short account of the Life of the Right Reverend Father in God, Thomas Ken, fometime Lord Bifhop of Bath and Wells: by (his great nephew) William Hawkins, of the Middle Temple, Efq. 8vo. 1713, p. 1. It would appear from the original indenture of his election to Winchester College, that his birth-day was the 20th October. The Parish Register is loft. See Life of Ken, by J. H. Markland, D.C.L., 2nd edition, 1849, 12mo. p. 47. the Stuarts, and in the eventful lifetime of Ken. Not to enter into historical details, in which he was too young to take any part, it may be fufficient to say, that he was nurtured in an age when men of loyal and reverential minds were struggling in a resolute defence of the Church and of Monarchy. He was early trained to see the evil confequences of violent feuds, to distinguish between abstract theories, and practical wisdom. His fpirit was disciplined to fuffer all things for confcience' fake, especially in maintaining the purity of religion. We fhall fee hereafter how effectually he had learned to hold an even balance between allegiance to the Crown, and unfhaken fidelity to the Church. He was the youngest son of Mr. Thomas Ken, of Furnival's Inn, an attorney in the Court of Common Pleas, of an ancient Somersetshire family,* by a fecond wife, Martha, daughter of the Poet, John Chalkhill. It is recorded of Chalkhill, that "he was in his time a man generally known, and as well beloved; for he was humble and obliging in his behaviour, a gentleman, a scholar, very innocent and prudent; and indeed his They had in former times "poffeffed a very plentiful fortune for many generations, having been known by the name of the Kens, of Ken Place, an estate now in the poffeffion of the Right Honourable Earl Poulett, who defcends from an heiress of the Kens."-Hawkins's Life of Ken, p. 1. In a lift of the poffeffors of land of most note in Somersetshire, in the time of Edward I., occurs the name of Richard de Ken. Ken Court (or Place) is near Yatton, in Somerfetfhire. The arms of the family were ermine, three crefcents, gules, the creft three crefcents interlaced, argent. The Hiftory and Antiquities of Somersetfhire, by the Rev. W. Phelps, 1836, vol. 1. Introduction, p. 33; vol. ii. pp. 132, 133. Life of Thomas Ken, by the Rev. W. L. Bowles, 1830, Collinfon's Hiftory of Somerset, vol. iii. p. 592. vol. 1. p. 3. These whole life was useful, quiet, and virtuous.”* qualities, and his poetic genius, endeared him to Edmund Spenfer. He was a Fellow of Winchester College, and author of those joyous fongs † which have so often cheered careless lovers of the angle, by the fide of their mountain streams, and rocks, and waterfalls. Ken was not yet four years old when his mother died, and therefore could not know the full depth of fuch a bereavement. But this almoft irreparable lofs was in some measure supplied by his half-fifter Anne, who was then about thirty years of age. She was "a woman of remarkable prudence, and of the primitive piety her great and general knowledge was adorned with true humility, and bleft with much Christian meeknefs." This was the praise given to Anne Ken by one of the greatest lovers of truth,-Izaak Walton, "honeft Izaak,” as he was familiarly termed by Dr. King, Bishop of Chichester. His well known "COMPLETE ANGLER, or Contemplative Man's Recreation," although unpretending in its fubject, fo abounds in pathos, and in Chriftian reverence, as to place him * Izaak Walton's preface to Chalkhill's Poem of Thealma and Clearchus. May 7, 1678. "Oh, the fweet contentment The countryman doth find,” &c. "Oh, the gallant fisher's lise, It is the best of any," &c. Walton's Complete Angler, Pickering's edit. royal 8vo. vol. i. p. 125, and vol. ii. p. 258. ↑ She was buried the 19th March, 1640-1. See the pedigree of the Ken family in the Appendix to Sir Harris Nicholas's Life of Izaak Walton, prefixed to Pickering's edition of the Complete Angler, royal 8vo. 1830. |