BY THE REV. JOHN GRIFFITHS, M. A.,

LATE FELLOW AND TUTOR OF WADHAM COLLEGE.

VOL. I.

OXFORD:

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

M.DCCC.LV.

PREFACE OF THE EDITOR.

OF the author of "Origines Anglicana" there is not memoir published, or known to be extant, beyond the short account given by Anthony Wood in the Fasti Oxonienses1 and a note or two appended to that work by bishop White Kennett2. But it has been ascertained, that he belonged to a family named Inette, of good position in Picardy, who, having embraced the doctrines of the Reformation, came over from France in the persecution of the Huguenots, and settled in Gloucestershire; that his grandfather, Richard, removed from that county into Worcestershire; and that his father, also named Richard, married a lady of the family of Hungerford of Down Ampney in Gloucestershire3.

This Mr. Richard Inett, the author's father, seems to have been a gentleman of independent though small fortune, but nothing more is known of him except the pains he took to give a good education to his two Richard, the elder of the two, appears to have been born at Rock near Bewdley in Worcestershire

sons.

1 Among the M.A.s of July 8, 1669, in Part II, col. 308, ed. Bliss.

2 Ibid. n. 6, and col. 254, n. 6.

3 For this information I am indebted to Thomas Rossell Potter, Esq., of Wymeswold in Leicestershire, who has investigated the history of the family, but whose memoranda happen to be locked up for the present through the absence of a friend abroad. Mr. Potter therefore writes from memory, and cannot cite his authorities; and, as this sheet was in type before his obliging communication reached me, I have not time to search them out afresh. My own inquiries have given me no clue to them.

about the year 1644. The younger, John, who is the subject of this memoir, is said to have been born at Hartlebury in the same county about three years later6.

The troubles of those times, of which Worcestershire had its full share, may perhaps have occasioned the births of the two brothers to fall at different places. But in the course of a few years Mr. Inett was at liberty to choose a residence on other considerations, and we find him accordingly taking up his abode at the flourishing town of Bewdley, and placing his sons under the instruction of Mr. Low the master of its endowed grammar school', which seems to have been then in greater repute than any other in the county. From Mr. Low's care the elder son, Richard, was removed to Oxford, and was admitted a commoner of Trinity College in May 1660, being then sixteen years of age. He took the degree of B. A. May 26, 1664.

4 See the record of his admission at Trinity College, Oxford, cited below in note 8. By the kindness of the Rev. Arthur Severne, rector of the parish, I have received extracts from the registers of Rock, and have also been enabled to examine them myself. Unluckily there is a very large gap in them after the year 1641. Before that year the name of Inett or Inet occurs repeatedly with the Christian names of Richard, Humphrey, and Thomas; and in 1640 "Susannah the daughter of Richard Inett and Marie his wife" was baptized.

5 Kennett on Fast. Oxon. II, 308, n. 6. The Rev. Thomas Baker, rector of Hartlebury, assures me that he cannot find any entry of the baptism in the register of that parish.

6 The statements of his age at his matriculation and on his gravestone taken together place his birth between March 3 and July 17, 1647.

7 See note 8, and Kennett ibid.

8" Richardus Inett ex agro Vigorniensi et parochia Rock oriundus, patre ejus generoso apud Bewdley jam vivente, in schola Beudliensi a Mro. Low postremo institutus, annorum circiter 16, admissus est Commensalis quarto die Maii 1660." Trin. Coll. Oxon. Reg. Admiss.

John, the younger brother, was sent to Oxford likewise, having been appointed on August 2, 1661, to an exhibition in University Coeglle on the foundation of the celebrated Robert Dudley earl of Leicester. Probably he did not begin his residence in the university for a twelvemonth or more; but, by an irregularity not uncommon at that time, he certainly kept several terms there before his matriculation on July 17, 1663, when he is described as of the age of sixteen years 10. No record of his early conduct or habits at Oxford is preserved; but as he was "much favoured and encouraged by bishop Fell"" (then however only dean of Christ Church), who never lavished his patronage on unworthy objects, no doubt he led a student's life and began even then to fit himself for the work to which so many of his riper years were devoted. He was admitted to the degree of B. A. October 27, 1666, the year in which dean Fell became Vice-Chancellor.

On September 22, 1667, he received deacon's orders at Gloucester from bishop Nicholson 12. Two or three well known instances of persons ordained at a very early

"A". I have to thank the Rev. John Wilson, D. D., President of the College, for permission to make this extract.

9 Univ. Coll. Reg. The Leicester exhibitions are in the gift of the heir of the founder, who on this occasion was sir Robert Sydney, second earl of Leicester of that name, the father of the patriot Algernon Sydney. Their annual value at that time was £20. For this information I am indebted to the Rev. F. C. Plumptre, D. D., Master of the College.

10 Before his admission to the degree of B. A. he obtained a dispensation enabling him to count all the time he had resided in the university before he was presented for matriculation. See Reg. Congreg. Oct. 16, 1666.

11 Kennett ibid.

12 The date, place, and ordaining bishop are recorded in his subscription at Oxford in 1670. See below, n. 16.