THE TWO JOHN ANGELS by

Joan Simon

John Angel, described as confrater of Wyggeston's Hospital and lecturer in the borough of Leicester, headmaster of the Free School, and subsequently library-keeper and vicar of St. Nicholas, figures prominently in the his­tories of Leicester. His character has been discussed by various writers, and it has usually been emphasised that he was an able and conscientious puritan divine who played a considerable part in the borough's history for nearly a quarter of a century.1 During part of this time, it has been supposed, he was both lecturer and head schoolmaster, but was removed from the latter post in 1637 because "he was ... a busy man of many interests, and it was felt that he ought to be relieved of some of his more onerous duties". 2 Had he held all these posts, John Angel would indeed have been a busy man. But, in fact, there were two John Angels in the service of the borough at this period. John Angel, the elder, was appointed as confrater and lecturer in 1627 after some considerable controversy. He was admonished.. at the metropolitical visitation of 1634 for preaching without licence, but remained in office until 1651 when he was suspended by the Council of Stare for refusal to take the Engagement; he afterwards became lecturer at Grantham, where he died in 1655. John Angel, the younger, a relative of the lecturer, was appointed headmaster of the Free School in 1628 and dismissed in 1637; he then became library-keeper, vicar of St. Nicholas and, some time after 1640, took up the profession of medicine. This second John Angel disappears from public life after 1644, but is once more in evidence after 1660. In 1662 he acted as judge during the important visitation that followed the Act of Uniformity, having been a surrogate before 1640. He died in 1665 at Leicester. As these two men filled important offices in the borough at an interesting period of its history, it is worth disentangling their careers against the background of events.

The Town Lectureship The early history of the town lectureship has been discussed elsewhere,3 but a brief record of the nature of the office and some reference to John Angel's predecessor is necessary. Though preachers in the borough are referred to in the first half of the sixteenth century, there does not seem to have been a resident town preacher until after the settlement of a stipend for this post by Henry Hastings, third Earl of Huntingdon, in 1576. The Earl, who succeeded to the title in 1560, had been made Lord Lieutenant of Leices1Jershire in 1559, and Lord President of the Council in the North in 1572; but he continued to play a leading part in the affairs of the county and was a prominent patron of the Puritans. The stipend for a town lec­turer in Leicester was granted in connexion with an earlier foundation, Wyggeston's Hospital, the statutes of which were revised in 1576 by the Earl and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The new statutes laid down that the confrater of the hospital, the master's deputy who had. a house and stipend of £13 6s. 8d., was also to act as town lecturer in St. Martin's church with the additional stipend of £30. The holder of this

35

36 LEICESTERSHIRE ARCH.lr.OLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

dual post had daily duties in the hospital as . confrater, and as town lecturer was bound to preach in St. Martin's church on Sunday and on two week­days. 4 The borough also contributed to his stipend, initially with a sum raised by levy.s

In 1589, Thomas Sacheverell was appointed as confrater and town lecturer by Sir Francis Walsingham, Chancellor of the Duchy, who, by virtue of his office, held the right of appointment under the new statutes. But considerable pressure had to be exerted by the Earl of Huntingdon, his brother Sir Edward Hastings, Steward of the Honour of Leicester, and Walsingham, before the borough accepted the obligation of contributing adequately to the new lecturer's maintenance.6 The difficulty appears to have been partly financial, for the borough was by this time expected to pay £30 in augmenration of the settled stipend. One of the reasons for the reluctance to do so .at this particular time may have been the considerable expense incurred in negotiating the lease of the Newarke Grange and obtaining the first Elizabethan charter of incorporation; in addition, in April 1589, the mayor and burgesses wrote to the Earl pleading debt and poverty and asking to be relieved from the heavy burden of equipping eighty armed men, eight times the number usually required.7 In October 1591 the Earl was still urging the necessity of paying the stipend regularly, in a letter to the mayor which recalled similar reminders "to your predeces­sors in office, and others your brethren, to have a care of your preacher". He added : "I am not ignorant, neither do I forget, what notable hinderers some, that would make a fair show, were in my . time, when I was a dweller in your town. If there be such now, yet you and others that be well affected may prevail against them, I doubt not. To end-I pray you have care for the payment of the promised stipend ... " 8

The borough's advisers were evidently intent on appointing a com­petent lecturer, at a time when the majority of the clergy were neither well­educated nor licensed to preach. Thomas Sacheverell was no Puritan; but he was, according to Walsingham, "a man not only of great honesty and zeal, but also of such rare parts of learning for the ministry as scarcely out of the whole University from whence he came an abler person to preach was not to be found".9 Whether he was initially unwelcome in Leicester or not, it is certain that he was soon held in much esteem and that he remained in the service of the borough and hospital for thirty-seven years. His death in 1626 brought about a new kind of controversy.

On 16 October 1626, the day after Sacheverell's death, the mayor of Leicester wrote to Sir Humphrey May, now Chancellor of the Duchy, reminding him of an earlier promise that the borough be permitted to nominate for the post of confrater and lecturer.10 This promise was honoured, but some considerable time elapsed before the nomination was made. This time there seems little doubt about the nature of the difficulties. Whereas earlier tJhere had been criticism of the backwardness of Leicester in supporting a worthy and sufficient lecturer, at this later date the town's advisers were intent on restraining the borough from appointing too ardent a preacher of the Gospel.

Sir William Heyrick, into whose family Sacheverell had married, wrote to the mayor on 2 January 1626/7, saying that he had heard the borough was "going to a choyce of a Lecturer .. . to supply tJhe place which my late Cozen Sacheverell faythfully served you in many yeares ... in which choyse I beseech you chose on that is Conformable to the church established, a

THE TWO JOHN ANGELS 37

grave man and a good scoller and sound devine, and not facktiouse wherein I pray you remember to set aside all pryvate affection and Joyne all together for publick good".n

A number of names had been put forward for the post and opinions were divided. According to one account, the borough favoured Francis Higginson, and it may well have been with the possibility of this appoint­ment in mind that Sir William Heyrick wrote urging caution. Francis Higginson could certainly have been accounted factious, for he was at this time an open Nonconformist. 12 He had been placed as vicar of St. Nicholas in or before 1619, the former vicar having apparently been bought out and an annuity of £5 a year settled by one of the leading aldermen "to the use of Francis Higginson, clerk, vicar, or curate of the parish of St. Nicholas, so long as he should continue to preach there or at any other parish church within the borough".1 3 But he had been ejected within a few years,14 though he continued to be a popular preacher in the town and had the support of influential Puritans. Cotton Mather recorded that "the people procured for him the liberty to preach a constant lecture on one part of the Lord's Day, and on the other part to assist a very aged parson that wanted it", and maintained him by voluntary contributions. Though the other ministers remained conformists, they all freely invited Higginson to their pulpits so long as they could avoid trouble, and as a result he preached in three Leicester parish churches and at Belgrave. That he could do so unmolested was due to the fact that Bishop Williams turned a blind eye to the irregularities. 1s

When his name was put forward for the post of town lecturer in 1626, Higginson declined to take the post "because a degree of conformity was required with which he could not now comply withal". He then attempted to secure agreement among the aldermen upon another candidate, and at length "prevailed with them to give their Votes for a Learned and Godly Conformist, one Mr. Angel; who thereby came to be settled in it".16

The main features of this account are in tune with the indenture cited above, and are corroborated further by the petition in favour of Angel's appointment to be found among the Hall Papers of the borough. This, dated 2 January 1626/7, opens:

"Wee the Ministers, and Schoolemasters of this Towne perceiving (as wee take it) some difference amongste you concerninge the choyce of our publick Preacher, and fearing some daingerous consequence that may follow thereupon; have thought it a seasonable duty of ours to intreate, and exhort you to a loveinge and speedy unity, and agreement in this important buisnes".

A number of worthy candidates had been suggested, but the petitioners begged to advance the name of Mr. Angel,

"a man of worthye gifts, and moste fittinge to discharge the great paynes which will be likely to be required of him many waies, but specially for keeping a constant Lecture one day in the weeke".

The signatories were Thomas Holmes (vicar of St. Martin's), John Bonnett (vicar, or curate, of St. Mary's), Francis Higginson, Thomas Cave (vicar of All Saints), John Hill (master of the Free School), Richard Ric­hardson (usher of the Free School and curate of St. Nicholas).17

In the event, John Angel was appointed, and the first record of a full year's salary to the new lecturer appears in the Chamberlain's Account for 1627-8.18

J, <

38 LEICESTERSHIRE ARCH£0LOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

John Angel, the elder, Confrater of Wigston's Hospital and Town Lecturer in St. Martin's Church

John Angel, the elder, was born in Gloucestershire, educated there, and entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in about 1610; he took his B.A. in February 1613, and his M.A. in July 1616. It has been said that on leaving the university he immediately became a popular preacher though he held no regular cure, but he probably held some office during the ten years that elapsed between his leaving the university and coming to Leicester. Anthony Wood, recording his appointment in the borough, noted that he was "a man mighty in word and doctrine among the puritanical brethren of that place".'9 But this is to anticipate.

John Angel was soon employed about the town's business. In Sep­tember 1628, the mayor and aldermen agreed to give him £5 "forth of the Chamber of the Towne for his Chardges goinge to London for the obtayn­inge of the Bishop's licence for the weekely lecture and buying books for the library".20 It should be noted, in view of later events, that it is not an individual licence to preach that is here in question, but a licence to hold a lecture. It is probable that the weekly lecture referred to was that endowed by Christopher Tamworth in 1625, and operated from that year, though Bishop Williams's licence was not actually issued until February 1629/30.21

As is . well known, Bishop Williams actively assisted in the develop­ment of the town library, and John Angel, lecturer, appears to have acted for the borough in the matter. The first record of a payment to a library­keeper occurs in 1629, but the library was not moved from St. Martin's church to the new room prepared for it in the Guildhall until 1633. In June of that year, Mr. Angel was asked by the mayor to go to Buckden to get the Bishop's consent to the removal of the books from the chancel of St. Martin's.22 In September, the Bishop addressed a letter to the Earl of Huntingdon, asking for his assistance in recommending the library to the knights and gentry of the shire; and on the same day wrote to the mayor about the removal of the books, and gave judicious advice about the clearing of the chancel and the placing of the communion-table, couched in such terms as would give the least offence.2 3

This was the year in which William Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury. In the following year, the archdeaconry of Leicester was sub­jected to a metropolitical visitation. Bishop Williams had strongly resisted this step, but his objections had been overruled, and the visitation took place in the summer.2 4 The prevalence of Puritanism in the county was duly noted by Sir John Lambe, commissary and official of the arch­deaconry, Dean of the Arches, and a member of the Court of High Com­mission. It is during this visitation that John Angel is said to have been suspended for nonconformity. His suspension may be seen in perspective if some other records of the visitation are · also cited.

There had already been trouble in Leicester earlier in the year. In January, Reginald Burdin, rector of Leire and surrogate, had informed the mayor "that certain persones were assembled together in the house of one Robert Ericke Mercer in Leicester" on a Sunday evening to repeat a ser­mon; he had produced a warrant from the ecclesiastical commissioners for the arrest of any one holding conventicles, and the mayor had accordingly sent a constable with Mr. Burdin to apprehend James Heyrick, vicar of Thornton. Heyrick had confessed to repeating a sermon, preached that

THE TWO JOHN ANGELS 39

morning at St. Mary's, in the house of his brother-in-law, Richard Birkhead. All this was duly reported to the Archbishop of Canterbury in a letter from the mayor, Hugh Watts. 2 s

James Heyrick, however, kept his place, for he was reported upon again at the visitation in the summer. The visitors also recorded that St. John Burrows, rector of Houghton-on-the-Hill, "does not bid holidaies", and there is a memorandum: "At one Bury's house 2 ministers Mr. Higgin­son and Mr. Burrowes stood by while Bottomley the shoemaker of Leicester prayed". Jacob Bottomley also caused a disturbance in All Saints Church when Mr. Burdin was officiating there and was called before the next ses­sion of the Court of Instance.26 Mr. Ward, vicar of All Saints, was cited for not catechising on Sunday afternoons and for churching a woman with­out gown or surplice. The communion-table at St. Mary's was not properly placed, and the conformity of the curate was questioned. St. Leonard's church was not properly served, and the steeple was down. One of the churchwardens of St. Martin's was excommunicated for refusing to provide a surplice and, in spite of Bishop Williams's care, Sir John Lambe had much fault to find with the arrangement of the chancel and ordered a bell­loft to be removed because it hindered sight of the communion-table.21

John Angel, however, had had a hood made for him "against my lord Archbishop's Visitacon",28 which suggests a degree of conformity. And all that was recorded against him was that he had no licence to preach. In spite of this, Sir John Lambe seems to have been anxious to extend his activities rather than to curtail them, no doubt partly because of the defic­iencies of the other ministers. In his personal notes on the visitation he set down the memorandum :

"Mr. Angell ye Lecturer at St. Martin hath 3oli p'ann. as confrater of ye Hospital to p'ch at St. Martin' by my Lord of Huntingdon's guift and he hath 3oli more by an other grant to p'ch indefinitely infra vill Leic. If it be soe then comaunde him to p'ch in ye othr churches of ye towne alternis vicibus. Note-Mr. Angell had no licence to preach. I therefore admonished him to call on my Lord's Grace".2 9

Archbishop Laud, reporting this metropolitical visitation in the annual account of his province submitted to the king, found Angel important enough to mention; but noted that Leicestershire was less tainted than another midland county.

"As for Lincoln, it being the greatest Diocess in the Kingdom, I have now reduced that under Metropolitical Visitation also, and visited it this preceding Year. My Visitors there found Bedfordshire, for the bigness most tainted of any part of the Diocess: And in particular Mr. Buckley is sent to the High-Commission for Inconformity. And in Leicester the Dean of the Arches suspended one Mr. Angell, who hath continued a Lecrurer in that great Town, for these divers Years, with­out any License at all to Preach; yet took Liberty enough. I doubt his Violence has crackt his Brain, and do therefore use him the more ten­derly, because I see the Hand of God hath overtaken him",3°

The records of Angel's transactions with the borough do not uphold this .i.nterpretation.31 In any case he seems to have been circumspect in his behaviour after his suspension, if such it can be called. He duly obtained his licence to preach and, in January 1635, one of Sir John Lambe's "informers", sending in a report to his superior about a number of Leicestershire people, wrote of him :

40 LEICESTERSHIRE ARCH£0LOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

"For Mr. Angell he is very conformable. I sawe him doe that in the pulpitt last Sundaie that I never sawe him doe in my life. He pre­sently kneeled down in the pulpitt at his first entrance very reverentlie and at the lord's prayer soe lowe that he was scarce seene at all. I am of late very gratious with him and he hath kindly invited me to his house and sent for me to dynner last week and doth often in my presence and divers others acknowledge how much he is obliged unto you for manie favours".

The writer, William Heaward, proctor and notary public, added that the new vicar of St. Martin's "is very conformable and seemeth to be an honest man and I thinke in a little tynie would make a good surrogate"; there is no suggestion that Angel held, or would be fit for, such a post.32

Whatever Angel's views may have been in 1634, he was wholeheartedly with the town in support of the parliamentary cause after 1640. In 1641, he preached on the occasion of the protestation of the House of Commons "against all popery and popish innovations" and in support of parliamentary privilege; and it is at this point that the existence of a second Joh.Ii Angel is clearly indicated in the borough records.33 The same year, the common hall granted Joh.Ii Angel, lecturer, an augmentation of £10,34 and there­after his name continuously appears as preacher. Taken prisoner ai!: the siege of Leicester in 1645, with the then master of Wyggeston's Hospital, Angel was released in exchange for a royalist prisoner. In June 1646, when an inquiry into the Leicester parishes was made, he was awarded an aug­mentation out of sequestered property by the Committee for Plundered Ministers, being described as "a godly, learned, and orthodox divine of whose deserts this Committee have received large testimony".35 In 1647, he signed the new regulations for the free school, being one of the visitors by virtue of his post as confrater of Wyggeston's Hospital.36 There seems little doubt that at this period he was indeed a man "mighty in word and doctrine" among the Puritans of Leicester.

But four years later, Joh.Ii Angel was suspended for refusing to take the Engagement, as also was the vicar of St. Martin's, Mr. Price. On 27 January 1650/1, the mayor and aldermen were required to tender the engagement ro these two ministers and to return an account to the Council of State. On 5 February, the Council informed the mayor that Mr. Angel and Mr. Price must depart the town within fourteen days and not come within ten miles of it without licence.37 On 11 February, the suspended ministers asked the borough to intervene on their behalf, and to secure them two or three months' grace in their places: "Wee assure you", they wrote. "that our not ingaging hitherto hath not issued out of any principle of opposition; but out of conscyence to Allmighty God".38 The borough complied, for eight days later the Council informed the Leicester authorities that their letter concerning the two ministers had been received, but they found no reason to alter the former order; and on 21 February, a petition of the town of Leicester on behalf of Mr. Angel and Mr. Price was laid aside.39

The departure of the two ministers is marked in the Chamberlain's Account of 1650-1 by the entry: "paid for a gallon of sack and a gallon of white wine and suger when the Maior and Aldermen tooke their leaves of Mr. Angell and Mr. Price Feb. 22 vijs. viijd."4°

According to Anthony Wood, Angel was subsequently chosen lecturer in Grantham by the Mercers' Company, this being one of the lectureships given to the company by Viscountess Camden : "whereupon setling at that

THE TWO JOHN ANGELS 41

place he shone (as 'tis said) as a burning light, until God translated him to shine above as a star for ever". Wood, unusually, added another published tribute: "as his name was Angell, so (saith another of his persuasion) he was a man indeed of angelical understanding and holiness, a burning and shining light". A year before his death he was appointed assistant to the commissioners for the ejection of scandalous and ignorant ministers and schoolmasters in Lincolnshire. He died and was buried at Grantham on 6 June 1655; the funeral being attended by many divines of the neigh­bourhood and the sermon preached by Mr. Laurence Sarson.4r

Calamy recorded that Angel was the first holder of the Grantham lectureship : "Old Mr. Angel who had been many Years a famous Preacher in Leicester, was the first Lecturer upon this foundation in Grantham, about the year 1650. After his death in 1655, Mr. Starkey succeeded."42 But the Grantham lectureship was not founded until 1651, and it may not have been until the following year rhat Angel was appointed, for his widow later affirmed that he "lived a whole year without taking any place upon him in the Ministry", so that his family was without means.43

During some of this time, Angel was at Great Bowden, which is beyond the ten-mile limit from Leicester, for he sent two letters to the town from there shortly after his suspension. In the first of these, dated 25 March 1651, he wrote:

"I coulde be well contente ... that as I have spente the flowre of my strenght and the most and best of my yeares amongst you, so likewise with you to finish my course; and I neyther have bene backward to this ende (whatsoever some deeme) nor yet shall be; but if it be otherways determined it behooveth all of us to make the best use of the passages of divine providence. I hope that howsomever I am taken from you in respecte of corporall p'sence, yet the fruite of my labors will remayne amongst you, when I am dead: with all due gratefullness I cannot but acknowledge the kindness of the corporation to me, since I came unto them, and I doubt not of the same lovinge farewell at the closure: My only requeste unto you all at the pre!Sent is, that though I was taken from you a moneth before the quarter day, yet you woulde vouchsave, that though I be absent, yet the quarteridge may be payed as formerly; I will no further interrupt your serious affayres, but only to assure you of the continuation of his prayers, for the prosperitie of the Corporation and that Grace and Peace may be multiplyed uppon you, desiringe also the Recip­rocation of your prayers in his behalfe, who is Gentlemen your affectionate freind and servante in Christ Jesus John Angel."

The second letter dated 8 April, was in reply to a letter from the mayor of Leicester, and indicates that there were other financial transactions to be settled. Angel wrote :

"desiringe to deale above boarde, and to deale justly with all, I have desired my lovinge freinds, my cousin Angell and Mr. Deacon to take the paynes for me to Audit the business on my parte with you con­cerninge the monies due ... on both sides, and have authorised them ... to bringe the matter to a heade and issue and to conclude it, that not so much as a scruple of difference may remayne betwixt the corporation and me, this beinge the first that hath bene sithence my comminge to you for 24 years."

He concluded with the hope that there might be a peaceable and com­fortable closure of the.business, so that "I shall departe in peace (if I must

42 LEICESTERSHIRE ARCH1£.0LOGICAL AND · HISTORICAL SOCIETY

parte from you) which I much prize, and it will alleviate my sorrow in beinge taken from you".44

John Angel evidently owed a sum of £15 to the borough, the balance of a loan of £35, and met his debt before the close of 1651.45 But the cor­poration do not appear to have been so ready to pay their former lecturer the salary owing to him. Eventually John Angel took the matter to law, claiming the full year's stipend. The case was heard before Lord Justice Bradshaw; Mr. Berry and Mr. Archer, two Grantham ministers, represented John Angel, and Richard Lee, Master of Wyggeston's Hospital, represented the corporation. Lord Justice Bradshaw ruled that Angel's patent had not been made void by the order of the Council of State, but had only been suspended, and ordered that the salary be paid. The master of the hospital informed the corporation of this judgment, and the measures agreed to carry it out, on 2 June 1655.46 On 6 June, John Angel died at Grantham.

His widow, Anne Angel, now petitioned for the sum owing.47 This was paid in full early in the following year, when she signed an acquittance for a final payment of £20, in respect of a sum of £42 owing to John Angel as lecturer and confrater. A memorandum at the foot of thil, document, dated 16 January 1655/6, records that 50s. of this sum was paid over by George Rayson (possibly acting on behalf of the hospital) and £18 10s. by Mr. Samuel Wanley, one of the aldermen, to "Mr. John Angell thelder and Mr. John Angell the younger" by the letters and direction of Mrs. Ann Angel. The signatures of John Angel, senior, and George Rayson are appended.48

There is here introduced a third John Angel, called the younger; in relation to whom the second John Angel, former schoolmaster and vicar of St. Nicholas, was now senior. This new John Angel was, no doubt, a son of the lecturer and may be identified with the student of the same name, entered as "cler. fil.", who matriculated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1650; this student was subsequently placed at Christ Church later in the same year by the Parliamentary Visitors of the University.49 The second John Angel, who had been deputed by his relative the lecturer, in 1651, to arrange the financial transactions with the borough, now brought these to a close. He was apparently practising as a physician in Leicester at this time, and his career in the borough, which began in the office of school­master, may now be traced.

The Free School

Leicester Free School was established in a new building, with new endow­ments and statutes, in the decade 1564-74; the period when Wyggeston's hoopital was also reconstituted. The main agent was, once more, the third Earl of Huntingdon, though Thomas Sampson, former Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, then master of the hospital, no doubt assisted in drawing up the statutes. These laid down · that the headmaster "shalbe of sounde religeon ... noe papist or heretique", and should "labor to trayne up his schollers in true religeon and in godly lyfe".so But the question of presen­tation and appointment to the mastership was a complicated one. The borough built the schoolhouse and obtained royal letters patent in 1564 granting £10 a year in support of a schoolmaster, "which schoolmaster should be chosen . . . by the said mayor and burgesses and their l'mcces­sors" Y An earlier bequest of £10 a year for the support of a schoolmaster in Leicester had, however, already given some right in the matter to the

THE TWO JOHN ANGELS 43

hospitaI.s2 In r574, the Earl of Huntingdon settled an additional endow­ment, and an agreement was then drawn up between the three parties concerned covering the disposal of the various sums and the adminis­tration of the school; under this, all covenanted to keep such ordinances and rules "as were set down and written in a book therefore made and sealed" with the seals of the three parties.s3 If the "book" here referred to was the statutes, these make no reference to the question of appointment, but merely designate the mayor of Leicester and the master and confrater of the hospital as visitors of the school, with power to remove a recalci­trant headmaster.54 But the agreement evidently arrived at was that the master of the hospital held the right of presentation, though the borough effectively controlled and administered the school.ss

In the sixteenth century, the Earl of Huntingdom and his nominee at the hospital evidently played a considerable part in the school's affairs.s6

But in the seventeenth century the borough assumed greater control over the school, as it did also in the matter of the lectureship. The fact that an alderman was sent over "to get letters" from the fifth Earl of Hunting­don, regarding the appointment of a new headmaster in 1617, suggests that the third Earl's heirs still exercised some right in the matter.57 But there is no reference of this nature in the borough records to the master of the hospital who, at this period, was usually non-resident. On the other hand, such references as there are to later appointments and dismissals suggest that the borough was prepared to take action on its own account; and that the mayor and aldermen were concerned in the matter, rather than the whole governing body of the town.s8

The schoolmaster appointed in 1617 was St. John Burrows, M.A., who later became rector of Houghton-on-the-Hill and whose doubtful activities as a minister were noted at the visitation of 1634; he was ejected in r662, and is referred to by Calamy as a man of great worth and eminence.s9 Nothing is known of the views of the next headmaster, the John Hill who signed the letter requesting the appointment of John Angel as lecturer, with Francis Higginson and other Leicester ministers, in 1627. But he was evidently not a satisfactory schoolmaster for he was relieved of his post in 1628, with a compensatory payment, and there are subsequent references to the "decay" of the school.60 Hill's successor was John Angel, the younger, who was evidently the first headmaster to come from outside Leicestershire.

John Angel, the younger, Schoolmaster, Library-Keeper, Vicar of St. Nicholas, Surrogate, Physician

John Angel, the younger, was also at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, if he can be identified with the student of this name who matriculated on 17 June 1618, at the age of 18, as of county Gloucester, "pleb.", took his B.A. in July 1621, and his M.A. in July 1625.61 This student is, more than probably, the John Angel who was elected usher at the College School, Gloucester, on 4 February 1623/ 4.62 A new usher was appointed on 23 June r628, which suggests that Angel left Gloucester for Leicester at about this time, a date which tallies with the information in the borough records about his appoint­ment. This took place some eighteen months after the advent of John Angel, lecturer.63

The first mention of this second John Angel occurs in March r628/9, when a petition was addressed .to the mayor on his behalf. It opens :

44 LEICESTERSHIRE ARCH£0LOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

"May it please you Calling into our Memorie the Conference had betwixt ourselves and Mr. Angel Schoolemaster, upon his first coming to Leicester, as also the good encouragement wee then gave him upon tryall made, to accept of ye Schoole being destitute in hope that ten pounds yearely would be added for his better maintenance ... We doe with much earnestnes desire, that (seeing neyther his insufficiency of gifts unfayth­fulnes in his place, nor any other personal misdemeanor doe occasion our just exceptions) you would be pleased to give Verrue to our words".

The signatories were William lve (mayor 1615-16), Nicholas Gillot (mayor 1618-19), John Heyrick (mayor 1619-20), Francis Churchman (mayor 1627-8).64 A succession of endowments of the free school from 1603 to 1627 indicate that it was actively supported by leading burgesses; in particular, those of Puritan leanings, the list of benefactors including the names of Heyrick, Billers, Norrice. But an additional payment from the borough treasury was always a matter for dispute, and Angel had evidently petitioned for the increase originally promised him without success.

But, besides gaining the support of leading citizens, he now also gained the voice of two influential men who were not of the reforming party. One of these was Dr. Samuel Clarke, master of Wyggeston's Hospital, a typical Stuart nominee;6s the other, Anthony Cade, vicar of Billesdon, onetime schoolmaster there, and chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham. Cade's letter is of a literary turn, and he evidently could not resist making play with the surname Angel in extolling the schoolmaster's virtues. But, referring to the refusitl to increase his stipend, he ended with a carefully-couched appeal to local pride: "Besides it is not for the honour of the Corporation to have it sayd that you have lost such an approved worthy instrument of that good for such a matter; or that you are content with others farre worse (at least untryed) so you may have them cheaper. far be it from you ... "

A note at the foot of the letter embodied the request: "May it please you (good Mr. Maior) to call your company together and again to consider of this matter".66 The borough ceded to this pressure. On 15 May 1629 the two letters "written in Commendacion and greate approbacion of the good deserts of Mr. Angel" were read, at a meeting of the aldermen, and it was recorded: "It is now thought fit by most voyces of those now present that the said Mr. Angell shall have xli per annum forth of the Chamber of the To)VIle duringe the Townes pleasure".67

Three scholars entered St. John's College, Cambridge, during the remainder of Angel's term as headmaster; and there were doubtless a num­ber of others.68 On the other hand, there is no evidence that Angel was an unsatisfactory headmaster, and his increased salary was regularly paid to him until, in January 1636/7, he was rather summarily relieved of his post.

The visitation of the school was supposed to take place twice annually, in April and October, and there are records of the advent of the master of Wyggeston's hospital for this occasion. 69 But Angel's dismissal took place some time after the autumn visitation, and there is no reference in the borough records, either to the hospital authorities, or to any incompetence on the part of the schoolmaster. It is simply recorded that, at a meeting of the mayor and aldermen, it was agreed "that if Mr. John Angell the Skoole­master will freely yeald upp the freeschoole to such a man as the Maior and the greater part of the Aldermen of the said Borough shall like that then they are content that hee shall have paid him out of the towne chamber 20

li. and if he will diligently keepe the librarye ... then they doe agree alsoe

THE TWO JOHN ANGELS 45

that he shall have for his paines therein taken £6 13s. 4d. yearlye during the pleasure of the towne".7°

The payment of the £20 is subsequently recorded in the account for 1636-7, as also the payment of one half year's salary to Mr. Angel for keeping the library, ending at "Michaelmas last past".71 This suggests that Angel left the school at the end of March 1637. The next headmaster was Thomas Horne, who was replaced by John Billers in or before March 1638/9.12 Both these headmasters, it is reasonable to infer, were acceptable to the majority of the aldermen. Of the former, it is known that he was a strong Parliamentarian in his later career;73 the latter came of a family that belonged to the Puritan element in the town.

John Angel, then, though originally welcome as a competent school­master, must have ended by offending the Puritan majority among the aldermen. One reason for this can surely be found in the fact that he was acting as a surrogate in 1633, and again in 1634; that is, at a time when the proceedings of the ecclesiastical authorities were anything but popular, and the holders of this position must have been much disliked by members of the governing body of the town.74 The repercussions of the visitation of 1634 continued for some time; it was on 3 November of that year that "John Angel, M.A., headmaster of the free school of Leicester", was once more appointed as surrogate. On the other hand, Angel was acceptable as library-keeper, though it must be noted that he was bought out of the head­mastership at considerably less cost than his predecessor, John Hill, pre­sumably because of this alternative employment.75

On 25 April 1638, about a year after he left the school, John Angel signed the subscription book as vicar of St. Nicholas.76 And he is named, in this capacity, as surrogate, in 1638 and 1639.n He also continued in his post as library-keeper until 1642-3, in which year only half his salary was paid; his successor, William Davy, being paid an annual salary of only £2 13s. 4d.78

But, by 1642, though still vicar of St. Nicholas, John Angel had taken up a new profession, for he attended Sir Edward Lake, the vicar-general, in the capacity of physician in that year. Sir Edward Lake had laid aside his gown and taken up arms for the king at Edgehill, where he was severely wounded; he was subsequently kept prisoner at Cosby, near Leicester, but escaped to Wales and from there sent on to Oxford a certificate from his surgeons "Mr. John Angell, the physician and Mr. Edward Luffman, the surgeon, both of Leicester, who were employed about my cure".79

In 1644, there is a record in the borough accounts of payment of tithe for the pesthouse yard to Mr. John Angel, vicar of St. Nicholas, with the marginal note "to be noe more paid".80 The following year the siege of Leicester took place, and in 1646 there was an inquiry into the Leicester parishes followed by some reorganisation. But it seems probable that Angel ceased to hold his cure after the first of these dates. No further reference to him, in any public office, has been found during the remaining years of the Interregnum; the only mentions being in 1651, in connexion with the affairs of his relative John Angel, lecturer, and in 1656 when he acted for the latter's widow.

But after 1660, the second John Angel reappears in various capacities. In 1661, John Angel, clerk, was appointed one of the auditors of the Wyg­geston Hospital accounts by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.81 In 1662, and subsequent years, the name of John Angel appears repeatedly

46 LEICESTERSHIRE ARCH.1£.0LOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

in the subscription book as surrogate, and it is known that he frequently acted as substitute for Sir Edward Lake, now once more vicar-general, during the important visitation of 1662.82

In 1662, William Heaward, proctor and notary public, to whom refer­ence has already been made, died. One of the witnesses to his will was John Angel, physician, to whom he left 5s. to buy a pair of gloves; the will was proved in the archdeaconry registry before John Angel, clerk. 83 In the hearth-tax returns of 1662-3, John Angel, clerk, is recorded as a house­holder in the third ward, in the vicinity of the Saturday Market, as paying tax for two hearths.84 In the accounts of St. Martin's for 1664 is recorded a payment fQr a pint of sack, given to Mr. Angel when he drew up a bill of presentment. 85

The last entry of John Angel's name in the subscription book occurs under August 1665; in the following September he was once more appointed as surrogate by Sir Edward Lake,86 but he must soon after have been taken ill, for on 20 October he drew up his will from a sick-bed and he died shortly afterwards. The will, indexed in the archdeaconry registry as that of John Angel, clerk and surrogate, St. Martin's, Leicester, was proved in November. 87 In it, the testator described himself as John Angel, of the borough of Leicester, "physician". He left a sum to the poor of the five parishes; bequeathed £15 to the widow Luffenham, her son Charles and her daughter Rebecca, to be divided equally between them;88 left £40 to two nieces, £60 to a sister and her two daughters and £20 to another sister; his books to be divided equally between his ' cousin John Angel and his cousin Smith; and the remainder of his estate to "my loving brother Mr. William Angel of the Citie of Gloucester" whom he made sole executor.

It has already been established that John Angel, the younger, head schoolmaster (1628-37), library-keeper (1637-43), and vicar of St. Nicholas (1638-44) was also a surrogate from 1633. This will makes it clear that John Angel, clerk and surrogate, and John Angel, physician, were one and the same. It also upholds the early history of John Angel, the younger, as out­lined above, by providing proof of his connection with Gloucestershire.

It will be recalled that John Angel, the elder, also came from Glouces­tershire, and it may be surmised that having been appointed as lecturer in the borough in 1627, he suggested a younger relative for the post of school­master when this became vacant a year or so later. This young man originally satisfied the borough, but later, it must . be supposed, became identified with the unpopular Laudian policy and was considered unfit to be in charge of the school. He subsequently became vicar of St. Nicholas, probably losing this office in 1644, after which he seems to have remained in Leicester for the next sixteen years practising as a physician: a profession frequently adopted by displaced ministers and schoolmasters. John Angel, the elder, on the other hand, continued to be held in high esteem as a preacher up to and beyond 1651, when he was suspended for adhering to the presbyterian standpoint and refusing to take the engagement; though it can hardly be asserted that he was a Nonconformist before 1640.

After the Restoration, John Angel, the younger, physician, was rein­stated as surrogate and continued to act in this capacity until his death five years later at the age of about 65. He had evidently not married, and the cousin of the same name to whom he left his books was, in all proba­bility the son of John Angel the elder, already mentioned. Of this third John Angel, nothing further is known.

THE TWO JOHN ANGELS

NOTES

47

1. J. Thompson, History of Leicester (1849), 354; C. J. Billson, Leicester Memoirs (1924), 52-8; W . G . Cowie, History of Wyggeston's Hospital, the Hospital Schools and the Old Grammar School (1893), 28; C. Deedes, J. E. Stocks, J. L. Stocks, The Old Town Hall Library of Leicester (1919), ix-xi.

2 . Billson, op. cit., 53. 3. Thompson, op. cit., 288-90; Billson, op. cit., 35-51. 4. A. Hamilton Thompson (ed.), Wyggeston Hospital Records (1933), 65-7;

Charity Commission Report (1838), v. 80. 5. Records of the Borough of Leicester (ed. M. Bateson and H. Stocks, 1899-

1923), vol. iii, pp. 1-li, 198. The printed Records are referred to where possible; elsewhere references are to the MS. Hall Papers (HP) and Chamberlains' Accounts (CA) in the City Muniment Room, Leicester Museum. The Subscription Books of the;archdeaconry of Leicester are also in the Muniment Room, as are other MSS. with '' a press number. I am much indebted to Mrs. A. M. Woodcock, former city archivist, both for assistance and for a number of references.

6. Records, iii. 253-4, 261, 273 note. 7. Records, iii. 261-2. 8. Thompson, op. cit., 290. Eventually it was agreed that the town's contri­

bution should be paid out of the rents of the Newarke Grange, the fee farm of which was obtained on lease from the Duchy on this condition: Billson, op. cii., 50; Records, iv. 13.

9. Thompson, op. cit., 289. He was a Leicestershire man, educated at Win­chester-'.College under Thomas Bilson, and later at Oxford where he took the degree of bachelor of law: Billson, op. cit., 48. As late as 1604 he was the only incumbent returned for the deanery of Leicester who had a licence to preach; of the three other incumbents, two had no university degree and one was a B.A.: Associated Archi­tectural Societies' Reports and Papers, xxii. 148.

10. Records, iv. 228. II. ibid., 229. 12. He was the son of John Higginson, vicar of Claybrooke, and was educated at

Cambridge (B.A., Jesus, 1610, M .A., 1613). He took orders in 1614, and was insti­tuted to the rectory of Barton, Notts., in the following year, but appears never to have been inducted. Instead, he assisted his father at Claybrooke, until he was placed at St. Nicholas. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, I, ii, 368; Dictionary of American Biography.

13. Charity Comm. Rep., 25. The donor of this annuity was John Norrice, alderman, who was called before the Court of High Commission in 1634 for obsti­nate nonconformity, two of the articles cited against him concerning this transaction: article 10, "you have given entertaynment, releif administred main­tenance annuity or pencon countenanced and incouraged divers and sundry incon­formable ministers viz. one Francis Higginson Clerke .. . and certain others ... "; :rrticle II, "You ... did .. . contribute or cause to be contributed to the buying out of the Vicar of St. Nicholas ... for a certaine sume of money, as namely 40 30 &c pounds to place in the said Vicaridge countenance and encourage one of yr owne sect being a schistmaticall and erroneous person &c ... . . " Assoc. Soc. Rep., xxix. 520-2. Associated with John Norrice in this transaction were Nicholas Gillon, then mayor, and sixteen aldermen; the indenture covered also a gift of £5 a year to the poor.

14. Billson gives the date of his ejection as 1624, op. cit., 52. But a document dated August 1623 (1D41/24/5, f. 14) names Richard Richardson, usher of the Free School, as curate of St. Nicholas.

15. Cotton Mather, Ecclesiastical History of New England (1702), iii. 71. Until in 1628 there began "the fray between that Bishop, and Laud the Bishop of London, who set himself to extirpate and extinguish all the Non-Conformists, that were Williams' favourites, among whom one was Mr. Higginson". Thereafter Higginson conducted private meetings, until forced to emigrate to New England in 1629, where he died in 1630; though only a year in the colony, as founder of the first congreg:rtional church he left a strong impress on its ecclesiastical history.

16. ibid., 73. 17. Records, iv. 229 . . That is, all the local ministers except Edward Blunte, vicar

of St. Margaret's, and the curate of St. Leonard's, Nicholas Parker, who was also tinder-usher of the Free School.

18. ibid., 248.

48 LEICESTERSHIRE ARCH.1£0LOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

NOTES-continued

19. Athenae Oxonienses, ed. P. Bliss (1817-20), iii. 397-8; J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714 (1891-2),' i. 26. Cf. also Diet. Nat. Biog. where, however, it is strangely suggested that Angel was appointed as lecturer by the "Mayor of Alderney".

20. Deedes and Stocks, op. cit., ix. 21. Records, iv. 212-3, 221, 225-6, 251-2. 22. ibid., 252, 270. . 23. Deedes and Stocks, op. cit., xii-xv; Records, iv. 270-1. 24. Assoc. Soc. Rep. xxix. 480. 25. Records, iv. 271-2. Miss Stocks has read "James Ericke Clerk" as Mr. Clerk,

xlix. 26. Assoc. Soc. Rep., xxix. 494, 489, 515, 505. Bottomley's position can perhaps

be gauged by the fact that a book by him was sent to the authorities in London in 1650 with a request for advice, since it seemed to be "of a very dangerous conse­quence and lets open a very wide dore to Atheisme and profanes": Records, iv. 386-7.

27. Assoc. Soc. Rep., xxix. 511, 518, 504. Considerable expense was incurred on this and other tasks, including payment of 7s. 4d. to the churchwarden concerned for his charges in being excommunicated, 49s. 4d. for making the surplice, and 3s. 6d. for horse-hire to H arborough to "certifie the Court that the loft was taken downe". But at the end of the annual account appears the item: "Pd. Steeples & 2 Surgesses for setting vpp the Jofte agane xxxvjs." Accounts of the Church­wardens of St. Martin's, ed. T. North (1886), 186-8 . .

28. ibid., 187. 29. Assoc. Soc. Rep., xxix. 518. 30. The History of the Troubles and Tryal of . .. William Laud, ed. Henry

Wharton (1695), 531. 31. It has been repudiated by a biographer of the Puritans: "The fact most

probably was, that Mr. Angel was deeply involved in spiritual darkness about his own state, and in painful uncertainty concerning his own salvation. 'For', says Mr. Clark, 'there was a great light, Mr. Angel, formerly of Leicester, afterwards of Grantham, !Jut now with God, who being under a sore and grievous desertion, received much comfort from the conversation of Mr. Richard Vines'". Benjamin Brook, The L ives of the Puritans (1813), iii. 236-7, quoting from Clark's Lives. RichaTd Vines, later a leading presbyterian divine and intruded master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, was at this period schoolmaster at Hinckley.

32. Assoc. Soc. Rep., xxix. 507, 482-3. Heaward's character may perhaps be judged by the fact that, at the close of his gossiping letter, he laid information against his own brother-in-Jaw for pre-maTital incontinence, with a request that his name be withheld for fear of his father-in-law's displeasure. ·

33. Records, iv. 307. A decision having been taken that the Protestation should be administered to the inhabitants of the borough by the ministers of the different parishes, all these were sent for, and some came to the town hall: "viz. Mr. Angell Lecturer Mr White Mr Warde and Mr. John Angell". Mr. White was vicar of St. Martin's, Mr. Warde vicar of All Saints, and Mr. John Angel-the same John Angel who had been schoolmaster and was still library-keeper, as will be shown­was vicar of St. Nicholas.

34. Records, iv. 311. 35. Nichols, History of L eics. (1795-1815), i. 501-2. Cf. R ecords, iv. 339, 340,

345-6. 36. Records, iv. 357. 37. Cal. State Papers Dom., 1651, 25, 35. 38. R ecords, iv. 396. 39. Cal. State Papers Dom., 1651, 53, 56. 40. Records, iv. 406. 41. Zoe. cit. Nichols (op. cit., i. 502) gives an extract from "a parish register" in

Grantham recording the burial of John Angel, preacher, on 6 June 1656; an error reproduced by Billson, op. cit., 57.

42. A Continuation of the Account (1727), ii. 597-8. 43. Records, iv. 538. 44. H.P. XIII, Nos. 76, 91. 45. There is a record of Angel's agreement to pay the sum of £35 in 1648; H.P.

XII, No. 362. The payment of £15, in discharge of the full debt, is entered in the accounts for 1650-1: Records, iv. 405.

THE TWO JOHN ANGELS 49

NOTES-continued

46. H.P. XIII, No. 873. There are several inaccuracies in the printed version: Records, iv. 426.

47. Records, iv. 538-9. She must have been his second wife. John Angel, lecturer, married firstly Alice, daughter of Francis Oliver, who died on 17 April 1631 and was buried at St. Martin's: Nichols, op. cit., i. 501.

48. 1D5o/Vl/8c. 49. Foster, Al. Ox., i. 26. The Register of the Visitors of the University of

Oxford, 1647-58 (1881), ed. M. Burrows, 171, 331, 480, 492. 50. M. C. Cross, The Free Grammar School of Leicester (1953), 18. 51. Charity Comm. Rep., 2. 52. A deed, dated 1557, making over this bequest from the Wyggeston family to

the hospital specified that the schoolmaster be appointed, and, when necessary, dis­missed, by the hospital; Cross, op. cit., 9.

53. Charity Comm. Rep., 4. 54. "These vysitours shall vysyte the schoole twyse in the yeare, that is on the

firste day of Aprill and on the firste day of October, or as nere to those days as (they) can convenientlie meete. At whiche tyme they shall examyne whether these statutes be in all poyntes observed, and if the schoolmaster or usshers ... be founde culpable in breakinge these orders or any of them they shall reprove them or remove them, accordinge as the offence to theire discrecions deservyth ... "; Cross, op. cit., 20.

55. In a letter to the mayor in 1655, the then master of Wyggeston's Hospital, referring to an appointment, wrote: "I promise you that if you and ye Corporacion would provide and nominate a person I should judge fit I would approve of him and in case I should nominate you should inquire and satisfy yourselves . . . As to my promise to you I am ready to make it good. It sufficeth that you did and doe acknowledge ye undoubted and uninterrupted powr of my place to present a School-master confirmed by ye Uniform and constant practice of my predecessor ... I do verily approve of him . who you have provided to be Schoolmaster in ye roome of Mr. Wood ... " Records, iv. 426. The master and confrater of the hospital also had the right of nominating scholars for the scholarships settled by the Earl; this right passing to the Earl's heirs if they should default : Charity Comm. Rep., 81.

56. That the Earl kept a close eye on the administration of the school is proved by his request, in 1594, for the removal of an usher judged unfit for the post; a request addressed first to the mayor, and followed by a directive to the master and confrater of the hospital to give their agreement. Cross, op. cit., 22-3.

57. Records, iv. 183. 58. Later, the right of appointing schoolmasters was arrogated to a committee of

the mayor and ex-mayors: R. W. Greaves, The Corporation of Leicester (1939), 19. 59. Calamy-Palmer, The Non.ecnformist's Memorial (1802-3), ii. 388. His will

is in Leicester County Archivei;, No. 75. 60. The payment of £50 to Mr. Hill for "leaving his place of heade Schoole

Master in the Free schoole" was made by order of the mayor and aldermen; pa:rt of this sum having been raised by subscriptions from "divers severall persones being by them voluntarily given towards the removeinge of the heade Schoolemaster . .. and procuringe an other in his place". Records, iv. 247, 248.

61. Foster, Al. Ox., i. 26. 62. V.C.H. Gloucestershire, ii. 325. 63. This John Angel signed the subscription book, as schoolmaster, on I October

1629. His signature differs materially from the distinctive one of John Angel, lecturer; 1D41/34/ 1, f 3.

64. Records, iv. 230-1. A number of other signatures were later added: H .P. VIII, No. 331.

65. It was surely Samuel Clarke, D.D., chaplain to Prince Charles, who swore that he would rid Leicester of Francis Higginson, but failed ignominously. Cotton Mather referred to his "Gentleman-Preaching, after a flaunting manner and with .. . a vain Ostentation of Learning and Affectation of Language"; op. cit., 72. He has been described as a non-resident place-seeker, who mismanaged the hospital revenues and took bribes: Cowie, op. cit., 27.

66. H .P. VIII, No. 336. 67. Records, iv. 249. 68. One of the entrants was the son of Reginald Burdin, rector of Leire and

surrogate, already referred to; Admissions to the College of St. John, ed. J. E. B.

50 LEICESTERSHIRE ARCH£0LOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

NOTES-continued

Mayor (1893), i. 10, 18, 22. A pupil who went to Oxford was John Billers; son of William Billers, mercer, and three times mayor, who after became schoolmaster.

69. The chamberlains' account for 1635-6 includes the item: " paid the 9th. May for a quarte of sacke and a quarte of Claret and 6d. in Biskets sent to the schoole when Mr. Dr. Clarke did visite the same"; Records, iv. 290-I. The other visitors were the confrater, then John Angel the elder, and the mayor.

70. ibid., 289. There is, therefore, no foundation for the suggestion that Dr. Clarke "discovered grounds for criticism" at the visitation in May 1636: Cross, op. cit., 31. It seems unlikely that he had anything to do with the dismissal.

71. ibid., 292. 72. C.A. 1635-40, ff. 91, 136. 73. He left Leicester to go to Tonbridge School, and in 1648 was placed as

headmaster of Eton, the Eton head taking his place a:t Tonbridge: Wood, op. cit., iii. 365-6, 505.

74. Cf. articles 4 and 5 of the deposition against John Norrice in 1634: "you or some of you ... have depraved or vilified &c the government of the Church of England a:nd have in opprobrious or scornful language spoken against ecclesiastical authority or ecclesiastical judges". Angel is named as surrogate in the subscription book in 1633 (1D41/34/1, f. 7) and in a document recording his appointment in 1634 (1D41 /39).

75. The head usher, Richard Richa:rdson, probably a former pupil of Francis Higginson, may have had something to do with Angel's dismissal. He had been at the school for some years before Angel's appointment, and at some date between March a:nd June 1637, that is just when Angel was dismissed, he was awarded the freedom of the borough without fine, by consent of the common hall. This is one of the few instances of an honorary freedom at this period: H. Hartopp (ed.) Register of the Freemen of Leicester (1927), i. 124. Richardson later left the school, to return for a brief period as headmaster in the latter half of 1659.

76. The signature is similar to that of 1629: 1D41/34/1, f. 29. Angel would not have received the £5 annuity settled by Norrice. This proba:bly ceased when Higginson was ejected, and the whole £10 was paid to the poor at this time: Charity Comm. Rep., 26.

77. In documents dated April 1638, March 1638/9, October 1639; 1D41/ 39. 78. C.A. 1640-45, ff, 90, II7. Though he was library-keeper for six years, John

Angel the younger apparently did not dra:w up the classified catalogue; the account of this document (now lost) particularly refers to the small neat handwriting which is a characteristic of John Angel, lecturer, who also had much to do with the library: Nichols, op. cit., i. 507. The latter, who is referred to as a great bene­factor, must have presented the books with the MS. inscription "The Booke of John Angell, sen.": Deedes and Stocks, op. cit., II5, 126, II7, 135. But John Angel, ex­headmaster, obviously gave the Historia Romana with the MS. inscription on the title "Emptum et donatum huic bibliothecae a Johanne Angel juventutis Leices­trensis aliquando moderatore", and there is also a book apparently inscribed "John Angel, jun.": ibid., 85, 23.

79. "Sir Edward Lake's Interviews with Charles I", Camden Miscellany, iv (1859), 13-14.

80. C.A. 1645-50, f. 145. 81. Nichols, op. cit., i. 490. 82. Assoc. Soc. Rep., 507. A. P. Moore, in his notes on the metropolitical visi­

tation of 1634, states that this position would only have been accorded to some one who had been a surrogate before 1640; as ha:s been shown, Angel was first a surro­gate in at least 1633.

83. Leicester Wills, 1660-1750, ed. H. Hartopp (1920), 165. Leicester County Archives, C 68.

84. Leicestershire & Rutland Notes and Queries, iii. (1895), 215. 85. North, op. cit., 207; as transcribed by Nichols, here reprinted, the original

being lost. 86. 1D41/34/1, f. 37. Court Proceedings, Box XXXI, No. I. 87. Leicester Wills, 7. Leicestershire County Archives, Will IOI. 88. This was evidently the family of Edward Luffenham, barber-surgeon,

referred to in conjunction with Angel in 1642 (cf. Hartopp, Register, i. 122, 373). There are no wills registered during the period of the Interregnum, but the will of Charles Luffenham, who died in 1695, is indexed: Leicester Wills, 212.