Lincoln elect, a man of sharp natural intellect, of unwearied industry of great scholastic acquirements, free from considerable vices, but not distinguished for any very high qualities of head or heart, who, by a sort of frolic of fortune, was suddenly placed in the very situation for which Bacon, singularly well able to perform all its duties, and with many advantages from birth and connection, had so long plotted, before he could reach its slippery eminence. The principality of Wales boasts of Williams as one of the most illustrious of her children. He was of the true Cambrian race, being the son of Edmund Williams and Anne Wynne, daughter of Owen Wynne, Esquire, with genealogies reaching, through Llewellyn, King Arthur, and Caractacus, to Adam. He was really of a respectable gentleman's family, who bore upon their shield three Saxons' heads, which, when he was made chief of the law, gave rise to the following distich: Qui sublime fori potuit conscendere tignum, He was born at Aberconway, in the county of Carnarvon, on the 25th day of March, 1582. He was educated at a grammar school lately established in the town of Ruthin, and is said to have there made great proficiency in Greek and Latin, although as yet he had very little acquaintance with Sassanach. In his sixteenth year he was sent to St. John's College, Cambridge, and put under the care of a countryman, Owen Gwynne, one of the College tutors; and all [ A. d. 1597.] the Welshmen at the University are said to have been proud of his learning. "One thing put him to the blush and a little shame, that such as had giggling spleens would laugh at him for his Welsh tone. For those who knew him at his admission into St. John's society would often say, that he brought more Latin and Greek than good English with him. This also plucked advantage after it; for it made him a very retired student by shunning company and conference, as far as he could, till he had lost the rudeness of his native dialect."* He studied four years before he took his Bachelor's decree, during which time, with intervals for attending chapel, hall, and lectures he is said to have read daily from six o'clock in the morning till three the following morning; for "from his youth to his old age he asked but three hours' sleep in twenty-four to keep him in good plight of health." He was very temperate in his diet, keeping, like all good Protestants, long after the Reformation, Lent and fish-days as rigorously as the Roman Catholics. Having taken his Bachelor's decree with great applause, he was soon after * Hacket, 7. "There are few of our Welsh youth but at their first coming abroad would move almost any man to laughter with the native tone of their voice and by pronouncing all their English as if they spoke it in a passion; and thus it is with our youngster."-Phillips. † Ibid. 31* elected a fellow of St. John's, a royal dispensation of some stat utes, which stood in his way, having been obtained at the request of the College. "while His diligence continued unabated during the three years he was running his course to the degree of Master, a time of loitering with too many. He surrendered up his whole time to dive into the immense well of knowledge that hath no bottom. He read the best, he heard the best, he conferred with the best, exscribed, committed to memory, disputed; he had some work continually upon the loom. And though he never did so much in this unwearied industry as himself desired, he did far more than all who did highly value him could expect. All perceived that a fellowship was a garland too little for his head, and that in that merit his pace would quickly go farther than St. John's Walks."* Having taken orders, he accepted a small living in Norfolk, which he exchanged for another in Northampton [A. D. 1606.] shire; still residing at Cambridge, and being deputed to manage all the important affairs of his college. In prosecuting an application for a licence to hold lands in mortmain, he attracted the notice of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere; who, hearing of his University reputation, observing his shrewdness, and having heard him preach, took him into his service as one of his domestic chaplains. There is a story of his having made his fortune by pleading a cause before the King, respecting the right of his parishioners in Northamptonshire to dance round a Maypole; when he is supposed to have pleased James so much by his learning and eloquence, that he was made a royal chaplain, and placed in the career of preferment which conducted him to the woolsack. Hacket is silent respecting this introduction to greatness; and as it is even inconsistent with the authentic narrative of the friend and biographer of Williams, it can only be noticed to be rejected as spurious. But Before taking up his residence at York House, the Chancellor's chaplain was allowed to complete the year for which he was serving the office of Proctor in the University of Cambridge; and he added to his reputation by his energy in enforcing discipline, and his learning in conducting disputations. Being transferred to London, "he was now in a nest for an eagle. He had an excellent opportunity to advance himself, and he made the most of it. Not only did he say prayers and preach before the worthy old Chancellor, but he constantly attended him wherever he went, and insinuated himself into his most intimate confidence. He even sat by him in the Court of Chancery, as well as in the Star Chamber; and "to climb Es xohлov τηs wʊxns, into the bosom of his master's soul, he picked up, in a short space, some gleanings, in his own modest words, in the knowledge of the common laws of * Hacket, 8. † Hacket, 8. the realm; but, indeed, full sheaves, if his acquaintance might be believed, having read, 'LITTLETON'S TENURES,' the DOCTOR and STUDENT,' and somewhat else like unto them, at hours of relaxa tion, he furnished himself with no little quantity of that learning, by discourse and conference, and inquiring after some cases how they sped in the Courts of Justice. When he was at a nonplus, he respited that difficulty till he met with Sir John Walter (afterward Lord Chief Baron), whose judgment was most agreeable to his genius."* Hacket thus concludes a long vindication of his hero, illustrated by examples of ecclesiastics who had gained renown by their skill in the civil and canon law. Why might not Mr. Williams examine the cases, reports, and maxims of our municipal laws to be expert in them? Both being egged on to it by the happiness of his attendance in the Pretorian Court, where he might learn much and labour little for it, and making it the recreation, not the intermission, of his proper studies. The Lord Chancellor did highly countenance him in it; and was so taken with his pregnancy, that at his leisure times, both for his own solace and his chaplain's furtherance, he would impart to him the narrative of some famous causes that had been debated in Chancery or Star Chamber. What could not such a master teach? what could not such a scholar learn? Socrates says in Plato-of Alcibiades, that he gloried in nothing so much as that he was ward to Pericles, and brought up under him. Neither had this chaplain a more graceful ornament to show, in the eyes of the world, than that he was disciple to the Lord Egerton." By degrees, he was employed by the Chancellor to read weighty petitions, and to assist him in extracting the material facts from voluminous depositions. At first there was great jealousy of him among the secretaries; but in a little while they did their utmost to put him forward, and "none of his fellows had cause to repent that he rode upon the fore horse; for he was courteous and ready to mediate in any cause, and he left all fees and veils of profit to those to whom they did belong. The lookers-on did mark, that his Lord did not only use him in his most principal employments, but delighted to confer with him."‡ The ecclesiastical patronage of the Lord Chancellor was placed very much at his disposal. They were godly men whom he obliged, and such as had waited long in the Universities, and fit to be called forth to use their talents." Meanwhile, he by no means neglected his own interest. He obtained the fine living of Waldegrave, in Northamptonshire, in addition to Grafton, with stalls at Lincoln, Peterborough, Hereford, and St. David's. His panegyrist defends his pluralities by the quotation, Quomodo liberalis esse potest, qui nihil plus acquireret, quam quod sibi ad victum necessarium sufficere queat? || * Hacket, 20. 23. 27. ↑ Hacket, 28. ‡ Ibid. § Ibid. || Ibid. 30. He likewise took his turn in preaching before the Court, pleas ing James by his adhesion to the courtly doctrine now so much in vogue, that subjects hold their liberties and their property at the will of the Sovereign, whom they are bound, in every extremity, passively to obey. What is more to his credit than pleasing James, he is said to have given high satisfaction to the admirer of [A. D. 1617.] Raleigh,-Prince Henry,-who, having heard him preach at Newmarket, "took great notice of him as an honour to Wales, and gave him his princely word that he would reward him after the weight of his worth."* This Prince likely, if he had survived, to have advanced the glory rather than the happiness of his subjects, was soon after mysteriously cut off. Williams, however, reaped the reward of his pliancy and dexterity more rapidly than he himself, in his most sanguine moments, could have anticipated, although, from the growing infirmities of the Lord Chancellor, all hope of higher preferment seemed to be at an end. Ellesmere was made a Viscount; "but who did ever see that the sand in an hour-glass did run the slower because the case in which it was put was gilded? He delighted not in any talk unless his chaplain spoke to him. All his business with his great and royal master, the King, he sent by him to be delivered with trust and prudence. Upon which messages the King took great notice, that the chaplain was principled by his master to be a statesman and a pillar of the kingdom," The impression now made on James certainly had a most favourable influence, when, four years afterwards, it was proposed that the Chancellor's chaplain should himself be Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. In the prospect of his patron's demise, Williams seemed destined to pass the remainder of his life as a parish priest, with an occasional "residence" in a cathedral town. Yet, either from some hint thrown out to him by James, who always thought the preroga tive would be strengthened by the promotion of churchmen, or from the suggestions of vanity, he looked to rise high in the state, and being offered by Egerton on his death-bed any pecuniary provision he should choose to ask in recompense of his faithful services, he said, "Sir, I kiss your hands; you have filled my cup full; I am far from want, unless it be of your Lordship's directions how to live in the world, if I survive you." 'Well," said the Chan ៩ * Hacket, 30. I have been favoured by a kinsman of Lord Keeper Williams with the following copy of a letter, written by him from Cambridge a few days after, addressed to Sir John Wynn, to whose sons he had been tutor at St. John's College. "I have with my proctorship light upon a most loving and respectful lord,-my Lord Chancellor, who hath a fatherly care of my estate, as I have by many immediate favors lately tasted. It was likewise my good fortune to give his Majesty and the Prince some extraordinary contentment at Newmarket upon Tuesday last, when by appointment I preached before them. I had a great deal of court holy water, if I can make myself any good thereby."---Cambridge, 22 Nov. 1611. † Ibid. cellor, "I know you are an expert workman, take these tools to work with, they are the best I have;" and he gave him the four treatises written by himself as to the [A. D. 1618.] mode of conducting business in Parliament, in the Court of Chancery, in the Star Chamber, and at the Council Board. The originals of these Williams presented to the King; but he made copies of them, and he diligently studied them in the retirement to which he thought it for his advantage for some time to submit. When Bacon had got possession of the Great Seal, he proposed to continue Williams in his present situation of Chancellor's chaplain; but the acceptance of this offer was inconsistent with the ambitious projects which were springing up in the mind of the young Welshman. He declined it with many professions of gratitude, and, being resolved to settle himself on his living of Waldegrave, he was contented for the present with being made a Justice of Peace for the county of Northampton, and being put into the list of King's chaplains, whereby he would once a year be brought to Court. He was now stationed, as in a watch-tower, to mark passing events, and to meditate future projects. He saw that all favours passed through the hands of Buckingham; but he was shy of cultivating him; first, because he apprehended that he would probably soon be supplanted in the King's affections by some other minion; and, secondly, because Buckingham himself was notorious for casting off his subordinate agents as soon as they had served his turn.* Meanwhile he addicted himself to study, and to the exemplary discharge of his parochial and magisterial duties. He kept up a splendid hospitality, and though he distinguished himself at his table by carving and conversation, he contrived to retain his own abstemious habits. He still occasionally visited Whitehall, when he was called upon to officiate as one of the royal chaplains, and he was surprised to find Buckingham's ascendancy over the King more completely established than ever, and Lord Chancellor Bacon submissively obeying his orders. No longer hesitating about the right channel of preferment, he was much at a loss to contrive a favourable introduc tion to the dispenser of the patronge of the Crown, [A. D. 1620.] who cared little about sermons, however eloquently the divine right of Kings might be expounded in them, and who was better pleased with active, useful service, than gross personal flattery. While in a desponding mood, pure good luck offered him such an opening as no wisdom could have planned, and no soothsayer could have foretold. Buckingham, the handsomest man of his time, was still a bachelor, after having been engaged in many amours. He at last wished to marry the Lady Catherine Manners, the only child of the Earl of Rutland,-high born, beautiful, and the heiress of immense possession. But he was much disliked by her family as * Hacket, 34, 35, 36, |