Williams, David, Esq., Founder of the Literary Fund 16 361 Vincent, the Very Rev. William, late Dean of Westminster 411 Zenobio, Count Alvise P. 309 THE ANNUAL BIOGRAPHY AND OBITUARY, OF 1817. PART I. MEMOIRS OF CELEBRATED MEN, WHO HAVE DIED WITHIN THE YEARS 1816-1817. No. I. THE REV. SIR HERBERT CROFT, BART. B. C.L. OF DUNSTER PARK, IN THE COUNTY OF BERKS. [With an Account of his Works.] To record the events that occur in the life of a man of letters, is, in general, but to detail his embarrassments, his mortifications, and his misfortunes. This is truly lamentable, more especially, when, as on the present occasion, the biography of one highly gifted with powers of a superior order, excites our attention; when a poet, a philologist, and an antiquary demands at once our respect, and our commiseration. Nor is it calculated to diminish general regard, when we recollect, that the gentleman now under consideration, to reputable birth and unimpeachable character, superadded the claims of an accomplished scholar, and an orthodox divine. Sir Herbert Croft was the head and representative of a very ancient and respectable family, which, in all probability, derived its name from Croft-Castle, in the county of Hereford; where it appears to have been seated anterior to the Norman Conquest. That his progenitors were great Saxon Chiefs long before, and powerful Barons for some ages after that memorable period, there can be but little doubt, without recurring to more remote periods. We have it on record, indeed, that Sir Richard Croft, of Croft-Castle, was a man of eminence in the reign of Edward IV. He took Prince Edward, eldest son of Edward VI. prisoner, at the battle of Tewkesbury; and being justly apprehensive of his fate, such was his scrupulous honour and delicacy, that he would not deliver him up, until after proclamation, and promise of safety for his person had been publicly made and granted. We find a Sir Herbert Croft sitting in that parliament of James I. which was assembled in 1604. An act of brutal violence committed against his person, produced a new and spirited decision on a question of privilege, as will appear from the following quotation from Macaulay's History of England, vol. i. p. 18. "The Commons had nobly asserted their privileges in several instances. The delivery of Sir Thomas Shirley, one of their members, who had been committed to the Fleet, was demanded and obtained, and the Warden punished for contempt of the House, in refusing to release his prisoner. "Sir Herbert Crofts, (Croft,) another of their members, coming up with others to hear the King's speech, was insulted by a Yeoman of the Guards, who shut the door against him, saying, good man, burgess, you come not here" The Commons resented the insult as an affront upon the whole House; and their anger was with much difficulty appeased by the Yeoman asking pardon for his fault, and receiving on his knees a reprimand from the Speaker." In still more modern times, we learn that a Herbert Croft, born at Oxford in 1603, was nominated soon after the Restoration, to the see of Hereford. His father, a zealous Ca |