WILLIAM FREIND, son of the learned master of Westminster-school, was born in 1715; admitted at Westminster 1727; elected to Christ Church 1731; M. A. 1738; succeeded his father in the valuable rectory of Witney in 1739; obtained a prebend of Westminster, Oct. 17, 1744; and accumulated the degrees of B. and D. D. 1748. In 1755 he published "A Sermon preached before the House of Commons Jan. 30; and in 1756 quitted his prebend at Westminster, for a canonry of Christ Church: but, finding afterwards that his Patron was distressed (upon some political arrangement) for a Canonry there, generously resigned it without making any conditions whatever; in consequence of which, on the death of Dr. Lynch, he was, in May 1760, without solicitation, appointed Dean of Canterbury. He was also chaplain in ordinary to King George the Second and to his present Majesty. He was appointed Prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation in 1761, in which character he delivered and elegant "Concio ad Clerum, in Synodo Provinciali Cantuariensis Provinciæ habita, ad D. Pauli, die 6o Novembris MDCCLXI, à Gulielmo Freind, S.T. P. Ecclesiæ Christi Metropolitica Cantuariensi Decano; jussu Reverendissimi & Commissariorum." His attainments as a scholar and a gentleman were eminent; and his conduct as a Divine was exemplary. He was also a great lover of music, which he both patronized and practised. He married one of the sisters of the late Sir Thomas Robinson, bart. and of Lord Rokeby, the late Primate of Ireland; by whom he left three sons, Robert, a canoneer student of Christ Church, and * As was John Freind in the same year. † On receiving a proof of the "Concio," he told Mr. Bowyer, "You have been so correct and exact in printing, that you have left me little to alter, except what arises, I fancy, from a blunder of my own." The following Impromptu is ascribed to Mr. Hawkins Browne, on seeing Mr. Highmore's picture of this lady: "I, whom no living beauty yet could warm, Am now enamour'd of an empty form." barrister barrister at law (who died young); William-Maximilian*, a canoneer student of Christ Church also; and John, both in orders; and a daughter, Elizabeth, married to Capt. Duncan Campbell of the Marines. He died in 1765, and was buried at Witney; where, against the South wall of the chancel, a table of white marble is thus inscribed: "To the memory of Dr. Robert Freind, son of William, rector of Croton in Northamptonshire, who died August 9, 1754, aged 84. He was head-master of Westminster-school, rector of Witney, prebendary of Westminster and Windsor, and, on resigning the former, canon of Christ Church. He married Jane, the only daughter of Samuel Delangle, D. D. and one of the pastors of the Reformed Church of Charenton, who, taking refuge in England, became a prebendary of Westminster. She died Feb. 3, 1758, aged 81. Dr. William Freind, his son, dean of Canterbury, rector of Witney, died Nov. 28, 1766, aged 55. Charles Freind died July 16, 1736, aged 16; leaving his parents and only brother surviving." A slab on the floor has this inscription: Benjamin Lord Bishop of Winchester, the burial-vault underneath was appropriated to the sole use of Dr. Freind and family, 1753." Dr. Freind had a most excellent collection of books, pictures, and prints; the latter of which, after his death, were sold by auction, by Mr. Langford, Dec. 14-18, 1767: and his valuable library by Mr. Baker, April 28-May 6, 1767. An epitaph by Dr. William Freind, on Dr. Morres, vicar of Hinckley, is printed in the History of that Town. * M. A. 1771; preferred first in Ireland; but now rector of Chinnor, Oxfordshire. † Elected from Westminster to Christ Church 1772; prebendary of Armagh 1778; M. A. 1779; afterwards archdeacon of Armagh. No. No. IV. REV. THOMAS BAKER. (See vol. I. p. 418.) (Principally from the MSS. of Dr. Z. Grey.) This very ingenious and learned Antiquary was descended from a family antient and well-esteemed, distinguished for its loyalty and affection for the Crown. His grandfather, Sir George Baker, knt. almost ruined his family by his exertions for Charles I. Being recorder of Newcastle, he kept that town, 1639, against the Scots* (as they themselves wrote to the Parliament) with "a noble opposition." He borrowed large sums upon his own credit, and sent the money to the King, or laid it out in his service. * Lloyd's Memoirs, p. 689. † Mr. Thomas Baker erected a monument to him, at his own expence, in the chancel of the great church at Hull, with the following epitaph, after he had lain there disregarded 40 years : "Haud procul hinc jacet GEORGIUS BAKER Miles, Qui postquam multa pro Rege, pro Patriâ fecisset tulissetque, hic tandem indigno et meritis suis dispari, August, anno MDCLXVII. At non passus est Deus tantam virtutem penitùs latere: militum tribuno, totâque cohorte militari Tandem cum per quadraginta plus minus annos neglectus jacuisset, nepos ejus THOMAS BAKER, S.T. B. non tam virtutis, quàm adversæ fortunæ hæres, hoc ei Monumentum morens lubens posuit, anno 1710." His father was George Baker, esq. of Crook, in the parish of Lanchester, in the county of Durham, who married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Forster, of Edderston, in the county of Northumberland, esq. Mr. Baker was born at Crook, Sept. 14, 1656 *. He was educated at the free-school at Durham, under Mr. Battersby, many years master, and thence removed, with his elder brother George, to St. John's College, Cambridge, and admitted, the former as pensioner, the latter as fellow commoner, under the tuition of Mr. Sanderson, July 9, 1674 †. He proceeded B.A. 1677; M.A. 1681; was elected fellow March 1679-80; ordained deacon by Bishop Compton of London, Dec. 20, 1685; priest by Bishop Barlow of Lincoln, Dec. 19, 1686.-Dr. Watson, tutor of the college (who was nominated, but not yet consecrated, Bishop of St. David's) offered to take him for his chaplain, which he declined, probably on the prospect of a like offer from Lord Crew bishop of Durham, which he soon after accepted. His Lordship collated him to the rectory of Long-Newton in his diocese, and the same county, June 1687; and, as Dr. Grey was informed by some of the Bishop's family, intended to have given him that of Sedgefield, worth 6 or 700l. a year, with a golden prebend, had he not incurred his displeasure, and left his family, for refusing to read King James the Second's Declaration for liberty of conscience. Mr. Baker himself gives the following account of this matter: "When the King's Declaration was appointed to be read, the most condescending thing the Bishop ever did me was com * Heath's Chronicle, p. 68. Rushworth's Collections, p. iii. vol. II. p. 647. Register of Births in Lanchester church, there being at that time no register of baptisms. + Mr. Thomas Baker's admission is entered in the College Register, June 13, 1674, ætat. 16. But, if the parish register may be depended on, he must at that time have been near 18; and he has been heard to say, that coming up at the same time with his elder brother George, who was two years older, that it might not be known how late he was admitted, their true ages were concealed, ing to my chambers (remote from his) to prevail with me to read it in his chapel at Auckland, which I could not do, having wrote to my curate not to read it at my living at Long-Newton. But he did prevail with the curate at Auckland to read it in his church, when the Bishop was present to countenance the performance. When all was over, the Bishop (as penance, I presume) ordered me to go to the Dean (as Archdeacon) to require him to make a return to court of the names of all such as did not read it; which I did, though I was one of the number." The Bishop, who disgraced him for his refusal, and was excepted out of King William's pardon, took the oaths to that King, and kept his bishoprick till his death. Mr. Baker resigned Long Newton August 1, 1690, refusing to take the oaths *; and retired to his fellowship at St. John's, in which he was protected till Jan. 20, 1716-17, when, with 21 others, he was dispossessed of it. This hurt him most of all, not for the profit he received from it, but that some whom he thought his sincerest friends came so readily into the new measures, particularly Dr. Robert Jenkin the master §, who wrote a defence of the profession of Dr. Lake bishop of Chichester, concerning the new oaths and *The following memorandum was extracted from the Register-book of Long-Newton by the curate of that parish: "Mr. John Oliver, rector of Long-Newton, died in February, 1686, and was succeeded by Thomas Baker, fellow of St. John's college in Cambridge; who, refusing to take the oaths to King William and Queen Mary, at Candlemas 1689, returned to his college again. Mr. James Finny, M. A. of St. John's college in Oxford, chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Burlington and Cork, afterwards D. D. and prebendary of Durham, was inducted into the rectory of Long-Newton on the 30th of January, 1690." + See his Preface to Lady Margaret's Funeral Serrnon. Mentioned in the Appendix to Kettlewell's Life. § "Mr. Baker was quite wrong in fancying that the master, &c. could do more for him than he did. He was screened, till notice came from above that it would not be overlooked there any longer. How did Mr. Baker, as a scrupulous man, reconcile to his conscience, the holding of his fellowship with his annuity of 401. per annum? Was not this certi redditus ?" T. F. passive |