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settled on his estate in Norfolk; but still found time to prosecute his study of the laws and constitution of his country. Being subsequently admitted member of the society of antiquaries, he became acquainted with sir Robert Cotton, Camden, and other antiquariIn 1604, he was appointed high sheriff of Norfolk, and probably about this time wrote a description of that county, communicated to Speed, who printed it in 1606. Inˆ1612, he quitted the country, with his wife and family, and settled in London, where he died in 1641.

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Spelman, soon after his arrival in town, engaged in an important undertaking-the investigation of "The Grounds of the Law, from Original Records;" and in the prosecution of this plan, collected all the books and MSS. relative to that article, and diligently read over the fathers and councils, with as many of the historians of the middle ages, whether foreign or domestic, as he could procure. After some interruptions he, proceeded in his enquiries, in the course of which he continually encountered numbers of ob solete words, not easily understood, yet which it was essential to explain. He therefore be

gan to make a collection of such words, with a reference to the places where they were respectively found; and by a comparison of different instances of the use of a given word, obtained its conjectural signification, often with considerable accuracy. As his collection increased, the reading of the ancient historians became less difficult; he proceeded to digest his materials, and by comparing the se veral quotations, at length obtained the exact signification of such words, in the different ages in which they were respectively used.

Still there was something wanting to the perfection of his plan. He perceived that many of our laws since the conquest, were taken from the constitutions of the Saxons, and that many obsolete terms in our Latin historians are of Saxon origin; and found that an acquaintance with that language, if not indispensible, was at least necessary to a clearer interpretation of many obscure passages. Accordingly, in spite of the difficulty arising from the almost total absence of all helps in that age, he succeeded in making himself a competent master of that language. In 1621, he printed a sheet or two as a specimen of his work, which he communicated to his an

tiquarian friends; and received encouragement from Camden, sir Robert Cotton, Selden, and others, to go on. He now prepared a part of it for the press, and offered it to a bookseller at the small recompence of 51.; which being refused, he ventured to print it, to the end of the letter L, at his own risk; and it was published under the title of "Archaologus," &c. The reason why he gave it this title instead of Glossarium, was, because it was not strictly speaking a glossary, but a collection of discourses and dissertations under various heads. The second part was not published till long after his death, or in 1607, by his grandson, Mr. Charles Spelman.

2. His next work was, A History of the Civil Affairs of the Kingdom, from the Conquest to Magna Charta, selected from our best historians, and commonly expressed in their own words, 1627.

3. De Sepultura; or, Of Burial Fees, 1628, The above are in Latin.

4. "The History of the English Councils." This work is divided into three parts, each occupying a volume. 1, From the first plantation of Christianity to the coming in of the Conqueror, in 1066; 2. From the Norman

Conquest to the casting off the pope's supre macy by king Henry VIII. 3. The History of the Reformed English Church, from Henry VIII. to his own time.-The first of these volumes was published in 1639, with annotations.

5. "The Original, Growth, Propagation, and Conditions of Tenures by Knight-Service in England."-The origin of this work was the following. In the year 1639, the important case of tenures, upon the commission of defective titles, was argued by the judges of Ireland, and after their resolution, was published the same year, by order of the lord deputy, viscount Wentworth. On the fourth point of the case, it was affirmed, that tenures existed in England prior to the conquest; and hence was inferred the prior existence of feuds also. In support of this assertion, divers laws and charters of the Saxon kings, and other authorities, were alledged; and the point being thus established, was followed in the report. It was moreover said, that Spelman, in his Glossary, (verbo feudum) was mistaken, in refer ring the origin of feuds in England to the conquest; and that his bare conjecture was not of sufficient authority to supersede the force

of those laws. Spelman, in the work in ques tion, confirms what he had advanced in his Glossary; but observes, that the mistake was committed by the person who drew the brevi-. ate for the judge; since he himself had no where referred the origin of feuds in England to the Norman conquest; and consequently, that the passage in his Glossary had been perverted. He had asserted only, that William the Conqueror had introduced the servitudes and grievances of feuds, as wardship, marriage, and the like, unknown, even to this day, by other nations, though governed by the feudal law; and that between Servitia Militaria and Servitutes Militares, there was a wide difference; the former being noble, heroic, and glorious, allowed only to the freeborn; the latter ignoble, servile, and derived even from bondage.

His posthumous works were, 1. “A Larger Treatise concerning Tithes," &c. 1647.

2. Villare Anglicanum; or, A View of the Towns of England, collected by the appointment, at the charge, and for the use of that learned antiquary sir Henry Spelman; 1656. 3. "The History of Sacrilege," 1698. He also left in MS. 1. "A Scheme of the

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