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SIR HENRY SPELMAN (c. 1564-1641)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 634 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR HENRY SPELMAN (c. 1564-1641)  ,
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English
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antiquary, was the eldest son of Henry Spelman, of Congham, Norfolk, and the grandson of
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Sir John Spelman (c . 1495-1544), judge of the king's bench . Born probably in 1564, he was educated at Walsingham School, and proceeded in 158o to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1583 . His
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father had died in '58', and on Spelman devolved the management of the
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family estates . He became a member of Lincoln's
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Inn, but in '590 he returned to Norfolk, where he married Eleanor 1'Estrange . He became
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guardian to his
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brother-in-law, Sir Hamon 1'Estrange, on whose
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property at Hunstanton he resided for some time . He occupied himself with the
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history and antiquities of his native county, writing an account of Norfolk for John Speeds's Theatre of
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Great Britaine . He belonged to the Society of Antiquaries, of which Sir Robert Cotton and William Camden were also members . The society gradually declined, and Spelman's efforts to revive it in '6'4 were frustrated by James I . Having bought in '594 the remainder of the two leases of two abbeys of which the
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Crown was the lessor, he became involved in prolonged litigation over them, and a
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judgment given against him by Bacon makes it interesting to find Spelman subsequently among the petitioners who alleged corruption against the lord chancellor . His experience in this
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process no doubt combined with a
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scandal connected with a church and parsonage in the possession of his
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uncle Francis Sanders to occasion his pamphlet De non temerandis ecclesiis (1613-'616), which induced many
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lay owners of ecclesiastical spoils to make restitution, and Spelman himself acted accordingly . This tract led up to his History and
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Fate of
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Sacrilege,' which was in the hands of the printer when the Great Fire broke out .

The

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book was supposed to have perished, but Bishop Gibson discovered
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part of it in the Bodleian Library . It was printed, not, however, under his editorship, in '698, with the statement on the title-page that it was " wrote in 1632." Spelman had conceived the idea of a
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work on the
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foundations of English law, based on early charters and records, but finding that there were no adequate means of determining the exact meaning of the Anglo-Saxon and Latin law terms employed in the documents, he began to compile a glossary, the first
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volume of which, Archaeologus in modum glossari, was published at his own expense in '626 . He continued to work at the subject until '638 . A second volume, Glossarium archaiologicum (1664), appeared after his
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death . His Codex legum veterum statutarum ' This was re-edited as
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late as 1895, with an appendix bringing the subject up to date, by C . F . S . Warren.regni Angliae, quae ab ingressu Gulielmi I usque ad annum nonum Henry III. edita aunt was published by David Wilkins in his Leges anglo-saxonicae (1721) . Spelman's most important work, Concilia, decreta, leges, constitutiones in re ecclesiarum orbis britannici, is an attempt to place English church history on a basis of genuine documents . The first volume, which occupied him seven years, came down to 'o66 and was published in '636 . A second volume was edited by Sir William Dugdale in '664 . Spelman entered parliament as member for Castle Rising in 1597, and in 1604 was high
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sheriff of his county .

In '612 he settled in

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London near his friend Sir Robert Cotton . In '6'7 he served on a commission to inquire into disputed Irish estates, and later took part in three legal inquiries into the exactions levied on behalf of the Crown in the
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civil and ecclesiastical courts . He was member of parliament for Worcester in 1625 . In 1627 he became treasurer of the Guiana
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Company, and he was also an energetic member of the council for New England . His general services to the state were recognized in '636 by a gift of
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money, and two years later by the offer of the mastership of Sutton's Hospital,
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Charterhouse . He died in London in
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October 164', and was buried in Westminster Abbey . His later years had been spent in the ,house of his son-in-law, Sir Ralph Whitfield . His son, Sir John Spelman (1594-1643), also gained a reputation as a scholar and antiquary . He was knighted in 1641 and served the king actively at the beginning of the Civil War . He edited from
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MSS. in his father's library Psalterium Davidis latino-saxonicum vetus (164o), and wrote a
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Life of
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Alfred the Great which was translated into Latin and published in '678 . Edmund Gibson, bishop of London, published in 1723 The English
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Works of Sir Henry Spelman, Kt., Published in his Lifetime; together with his
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Posthumous works
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relating to the
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Laws and Antiquities of England . The first section contained De non Temerandis Ecclesils, already mentioned; The Larger
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Treatise concerning Tythes, first published in '646; De sepultura; and Villare anglicum, or a View, of the Towns of England; while the second included The
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Original, Growth,
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Propagation and Condition of Feuds and Tenures by Knight-service in England, written in 1639; Two Discourses : i .

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Ancient Government of England, ii . Of Parliaments; The Original of the Four Terms of the
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Year, written in '6'4 and first printed in '684; Icenia: a Latin description of Norfolk, and some other
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treatises . This was a revised edition of an earlier collection (1698), and contained a life of the author, based chiefly on the autobiographical
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matter prefixed to the Glossary of '626, and two additional papers, Of the
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Admiral Jurisdiction, and the
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Officers thereof, and Of Antient Deeds and Charters . Wilkins's edition of his Concilia was edited by A . W . Haddan and W . Stubbs in 1869-1873 .

End of Article: SIR HENRY SPELMAN (c. 1564-1641)
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