X land, and settled in Canterbury, in such numbers that the undercroft of the Cathedral was appointed for their place of worship, which is still continued to their descendants.' Among these came AMANDUS COLFE; who, in an antient pedigree, is described as "Aymon Colf of Guysnes" not far from Calais, where his wife's father, John Bradfield (son of Thomas Bradfield, of Namptwich, in Cheshire) was living. What other children her father had, is unknown, but she is called a co-heir' in the Kentish Visitation of 1619. They fixed their dwelling in a house without the West-gate of Canterbury, which they dwelt in all their life, and which was afterward occupied by their son Joseph. They were both buried in the neighbouring church, called "Rood-church;" and their grandson Abraham left a bequest for the perpetual preservation of their monument. Nothing is known of their eldest child William : he probably died young. Their second son, RICHARD COLFE, was brought from Calais when about eight years old, and was sent to London to be educated at Christ's Hospital.+ Having entered at Christ-church College, Oxford, he took his degrees in Arts, and was at length made Doctor of Divinity, on the 30th of June 1608.5 He succeeded Richard Willoughby in the fifth stall of the choir of Canterbury Cathedral, probably not long before the tyrannical visitation of Archbishop Whitgift in 1589, at which time his name was placed last on the list of Canons. He be 1 Abraham Colfe bequeathed a weekly benefaction of a penny loaf to their poor. (Will, p. 9). 1 2 Glover's MS. of Flower's Visitation of Cheshire, 1566. (1 D. 14, fo. 115, in the Heralds' College.) See the Pedigree at p. xvi.-xvii. 3 MS. in the College, C. 16, fo. 65. 4 Will, p. 43; and see page 146 of this work. 5 Wood's Fasti Oxon. I. 327, ed. Bliss.. Strype's Life of Whitgift, I. 596. (Oxford edition, 8o.) Le Neve was not able to find the year of his appointment to the prebend: Fasti, p. 16. (Lond. 1716, fol.) came Vicar of Herne near Canterbury, in May 1590;1 and he continued to perform his duties there till the year of his death. He was thrice married : by his first wife, Thorneton (about 1579) he had two sons, Abraham and Isaac,' both of whom he brought up to the ministry; and by his second wife, Alice Strughill of Lydd (married in November 1588), he had a son Joseph, and his only daughter Elizabeth. His third wife was Mary Karslak, a widow, the daughter of Dr. Richard Rogers, Dean of Canterbury and Suffragan Bishop of Dover; to whom he was contracted in marriage before the 28th of March 1596, which is the date of a settlement made on them by her father : their four children were named Richard, Benjamin, 1 Hasted's History of Kent, IX. 95. (8o. edit.) 4 2 ISAAC COLFE was entered at Christ Church, Oxford, and took his degrees of B. A. 14 Oct. 1608, and M. A. 4 June, 1611. (Wood's Fasti, I. 325, 342.) Taking holy orders, he was admitted to the vicarage of Herne, 22 June, 1613, a short time before his father's death, who probably resigned that living in his favour, as he did in his turn for his cousin Jacob Colfe, M. A. (second son of Isaac Colfe the elder: see Wood's Ath. Oxon. I. 590) who was admitted 19 Sept. 1616, and died in the following year. (Hasted, I. 506, 8°.) He seems then to have been settled in the ministry at Milton, near Sittingbourn, in Kent; as he is described thereof in two bonds relative to the conveyance of his brother Ralph's estates at Ashford to Abr. Colfe, 1 Aug. 1622 and 4 May 1625. The next notice of him that occurs, is his presentation, by Lady Mary Cooke, to the Rectory of Chaldwell in Essex, 23 Oct. 1635. (Register of Bp. Laud, f. 90, cited in Newcourt's Repertorium Ecclesiasticum, 1710, fol. II. 125; and by Bp. Kennet in Bliss-es edition of Wood's A. O. III. 390.) He died in the close of the year 1648; and his will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 7 January 1649; wherein he bequeathed to his brother Abraham those books now in Lewisham Library which bear his autograph. See also the Pedigree. 3 See the Pedigree, and Appendix No. 5. 4 Her husband was probably the person named in the text of the following notes, which were written by three different hands on the title-page of Colfe's copy of Cyprianus. "Laurentij Twyni liber ex dono d'ni Johannis Twyni patris sui. 1577.-quem nunc Th. Paulinus justo prætio possidet, p' 4s.-Hunc librum ego Georgius Karslake tandem emi, vendente dicti Paullini vidua." This was a demise of a house and 20 acres of land, at Barrow-hill, in the parish of Ashford, to Robert Jysoppe and Thomas Shillingford, for the use of himself the Dean, and Ann his wife, during their lives, and of his daughter and John, and Ralph. This venerable man, universally esteemed for his learning, virtue, and piety, died in the year in which he was Vice-Dean, on the 7th of October, 1613; and was buried on the 12th of the same month, in the north aisle of the nave of the Cathedral: on which occasion a funeral Sermon was preached to a numerous assembly, by Thomas Wilson, one of his fellow-prebendaries.' The following inscription, probably composed by his eldest son Abraham, is engraved on a mural tablet: " 2 HÆC QVAM VIDES (LECTOR) MEMO RIOLA IN GRATIAM REVERENDI VIRI Dris. HVIVS ECCL'IE PRÆBENDARIJ GVM GRAVIS MALI TÆDIVM PATI- ANNO ÆTATIS CIRCITER LXIII. ET INCARNATI. MDCXIII. DIE OCTOB. VII. CUM ADHVC EIVSDEM The chief object of these memoirs being to pourtray the life and character of the reverend Abraham Colfe, eldest her husband afterward, and their children, with remainder to the right heirs of his daughter. This estate being held in gavelkind, descended to their youngest son Ralph Colfe (then of Norton in Kent, gent.), who demised it to his eldest brother Abraham by deed dated 29 Apr. 1626. 'This sermon, intitled "Christ's Farewell to Jerusalem," has been noticed by Anthony a Wood (Fasti, I. 327): and the only copy known to exist, is in a volume in the Bodleian Library, marked " Th. 8°. L. 102." The Testimonial of the character of Dr. Colfe, and the Dedication of the sermon to his surviving family, are so interesting, that the rarity of the book justifies the place assigned to them in the Appendix to these memorials. (See Appendix, No. I.) 2 Abraham Colfe left a bequest for the perpetual preservation of this monument. (Will, p. 10.) son of Dr. Richard Colfe, it is desirable here to notice his uncles, the other sons of Amandus, the ancestor of the Colfe family, that the following narrative may be uninterrupted.' JOSEPH COLFE, the third son of Amandus Colfe, was born at Canterbury shortly after his parents came thither;2 and on their death, he occupied their dwelling-house.3 He seems to be the son described in the Bradfeld pedigree only as "apprentize wth Thomas Colf;" but who that person was, or what was his trade or profession does not appear: he became at length an Alderman of the City of Canterbury, and in 1611 was chosen Mayor.5 He was the Master of Maynard's Hospital, and in 1617 finished the building and repaired the chapel. He was also a Justice of the Peaee; and in 1619 he attended the Heralds' Visitation of the County of Kent, and attested the pedigree of his family. He died on the 24th of June in the following year, and was buried in the church of St. 1 Those branches of the family which are not here mentioned, may be found in the subjoined pedigree, and farther notices of some may be found in the Appendix, No. 5. Some scattered names have occurred, which cannot be connected with the pedigree: thus among other cousins of Abr. Colfe, mentioned in his will at p. 55, are Paul Colfe, citizen and merchant-taylor, of London, and his brother Peter Colfe, whose widow was alive in 1657. 2 In 1558. He is said to have died at the age of 62 years, on his portrait in the Guild-hall. See Gostling's Walks round Canterbury, p. 45. (Third Edition, 1779.) 3 Abr. Colfe's Will, p. 9. 4 Only two sons are there described the elder is simply called "the Preacher," namely Richard. MS. 1 D. 14, fo. 115, in the Heralds' College. It is remarkable that about the same time there was another Thomas Colf living, who cannot be attached to the pedigree: he was M. A. and was admitted to the Rectory of S. Mary Bothaw, London, 3 Aug. 1588. (Newcourt, I. 448.) 5 List of Mayors in Somner's History of Canterbury, by Battely, (1703, fol.) p. 184 6 See the Inscription printed by Gostling, p. 65. 7 Original Visitation-book, in the Heralds' College, C. 16, fol. 65. will was proved at Canterbury, 7 August, 1620. His Mary Bredman's; where the following inscription is fixed on the south-west wall near the altar: "Nere unto this place lyeth interred the body of Joseph Colfe, Esquire, Alderman, sometimes Maior and Justice of the Peace of this Cittye. Hee departed this life the 24th of June, Anno Domini 1620. His first wife Bradwine, by whom he had issue nine children, where of fowre were deceased before his death: he left behind him his second wife Margaret, three Sonnes and too Daughters, Joseph, Thomas, Charles, Marye, and Anne; who to showe there loves, His well-beloved wife Margaret with his three sonnes, and the husbands of his too daughters, hath caused this small monument, at their equal charges, too be erected in memorial of him. Thomas Jackson, Joseph Colfe, Thomas Colfe, Charles Colfe, and Richard Henley." ISAAC COLFE, the fourth son, was born at Canterbury in or before 1560; and being, like his elder brother Richard, designed for the ministry, he was entered as a commoner of Broadgate's Hall in Oxford early in the year 1576: he took his first degree in arts on the 17th of February 1580, and became M. A. on the 4th of July 1582.' He was presented to the vicarage of Stone in Kent, on the 25th of Feb. 1585, which he resigned two years after, when he obtained the vicarage of Brookland; about which time also he published a "Sermon preached on the Queenes day, beeing the 17 of November 1587, at the town of Lidd in Kent," (on Psalm cviii. 22-26) which he dedicated to the Bailiff and Jurats of Lidd. In 1592, he also published a "Treatise on the Temptation of Christ," on Matthew iv. ver. 1-2. On the 28th of March 1596, as the attorney of 2 1 Wood's Fasti, I. 212, 221. 2 Both printed at London in 8vo. Of the former there is a copy in the Bodleian Library, (Th. 8°. T. 96) noticed by Dr. Bliss in a note to Wood's Athena Oxon. I. 590. Wood seems to have gained his knowledge of these and other such tracts, from Andrew Maunsell's Catalogue of English Printed Bookes |