Henry Spelman

Sir Henry Spelman

Sir Henry Spelman (* 1562 in Congham, Norfolk , † before October 14, 1641 in London ) was an English historian and parliamentarian.

Life

Spelman studied at Trinity College of Cambridge University with a bachelor's degree in 1583 and then was a lawyer, admitted at Lincoln's Inn 1585/86. He also took care of the property of his family after the death of his father in 1581. 1593 and 1597 to 1598 he was an MP in the House of Commons for Castle Rising and 1625 for Worcester . He was knighted as a Knight Bachelor before 1604 and was High Sheriff of Nottingham from 1604 to 1606. From 1612 he lived in London, where he devoted himself to antiquarian studies. He was friends with Sir Robert Bruce Cotton and was like him a member of the Society of Antiquaries, whose members included William Camden . But the company's activities were steadily and an attempt by Spelman to a revival in 1614 was not successful, as the company's displeasure of King James I had caught. In 1635 he founded a professorship (reader) for Anglo-Saxon studies in Cambridge.

In 1590 he married Elinor le Strange. He later lived in London at the house of his son-in-law, Sir Ralph Whitfield. On October 24, 1641, he was buried in Westminster Abbey . His son John Spelman (1594-1643) was also a member of parliament and antiquarian, who wrote a biography of Alfred the Great (published 1678) and in 1640 published from the library of his father's Psalterium Davidis latino-saxonicum vetus .

After buying property from former monasteries from the English crown in 1594, he was embroiled in a protracted legal battle. In this context he was one of those who petitioned the Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon , who had ruled against him on the matter, for corruption. As a consequence of this and similar cases, he published a pamphlet De non Temerandis Ecclesiis (1613-1616) against the secularization of church property .

He was a member of the Council for New England and from 1627 Treasurer of the Guiana Company.

plant

As a historian, he published medieval sources on British church history and dealt with British legal history. His main work Concilia, decreta, leges, constitutiones in re ecclesiarum orbis britannici with documents on British church history appeared in 1639, a second volume was published posthumously in 1664 (edited by William Dugdale ). In order to compare Anglo-Saxon and Latin legal terms, he published his Archaeologus in modum glossarii in 1626 , the second volume of which, Glossarium Archaiologicum, appeared after his death in 1664. His Codex legum veterum statutarum regni Angliae, quae ab ingressu Gulielmi I usque ad annum nonum Henry III. edita sunt was published in 1721 in the Leges anglo-saxonicae by David Wilkins . For the series Theater of Great Britaine by John Speed he wrote the volume in Latin about the history of his homeland, Norfolk ( Icenia ). A work from Spelman History and Fate of Sacrilege , believed to be lost in the great fire of London, was published after a copy in the Bodleian Library in 1698.

The Bishop of London Edmund Gibson published his works in 1723 (The English Works of Sir Henry Spelman, Kt., Published in his Lifetime; together with his Posthumous works relating to the Laws and Antiquities of England). A first edition of his works appeared earlier in 1698 ( Reliquiae Spelmannianae ).

Literature and web links

William Retlaw Williams: The Parliamentary History of the County of Worcester. Jakeman and Carver, Hereford 1897, p. 95 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
Henry Spelman at NNDB (English, here different year of birth approx. 1564)

Individual evidence

^ Parliamentary History of the County of Worcester. P. 95.
↑ ^a ^b Spelman, Henry . In: John Venn , John Archibald Venn (eds.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 1: From the earliest times to 1751 , volume 4 : Hall – Zuingius . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1927, pp. 130 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ). “ Buried in Westminster Abbey, Oct., 14 1641, aged 80 ”
↑ David Wilkins published improved collections ( Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, AD 446-1718. 4 volumes, London 1737), based on a new edition by AW Haddan, W. Stubbs Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland. 3 volumes, Oxford 1869 to 1871 (a planned fourth volume never appeared).

personal data
SURNAME	Spelman, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English historian and politician
DATE OF BIRTH	1562
PLACE OF BIRTH	Congham , Norfolk
DATE OF DEATH	1641
Place of death	London

[1] Parliamentary History of the County of Worcester. P. 95.

[AlumiCa-2] Spelman, Henry . In: John Venn , John Archibald Venn (eds.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 1: From the earliest times to 1751 , volume 4 : Hall – Zuingius . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1927, pp. 130 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ). “ Buried in Westminster Abbey, Oct., 14 1641, aged 80 ”

[3] David Wilkins published improved collections ( Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, AD 446-1718. 4 volumes, London 1737), based on a new edition by AW Haddan, W. Stubbs Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland. 3 volumes, Oxford 1869 to 1871 (a planned fourth volume never appeared).