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It appears plainly that the Duke of Lancaster, who was now in the zenith of power, let flip no opportunity of serving so firm a friend and so useful a dependent as our Author was, for in the very beginning of this reign it appears that by letters patents dated March 23d1377 the King confirmed his grandfather's grant of twenty a-year; and by other letters patents dated the 18th of Aprilfollowing he likewise confirmedthe other grant of a pitcher of wine daily; but whether Chaucer remained in his office of Comptroller of the Customs is not fo clear, though the contrary seems to be most probable, for in a fhort time after his affairs were in fuch confufion we find that, in the fecond year of King Richard, he was obliged to have recourse to the King's protection in order to screen him from his creditors; but how he came to fall into thefe difficulties, and whether they were temporary only or of a long continuance, is a point that at this distance it is not possible to

carried his point before John Duke of Lancaster, then acting as Lord High-Steward, as to be allowed to officiate for that time with a falvo jure that it should not infringe the right of Edmond Staplegate, or any who thould pretend title for the future. This ward of our Author died about thirteen years after, but the manor continued in the family till the beginning of the reign of Henry VI. when it paffed into that of the Cheyneys, who in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign fold it to Sir Francis Barham of London, and his grandson Mr. Robert Barliam was in poffeffion of it at the coronation of King Charles II. when Mr. Erafmus Smith, on the behalf of the faid Mr. Barltam, afifled at the coronation, and prefented the three maple cups. This manor has fince paffed into other families.

afcertain; but from a comparison of circumftances it seems to be most likely that it was from fome sudden accident he fell under this misfortune, and that he had recourfe to the King's protection merely to gain time to fettle his concerns. One may be the more confirmed in this by comparing his circumstances at this junce ture with thofe of his family foon after. We have no direct hiftorical lights indeed, but methinks though it be a new it is ftill a probable conjecture, that about this time he conveyed all his estates to his eldest fon Thomas Chaucer; and the facts that feem to ftrengthen this conjecture fhall be fubmitted to the reader's judgment at the bottom of the page"

At the bottom of the page.] All who have hitherto attempted to give any account of Chaucer's life have been very much at a loss about this circumstance of his having recourse to the King's protection, which shows that in the very beginning of this reign his affaits were in great diforder, and yet it is very plain that himself and his patron flourished in the full poffefsion of power and plenty as long as King Edward III. lived. A certain writer hints that Chaucer exhausted his fortune in his foreign embassies; bút a later writer obferves, with greater probability, that he madehisfortune bythem; yet, as hevery justly remarks, this by no means folves the doubt how he thould come to be fo very poor in fo thort a time, after his poffeffing fo great wealth, for which amongst others we have his own authority. Now this riddle, Ithink,may be very probably explainedthus. OurAuthor, Chaucer, about this time found out a very confiderable match for his eldeft fon Thomas Chaucer, and this was Maud, the fecond daughter of Sir John Burgherthe, a man of very confiderable rank, but by no means brother to Sir Bartholomew Burgherthe Knight of the Garter, and of Dr. Henry Burgherthe Bi hop of Lincoln, Chancellor and Treafurer of England, as à

In the fourth year of King Richard the Ild's reign he procured a confirmation of the grants that had been formerly made to himself and to Philippa his wife, which is a proof that he had a great perfonal interest in this court, fince at the time of his obtaining this grant the power and influence of the Duke of Lancertainwriter very confidently afferts, but rather, if I guessright, the nephew of those great men, and the son of Sir John Burg; herthe, who was truly their brother; and this I am led to believe, because it appears upon record that the cuftody of this John Burgherthe, the father of Maud, was granted in his nonage to the daughter of Sir Bartholomew Burgherthe beforementioned. A great fortune fhe was without doubt, but not the only daughter or fole heiress of her family, as has been reprefented, or at leaft not fo at the time the married Thomas Chaucer, though the might be and indeed was fo afterwards. Neither are we to believe what we are told of her being a ward to the crown, for her father was then living, and lived many years after, that is, to the 19th of Richard II. when he left behind him two daughters, Margaret the eldeft, first married to Sir John Grenville Knight, and then to John Arundel Efq. and this Maud. Now my fuppofition is that Geoffrey Chaucer, for obtaining this great match, fettled all his land eftate upon his fon, and that his doing this might bring upon him those demands which put him under the neceffity of obtaining the King's protection. As to the feveral facts upon which this conjecture is built, I think they are supported by as good authorities as can be defired; nor can any great difficulty arife from the age of this young gentleman, as may appear thus: Chaucer married his wife Philippa Rouet about the year 1 360, and if he had this fon the next year he might be of full age in the latter end of the fourth year of Richard II. when this marriage took place, and before which in all probability the father might make this fettlement. We shall have occafion hereafter to say more of this gentleman, who became a much greater man than his father, to whom he was a support in his declining years.

cafter was very much funk, as from a train of finifter accidents waiting upon his conduct he was become equally fufpected by the King and diffiled by the people. The great encouragement and support he had afforded to Mr. Wickliffe was attended with confe quences that he did not in the leaft expect, and yet found it not in his power to hinder; for without doubt the Duke's great view in fupporting this party was to weaken the power of the clergy, and to hinder them from taking fo large a share as they did in the management of all temporal affairs; but fome great men of his party, miftaking his view,pulled thingstoextremities; and by countenancing itinerant preachers without cither learning or found principles, made way for a fuddén turn, which had very near fubverted the conftitu tion and thrown all things into confufion; for the com mon people, thus encouraged to shake off the yoke of the clergy, began to think that of the government alfo too heavy, and, taking occafion from fome taxes lately impofed, rofe up in arms under the conduct of Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and fuch kind of leaders, with a wild intention of freeing thenïfelves from whatever thefe wife leaders taught them to look upon as oppreffions. Their refentment was chiefly directed a gainst the clergy, as appears by their beheading the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Prior of St. John's by Smithfield, who was Lord Treasurer, and by their

burning that stately priory, and plundering the abbies of St. Alban's, Bury, and several others.

As foon as this rebellion was fomewhat abated the parliament began to inquire into the cause of it; nor were there wanting enemies of Wickliffe who charged him and his followers with being the encouragers of it : but that is unlikely to be true; for had the rebels been Wickliffe's friends they would never have burnt The Savoy, the palace of his patron the Duke of Lancaster. However, fome of his followers gave too much cause for fuch a furmise, as Dr. Hereford, who afferted that ArchbishopSudburydeserved that death he found; and the King the year following empowered the Bishops to arrest Wickliffe, and forbad his fubjes to encourage any of that persuasion; yet Wickliffe appeared, and feemed partly to fatisfy the Bishops with his opinion.

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It is commonly faid by most of our historians that from this time forward the Duke of Lancaster difowned the Wicklivites, and charging the late difturbances upon them styled their opinions the doctrine of devils. The writers also of our Author's life give into this opinion, and feem to think that he likewife began to temporize, and did not speak his fentiments fo freely as formerly; but the truth is otherwise, for the Duke of Lancaster did not condemn Wickliffe's doctrine, but the doctrines of Dr. Hereford and other followers of Wickliffe, who had now deferted him,