Fuller in his Worthies of England, thus speaks ; " Robert Bolton was born at Biackburne, in Lancashire, on Whitsunday, 1572, a year as infamous for the massacre of many Protestants in France, as for the birth of some eminent in England. His parents having a narrow estate, struggled with their necessities to give him a liberal education ; he was bred first, in Lincoln, then in Brazen-nose college, in Oxford. He had Isocrates' six marks

a Parish of Bolton, juxta Bowland.

b Whitaker's Hist, of tiie Deanery of Craven,

■= The Manor of Midhope, one of the most extensive and valuable grazing farms in Craven, was parcel of the great possessions of the Bolions, and passed into the Lister family, by marriage with a co- heiress of that most ancient name, in the time of Edward the Second." Whitaker's Hist, of Craven. Bolton was, though the style hath been altered, (says Segar) an ancient barony by tenure in Henry the Second's time, and the Scroopes of Upsall and Masham are in a direct line descended from the Barons Bolton of Bolton."'

APPENDIX, 505

or properties of a good scholar. His want of means proved an advancement unto him ; for, not having whence to buy books, he borrowed the best authors of his tutor, read over, abridged into note books, and returned them. He was as able to express himself in Latin or Greek, as English ; and that, stylo imperatorio. He was chosen one of the disputants before King James, at his first coming to the university, and performed it with great applause.