i-',; i!i a ilirro' llli- il-.-;^fluii'il fn>:il t!i.; l;.ir.j'.i< 14')i:!>:i of IJultoa."

712 APPENDIX A.

earls of Mercia. Iii tiie year 1330, John do Boltou was rector of the ch\irch at Bolton, iu Yorkshire; and Jobji do Enlton, patron of the same. Henry Bolt!ni i.-; the next ancestor of whom we liavc any account. Ho appears to have been llvini; at Bolton iu Lancashire, about 1332. He left Robert the father of William, wh'> had a son liobcrt.

Robert Bolton, the more immediate ancestor of the family, was residing at Blackburn, Lancashire, iu 15G9. His sons were John and Robert. Of the youiigest. Fuller in his Worthies of England, thus speaks : " Robert Bolton was bom at Blackburne, 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 w^ith their necessities lu give hi;n a liberal education ; he was bred first, iu Luicoln, then in Brazeu-noM^ college, iu Oxford. He had Isocrates' six marl^s 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 imp&raiorio. He was chosen one of tiie disputants before King James, at his first coming ti » the university, and performeil it with great applause.