Smith, rector of Melsonby, North Riding of Yorkshire.
Layton published the following, all quarto, all anonymous, and all (except No. 7) without title-page, dates, or place of printing: 1. ‘Observations upon a Sermon intituled, “A Confutation of Atheism,”’ &c. [1692?], pp. 19. 2. ‘A Search after Souls and Spiritual Operations in Man,’ &c. [1693?] pp. 278. 3. ‘A Second Part of … A Search after Souls,’ &c. [1694?], pp. 188 (consists in part of replies to letters of ‘a minister, eminent as scholar and teacher,’ who on 21 Nov. 1693 advised him not to publish). 4. ‘Observations upon a Short Treatise … by … Timothy Manlove, intituled, “The Immortality of the Soul,”’ &c. [1697?], pp. 128. 5. ‘Observations upon Mr. Wadsworth's book of the Soul's Immortality,’ &c. [1699?], pp. 215 (deals with Thomas Wadsworth's ‘Ἀντιψυχοθανασία,’ 1670; from p. 201 with ‘The Immortality of the Humane Soul,’ 1659, by Walter Charleton, M.D. [q. v.]). 6. ‘An Argument concerning the Humane Souls Seperate [sic] Subsistance,’ &c. [1699?], pp. 16 (Abbot). 7. ‘Arguments and Replies in a Dispute concerning the Nature of the Humane Soul,’ &c., London, 1703, pp. 112 (no publisher; deals with letters, dated 15 Aug. and 14 Sept. 1702; Francis Blackburne (1705–1787) [q. v.], in ‘Hist. View,’ p. 305, identifies the writer with Henry Dodwell the elder [q. v.]; the tract is evidently meant as the first of the following series). 8. ‘Observations upon … “A Vindication of the Separate Existence of the Soul. …” By Mr. John Turner, lecturer of Christ Church, London,’ &c. [1703?], pp. 55 (Turner had written in 1702 against Coward). 9. ‘Observations upon Dr. [William] Nicholl's … “Conference with a Theist,”’ &c. [1703?], pp. 124 (at end is ‘finit. 22 Jun. 1703;’ at p. 99 is a reference showing that No. 10 was written somewhat later). 10. ‘Observations upon … “Vindiciæ Mentis,” … 1702,’ &c. [1703?], pp. 88. 11. ‘Observations upon … “Psychologia” … by John Broughton, M.A. … 1703,’ &c. [1703?], pp. 132 (at end is ‘Ended the 22d of October, 1703’). 12. ‘Observations upon … Broughton's Psychologia, Part Second,’ &c. [1703?], pp. 52. 13. ‘Observations upon … A Discourse … By Dr. Sherlock … 1704,’ &c. [1704?], pp. 115. All the above except No. 6, and omitting the title-page of No. 7, were collected (not reprinted) 1706, 2 vols., as ‘A Search after Souls … By a Lover of Truth.’ Most of the copies were suppressed by Layton's executors, a few being deposited in public libraries and given to private friends. The British Museum has all the tracts except No. 6; Dr. Williams's Library, Gordon Square, has the 1706 reissue.
[Thoresby's Ducatus Leodiensis (Whitaker), 1816, p. 260; Thoresby refers to Memoirs of Layton, 1705 (not seen), of which there is no copy at the British Museum or in any public library at Leeds, Bradford, or Halifax; Thoresby's Letters of Eminent Men, 1832, ii. 193 sq. (letter from Smith of Melsonby); Monk's Life of Bentley, 1833, p. 46; Ezra Abbot's Literature of the Doctrine of a Future Life, appended to Alger's Critical History of the Doctrine, Philadelphia, 1864; Layton's pamphlets.]
LAYTON, RICHARD (1500?–1544), dean of York and chief agent in the suppression of the monasteries, seems to have been born about 1500. He was son of William Layton of Dalemain in Cumberland, and is said to have had thirty-two brothers and sisters (Harl. Soc. Publ. xvi. 262). Only Cromwell's patronage, he wrote, saved him from becoming a 'basket-bearer,' but he was kinsman of Robert Aske [q. v.], leader of the northern rebellion (Letters and Papers of Hen. VIII, ed. Gairdner, 1537, i. 9 n.), and of George Joye, a prebendary of Ripon (ib. ii. 851). He was educated at Cambridge, where he proceeded B.C.L. in 1522, and afterwards LL.D., and he took holy orders. According to Burnet he was in the service of Wolsey at the same time as Cromwell, who noted him 'as a dextrous and diligent man.' In 1522 Layton received the sinecure rectory of Stepney; on 9 May 1523 he became prebendary of Kentish Town; he was admitted an advocate 5 June 1531. On 4 July 1531 he seems to have been living at East Farnham in Hampshire, but on 1 Sept. 1533, became dean of the collegiate church of Chester-le-Street, Durham. He was made chaplain of St. Peter's in the Tower of London 15 March 1534, but, probably because this preferment required residence, he resigned it in 1535. He was installed archdeacon of Buckinghamshire 27 Oct. 1534; but continued to live in London and had difficulties with his bishop, John Longland [q. v.] In 1535 Layton became rector of Sedgefield in Durham, and soon afterwards rector of Brington, Northamptonshire, a clerk in chancery, and clerk to the privy council. On 1 April 1535 he had lodgings in Paternoster Row.
Meanwhile Cromwell had made trial of Layton as an agent in executing his ecclesiastical reforms. He was employed at Sion in December 1533, and he administered interrogatories to More and Fisher in 1535, but he was ambitious of more profitable employment. On 4 June 1535 he wrote to Cromwell, 'You will never know what I can do till you try me' (Gasquet, Henry VIII
