Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/118

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98
Freke — Freville.
FREKE, WILLIAM.
Mystic.
1662—1744.

Admitted 20 November, 1677.

Second son of Thomas Freke of Hannington, Wilts. He was called to the Bar 29 May, 1685, but did not practise, and took up the study of Astrology and the mystical sciences. His early opinions were those of Arianism, but he renounced them in 1709. Those he substituted were still more eccentric, as he announced himself as "the Great Elijah, a new prophet, and the Secretary to the Lord of Hosts." His writings, also, which were very numerous, and dealt with Dreams, Visions, Scripture Doctrines, and Allegory and other Mysticisms, became more extravagant. His best known Tract professing to be A Confutation of the Doctrine of the Trinity, was burned by the common hangman in Palace Yard, and led to his imprisonment and fine in 1693. He died in Dec. 1744.


FREMAN. See FREEMAN.


Antiquary.
1740—1807.

Admitted 3 April, 1761.

Eldest son of Sheppard Frere of Bacton, Suffolk. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated 1763, and was Second Wrangler the year Paley was Senior. He was elected M.P. for Norwich in 1799, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1771. He died at East Dereham, Norfolk, 12 July, 1807.

He was a contributor on antiquarian subjects to the Gentleman's Magazine, and his papers in the Archæologia on Flint Weapons (1800), attracted great interest.


FRERE, WILLIAM.
Lawyer.
1775—1836.

Admitted 8 May, 1798.

Fourth son of John Frere (q.v.) of Roydon, Norfolk. Born 28 Nov. 1775. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, where he graduated in 1798. He became a Fellow of Downing in 1800, of which college he was elected Master in 1811, although in the meantime (1809) he had received the order of the Coif, having been called to the Bar 28 May, 1802. He became Recorder of Bury in 1814, and in 1819 Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He quitted the Bar in 1826, ten years before his death 25 May, 1836.

He edited in 1813 an edition of Douglas's Reports in the King's Bench, and, in 1789, the fifth volume of the Paston Letters by his uncle Sir John Fenn. He contributed also some Latin and Greek verse to Herbert's Fasciculus Carminum (1797).


FREVILLE, GEORGE.
Judge.
d. 1579.

Second son of Robert Freville of Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire. There is no entry of his admission in the Register of the Inn, but he was Reader in 1558, and again in 1559. He first studied law at Barnard's Inn. In 1552 he was made Recorder of Cambridge. In 1559 he was advanced by Elizabeth to a seat on the Exchequer Bench, which he retained till his death in 1679.