BLYTHE, GEOFFREY, LL.D. (d. 1542), divine, is supposed to have been a nephew of Geoffrey Blythe, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry [q. v.]. He was educated at Eton, and elected thence to King's College, Cambridge, in 1515 (B.A. 1520–1; M.A. 1523). He became a prebendary of Lichfield in 1520, and was appointed master of King's Hall, Cambridge, in 1528, in which year he occurs as vicar of Chesterton, Cambridgeshire. In 1529 he commenced LL.D., and his grace for that degree states that he had studied at Louvain. He held the archdeaconry of Stafford for a few days in 1530, and on 7 June in that year he was admitted treasurer of the church of Lichfield, with which he held the precentorship. Blythe was one of the divines who preached at Cambridge against Hugh Latimer. He was buried at All Saints', Cambridge, on 8 March 1541–2.
[Harwood's Alumni Eton. 135; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy); Foxe's Acts and Monuments, ed. Townsend, vii. 451; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 79.]
BLYTHE, JOHN (d. 1499), bishop of Salisbury, was the son of William Blythe, of Norton, Derbyshire, by a sister of Thomas Rotheram, archbishop of York. His younger brother Geoffrey [q. v.] was bishop of Lichfield (1503–1533). He was educated at Cambridge, and in 1488 was the warden of King's Hall in that university. In 1477 Blyth was archdeacon of Stow, in 1478 archdeacon of Huntingdon, prebendary of Lincoln (1482–5), in 1484 prebendary of York, and in 1485 archdeacon of Richmond. He was master of the rolls from 5 May 1492 until his consecration to the bishopric of Salisbury, at Lambeth, 23 Feb. 1494. Between the years 1493 and 1495 he was chancellor of the university of Cambridge, and in that capacity he delivered an oration before Henry VII, his mother, the Countess of Pembroke, and Prince Arthur, at Cambridge (Letters, &c., Rich. III and Hen. VII, i. 422). As bishop he took part in the ceremonial of the creation of Henry, duke of York, 1494. He died 23 Aug. 1499, and was buried behind the high altar of his cathedral church, in a tomb which from its position lay north and south. A manuscript copy of his Cambridge oration exists in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and an outline of it with extracts has been printed in the ‘Letters of Richard III’ (Rolls Ser.). During Blyth's episcopate in 1496, the islands of Jersey and Guernsey were taken from the see of Coutances, and added to that of Salisbury, until in 1499 they were finally included in the bishopric of Winchester.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (ed. Bliss), ii. 691; Foss's Lives of the Judges, v. 38; Godwin, De Præsulibus; Letters and Papers Rich. III and Hen. VII (ed. Gairdner) (Rolls Ser.); Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy); Cassan's Lives of the Bishops of Salisbury; Jones's History of the Diocese of Salisbury.]
BLYTHE, JOHN DEAN (1842–1869), son of Peter Dean Blythe and his wife Elizabeth, was born at Ashton-under-Lyne on 12 April 1842. His grandfather, James Blythe, was a notable Scotch schoolmaster at the village of Limekilns, about fifteen miles from Edinburgh. After a brief stay at the Ryecroft British school, Blythe worked in a factory; then obtained a post on a local paper as reporter, and afterwards entered a firm in Manchester, in whose employment he remained until his death. He attended night classes and studied by himself. He learned Latin, French, and Spanish, and read English literature. A retentive memory enabled him to recall an immense number of passages, especially from Shakespeare. On one occasion Blythe supplied the references to fifty-seven out of sixty passages selected to try him. Amongst his manuscripts was one containing over five hundred entries, alphabetically arranged, of the contents of ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream.’ His literary efforts were encouraged by the Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens and John Critchley Prince. A contribution to ‘Punch’ and some verses in the Ashton newspapers are the only pieces known to have been printed during Blythe's lifetime. In politics he was a philosophical radical. He attended, as a teacher, the Sunday school of the Methodist New Connexion, in Stamford Street, Manchester, during the greater portion of his life. He edited a manuscript magazine which circulated amongst the members of a self-improvement society. On 5 Feb. 1869 he was killed by the accidental discharge of a revolver in the hands of a friend. He left behind him a considerable amount of manuscript, and a small memorial volume was issued, entitled ‘A Sketch of the Life [by Joseph Williamson] and a Selection from the Writings of John Dean Blythe,’ Manchester, 1870.
[A Sketch of the Life, &c. of J. D. Blythe, 1870.]
BOADEN, JAMES (1762–1839), biographer, dramatist, and journalist, was the son of William Boaden, a merchant in the Russia trade. He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, on 23 May 1762, and at an early age came with his parents to London, where he was educated for commerce. After serving some time in a counting-house he turned his attention to journalism, and in 1789 was
