BOLTON, Duchess of. [See Fenton, Lavinia.]
BOLTON, Dukes of. [See Powlett.]
BOLTON or BOULTON, EDMUND (1575?–1633?), historian and poet, was born in or about 1575. This date is obtained from an impress neatly drawn with his own pen, and preserved in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 6521, f. 152). In the midst of the ocean rises a peaked rock on the top of which a falcon is seated. The motto is 'Innocentia Tutus,' and beneath it is written 'Edmundus Muria Boltonus, ætatis 47, 1622.' The falcon belied which he bore in his arms was common to several families of the name of Bolton, but it does not appear to which of them he belonged. He himself speaks of his descent from the family of Basset, and also of the Duke of Buckingham having acknowledged him as a poor kinsman. Tms latter circumstance gives credibility to a statement by Oldys that he had seen in a manuscript of Bolton's a remark that he passed his younger days about Groadby in Leicestershire. The statement receives further support from his having been early known to the Beaumont's of Grace-Dieu. His family brought him up in the catholic faith, to which he adhered through life. Writing to the secretary Conway on behalf of a catholic priest, he says that King James, whose servant he had been, allowed 'him with his wife and family to live in peace to that conscience in which he was bred' (Calendar of State Papers, Dom. 1625). In the spirit of his church he added the name of Mary to his baptismal name, as is seen in the impress above described.
The first information concerning him is gathered from his memorial to Sir Hugh Hammersley, lord mayor of London, written in 1632, when he was in poverty and distress. In that document he says 'he lived many years on his own charge a free commoner at Trinity Hall, Cambridge' (Harl. MS. 6621). From the university he removed to the Inner Temple and 'lived in the best and choicest company of gentlemen.' This brings down his history 'till about twenty-six years since [viz. to about 1606], when he married the gentlewoman whom he still, to his greatest worldly happiness, enjoys.' He alludes to his University life in his 'Elements of Armories,' where Sir Amias, who represents himself, says 'you turne mee thereby to the Vniversity againe as it were, for that I cannot satisfie your allowable desire, but by the vse of some such pickt flowers, as heretofore, in that sweet nourseiy of generous knowledges, came to my hand howsoeuer' (p. 20).
Bolton was an indefatigable student and amassed large stores of historical and antiquarian learning. Kitson describes him as 'a profound scholar and eminent critic,' while in the judgment of Hunter he claims as an antiquary to stand beside Camden, Selden, and Spelman. Early in life he formed an acquaintance with Camden, and he made extensive travels in England and Ireland in search of antiquities. As his religion stood in the way of his progress on any of the ordinary roads to distinction, he adopted the desperate expedient of trusting to literature as the source of his livelihood. He first appeared as an author in 1600, when he was associated with Sidney, Spenser, Raleigh, and other poets, as a contributor to 'England's Helicon.' But even in the profession of literature his religion proved a hindrance, for when he had composed a life of Henry II for an edition of Speed's 'Chronicle,' it was rejected on account of his having given too favourable a representation of the conduct and character of St. Thomas of Canterbury. In one of his letters to Sir Robert Cotton he complains bitterly of the impositions of the booksellers. It would seem that the Marquis of Buckingham obtained for him some place about the court of King James I, but what particular office it was has not been discovered.
In 1617 he proposed to the king a design for a royal academy or college, and senate of honour, on the most magnificent scale. The scheme was afterwards spoken of in favourable terms by the Marquis of Buckingham in the House of Peers, and in 1624 the details were finally settled. The academy royal of King James was to have been a corporation with a royal charter, and was to have a mortmain of 200l. a year and a common seal. It was to consist of three classes of persons, who were to be called tutelaries, auxiliaries, and essentials. The tutelaries were to be knights of the Garter, with the lord chancellor, and the chancellors of the two universities; the auxiliaries were to be lords and others selected out of the flower of the nobility, and councils of war, and of the new plantations; and the essentials, upon whom the weight of the work was to lie, were to be 'persons called from out of the most able and most famous lay gentlemen of England, masters of families, or being men of themselves, and either living in the light of things or without any title of pro-
