pious though fanatical man. He died on 11 Feb. 1683, and was buried at Spitalfields, leaving three sons, John [q. v.], Henry [q. v.], and Thomas, who were all musicians. Eccles's chief works are: 1. ‘A Musick-Lector; or, the Art of Musick (that is so much vindicated in Christendome) discoursed of, by way of Dialogue between three men of several Judgments: The one a Musician, and Master of that Art and jealous for the Church of England, who calls Musick the Gift of God. The other a Baptist, who did affirm it to be a decent and harmless practice. The other a Quaker (so called), being formerly of that Art, doth give his Judgment and Sentence against it; but yet approves of the Musick that pleaseth God,’ 1667. 2. ‘The Quakers Challenge at Two several weapons to the Baptists, Presbiters, Papists, and other Professors,’ 1668. The last contains his famous expedient for ascertaining the true religion, which was to collect a number of the most godly men of various sects who should unanimously pray for seven days without eating or sleeping, ‘then,’ Eccles said, ‘those on whom the Spirit of God shall manifest itself in a sensible manner, i.e. by the tremblings of the limbs and interior illuminations, may oblige the rest to subscribe to their decisions.’
[George Fox's Autobiography, ed. 1763; Croese's General History of the Quakers, ed. 1696, ii. 66; Sewel's Hist. of the Rise, &c., Society of Friends, iii. 283, &c.; Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers, i. 216, &c., ii. 210, &c.; Eccles's A Musick-Lector; Grove's Dict. of Music; Hawkins's Hist. Musicians; Bickley's George Fox and the Early Quakers; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books, i. 553.]
ECCLESTON, THOMAS of (fl. 1250), Franciscan, studied at Oxford (De Adventu Minorum, p. 39), and entered the Franciscan order probably soon after its settlement in England. Everything that is to be known of him can only be ascertained from his work, ‘De Adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam.’ He speaks of personal intercourse with William of Nottingham, minister-general of the order, who died in 1250, and of Adam de Marisco, who died in 1257 or 1258, as dead, and thus his approximate date is known. His work, for which he was collecting materials for twenty-five years, is dedicated to Simon de Esseby; it gives a narrative of some thirty years of the settlement of the Franciscans in England, describing their work and their poverty with the vividness of an eye-witness. It was partially known by some extracts in Leland's ‘Collectanea,’ iii. 341 (1770), but was not printed till 1858, when it was published in Mr. Brewer's ‘Monumenta Franciscana,’ in the Rolls Series.
[Leland, De Scriptor. Brit. p. 298, an account copied and falsely added to by Bale; Wadding's Annales Minorum, vii. 169, who gives a very erroneous date; Brewer's Preface to the Monumenta Franciscana, pp. lxxi–lxxvi.]
ECCLESTON, THOMAS (1659–1743), jesuit, only son of Henry Eccleston, esq., of Eccleston Hall, Lancashire, by Eleanor, daughter of Robert Blundell, esq., of Ince Blundell, was born in 1659. He was educated in the college of St. Omer, and afterwards continued his studies for two years (1677–9) in the English College at Rome. During the wars in Ireland, after the revolution of 1688, he held a captain's commission in King James's army. Being engaged in a duel which proved fatal to his antagonist, he was seized with remorse and determined to enter the religious state. Accordingly he returned to Rome, entered the jesuit novitiate of Sant' Andrea in 1697, and was professed of the four vows in England in 1712. He was employed in the Yorkshire missions, and served Ingatestone Hall as chaplain to Lord Petre under the assumed name of Holland. From 11 Aug. 1731 to 22 Sept. 1737 he was rector of the college at St. Omer. He died on 30 Dec. 1743.
He wrote a treatise on ‘The Way to Happiness,’ 1726, 8vo; 2nd edit. London, 1772, 8vo.
His full-length portrait, pointing to his sword thrown upon the ground, was formerly hung in the hall at Eccleston.
[Oliver's Collectanea S. J., p. 84; Foley's Records, v. 348, vi. 426, vii. 220; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; De Backer's Bibl. des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus (1869), p. 1701.]
ECCLESTONE or EGGLESTONE, WILLIAM (fl. 1605–1623), actor, seems to have been born in Southwark, where his father, also William Ecclestone, resided. He joined the famous king's company of actors associated with the Blackfriars and Globe theatres after 1605, and performed in Jonson's ‘Alchemist’ in 1610 and in the same writer's ‘Catiline’ in 1611. About August 1611 Ecclestone withdrew from the Blackfriars and Globe company and joined a new association of twelve actors formed by Henslowe under Prince Henry's patronage to act at the Fortune Theatre. In 1613 the new company quarrelled with Henslowe, and Ecclestone reappeared with his former associates in Beaumont and Fletcher's ‘Honest Man's Fortune.’ Ecclestone was still a member of the king's company in 1619, but he had retired before 1625. His name occurs as an
