extraordinary in chancery on 10 Oct. 1580, and master in ordinary in chancery 10 Feb. 1584–5 (Monro, Acta Cancellariæ, p. 547). In 1584 he was consulted as to the best mode of defending the revenues of the church against an apprehended confiscation by the crown under cover of a writ of melius inquirendum. An opinion drawn up by him on this occasion, in which he advises the collection of evidence to prove that ‘the tenth part of the fruits of the land is not possessed by the clergy,’ and certain propositions in the nature of argument to strengthen the case, are preserved in Strype's ‘Annals,’ iii. pt. i. (fol.), 230–2, and App. bk. i. No. xli. He died shortly before Christmas 1589 (Lodge, Illustrations, ii. 382), and was buried in the church of St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, London. Drury married Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Southwell of Woodrising, Norfolk, by whom he had issue four sons and two daughters. He resided at Brett's Hall, in the parish of Tendring, Essex (Morant, Essex, i. 471). His wife survived him, and married Robert Forth, LL.D., civilian (Coll. Top. et Gen. iii. 310). His eldest son, John, was knighted in 1604. Another son, Robert (1587–1623), is noticed above.
[Nichols's Progresses (James I), p. 465; Cullum's Hawsted, p. 129; Morant's Essex, ii. 311; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 74.]
DRURY, WILLIAM (fl. 1641), dramatist, was an English gentleman (‘nobilis Anglus’) ‘of singular parts and learning,’ and it has been conjectured that he was a nephew of William Drury the civilian [q. v.] He was for some time imprisoned in England on account of his adherence to the catholic religion, but about 1616 he was released through the intercession of Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador in London. In October 1618 he began to teach poetry and rhetoric at the English College at Douay. He wrote three Latin plays in verse, which were exhibited with great applause, first privately in the refectory of the college, and afterwards publicly in the quadrangle. These are: 1. ‘Alvredus sive Alfredus, Tragi-Comœdia ter exhibita in seminario Anglorum Duaceno ab ejusdem collegii Juventute, Anno Domini m.dc.xix.,’ Douay, 1620, 16mo (on the history of Alfred the Great and his subsequent deliverance of his people). At the end of the volume is a poem entitled ‘De venerabili Eucharistia ab apibus inventa et mirabiliter servata, de qua scribit Cæsarius, lib. 9, cap. 8. Carmen elegiacum.’ 2. ‘Mors, comœdia.’ Printed with the preceding work, Douay, 1620, 16mo. Death and the Devil, in person, play the principal parts in this curious drama, or rather farce, of which Douce speaks in laudatory terms in his book on Holbein's ‘Dance of Death’ (edit. 1858, p. 156). 3. ‘Reparatus, sive Depositum. Tragico-Comœdia.’ First published, together with the two preceding works, in Drury's ‘Dramatica Poemata,’ Douay, 1628, 12mo; reprinted at Antwerp, 1641, 12mo.
[Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 425; Duthillœul, Bibl. Douaisienne, 1842, nos. 168, 770, 1509; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), p. 667; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Catalogue of Printed Books in British Museum.]
DRY, Sir RICHARD (1815–1869), Tasmanian statesman, born at Elphin, near Launceston in the island of Tasmania, on 15 June 1815, was educated at a private school in Campbell Town. In February 1844 he was nominated to a seat in the old council by Sir John Eardley Wilmot, then the lieutenant-governor, and afterwards formed one of the ‘patriotic six’ who opposed Wilmot's financial schemes. They resigned in 1846, as a protest against Wilmot's unconstitutional government, but were subsequently reappointed when Sir William Thomas Denison succeeded Wilmot as lieutenant-governor. Dry became one of the prominent members of the anti-transportation league, and in 1851, when representative institutions were first introduced into Tasmania, he was elected member for Launceston. On 30 Dec. 1851 Dry was chosen speaker of the new legislative council, and soon afterwards an address to the queen strongly remonstrating on the influx of criminals was adopted by the majority of the council. After further struggles on the part of the colonists, it was at length officially notified, in May 1853, that transportation had absolutely ceased. In 1855 Dry resigned the office of speaker, and visited Europe for the sake of his health. He was knighted by letters patent in March 1858. In 1862 he was elected to the legislative council as member for Tamar, and in November 1866 became colonial secretary and premier, in the place of James Whyte, whose government Dry had successfully opposed on the question of direct taxation. He died in office on 1 Aug. 1869, in his fifty-fifth year, and was buried in Hagley Church, the chancel of which was erected to his memory by his fellow-colonists. Fenton states that Dry ‘was perhaps the most popular statesman Tasmania ever possessed.’ This was in great measure due to his tact and conciliatory demeanour, which secured him the respect of his supporters and opponents alike. Dry inherited a large estate at Quamby from his father, who had left Ireland during the political troubles of the 18th century, and amassed a considerable fortune in the land
