to the vicarage of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, in 1575, and suggests that he was the John Northbrooke who was presented to Walton, in the diocese of Wells, 7 Oct. 1570 and who resigned in August 1577 (cf. Weaver, Somerset Incumbents, p. 298). In 1579 he was apparently residing at Henbury, near Bristol.
He was author of: 1. ‘Spiritus est Vicarius Christi in Terra. A breefe and pithie summe of the Christian Faith, made in fourme of Confession, with a Confutation of the Papistes Objections and Argumentes in sundry Pointes of Religion, repugnant to the Christian Faith: made by John Northbrooke, Minister and a Preacher of the Worde of God,’ b.l., London, 1571, 4to; 1582, 8vo, ‘newly corrected and amended.’ The dedicatory letter to Gilbert Berkeley contains some autobiographical details. 2. ‘Spiritus est Vicarius Christi in Terra. The Poore Mans Garden, wherein are Flowers of the Scriptures, and Doctours, very necessary and profitable for the simple and ignoraunt people to read: truely collected and diligently gathered together, by John Northbrooke, Minister and Preacher of the Worde of God. And nowe newly corrected and largely augmented by the former Aucthour,’ b.l., London, 1573, 8vo. This was apparently not the first edition. There were other editions in 1580 and 1606. The ‘Epistle’ by Northbrooke is addressed to the ‘Bishop of Excester.’ An ‘Epistle to the Reader’ is signed ‘Thomas Knel, Ju.,’ in 1573, ‘T. Knell’ in 1580. Both 1 and 2 are written against Thomas Harding (1516–1572) [q. v.] 3. ‘Spiritus est Vicarius Christi in Terra. A Treatise wherein Dicing, Dauncing, vaine Playes, or Enterluds, with other idle Pastimes, &c., commonly used on the Sabboth Day, are reproved by the Authoritie of the Word of God and auntient writers. Made Dialoguewise by John Northbrooke, Minister and Preacher of the Word of God,’ London, b.l., 1579, 4to, and again, 1579, 4to. The ‘Address to the Reader’ is dated ‘from Henbury.’ There are occasional scraps of verse in the volume. This tract is important as ‘the earliest separate and systematic attack’ upon dramatic performances in England. It was entered at Stationers' Hall in 1577. It contains the first mention by name of the playhouses the Theatre and Curtain, and witnesses to the great variety of topics already dealt with on the stage. J. P. Collier in 1843 edited it for the Shakespeare Society, with an introduction.
[J. P. Collier's Introduction to the Treatise against Dicing, &c.; Strype's Annals, II. i. 145–7; Tanner's Bibliotheca; Ritson's Bibliographia Poetica, p. 288; Collier's Poetical Decameron, ii. 231; Collier's History of Dramatic Poetry, i. 326, ii. 336, iii. 83; Collier's Bibliographical and Critical Account, &c., ii. 55; Atkyns's Gloucestershire, 2nd edit. p. 140; Hunter's Chorus Vatum, i. 467 (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 24487.)]
NORTHBURGH, MICHAEL de (d. 1361), bishop of London, was probably a relative, perhaps a nephew or younger brother, of Roger de Northburgh [q. v.] He was possibly educated at Oxford, and is described as a doctor of laws. On 13 Oct. 1331, when he is called Master Michael de Northburgh, he had license to nominate an attorney for three years, as he was going beyond the seas (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edw. III, 1330–4, 180). On 7 July 1330 he had received the prebend of Colwich, Lichfield, which he held till the next year; afterwards he held at Lichfield the prebends of Tachbrook from 23 Oct. 1340 to 29 Jan. 1342, Wolvey from 15 Sept. 1342 to 4 April 1353, and Longden from 21 Oct. 1351 to 29 Oct. 1352; he was also precentor from 29 March 1339 to 1340, and archdeacon of Chester from 5 Feb. 1340. Northburgh likewise held the prebend of Banbury, Lincoln, in 1344, and was archdeacon of Suffolk 27 May 1347. In 1350 he received the prebend of Bugthorpe, York; on 6 May 1351 Netherbury, Salisbury; on 1 Sept. 1351 that of Mapesbury, St. Paul's; and 30 June 1353 that of Strensall, York. He was dean of St. Clement's-within-the-Castle, Pontefract, before 21 May 1339, when he exchanged this post for a canonry at Hereford. From 1341 to 1351 he held the rectory of Pulham, Norfolk, which in the latter year he exchanged for Ledbury, Herefordshire. He also held at one time the prebend of Lyme, Salisbury. Like Roger de Northburgh, he entered the royal service, and on 23 Feb. 1345, being then canon of Lichfield and Hereford, was of sufficient importance to be joined with Sir Nigel Loryng [q. v.] on a mission to the pope touching the dispensation for a marriage between the Prince of Wales and a daughter of the Duke of Brabant, and to excuse the proposed embassy of Henry of Lancaster (Fœdera, iii. 32; Hemingburgh, ii. 412). In July 1346, when he is described as ‘a worthy clerk and one of the king's counsellors,’ he accompanied Edward III on his French expedition. During the campaign he wrote two letters home describing the march from La Hogue to Caen, and from Poissy to Calais. On 28 Oct. 1346 he was one of the commissioners appointed to negotiate alliances with foreign powers (Fœdera, iii. 92). On 11 Oct. 1348 he was a commissioner to treat with the Count of Flanders; and on 28 Oct. 1349 he had power, with others, to prorogue the truce
