of the same kind as high as the year 1401[1], and solicits the favour of communications, of additions or corrections; but he did not publish any thing further on the subject, although he mentions that his manuscript collections were at least twice as great as what he had printed[2]. His next work was the " Lives of the Protestant Bishops;" of which he published in the year 1720 two parts, containing the archbishops of Canterbury and York.
These later publications appear to have been as unprofitable as his first work, and to have plunged him into further pecuniary difficulties, which compelled him to turn his university education to some useful account; accordingly he entered the church in the forty-fourth year of his age, without having taken any degree at either of the universities. He was presented to the rectory of Thornton-le-Moor, in Lincolnshire[3], by the bishop of Ely, to whom he had dedicated his " Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ," and was instituted thereto on the 2nd Jan. 1721-22[4]. This addition to his means, though evidently intended to afford him some relief from his troubles, had the contrary effect ; for immediately it became known to his creditors, they arrested him, and threw him into Lincoln jail[5].
- ↑ Among the Harleian MSS. (3605-3616.) are twelve volumes of Monumental Inscriptions, from 1400 to 17 16, in high preservation.
- ↑ In the Harleian collection of MSS. are several volumes collected by him.
- ↑ Browne Willis, in a letter to bishop Kennett, dated 13th Nov. 1721, writes, "I am glad Mr. Le Neve has got any preferment. I wish it was better; and should be glad to know the place where he is placed."
- ↑ "Secundo die ejusdem mensis (Januarii 1721-2) Johannes Le Neve clericus institutus fuit ad Rectoriam de Thornton le Moore com. Lincoln, dec : Walscroft ad præsentationem domini Gulielmi Eliensis Episcopi ratione Episcopatus sui pleno jure." (Bp. Certif. Lincoln.)
- ↑ This circumstance appears in a letter from Browne Willis to the bishop of Peterborough, dated 3rd Dec. 1722. " I am sorry," says Willis, "for poor Mr. Le Neve's misfortunes and confinement at Lincoln. I was in hopes his having a living would have made his creditors easy, and that they would have stayed till he was better provided to make them satisfaction." The docquet books of the Queen's Bench and Common Pleas, as well as the affidavits of debts from 1720 to 1735, have been searched for a judgment against him, but none has been found ; nor is there any record remaining of the prisoners in Lincoln jail at that time.
VOL. I.
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