AMERICA AND THE MIDDLE TEMPLE by God's assistance prosecute that know ledge and kinde of literature the doores whereof (after a sorte) were so happily opened before me."1 Thus in the Middle Temple was begun the record of the geo graphical enquiry which has transfigured the map and revolutionized the history of the world. On 27 January 1574-5, was admitted Anthony Ashley, son and heir of Anthony Ashley, of Dome, Wilts, who may be iden tified with the clerk of the Privy Council of that name and therefore with the tran slator of Waghenaer's important naval work.2 In the following month Walter Raleigh became a member and seems to have lived in the Temple for at least two years though at this trial he declared "if I ever read a word of the law and statutes before I was a prisoner in the Tower, God confound me."* He became a friend of Hakluyt, the elder, who resided continuously in the Temple until his death in 1591. On April a?th 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh set forth the first expedition to colonise Virginia in "two barkes under the commande of Master Philip Amadas, and Master Arthur Barlow."4 One Philip Amadas, son and heir of John Amadas of Plymouth, was fined by the Benchers of the Middle Temple on May 28th of that year for being absent from his studies in Lent Term, and his name does not appear again in the records. If the Dictionary of National Biographyis right in identifying Ralph Lane, who followed soon after Amadas and, in due course, became the first Governor of Vir ginia, with the second son of Sir Ralph Lane of Horton, Northamptonshire, then he, too, was a Middle Templar. In the same year as Sir Walter Raleigh sent forth his expedi tion, his stepbrother Adrian Gilbert, also a^ Middle Templar, and younger brother 1 The Epistle Dedicatorie to the Principal Navigations 1589-
- See Dictionary of National Biographv.
1 State Trials Vol. II. col. 16. 4 Purchas's Pilgrimages Vol. IV, p. 1645.
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of the more famous Sir Humphrey Gilbert, obtained a patent incorporating him with certain associates under the name of the Colleagues of the Fellowship for the discov ery of the North West Passage. Hakluyt does not appear to have practised the law by which course he would have attained to the office of Reader and prob ably Treasurer, but in 1585 on account of his standing and long association with the Inn he was invited to become an associate with the Bench. In the same year he published his treatise containing "induce ments to the liking of the voyage intended towards Virginia in 400 and 420 degrees of latitude." His first reason was "the glory of God by planting religion .among these infidels," and there is no doubt that a strong religious spirit prevailed amongst the earlier adventurers. From 1580 to 1588 Sir John Popham who took a prominent part in the colonizing projects of the period held the highest office, the Treasurership in the Inn. He does not appear to have been present, however, when Sir Francis Drake was received in the Middle Temple Hall on August 4, 1586, upon his victorious return from the West Indies. The occasion is recorded in the minutes of Parliament of the Inn as follows : "Die lovis quarto die Augusti Anno D'ni 1586 annoq, Regni D'ne Elizabethe Regine 28*0 Franciscus Drake Miles unus de consortio Medii Templi post navigatione anno preterito susceptam et Omnipotentis Dei beneficio prospere peractam, accessit tempore Pra'ndii in Aulam Medii Templi ac recognovit, loanne Savile Armigero tune lectori, Matheo Dale, Thome Bowyer, Henrico Agmondesham et Thome Hanham Magistris de Banco et aliis il'm presentibus, antiquam familiaritatem et amicitiam cum consortiis generosorum Medii Temple prae diet., omnibus de Consortiis in Aula presenti bus, cum magno gaudio, et unanimiter, gratulantibus reditum suum foelicem." From the wording of the entry it would appear that Drake's visit to the Hall was
