and children, who soon after became poor; and whether the Females lived honestly 'tis not for me to dispute it." Charles Wheare did his best to secure the Camden Lecture in place of his father, and it is said he had been specially trained for the post; but the change of government and other circumstances lost him the reversion. John Maplett of Christchurch was nominated to succeed Wheare by the Marquis of Hertford. He was a son of John Maplett, "a sufficient shoemaker" of St. Martin's-le-Grand. Like a later principal, Dr. Woodroffe, he was a scholar of Westminster, who was elected to Christchurch in 1630, at the age of eighteen. He became B.A. in 1634, M.A. in 1636, Proctor in 1643, and M.D. in 1647. He was almost immediately ejected by the visitors, though he does not appear to have been by any means a violent politician. He left Gloucester Hall and became tutor to the young Lord Falkland. He submitted to the visitors of Christchurch in 1651, and is then represented as being on leave of absence. His successor, Tobias Garbrand, belonged to a wellknown family. Herks Garbrand was a Dutch bookseller, who fled from persecution in Holland, and established himself as a bookseller and wine merchant in Oxford in or about 1546. His sons and grandsons were well known in Oxford. Some carried on the bookselling business, and others entered Oxford colleges, two at least becoming Fellows of Magdalen. The grandson of the original Herks Garbrand was Vice-President of Magdalen, and died at the age of fifty-nine, and it was probably his son who was now appointed Principal of Gloucester Hall. He was one of the delegates to the Parliamentary visitors who were appointed on September 30, 1647, but this is all we hear of him in connection with the visitation. His duties can scarcely have been onerous, as during the greater part of his term of office there were no undergraduates in the Hall. When the Restoration came he quietly retreated into the country. Like his predecessor and successor, Dr. Maplett, he was a doctor by profession, "a dissenting physician," as Wood calls him. He retired to Abingdon, and practised his faculty there. He died on April 7, 1689, at the age of eighty or more, and is buried in the church of St. Helens in that town. He had at least two children-Tobias Garbrand, a barrister and writer of several books, who lost his practice by an attempt to prove that the Duke of York was not a Catholic; and a daughter, who married Thomas Dawson, a noted Nonconformist preacher and writer. With the Restoration, John Maplett returned from Bath to take charge of at least five undergraduates. On December 19, 1660, they celebrated the Restoration in proper style. Under this date Wood has an entry: "A play acted at Glocester Hall, cald 'The Ordinary,' out of spite." The play was doubtless that of William Cartwright, written in 1643, and bearing this title. It is in Hazlitt's "Collection of Plays." Gloucester Hall has always been a favourite place for plays, and Wood speaks of plays acted by stealth" in Kettle Hall, or at Holywell Mill, or in the refectory at Gloucester Hall." John Maplett, however, soon found his position either too laborious or too expensive. He returned to Bath in 1662, and died on August 4, 1670, aged fifty-five. He was "learned, candid and ingenious, good physician, a better Christian, and an excellent Latin," says Wood. Withal he was of a tender, brittle constitution, inclining to feminine, clear-skinned, and of a very fresh complexion." He was one of the first physicians to go to Bath, and he wrote a Latin treatise on the beneficial effects of Bath waters, which was published by Guidott after his death. Guidott also erected a black marble tablet to his memory in the north aisle of Bath Abbey. His successor was Byrom Eaton, who was Principal for nearly thirty years, during which it is almost impossible to discover anything he did in connection with the Hall. For the first twelve years of his reign the Hall seems to have been in a fairly flourishing condition. In 1663 there were six, in 1664 five, in 1666 seven, in 1667 twelve, in 1668 twelve, in 1669 fourteen matriculations. Byrom Eaton was born in 1613, and matriculated at Brasenose on February 21, 1634. He became B.A. 1635, M.A. 1641. In this year he was elected Fellow of his College, and in 1646 he was Junior Proctor, and subsequently Senior Proctor on the death of Richard Wyatt. In 1648 his College was visited by the Parliamentary visitors, and he expressed himself willing "with all humble reverence to submit to any authority not derogatory to the knowne laws of the land, the statutes and privileges of the University and my College, and my several legal oaths and obligations." He was expelled from the University for non-submission five days later, but he remained in Oxford till June 29, when the soldiers were ordered to drive him out, if necessary. By some means, however, he made his peace with the visitors, and was reinstated in his Fellowship in October on condition that he leave his living before Easter. He took the degree of D.D. at the Restoration, and became Rector of Nuneham Courtenay in the same year. He was appointed Archdeacon of Stow by Dr. Barlow in 1677, and Archdeacon of Leicester in 1683. The Hall soon fell into a state of hopeless disrepair. "In 1675, 1676, 1677, 1678 not one scholar" (says Wood) "in Gloucester Hall, onlie the principall and his family and two or three more families that live there in some part to keep it from ruin. The paths are grown over with grass, the way into the hall and chappel made up with boards." Prideaux tells the same tale in 1676. Writing on September 18, he says: "Gloucester Hall is like to be demolished, the charge of chimney money being so great that Byrom Eaton will scarce live there any longer. There hath been no scholars there these three or four years: for all which time the hall being in arrears for this tax the collectors have at last fallen upon the principal, who being by the act liable to the payment hath made great complaints about the town and created us very good sport: but the old fool hath been forced to pay the money, which hath amounted to a considerable sum." The desolation of the Hall left it an easy prey to robbers, and the second recorded burglary took place on October 20, 1687, "between the hours of 12 and 1 in the night time when twelve men armed entered Gloucestre Hall at the great gate, being let in as is supposed by one that got in before. |