The presence of the Underhill
family at Oxford reaches at least as early as 1372, when Robert Underhill was noted
as being one of the proctors for the University of Oxford. [i]
Over 20 others by the name of Underhill are included in the alumni register for
Oxford University.[ii]
Sir Kenelm Digby gave a collection of manuscripts to the Bodleian
Library of the University of Oxford in December 1634. The Dissolution of
monasteries under Henry VIII had caused many manuscripts to be dispersed and
gathered in private collections. One particular manuscript Bodleian Library MS Digby 86 traces its roots to the Grimhill and
Underhill families who lived in south-western Worcestershire.[iii]
Reference was made to several members of the Underhill family in this manuscript.
A certain William Underhill, son of Simon Underhill, was responsible for
several pen-trials or practice fragments of script, in the manuscript before it
was completed.[iv]
This manuscript contained a codex, recording important people and events that
are not readily apparent through reading of the printed text and believed to
still be in the collection of the Bodleian Library.
Dr. John Underhill was born
in Oxford in 1545 and rose to the position of Bishop of Oxford. The facts of
John Underhill’s connection to the broader Underhill family tree are unclear.[v] We
do now that his father Thomas Underhill was freeman (1532) and an innholder of
the Cross Inn in Oxford, and Elizabeth was his wife. [vi]
The Cross Inn had previously
been a monastic inn before being sold to a wine merchant. John Underhill is one
of two bishops to be born on the premises. The other was the Bishop of
Worchester who was born there in the 12th century. [vii]
John Underhill, as we said, was born around 1545,[viii],[ix]
and his siblings Pierce Underhill and Joan Underhill followed. [x] Thomas
Underhill ran the Cross Inn until his death in the 1560’s.[xi],[xii]
Elizabeth, who was Thomas
Underhill’s wife, following his death would marry Robert Forest[xiii]
who occupied No. 4 Cornmarket beginning in 1555, next door to the Cross Inn at
No. 5 Cornmarket. Records from the City of Oxford show Robert Forest as a
saddler as early as 1540-41, Council member in 1554, and win an apprentice
James Rudd in 1561-1562. [xiv]
By 1560 Robert Forest’s wife Elizabeth Forest appears to have owned No. 4
Cornmarket.
John Underhill received his
education in Winchester School and was made a fellow of New College in 1563.[xv]
In 1576 he is noted for having opposed the visit of Robert Horne, Bishop of
Winchester, for what Underhill apparently felt were his too frequent visits.[xvi]
Horne had him removed from his fellowship. Underhill appealed to the Chancellor
of Oxford, Robert Dudley, through whom the family had other well-established
connections including Thomas Underhill who served as Keeper of the Wardrobe at
Dudley’s Kenilworth Castle. Dudley advised John Underhill to threaten a lawsuit
which he did, and then Underhill received his reinstatement. John Underhill was selected on June 22, 1577,
as one of four rectors appointed by Robert Dudley to lead Lincoln College. This
appointment was despite strenuous objections from several of the fellows. [xvii]
Around 1581 Underhill became
chaplain in ordinary to the Queen, and on September 7, 1581, was named rector
of Thornton-le-Moors, Cheshire. About 1586 he was appointed one of the vicars
of Bampton, and on March 15, 1587, was instituted rector of Witney in
Oxfordshire. Among his many praises were being considered “an eloquent and
ingenious Man.”[xviii]
Shortly after becoming
chaplain in ordinary to the Queen, in 1583 John Underhill became owner of No. 3
Cornmarket in Oxford that had been owned by the late John Tattleton. [xix]
Tattleton died in 1581 and his widow died in 1582. A tavern most likely had
been operated here at least since 1558 when John Wakelyn was given a license to
operate a tavern. During the seventeenth
century inn’s provided accommodations for travelers and their horses, and a
tavern did not have these same functions.[xx]
Tattleton was most certainly a vitner, though it was Wakelyn’s license that
allowed him to conduct a tavern at his house. The wine-taverns were the common
rooms of the University prior to the eighteenth century before the development
of college common rooms.[xxi]
This fact at least partially explains why following the death of John
Tattleton, that Dr. John Underhill came to own the building. Later John
Davenant, a vitner would also come to own what had been known as Tattleton’s
house. Finally, the tavern became known as The Crown under the ownership of
Jane and William Morrell.[xxii]
Map of Dr. John Underhill House in Oxford,
John Underhill reportedly
had his house on the south side of New Inn located in Oxford.[xxiv]
A house that John Underhill owned on the south side of New Inn was conveyed by
him to several Fellows of New College. A lane passing by New Inn was called the
“7 deadly sinns vel vicus septem peccatorum mortalium 14 Eliz” or
translated “The lane of seven deadly
sins.”
Leicester died suddenly
September 4, 1588. The following year Francis Walsingham raised Underhill to
the See of Oxford on December 8, 1589.[xxv]
The purpose for doing so apparently was for Underhill to renew the leases of
Episcopal estates and to receive the large fines due for such renewals. The
best estates were conveyed to the Earl of Essex, while others went to
Walsingham.[xxvi]
Apparently Underhill had little interest for this work, though he complied with
the promise that higher office would follow. Underhill resigned as rector of
Lincoln College in 1590. Once completing work set out to him by Walsingham,
having no further use of him, Underhill was neglected and according to some
accounts “died in poverty and disgrace.”[xxvii]
The poverty of the see he
inherited was equally great. One account follows:
The poverty of this see; the actual
difficulty of living; the misery of many of the burdened clergy; the notable
fact that more than one hundred and ninety benefices had been unserved for
nearly a quarter of a century, and that the country people, some not baptized,
were un-taught, unfed, and often buried without Christian rites, depressed his
lordship so seriously that, within two years and a half, in a state of
incurable melancholy, he took to his bed, and passed to his final account.[xxviii]
Underhill’s placement as
Bishop was not so much to do justice to the claims of the diocese, but because
“devotion to the leases would yield good fines”. What Underhill was able to
accomplish in his time as bishop was limited, for there was no ordination and
he never came to the diocese after his acceptance of it.[xxix]
He died on May 12, 1592, by
some accounts at Greenwich,[xxx]
and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.[xxxi]
Bishop Underhill was married and had one daughter.[xxxii]
Note: The connection between Dr. John Underhill and Captain John Underhill at this time is unknown.
[ii]
Alumni Oxonienses: S-Z, Parker & Co., 1892. http://books.google.com/books?id=JRIBAAAAYAAJ&dq=underhill%20oxford&pg=PA1529#v=onepage&q=underhill%20oxford&f=false
[iii]
Voices in the past: English literature and archaeology by John Hines, Boydell
& Brewer, 2004, http://books.google.com/books?id=DM8wT7fJmTwC&lpg=PA73&dq=underhill%20oxford&pg=PA73#v=onepage&q=underhill&f=false
[v]
The Underhill’s of Warwickshire published in 1932, claims “it is impossible to
fit them into our knowledge of the armigerous family (unless they were
descended from one of the early Staffordshire branches – but this is no more
than a guess).
[vi] “Thomas Underhyll” is recorded in Oxford Town
Records as first being named an apprentice around 1536-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=bOoVAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22pierce%20underhill%22%20oxford&pg=PA149#v=onepage&q=underhyll&f=false
[viii]
Another account gives John
Underhill
[x]
Rare Sir William Davenant, Mary Edmond, 1987, p. 20
[xi]
Rare Sir William Davenant, Mary Edmond, 1987, p. 20
[xii]
The Underhills of Warwickshire, 1932, p. 210, http://books.google.com/books?ei=KT2qTN-tBIWClAe61Zy_DQ&ct=result&id=8EgvAAAAMAAJ&dq=underhill+%22cross+inn%22+oxford&q=cross+inn
[xvii]
University of Oxford Lincoln , by A. Clark,
Biblio Bazaar, LLC, 2009. http://books.google.com/books?id=vDvyotpBiz8C&lpg=PA49&dq=%22john%20underhill%22%20oxford%20tavern&pg=PA51#v=onepage&q&f=false
[xix]
Rare Sir William Davenant: poet laureate, playwright, Civil War general,
Restoration theatre manager, by Mary Edmond, Manchester University Press, 1987,
p. 20
[xx]Acheson,
598
[xxi]
Rare Sir William Davenant, p. 19
[xxii]
Acheson, 606
[xxvi]
Lives of the Elizabethan bishops of the Anglican Church, Skeffington, 1898. http://books.google.com/books?id=QGsAAAAAMAAJ&dq=underhill%20oxford&pg=PA316#v=onepage&q=underhill%20oxford&f=false
[xxvii]
The colleges of Oxford :
their history and traditions by Andrew Clark, 1892, http://books.google.com/books?id=4cMBAAAAYAAJ&dq=underhill%20oxford&pg=PA197#v=onepage&q=underhill%20oxford&f=false
[xxxi]
http://books.google.com/books?id=vDvyotpBiz8C&lpg=PA49&dq=%22john%20underhill%22%20oxford%20tavern&pg=PA55#v=onepage&q&f=false
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