Spelman, SIR HENRY

Spelman, SIR HENRY, antiquary, was born in 1562, son of a gentleman of ancient family, at Congham in Norfolk. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, whence he passed to Lincoln's Inn. He was high-sheriff of Norfolk in 1604, and was often employed in public affairs at home and in Ireland by James I. Knighted by the king, he retired in 1612 to prolonged private studies, and died in 1641. His ponderous Glossarium Archaeologicum, of which he published A—L in 1626, was completed by his son, Sir John Spelman, and William Dugdale. His next great work, Concilia, Decreta, Leges, Constitutiones in Re Ecclesiastica Orbis Britannici (1639–64), he also left incomplete. His other works on Tithes, on Sacrilege, are no less learned, and exhibit his strong devotion to the Church of England. His Reliquiae Spel- maniae were edited, with a Life, by [Bishop] Edmund Gibson (1698).—His eldest son, SIR JOHN SPELMAN, inherited all his tastes and part of his learning. He was knighted in 1641, and died in 1643, author, besides other works, of a life of King Alfred (in Lat. trans. 1678; Spelman's Eng. original, edited by Thomas Hearne, 1709).