ABBOT, GEORGE, archbishop of Canterbury, was the son of a cloth-worker at Guildford, in Surrey, where he was born on the 29th clay of October, 1562. While yet a child he displayed a quickness of appre hension, and an extent of capacity, which seemed to mark him out for future eminence. His father, ambi tious to cultivate his genius, resolved to educate him for the church, which, to a person of his narrow for tune, seemed to afford the fairest prospect of advance ment. Accordingly, young Abbot, after receiving the first rudiments of literature in his native town. was, at the age of sixteen, entered a student of Baliol College in Oxford. Passing through the rcgular course of gra duation, be, in a few years after, took orders, and dis tinguished himself as a preacher, by the energe tic eloquence of his discourses. Nor did his talents and acquirements excite alone the admiration of his lite rary associates; they procured him a more important advantage, the favour of the great. Under the patron age of the earl of Dorset, he was thrice elected vice chancellor of the university ; and appointed first to the deanery of Winchester, and afterwards to that of Glou cester. When the translation of the Bible was under taken by the direction of king James, Dr Abbot was the second of eight learned divines in the university of Oxford, who were intrusted with the charge of trans lating the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. How ably the task was executed, is sufficiently known b) every one who has compared their version with the original.
After the death of the earl of Dorset, Abbot became chaplain to George Hume, earl of Dunbar, whom he accompanied to Scotland in 1608, to assist him in esta blishing an union between the Scottish and English churches. The prudence and moderation which he displayed in conducting this delicate business, raised him very high in the estimation of the king, who seem ed to think no preferment too great for his services. On his return to England, lie was appointed bishop of Litchfield and Coventry ; in this situation he had re mained only two months when he was preferred to the sue of London ; and next year he was consecrated arch bishop of Canterbury. Abbot had the singular felicity of reflecting, that these high rewards were a just and spontaneous tribute to his virtues. lie had never courted patronage by any unworthy compliance with the desires of those who had preferments to bestow ; nor could even the gratitude which lie would naturally feel towards his sovereign for his present high eleva tion, betray him into one departure from that purity and rectitude which became his sacred character. When James, misled by his partiality to the unprincipled Ro chester, was solicitous to procure a divorce between lady Frances Howard and the earl of Essex, the arch bishop resisted it with intrepid firmness. 011 a subse
quent occasion, when the royal decree for the permis sion of sports and pastimes on Sunday, was to be pro claimed at Croydon, he ventured to prohibit it from being read. In short, he maintained in all his conduct an inviolable regard for religion, which, combined with his exalted talents, gained him the esteem and confi dence even of those whom he found it his duty to op pose ; insomuch that all the great transactions of church and state were, in a certain degree, regulated by his counsels or his influence. Zeal for the Protestant re ligion induced him eagerly to promote the union be tween the Elector Palatine and the princess Elizabeth ; and the same motive prevented him from agreeing to the resolution which the king had formed of marrying the prince of Wales to the infanta of Spain.
Amidst these public avocations, the duties of private beneficence were by no means forgotten. Ile had long meditated the erection of an hospital in hi-, native town ; and as he now began to feel his healdi decline, lie has tened the execution of his project, saw sir Nicholas Kempe lay the first stone, and afterwards endowed the hospital in a very munificent manner. The satisfaction imparted by these deeds of charity, was interrupted by an unfortunate accident. AVhile he was one day en gaged in hunting in the park of lord Zauch at Bramzil, an arrow which he shot from a cross-bow at one of the deer, struck his lordship's keeper, and killed him on the spot. This involuntary homicide pierced with keen anguish the heart of the amiable prelate. Ile sunk into a deep and settled melancholy ; observed the fatal day as a monthly fast ; and, to make some compensation to the widow, settled on her an annuity of twenty pounds sterling. Yet there were not wanting persons mali cious enough to endeavour to turn this accident to his ruin ; and though his majesty wrote him with his own hand a consolatory letter, and declared that " an angel might have miscarried in this sort," it was thought necessary to appoint a commission to investigate the affair. The result of their inquiry was, that he received a complete dispensation under the great seal, and was declared fully intitled to the exercise of archiepiscopal authority. During the whole reign of James, he was treated with that kindness and respect to which his vir tues intitled him. Nor was the primate, on his part, deficient in gratitude. Though worn out with infirmi ties, he attended his sovereign during his last illness affectionate and unremitting solicitude, and saw him expire on the 27th of March, 1625.