LILY, LILYE, or LILLY, WILLIAM, an eminent schoolmaster, was born at Odiham iu Hampshire, about 1468, and at eighteen years of age was admitted a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford. Having taken the degreo of B.A., he quitted the university, and travelled tmards the East, with the intent of acquiring a knowledge of the Greek language. He certainly remained five years at Rhodes, but it is not quite so certain, as Pits and Wood assert; that he went for r‘.ligion's sake to Jerusalem. From Rhodes he went to Rome and studied. On his return to England in 1509 he settled in London, set up a private grammar-school, and became the first teacher of Greek in the metropolis. His success and reputation were such that in 1512 Dean Colet, who had just founded St. Paul's School, appointed him the first master. He filled this useful and laborious employment for nearly twelve years, and In that time educated some youths who after wards rose to eminence in life, among whom were Thomas Lulled, Sir Anthony Denny, Sir William Paget, Sir Edward North, and Lelaud the antiquary. Lily died of the plague at Loudon in February 1623,
at the age of fifty-four, and was buried in the north churchyard of St. Paul'a.
Lily's principal literary production was his Brovissima lustitutio, scu Ratio Grammatices Cognoscendi,' 4to, Loudon, 1513. It has pro bably passed through more editions than any other work of its kind, and is still commonly known as ' Lily's Grammar.' The English rudi ments were written by Colet, and the preface to the first edition by Cardinal Wolsey. The English Syntax was written by Lily ; also the rules for the genders of nouns, beginning with ' Propria qua) Maribus ; and those for the preterperfeet tenses and supines, beginning with ' As in praisenti.' The Latin Syntax was chiefly the work of Erasmus.
(See Ward's Preface to his edition of 'Lily's Grammar,' Svo, London, 1732.) Lily numbered Erasmus and Sir Thomas More among his intimate friends.
(Wood, AtAcme aronienses, Bliaa's edition; Chalmers, Biog. Dirt. ; Tanner, Bib& Brit. Hib.)