MEMOIR

OF

DR. RICHARD ZOUCHE,

CIVILIAN.

RICHARD ZOUCHE, the subject of the annexed Memoir, born at Ansley, in Wiltshire, A. D. 1590, descended through his ancestors the Lord Zouches, from the Dukes of Britanny in France*, received his classical education at Wykeham's School, near Winchester; was admitted perpetual Fellow of New College, an. 1609, at the age of 19. After he had taken one degree in the Civil Law, he became an advocate of note in Doctors' Commons. In 1619, he became Doctor of Civil Law; in 1620, Regius Professor in that faculty; the year succeeding, and afterwards, he served in Parliament for Hythe in Kent, during the latter end of the reign of King James the First. Being Chancellor of the Diocese of Oxfordt, in 1625 he was appointed

See Pedigree, Appendix.

† By an oversight he has been elsewhere styled Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

a

Principal of St. Alban Hall, in Oxford, and, at length, became Judge of the High Court of Admiralty. Our learned Civilian died in his lodgings, at Doctors' Commons, March 1st, 1660, and was buried at Fulham in Middlesex.

Our author's first work, published in 1613, is the Poem which I have been induced to reprint, both from its merit, and its great rarity, [see Note]. The work is a succinct poetical account of the three quarters of the old Continent, after the method of the Periegesis of Dionysius. The general harmony of versification, displayed in this juvenile poem is conspicuous, considering the time in which our author lived the variety of historical allusions, and the ingenious descriptions interspersed, lend to the poem a considerable interest, and I indulge a hope, that its republication may not be unacceptable to the curious reader, as supplying a small link in the chain of our earlier English poetry.

The works of Dr. Zouche are the following:-I. This Poem, composed in his youth, entitled, The Dove, or certain Passages of Cosmography. London, 1613. 8vo. -II. Elementa Jurisprudentiæ, definitionibus, regulis, et sententiis selectioribus Juris Civilis illustrata. Oxon. 1629,

8vo. 1636, 4to. Lugd. Batav. 1652, 16mo. Amst. 1681, 12mo. -III. Descriptio Juris et Judicii Feudalis, secundum consuetudines Mediolani et Normanniæ, pro introductione ad Juris-Prudentiam Anglicanam. Oxon. 1634, 1636. 8vo.IV. Descriptio Juris et Judicii Temporalis, secundum consuetudines Feudales et Normannicas. Oxon. 1636. 4to.-V. Descriptio Juris et Judicii Ecclesiastici, secundum Canones et Constitutiones Anglicanas. Oxon. 1636. 4to. VI. Descriptio Juris et Judicii Sacri, ad quam leges, quæ Religionem et piam causam respiciunt, referuntur. Oxon. 1640. 4to. Lugd. Bat. et Amstel. 1652. 16mo. VII. Descriptio Juris et Judicii Militaris, ad quam leges, quæ rem militarem et ordinem personarum respiciunt, referuntur. VIII. Descriptio Juris et Judicii Maritimi, etc. These three last were printed in 1 vol. Oxon. 1640. 4to. and Lug. Batav, and Amstelodam. 1652. in 16mo.-IX. Juris et Judicii Fecialis, sive Juris inter Gentes, et Quæstionum, de eodem Explicatio. Oxon. 1650. 4to.-X. Cases and Questions resolved in the Civil Law. Oxon. 1652. 8vo.-XI. Solutio Quæstionis de Legati delinquentis Judice competente. Oxon. 1657, and Lond. 1717. 8vo.

XII. Eruditionis ingenuæ specimina, scilicet Artium, Logicæ, Dialecticæ, et Rhetoricæ, nec non Moralis Philosophiæ, M. T. Ciceronis definitionibus, præceptis et sententiis, illustrata. duod. Oxon. 1657.-XIII. Quæstionum Juris Civilis Centuria, in Decem Classes distributa. Oxon. 1660. 8vo. Lond. 1682. 12mo. the 3rd edition.-XIV. The Jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England asserted, against Sir Ed. Coke's Articuli Admiralitatis, in the 22nd chap. of his Jurisdiction of Courts. Lond. 1663, in a large printed 8vo. published by Dr. Timothy Baldwyn, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; this went through several editions.

There is also ascribed to Dr. Zouche, An Anonymous Piece, entitled, Specimen Quæstionum Juris Civilis, cum designatione authorum, Oxon. 1653. 4to.

Little, I apprehend, can be collected, respecting the life of Dr. Zouche, except from the works of our Oxford Antiquary, Wood, and from a passage in Walton's Life of Bp. Sanderson.

The principal transactions of Dr. Zouche's life are closely interwoven with his profession as a