| Notes |
- NOTE 1./ from site of Barry L Matthews: <<http://www.btinternet.com/~niccoleman/treedata/mathew/mathewnotes.htm>>
Sir Tobias Mathew, JR. Born Oct 3, 1577 at Salisbury, England Died Oct 13, 1655 at English College, Ghent. He Was a Courtier and Diplomat and became a Roman Catholic in Florence in 1606. He was sent to Madrid as an Advisor to Prince Charles and Buckingham, 1623 and was secretary to Stafford in Ireland, in 1633. He was later suspected by he Puritans of being a Papal spy an drived abroad in 1640. He was a friend of Sir FRANCIS BACON, whose essays he translated into Italian in 1618. BACON'S ESSAYS OF FRIENDSHIP Were written for TOBIAS, JR.
NOTE 2./
SIR TOBIAS, or TOBIE, MATTHEW (1577-1655), is remembered as the correspondent and friend of Francis Bacon. He was educated at Christ Church, and was early attached to the court, serving in the embassy at Paris. His debts and dissipations were a great source of sorrow to his father, from whom he is known to have received at different times 14,000, the modern equivalent of which is much larger. He was chosen member for Newport in Cornwall in the parliament of 1601, and member for St Albans in 1604. Before this time he had become the intimate friend of Bacon, whom he replaced as member for St Albans. When peace was made with Spain, on the accession of James I., he wished to travel abroad. His family, who feared his conversion to Roman Catholicism, opposed his wish, but he promised not to go beyond France. When once safe out of England he broke his word and went to Italy. The persuasion of some of his countrymen in Florence, one of whom is said to have been the Jesuit Robert Parsons, and a story he heard of the miraculous liquefaction of the blood of San Januarius at Naples, led to his conversion in 16o6. When he returned to England he was imprisoned, and many efforts were made to obtain his reconversion without success. He would not take the oath of allegiance to the king. In 1608 he was exiled, andremainedoutof England for ten years, mostly in Flanders and Spain. Hereturned in 1617, but went abroad again in 1619. His friends obtained his leave to return in 1621. At home he was known as the intimate friend of Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador. In 1623 he was sent to join Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I., at Madrid, and was knighted on the 23rd of October of that year. He remained in England till 1640, when he was finally driven abroad by the parliament, which looked upon him as an agent of the pope. He died in the English college in Ghent on the I3th of October 1655. In 1618 he published an Italian translation of Bacons essays. The Essay on Friendship was written for him. He was also the author of a translation of The Confessions of the Incom parable Doctor St Augustine, which led him into controversy. His correspondence was published in London in 166o.
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1577 - 1655 (78 years)