Early Life
He was son of a tallow-chandler, though his grandfather had been a courtier and official under Henry VIII, until he was deprived for non-compliance with the Six Articles. He was educated at Westminster School, under Edward Grant and William Camden. He was sent by Mildred, Lady Burghley, on the recommendation of Gabriel Goodman to St John's College, Cambridge, as a poor scholar, admitted scholar on 22 April 1580, and matriculated on 18 May. He continued to enjoy the patronage of the Burghley family, residing in their household, and became chaplain to Lord Burghley, and later to his son Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury. He took the degree of doctor in divinity in 1600.
He preached before Queen Elizabeth, and became vicar of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire (resigned in 1609), and on 5 November 1605 he was installed Dean of Westminster. He resigned the deanery in 1610.
Read more about this topic: Richard Neile
Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)