Ryves, Brune, Dr.

Summary

Father: Thomas Ryves
Mother: Jane Gould

Birth: about 1596
Birth Source: Reliques of the Rives

Death: 13 July 1677 at Windsor (Berkshire, England)
Death Source: Reliques of the Rives

Spouse1:

Narrative

Children of Dr. Brune Reeves and Katherine Waldram:

1. Brune Reeves, b. c1636
2. Joseph Ryves, b. c1638
3. Thomas Ryves, b. c1640
4. Jane Ryves, b. c1644, m. Robert Sewell
5. Katherine Ryves, b. 1647, m. Mr. Keate
6. Dorothy Ryves, b. c1650, m. Yonger Cooke

From Reliques of the Rives:
Dr. Brune Ryves, one of the most noteworthy of the Ryves family of England, is given the following notice in the Dictionary of National Biography:

Ryves, Bruno (1596-1677), dean of Windsor, son of Thomas and grandson of John Ryves of Damory Court, co. Dorset, was born in 1596, and educated at Oxford, subscribing as a clerk of New College in 1610. Sir Thomas Ryves was his first cousin. He graduated B. A. in 1616, and in the following year became a clerk of Magdalen, proceeding M A, 9 June 1619; B. D. 20 June 1632; and D. D. 25 June 1639. He was admitted of Gray's Inn in 1634. In the meantime he was instituted to the vicarage of Stanwell in Middlesex, where he made a name by his "florid preaching" (Wood), obtaining in September 1626 the additional benefice of St. Martin-le-Vintry. About 1640 he becamje chaplain to Charles I. The inhabitants of Stanwell petitioned against him in July 1642 and he was forthwith deprived of his benefices, and a parliamentary preacher appointed in his stead. "With his wife and four children and all his family he was (according to Walker) taken out of doors, all his goods seized, and all that night lay under a hedge in the wet and cold. Next day my Lord Arundell, hearing of this barbarous usage done to so pious a gentleman, sent his coach with men and horses," and Ryves was entertained for some time at Wardour Castle. A patent of June 1646 created him dean of Chichester, but he remained in seclusion and dependent upon charity at Shafton in Dorset until after the king's death, when he made at least one journey abroad, bearing to Charles II some money which had been collected among his adherents. Upon the restoration he petitioned for the vicarage of St. Giles, Cripplegate; but better preferment was in store for him. He was in July 1660 installed dean of Chichester and master of the hospital there; he was also sworm chaplain-in-ordinary to the king, and appointed dean of Windsor (and Wolverhamton) being installed on 3 September 1660. He became scribe of the order of the Garter in the following January and was shortly afterwards presented to the rectories of Haseley and Oxon, and Acton in Middlesex. As administrator of the charity of the poor knights of Windsor, he had great difficulty in dealing with the many and conflicting appeals of decayed royalists.

He was the author of Mercurius Rusticus, or The Countries Complaint of the Barbarous Outrages Commited by the Sectaries of this Late Flourishing Kingdome, 1646.

The D. N. B. is not altogether correct insofar as concerns the movements of Dr Brune Ryves during the Civil War for it appears that in 1646 he was at Oxford when that city was surrendered to the forces of Parliament, having accompanied the King there upon his removal to Oxford in 1643. It is interesting to observe from the pass, appearing below, which was given him by Sir Thomas Fairfax, "Generall of the Forces raised by Parliament" that Dr. Ryves appears to have contemplated removing himselv "beyond the Seas," perhaps to Virginia.

Suffer the bearer hereof Brune Ryves, Doctor of Divinity and his majesties Chaplaine in ordinary who was in the City and Garrison of Oxford, at the Surrender thereof, and is to have the full benefit of the Articles agreed unto upon the Surrender quietly and without let or interuption to pass your Guards with his Servants, Horses, Armes, Goods, and all other necessaries, and to repaire unto London or elsewhere upon his necessary occasions. And in all places where he shall reside or whereunto he shall remove to e protected from any Violence to his Person, Goods, or Estate, according to the said Articles and to have full liberty at any time within Six Months to goe to any convenient Port and to Transport himselfe with his Servants, Goods, and Necessaries beyond the Seas. And in all other things to enjoy the Benefit of the said Articles. Hereunto due Obedience is to be given by all Persons whom it may concerne as they will answer the contrary. Given under my hand and Seale the 25th day of June 1646.

The dire straits to which his loyalty to the King had reduced Dr. Ryves are illustrated in a petition presented by him in December 1646 to the Committee for Compositions set up by Parliament at Goldsmith's Hall wherein it was set forth:

That your Petitioner being commanded by virtue of his oath at attend his Majesty as Chaplaine in Ordinary was in Oxford when that Garrison was surrendered on Articles Whereupon his Parsonage and estate have been sequestered for delinquency upon his adhering to the King against the Parliament of England.
Your Petitioner therefore humbly prayeth that he may be admitted to compound according to the Articles of Oxford. . . .

Dr. Ryves, however, was not destined to be left undisturbed; for, in a report made to the Commissioners for Compounding on 29 April 1648, the Dorset authorities announced that:

According to yours of the 22nd of March last wee have seized on the estate of . . . doctor Ryves . . . doctor Bruen Rives hath in this county only a
small coppie hold worth £14 per Annum in right of his wife during her life which he alledgeth that he hath no other meanes to maintaine himself his wife and children and is not worth to be sold £120.

At length on 7 August 1650 a fine of £20 was confirmed by the Commissioners at which time it was adjudged that:

His Delinquency that he deserted his dwellinge and went to Oxford and continued there whiles it was a Garrison holden for the Kinge against the Parliamente and adheered to his Majestie in this unnaturall Warre and was at Oxford at the tyme of the Surrender and is to have the benefit of those Articles as by Sir Thomas ffairfax certificate of the 25th of June 1646 doth appeare. He hath neither taken the Negative oath nor National Covenant but prayes to be spared upon the Articles of Oxford and vote of the howse of Commons pursuants he compounds upon a particular delivered in under his hand by which he doth submit to such fine and by which it doth appeare That he is seized of a ffrank tenement for two lives, of and in certaine Lands and Tenements lyinge and beinge in ffarthington in the county of Dorsett of the yeerley value before their troubles of £10

"He died at Windsor on the 13 July 1677 and was buried in the alley or isle joyning on the south side to his majesty's chappell of St. George there. Over his grave is this inscription on a marble fastened to the south wall:
BRUNUS RYVES, S. THEOLOGIAE PROFESSOR, REG. MAJESTATI A. SACRIS, LIBERARUM WINDSORENSIS ET WOLVERHAMPTONENSIS CAPELLARUM, A RESTI TUTIONE SERENISS CAROLI II REGIS DECANUS PRIMUS; NOBLISSIMI ORDINIS A PERISCELIDE SCRIBA.
FIDE ) (REGIS )
ZELO ) IN REBUS (ECCLESIAE) PROMOVENDIS
AFFECTU) (REGNI )
TOTO NUPERAE REBELLIONIS TEMPORE NEMINI SECUNDUS; CELEBERRIMIS HUJUS SECULI CONCIONARTORIBUS A PRIMO JUVENTUTIS FLORE AD EXTREMAM USQUE SENECTAM ANNUMERATUS, HIC SEPULTUS JACET, BEATAM EXPECTANS RESURRECTIONEM.
OBIIT JULII 13 AN. DOM. 1677 AETATIS SUAE 81." (Wood, Athena Oxon, iii)

He left a will the tenor of which attests a remarkably exalted mind and character and a heart of a purity to inspire emulation. However lengthy the text it is well worth reproduction: for it strikes the distinguishing notes of piety and goodness of heart, which so markedly characterized the family in England, and which were perpetuated in the family of Rives of Virginia.

P. C. C. 7 Reeve.
Dated 19 Jan. 1677.
Proved 12 Jan. 1678.
In the name of the most Holy and Blessed and glorious Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost three persons and one God, I Brune Ryves Dr in Divinity and Deane of His Maties ffree Chappell of St. George in the Castle of Windsor, being (I blesse God the Author of every good and perfect Guift) in reasonable Bodily health, of Perfect memory and such understanding as God in his mercy hath been pleased to give unto me Doe now make this my last will, being now upon the point of ffourscore yeares old. ... I bequeath my soule into the hands of God who created it humbly beseeching him to purge it from all its defilements and sinns in the Blood of my Saviour Jesus Christ the sonne of his love and to present it to himselfe without Spott and without Blemish through the meritts of his most pretious death and passion. For my Body I commit it in trust to the Earth from whence it was taken which having been the instrument of many sinnes committed to the dishonor of God deserves noe other Buryall than that of an Asse (as the Prophet speaks) Drawne out and cast out of the Gates of the Citty yet to comply with human decency I leave to the discretion of my Executor ... to dispose of it as he shall think fitt onely with this intimation that if I dye att Windsor lett my Body be buried in the South He of the Quier of the Chappell of Windsor neare to the place where my deare wife was buried there to rest in hope of a joyfull resurrection att the last day Amen Lord Jesus and Amen. For my temporall Estate which it hath pleased God in his goodnes to give unto me I doe hereby . . . give unto my sone Robert Sewell in consideration of his great paines taken for me £100 . . . unto my daughter Jane Sewell £200 which I doe appoint her husband to imploy to her proper use and her share of the divident. I give unto my grandchildren Brune Sewell, Rives Sewell, Jane Sewell, Katherine Sewell, Jonathan Sewell and Benjamin Sewell to each of them £100 and to the child which my daughter Sewell now goeth withal £100. ... I give unto my daughter Dorothy Cooke £100 besides her share in the divident of my estate. I give to my sonne Joseph Rives £100 . . . my sonne Thomas Ryves the money that he hath in stock for the trade which is nyne hundred and fifty pounds and more £100 besides. My will is that if the £1000 which was in Mr. Bing's hands can be recovered it shall be equally divided betweene all my six children. I give to my daughter Keate £10 a yeare out of Dunmow, my grandchild Katherine Keate £100, my grandchild Brune Keate £150, my kinswoman Grace Taylor £40, unto Thomas Taylor, son of Grace Taylor £100, to Peter Taylor and to James Taylor sonnes of Grace 40 s. each. I give unto the widdow Higs the Blind woman 20 s. unto the poore of the parishes of New Windsor, Acton and Haseby £10 to each parish to be distributed unto those that are aged impotent or have many children depending on them. I give unto the widow Katers of Haseby 40 s. to the widow Crow of Acton 20 s. unto my son Brune Ryves and to his wife and unto my son Robert Sewell and his wife and to my son Yonger Cooke and to his wife and to my sone Joseph Ryves and to my sone Thomas Ryves and to my daughter Katherine Keate and to my kinswoman Grace Taylor unto each of them £10 for mourning. The remainder of my moneyes together with all my goods, Books, Plate, Lynnen, Hangings, Pewter, Bedds . . . Horses, Coaches . . . shall be divided amongst my six children. ... I give unto all my servants mourning at the discretion of my executor and half a years wages. I give unto my servant Charles Bishop £5. Whereas I am possessed of the lease of a parsonage and manor of Much Dunmowe, co. Essex. ... I give to my son Joseph Rives £30 yearly out of it, to my daughter Katherine Keate £10 a year, to Thomas, Peter and James Taylor, the sons of James Taylor deceased late chapter clerke to the Reverend Dean and Cannons of his Matte8 free Chappell of St. George att Windsor to each of them £5 yearley until the age of 21. (If the mortgage on the parsonage and manor should be paid off by the Mortgagees lump sum payments are to be made instead of the above annual £5) I appoint my loving son Brune Ryves executor and for his paines give him £100 and the hangings in the Great Chamber where the Duke of York doth lodge with the furniture of the chamber. And I doe conjure him as he will answer it unto God att the Great and Terrible day of our Lord Jesus Christ when he shall judge both the Quicke and the dead and as he hopes for a blessing on himselfe and his children carefully and conscientiously to fulfill this my last will in every particular and to discharge this Trust reposed in him by me to the uttermost of his power ana to have Bowells of love and kindness towards his Brothers and Sisters. And I doe charge all my children before God and his holy Angels that they doe live together in love and Brotherly affections one towards another Remembering as that strict account which at the last day they must give to God of all their actions Soe likewise not forgetting that they are Brothers and Sisters the children of the same ffather and the same mother. And when I am dead lett not this Admonition ( By which though I be dead I yet speake) be buried with me. But let it sinke downe in their hearts and make such deep impressions on their souls that they may withstand and conquer all temptations to the contrary And God who is the God of peace and in whose hands the hearts of all men are, incline their hearts to peace and to live in the fear of God in obedience and conformity to the Church of England Blessing God they were born in it the best Established and the most orthodox church in the world in which God grant they may live in Justice love and charity with all men Amen. Item. Having omitted before I doe give unto my grandchild Robert Sewell £50. One of the lesser silver tankards I do give unto my daughter Keate and the other to my daughter Cooke and my Gold watch and my Gold seale and my owne Picture and my wife's Picture I doe give unto my son Brune Ryves. I doe interest my good ffreind and Brother Dr. John Durell, Prebend of Windsor and my loveing son Robert Sewell and Giles Duncomb Esq to be overseers of this my last will. I give each of them 40 s. to buy them rings. . . . And the God of mercy through the Blood of his beloved son Jesus Christ and the Guidance of the Holy Spirit bring us all to his Eternall Kingdom of Glory, Even so come quickly Lord Jesus, come quickly, Amen and Amen. Witnesses : Edward Fulham, Jo. Butler, John Sewell.

Dr. Brune Ryves married Katherine or Kate, daughter of Sir Richard Waldram, of Charley, co. Leicester, knight (Hutchins), probably of the same family into which his first cousins, Sir William and Sir Thomas Ryves married. On 2 August 1650 she is found addressing a petition as "Katherine the Wife of Brune Ryves Doctor of Divinitie" to "the honorble Commesseoners for the honorable house of Parliament at Goldsmithes Hall" :
That your petitioners husband had an estate in spirituall meanes of six hundred pounds per annum hee being a chaplen to the late King (but never in Armes) that whole estate was taken from him & your Petitioners Husband having only £40 per Annum in Land in Ireland which came by her father which hath bin taken from them & is detayned by the Rebells there and alsoe a Coppie hold Tennement for her life lying in forthington in the Countie of Dorset worth eight pounds per Annum of which shee payes quit Rent and all Taxes : Your Petitioner humbly sheweth that this smale Tenement is all the meanes your petitioner & her husband hath to mayntayne themselves & six small children which estate in the said Tennement is not worth to be sould above £100. . . . Your petitioner doth humbly Desire your honors the premises considered to grant your petitioner an order to Injoy the same other wise shee and her children will be in great distrese. . . . (State Papers, Dom., Interregnum, Vol. G, cxiii, fol. 695.)

She died about 1667 when letters of administration were granted "Brune Ryves Professor of Sacred Theology and husband of the said Kate Ryves late of New Windsor (Admn. Act Book, April 1667, fol. 33).

According to Dr. Brune Ryves' will and the petition of his wife above quoted, dated 2 August 1650, he had "six small children."

The following supplements and adds detail to some of the information above:

As with the majority of the Ryves family at this time, Bruno (or Brune or Bruen as the ODNB says he preferred to be called) was a staunch royalist and in around 1640 became Chaplain to Charles I. He joined the King in Oxford as a member of his council of war and initiated the publication of a Royalist newsletter as one of the authors and editor: 'Mercurious Rusticus; or the Countries Complaint of the Barbarous Outrages committed by the Sectaries of this late flourishing Kingdom'. This represented one of the first magazines in history, with nineteen editions being published. Mercurius Rusticus provoked a Parliamentary response in the form of a similar magazine produced by George Wither.

Being of Puritan persuasion, the parishioners of Stanwell petitioned against him in July 1642; he lost the parish with immediate effect and a parliamentary preacher was appointed to replace him. He appears to have been forcibly evicted from his residence, with his wife, his four children and all his family being taken from the house. All his belongings were seized and he was left with little choice but to spend what was a wet and cold night sheltering under a hedge. Lord Arundel, upon hearing of what had happened to such a 'pious a gentlemen' sent his coach with men and horses to find him. They brought him to Wardour Castle, where Bruno found refuge for some time.

In June 1646, Bruno became Dean of Chichester, where he is still represented in a stained glass window. However, he still remained in seclusion and dependent upon charity at Shafton in Dorset until the execution of Charles I. In the same year and as referenced above, he was issued with a pass by Sir Thomas Fairfax enabling him to travel freely. This pass was no doubt useful when he travelled to France to deliver funds to the future Charles II which included £100 from Sir Lancelot Lake in order for Charles to redeem his plate out of pawn. During the period of the Commonwealth, Bruno would appear to occupied himself with the printing of Bibles in 'oriental tongues' and he was granted licences to import 8,000 reams of paper specifically for this purpose.

In acting as the administrator for the Poor Knights of Windsor he was required to deal with many and conflicting appeals and petitions of royalists who had suffered as a result of the civil war and the rule of Parliament.

In January 1662, there was unusual turn in the weather, with a mid-summer heat occurring in the middle of winter. Bruno formulated the view that this was punishment from God. Preaching before the House of Commons at St Margaret's he took as his text Joshua vii, 12 which he said showed how the neglect of exacting justice on offenders. By this he insinuated that the effective reprieve of those of those who had been involved in the execution of Charles I (although they remained imprisoned in the Tower of London) had invoked the wrath of God.

Although Rector of Acton, Bruno did not live there, deciding instead to appoint a drunken curate who he instructed to persecute Richard Baxter. Baxter had been drawing large audiences to his sermons in defiance of the Conventicle Act. It was by an unpopular application of this Act that Baxter was convicted and received six months' imprisonment in 1668. Baxter, probably correctly, attributed his misfortune to his absentee Rector, Bruno, who he felt had grown 'hard and sour'. By now, even Sir Matthew Hale had little time for Bruno.

In the spring of 1675, as dean of Windsor, Bruno summoned thirty men and women (presumably resident in the castle precincts) to appear before him to answer to certain allegations made against them. Their offences were not specified, but if they were unable to clear their names, then sentence of excommunication would follow. It would seem that they were neglecting to take the sacraments of the Church of England, and were possibly leaning towards Rome. In the England of Charles II, this was still a serious matter, if not such a desperate one as had been the case under Elizabeth I.

The names of the thirty “miscreants” are recorded in the Register of Wills, 1662-1735, contained in the St George’s Chapel archives, and further entries shed light on the treatment of those bold enough to proclaim allegiance to Roman Catholicism. As far as we can tell from the record, most of those summoned were able to clear their names. However, one lady, Jane Greene, wife of Matthew Greene, refused to appear before the dean on the appointed day. Bruno Ryves’ response was to pronounce sentence of excommunication against her on 23 April 1675. Jane then petitioned the dean to be absolved from the sentence and agreed to answer the charges made against her. He duly absolved her in August. This matter was not over however. In October 1675, Jane was again summoned by the dean “ to answere unto severall Articles which were objected against her.” Furthermore, she was ordered to receive the holy sacrament or else face another sentence of excommunication. In brief, she refused to comply, and as the register entry puts it, “ the said Jane Greene is revolted from the Church of England over to the Church of Roome Rome.” And so Bruno Ryves pronounced the sentence of excommunication against her on 10 December 1675. After this her life is likely to have been one of some difficulty and social ostracism.

We know that in later life, Bruno was 'miserably afflicted' with gout, such that he said he was 'not able to set either foot to the ground'. An insight into Bruno's 'crotchety' nature in old age and his sarcastic wit is given by his letter to Sir Joseph Williamson of 29th March 1675:

"I was not a little surprised with yours of the 25th, not knowing which to account the greater, my gratitude or my wonder that, in the midst of your weighty engagements, you should fasten on any opportunity to cast a thought towards so decayed, so worthless a person, as I am. I have now almost served my generation, and I cannot but account this vouchsafement of yours as no small part of the temporal reward of it. I look on it as a precious ointment to embalm me to my burial to be thus valued by Sir Joseph Williamson, and let it be the epitaph on my grave. "

Sources

Childs, James Rives. Reliques of the Rives, p61-68
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB)

"The Civil War in Hampshire" by G N Godwin revised edition published 1904 page 59.
Available online at http://www.archive.org/details/civilwarinhampsh00godwrich and in PDF at http://ia700307.us.archive.org/0/items/civilwarinhampsh00godwrich/civilwarinhampsh00godwrich.pdf

Additional biographical data from:
St George's Chapel Archives & Dean & Canons of Windsor
Understanding Popular Violence in the English Revolution: The Colchester Plunderers - John Walter, Cambridge University Press, 1999
Bruno Ryves, letters to Elias Ashmole, 14 December 1668, Bodleian Library
Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II - volume 66: Undated 1662,Pages 610-632
Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Interregnum, 1655
Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1675-6