Edward Hoby

James Stewart, Earl of Arran also wrote to the same effect, and enclosed a "small token", which he begged Hoby to wear in "testimony of their brotherhood".

That October he complained that he had been "not only bitten but overpassed by the hard hand of" Francis Walsingham, and appealed to Secretary William Davison to use his influence with the queen on his behalf.

[1] Hoby accompanied the Earl of Essex on his expedition to Cádiz in 1596, and was made constable of Queenborough Castle, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, on 9 July 1597.

On the following 28 October Hoby received a commission to search out and prosecute all offences against the statute prohibiting the exportation of iron from England, his reward being half the forfeitures arising therefrom.

James I made him a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, forgave his arrears of rent of the Royal Manor of Shirland in Derbyshire (amounting to over £500), and on 21 August 1607 granted him an exclusive licence to buy wool in Warwickshire and Staffordshire.

[1] In 1612 Hoby presented a copy of Sir Henry Savile's sumptuous edition of St Chrysostom to the library of Trinity College, Oxford.

Hoby was also a keen Protestant theologian, sparring in print with the Roman Catholic convert Theophilus Higgons and the Jesuit John Fludd or Floyd.