[from Manx Soc vol 16]

SAMUEL RUTTER, BISHOP OF SODOR AND MAN.

HE was probably a native of Lancashire, and was educated at Westminster school, and elected thence, in the year 1623, to Christ Church, Oxford; nominated Archdeacon of Man in 1640 ; appointed Prebendary of Longden, in the cathedral of Lichfield, being M.A., 24th November 1660; and confirmed Bishop of Sodor and Man 5th October 1661; he was consecrated March 24, 1660-1, the last day of the Restoration year. He was domestic chaplain to the seventh Earl of Derby, and had his entire confidence. He was present at the first siege of Lathom House, and was the chosen friend counsellor, and afterwards chaplain, of the noble-minded Countess, during all her troubles, and it was principally through her influence that he succeeded to the bishopric. He was grave and devout, temperate and dignified, and unfortunately was worn out, though not an old man, when he became a bishop, and died in the Isle of Man on the 30th May 1662 (according to Le Reve), while Seacome says he died in 1663. (see Stanley Papers, part iii. vol. i. pp. cxxx.-ii., note; Chetham Society), in which is his portrait from the original painting by W. Dobson, in Lord Derby's collection at Knowsley.

Browne Willis, in his Survey of the Cathedrals, London, 4to, 1727, p. 369, says, "he had, An. 1660, been collated to the Prebend of Longden, in the church of Lichfield, by the title of Bishop of Sodor, which I find became vacant by his death An. 1663."

I have by me a copy of the ratification of the commission, taken from the Ecclesiastical Records, appointing Richard Sherlock and Samuel Hinde commissioners to manage the ecclesiastical affairs of the archdeaconry ; this is dated " Feby. 8, 1661," and signed " SAM. SODOR."

He was interred in the chancel of St. German's Cathedral in Peel Castle, with the following inscribed,on a brass plate, said to have been written by himself -

In hae domo quam a vermiculis
Accepi (confratribus meis) spe
Resurrectionis ad vitam,
Jaceo Sam. permissione divinâ,
Episcopus hujus Insulae.
Siste lector-vide, ae ride
Palatum Episcopi!
Objit xxx die mende Maii 1662!'*

Thus translated

In this house which I have borrowed from the worms
(my brethren), in the hope
of a resurrection unto life,
lie I Sam. by divine permission,
Bishop of this Island.
'Stop, reader-behold, and smile at the Palace of a Bishop!
who died the 30th day of May 1662.This brass was for many years missing, and supposed to have been stolen, but in 1844 it was discovered in the well near the fort of the castle, and is now preserved at Bishop's Court There appears to have been another brass on the same stone, of an oval form, probably an armorial bearing; this brass is still missing. Round the edges of the stone which covers his remains is the following in raised letters

SAMVEL RVTTER
LORD BISHOP
OF SODOR AND MAN 1661

This stone is four-feet long by three feet broad, and bears on its face the impress where the brasses above mentioned were inserted

Bishop Rutter wrote numerous pieces of poetry for the Earl of Derby's amusement, but not many of them have been published. One collection is entitled, " A Choice Collection of Songs, composed by Archdeacon Ryter (afterwards Bishop of Sodor and Mann), for the amusement and diversion of the Right Hon. James, Earl of Derby, during his retreat into his Island of Man, in the time of the Oliverian usurpation." One song is entitled " Ubonia's Praise," (this is printed at page 75[sic 76] of this volume) ; another, " The Little Quiet Nation, being a prologue to the play acted in Castle Rushen before the Right Hon. James, Earl of Derby, to divert his pensive spirit and deep concern for the calamity of his country, occasioned by the grand rebellion began Anno 1641." Another, styled, " Threnodia, or Elegiac Song on the direful elfects of the grand rebellion, with a prophetic view of the downfall and catastrophe thereof, composed by the reverend author on Scarlet Rocks , near Castletown." In the Stanley .Papers, paxt iii. vol ii. of the Chetham Series 1867, p. ccclxxxvi, will be found a piece taken from the 4to MS. vol. at Knowsley, entitled " To the Glorious Memory of the Blessed Martyr, James, Earle of Derby," signed S. R .

+This date is most probably an error of the engraver for 1663.

[A fuller biography is given by A.W.Moore in Manx Note Book vol ii no.8 p159; more of Rutter's Ballads may be found in Manx Ballads ]

The following, although not relating to the Isle of Man, is given as a specimen of the Bishop's muse, having never before been published. The original is among the Townley papers, and was obligingly furnished me by Dr. Goss, Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool.

ATTORNEY BATED. BY S. RUTTER.

JANUS his gates were shut, and ye loud hall
At Westminster now made no noyse at all ;
Our huming Beese, so used to suck and sting,
Honey and wax fees and subpoenas bring
Home to theire country hives, and there they sit,
And laugh to think how little gold or witt
They left behind them. 'Mongst and his laden crew
Came riding an uncircumcisèd Jew
Of an inferior trybe, hight an Atturney;
He and his wiser cloke-bag tooke their journey
On 16 handful height of bone, I wis
He trotted downe in forma pauperis.
This jaw-fallen wrech was once a prancing beast,
Until he went to suit about a jest
Put on him by that gibeing rogue ye ass,
Only for saying it might come to pass
Yt he, though now ye judge's foot-cloath nagg,
Might ere he dy'd carry a buckram bagg.
For which ye ass was judged by ye laws
To wear his ears as long as was his cause.
This steed, thus piteously tir'd with jogging
From court to court, at last came pettifogging
With his most sinful load on ye highway,
And having learnt ye trick above, could stay
And stop at every foot find holes i' th' plaine,
And stumble and demur, and on againe.
Our man of law is got to Stone, and there
He gave his horse a sealed can of beare,
At which th' enraged, came forward so
As he had meant no less than overthrow
To ye towne-charter, till an officer
A mastive saw my gracies' sollicitor
At ye bull-ring, and with a throat as wide
As th' other's conscience, set on him, who cry'd
Ye statute, where's his muzzle--do ye call
This right for any out of terme to bawle
Ye simple dogg knew no such quiires in law,
But took this meager spare-ribbs for some raw
Boned cammett with a clokebag gibb on's back,
Flew out and tore it open; straight a crack
Of parchment rattles, and a greasy scent
Of sheep, but now no longer innocent,
Inflamed hot Cerberus, for there he saw
Ye black wolfe ink, with his foule ravenous paw,
Court-hand in cloathing of simplicity,
And hating such a smooth-faced subtilty,
Sans barkings or murmuring preambles,
Restored ye skin to th' flesh that hung i' th' shambles.
Our scrap of Clifford's Inn still cry'd ye peace,
And charg'd ye butcher he should see that lease
In ye dogg's mouth forth coming; No, cry'd he,
It's out if't were betwixt ye devill and thee.
With that he drew his sword, which had been ty'd
To ye behaviour and his quiet side, .
For cleaveing of a sergant scull to death,
Committed since close pris'ner to his sheath.
Wittness, good people, said-my Noverint,
How I am fore'd to try my cause by dint;
Then spurrd he on his weary demilance,
Charging ye butcher with flat maintenance
If he but made assistance, aid, or help,
Or offerd but to rescew his said whelp.
The timerous butcher trembled, and his grease
Meltingly dropt into faint thoughts of peace;
He was not now t'encounter with an ox,
But with a dreadfull minatour black box.
The mastive taken up, our grave habendum
Saw himself free from tusk and jaw tenendum,
He vowd he would at that same brave adventure
Make ye rude dogg all over an indenture
Unless,
The butcher would a judgement first confess,
In his dogg's name, to which when he agreed,
An execution was forthwith decreed
Against molossus, not to hang but stay
In's kennell, peacably each market day.
The butcher gave security yt he
Proedictus Attumatus should pass free
Without lett, hindrance, or molestation,
By dogg or doggs for ever thorough Stone.
As you like this, you foule-moutyd mastives, bawle,
For by these presents be it known to all.
That he shall dare t'appear, in his just ire,
Against ye proudest curre in Staffordshire.