Storia do Mogor 46.1.1

46.1.1

Manucci's Lord Bellomont is an historical personage, a Cavalier whose biography will be found under his name (Henry Bard) in the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' vol. iii., p. 175. That account, in spite of its giving much interesting information, cannot be called satisfactory, being in many places not only deficient, but incorrect. The most important points are : (1) Erroneous year of birth ; (2) omission of Bard's doings in Persia and India ; (3) erroneous place and year of death. First, then, as to the year of Bard's birth. He was born at Staines, Middlesex, where his father, the Rev. George Bard, was Vicar (died 1616) ; but I am informed by the present Vicar, the Rev. S. Theodore Wood, that the earliest parish records date from 1644 ; nor is there any register at Eton College of a date early enough to show when H. Bard entered and left that school. Fortunately, through the kindness of Mr. W. H. Macaulay, M.A., of King's College, Cambridge, I have obtained a valuable note drawn up by Mr. J. C. Clarke, the bursar's clerk. From this it appears that Bard was admitted a scholar on August 23, 1632, at the age of sixteen ; thus the year of birth must have been 1615 or 1616, and not 1604, as in the 'Dictionary of National Biography.' On August 24, 1635, he was admitted a Fellow, took his degree of B.A. in 1636, and ceased to be a Fellow at Michaelmas, 1645 (no doubt owing to his marriage). There is no record of his proceeding M.A. In a MS.