William Austin

AUSTIN, William. b. 1587; d. 16 January 1633. He was a lawyer, described by his wife, Anne, as an ‘excellently accomplisht gentleman of Lincolnes-Inn, Esquire’ in the Preface to Devotionis Augustinianae Flamma (1635). This volume was published in 1635 ‘as a surviving monument of the great worth of her ever-honoured husband’. It contained what she called ‘certaine devout, godly, and learned meditations’. These were mainly in prose, on Christmas Day, Lent, Holy Thursday, and Good Friday. There are also meditations on Saints (Thomas, Michael, Bartholomew), and ‘The Authors Epicedium [lament], made by himself, upon himself’, a poem beginning Shall there be Nothing left me, but a Grave? Shall I...