Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fabyan, Robert
FABYAN, ROBERT (d. 1513), chronicler, came of a respectable family in Essex. We gather from his will that his father's name was John, and his mother's Agnes. It would seem that he followed his father as a clothier in London, where he became a member of the Draper's Company and alderman of the ward of Farringdon Without. In 1493 he held the office of sheriff, and in 1496 was one of a committee appointed to lay before Henry VII the grievances of the London merchants as to the tolls imposed on their exports to Flanders (Rymer, Fœdera, xii. 648, 654). In 1498 he was one of those appointed to hold Newgate and Ludgate against the Cornish rebels who were encamped at Blackheath, and soon after was one of the commissioners to assess the fifteenth granted by parliament for war against Scotland. In 1503 he resigned his office of alderman on the ground that he was not rich enough to discharge the duties of the mayoralty. This, however, would seem to be a measure of extreme precaution, as his will (Ellis, Introduction, p. iii) shows that he was a man of considerable wealth. This wealth, however, was inherited from his wife Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John Pake, a London clothier, whom he married probably in 1485, as a deed of that date appoints trustees of John Pake's lands for the joint benefit of Fabyan and his wife. The lands, which were of considerable extent, lay in the parish of Theydon Garnon in Essex, and on them was a manor-house called Halstedys, of which no traces are now left (Brit. Mus. Additional Charter, 28925, printed in Historical Review, vol. iii.). Stow (Survey of London, ed. 1720, bk. ii. 145) mentions his epitaph in the church of St. Michael, Cornhill, and says that he died in 1511. The epitaph has now disappeared, but Bale says that he died on 28 Feb. 1512. His will was dated 11 July 1511, and was proved 12 July 1513, so that we may assume Bale's date to be accurate, and that he died on 28 Feb. 1513 (N.S.) His will is an excellent example of wills of the period, and is full of minute instructions about his funeral and his ‘moneth's minde,’ as well as the distribution of his property, of which the deed above referred to gives a minute description. From it we learn that he left a widow, four sons, and two daughters, who were survivors of a larger family, as he orders the figures of ten sons and six daughters to be set upon his tomb.
Fabyan was the first of the citizen chroniclers of London who conceived the design of expanding his diary into a general history. His work was called by himself ‘The Concordance of Histories,’ and, beginning with the arrival of Brutus, gave a general survey of the affairs of England, and in later times of France also. The first six books are brief, and reach to the Norman Conquest; the seventh book extends from the Norman Conquest to his own day. Fabyan was well acquainted with Latin and French, and shows a large knowledge of previous writers, but his object is to harmonise their accounts, and in so doing he shows no critical sagacity. He has not many merits as a writer, and is only valuable as an authority as he reaches his own time. From the accession of Richard I his book assumes the form of a London chronicle, and the years are divided by the names of the mayors and sheriffs. He has an eye for city pageantry, and gives details of many public festivities. Occasionally he breaks into verse, beginning his books with poems in honour of the Virgin; but he inserts a complaint of Edward II, which is in the style made familiar by the ‘Mirrour of Magistrates.’ Fabyan's verse is even ruder than his prose. As an historical authority his book is only valuable for a few details about the affairs of London, as he shows little sense of the general bearing of events.
Fabyan's work was first printed by Pynson in 1516 with the title ‘The New Chronicles of England and France,’ and this first edition is very rare. Bale says that the book was burnt by order of Cardinal Wolsey because it reflected upon the wealth of the clergy. There is nothing in its contents to bear out this assertion beyond its record of the Lollard petition of 1410. The first edition ends with the battle of Bosworth. The second edition, published by Rastell, 1533, contains a continuation reaching to the death of Henry VII, which seems from internal evidence to be Fabyan's work, but probably was held back at first as dealing with events which were too recent. The third edition, published by Reynes in 1542, was expurgated and amended to suit the ideas of the reformers. The fourth edition, published by Kingston in 1559, has a further continuation by another hand reaching to the accession of Elizabeth, in some copies reaching as far as 8 Jan. 1558–9 and in others to 8 May. The modern edition is that of Ellis, 1811.
[Bale's Summarium Scriptorum (1559 ed.), p. 642; Pits, Relationes Historicæ (1619 ed.), p. 690; Tanner's Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica (1748 ed.), p. 272. Ellis in his Introduction to his edition of the Chronicle prints Fabyan's will, which, with the deed in the Historical Review, vol. iii., gives us our chief knowledge of his personal life.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.119
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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