scholar at King's College, Cambridge, on 25 Aug. 1559, and became a fellow on 26 Aug. 1562; he graduated B.A. in 1563, M.A. in 1567, and resigned his fellowship in 1567. Hartwell published: 1. 'Regina Literata sive de Serenissimæ Dominæ Elizabethæ … in Academiam Cantabrigiensem adventu, &c. Anno 1564, Aug. 5. Narratio Abrahami Hartvelli Cantabrigiensis,' London, 1565, 8vo. Two long Latin letters to the reader and to Walter Haddon are prefixed to the poem, which is in elegiacs, containing over fifteen hundred lines: a few Latin epigrams on the subject of the queen's visit conclude the volume. One of these epigrams and two extracts from the poem were printed in G. Harvey's 'Gratulationum Valdinensium Libri Quatuor,' London, 1578, i. 2, ii. 5, iii. 3. 2. 'A Sight of the Portugall Pearle, that is The Aunswere of D. Haddon Maister of the requests unto our soveraigne , Lady Elizabeth … against the epistle of Hieronimus Osorius a Portugall, entitled a Pearle for a Prince. Translated out of lattyn into Englishe by Abraham Hartwell, Student in the kynges colledge in Cambridge,' London, 8vo, n.d. This tract contains an epistle 'To Mayster Shacklock' (translator of Osorius's 'Pearl'), and a preface dated Cambridge, 27 May 1565, besides some distichs of Latin verse. 3. Nearly a hundred lines of elegiacs in memory of Paul Fagius, published in the university collection of verses on the restitution of the remains of Bucer and Fagius in 1560; they are to be found also in 'Martini Buceri Scripta Anglicana,' Basle, 1577,p. 954. 4. A few elegiacs prefixed to 'G. Haddoni … Lucubrationes,' London, 1567. 5. Nearly sixty lines, 'In Sanct. Martyrum Historiam,' prefixed to the second edition of J. Foxe's 'Acts and Monuments,' 1570. Some verses found in Robert Hacomblene's' Commentarii in Aristotelis Ethica,' manuscript in King's College Library, have been ascribed to Hartwell, Cooper thinks wrongly. Four Latin lines by Thomas Newton (in his 'Illustrium aliquot Anglorum Encomia,' 1589), addressed to Abraham Hartwell the younger [q. v.], speak of the elder as a distinguished poet lately dead.
[Hartwell's Works; Harwood's Alumni Eton. p. 174; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 383, where the two Hartwells are confused.]
HARTWELL, ABRAHAM, the younger (fl. 1600), translator and antiquary, speaks of himself in the ‘Epistle Dedicatorie’ of his translation of Soranzo's ‘History,’ dated 1 Jan. 1603, as in his ‘Quinquagenarian yere of Jubile.’ This would make 1553 the year of his birth, and he is probably identical with the Abraham Hartwell of Trinity College, Cambridge, who graduated B.A. in 1571 and M.A. in 1575, and was incorporated M.A. at Oxford in 1588 (Wood, Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 245). Previous biographers have confounded this Abraham Hartwell with Abraham Hartwell (fl. 1565) [q. v.], author of ‘Regina Literata’ in 1564. At Trinity College the younger Hartwell apparently attracted the notice of Whitgift, who made him his secretary. We first hear of him in this capacity in 1584 (Strype, Whitgift, i. 323). Three translations by him from the Italian are dedicated to Whitgift, ‘at your Graces in Lambhith.’ He published: 1. ‘The History of the Warres betweene the Turkes and the Persians. Written in Italian by John Thomas Minadoi,’ London, 1595, 4to. The volume contained ‘a new Geographicall Mappe.’ Minadoi's ‘Epistle to the Reader’ is translated by Hartwell with the title ‘the Author's,’ and has given rise to the groundless notion that Hartwell was a traveller. 2. ‘A Report of the Kingdome of Congo, a Region of Africa. And of the Countries that border rounde about the same. … Drawen out of the writings and discourses of Odoardo Lopez, a Portingall, by Philippo Pigafetta,’ London, 1597, 4to. The ‘Epistle to the Reader’ tells that this translation was undertaken at the request of R. Hakluyt; the volume contains several cuts. It has been reprinted in ‘Purchas his Pilgrimes,’ &c., pt. ii. 1625, and in ‘A Collection of Voyages and Travels,’ vol. ii. 1745. 3. ‘The Ottoman of Lazaro Soranzo. Wherein is delivered … a full and perfect report of the might and power of Mahomet the third, … as also a true Description of divers peoples, Countries, Citties, and Voyages, which are most necessarie to bee knowen, especially at this time of the present Warre in Hungarie,’ London, 1603, 4to. A chance question of the archbishop's about Turkish ‘Bassaes and Visiers’ was the occasion of this translation. 4. ‘A True Discourse upon the matter of Martha Brossier of Romorantin, pretended to be possessed by a Divell,’ London, 1599, 4to, from the French. The dedication to Richard Bancroft, bishop of London, explains that the cases of possession and witchcraft at Nottingham which, in his capacity of secretary to the archbishop, Hartwell had become acquainted with had suggested this translation to him (ib. ii. 341; Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 380). Hartwell was the last member admitted into the old Society of Antiquaries (Archæologia, vol. i. Introd.) Two short papers which he wrote for the society are printed in Hearne's ‘Curious Discourses,’ London, 1771; they are entitled ‘Of Epitaphs’ (ii. 375), and ‘Of the Antiquity, Variety,
