Savile, Henry, Sir (1549 -1622)

Sir Henry Savile was the second son of Henry Savile of Bradley in Yorkshire, himself the third son of another Henry Savile, hence the mullet as a mark of cadency in the arms, and Elizabeth, only daughter of Robert Ramsden. He was educated at Brasenose College Oxford, where he matriculated about 1561. He was elected a Fellow of Merton College, in 1565, and graduated B.A. in January 1566, and M.A. 3 February 1570. Proficient in Greek and Mathematics, he was made Warden of Merton College in 1585, and was appointed Provost of Eton by the Queen in 1596. He married, about 1592, Margaret, daughter of Charles Dacres of Cheshunt. They had a son and a daughter, but the son died in 1604. Knighted after a banquet given for the King at Eton 30 September 1604, he was among the scholars commissioned to prepare the authorized version of the Bible. A friend of Sir Thomas Bodley, Savile founded two Professorships at Oxford, one for Geometry and the other for Astronomy. A portion of his library and that of his elder brother, Sir John Savile, Baron of the Exchequer, was sold in London by S. Leigh, Sotheby & Wilkinson 19 December 1860 and 6 February 1861.