Hunnis, William

(d. 1597)

   English musician and poet who in 1549 was in the service of William Herbert, afterwards earl of Pembroke, and was appointed by Edward VI (15471553) as gentleman of the Chapel Royal. A staunch Protestant, in 1555 he was involved in an abortive plot to dethrone the Catholic Queen "Bloody" Mary and to and install Elizabeth. For his attempt to rob the treasury, he was he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but escaped execution. Elizabeth restored him to his position as gentleman of the Chapel Royal and appointed him supervisor of the Queen's Gardens at Greenwich, and in 1566, Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal. Two pieces by him appear in England's Helicon, 1600. Some of his publications (shortened titles): Certayne Psalmes chosen out of the Psalter of David, 1549. A Hyve full of Hunnye, contayning the firste booke of Moses, called Genesis, 1578. Seven Sobs of a Sorrowfull Soule for Sinne, 1583. Hunnies' Recreations, conteining foure godlie and compendious discourses, 1588. Some of his poems: "But Deliuer Vs from Euill," "The Songe of the Thre Children," "Our Father Which Art in Heauen."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Elizabethan Lyrics. Norman Ault, ed. William Sloane Associates, 1949. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.htm l). Texts of William Hunnis set to music (http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/h/hunnis/). Online Classic Encyclopedia-Love to Know (http://www.19.1911encyclopedia.org). Poets' Corner (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/golding1.html). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). William Hunnis: Certayne Psalmes (http://newmedia.alma.edu/ottenhoff/psalm51/hunnis.htm).