He was the eldest son of Richard Aubrey, Esq. of
Burleton, Herefordshire, and Broad Chalk, Wiltshire. Being, according
to his own statement, "very weak, and like to dye," he was baptized
on the day of his birth, as appears by the Register of Kington. At an
early age (1633) he was sent to the Grammar School at Yatton Keynel,
and in the following year he was placed under the tuition of Mr.
Robert Latimer, the preceptor of Hobbes, a man then far advanced in
years.
On the 2nd of May, 1642, being then sixteen years of age, Aubrey was
entered a gentleman commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, where he
appears to have applied himself closely to study. He however cherished
a strong predilection for English History and Antiquities, which was
fostered and encouraged at this time by the appearance of the
"Monasticon Anglicanum", to which he contributed a plate of Osney
Abbey, an ancient ruin near Oxford, entirely destroyed in the Civil
Wars.
On the 16th of April, 1646, Aubrey was admitted a student of the
Middle Temple, but the death of his father shortly after, leaving him
heir to estates in Wiltshire, Surrey, Herefordshire, Brecknockshire
and Monmouthshire, obliged him to relinquish his studies and look to
his inheritance, which was involved in several law suits.
Though separated from his associates in the University, he appears to
have kept up a correspondence with several of them, and among others,
Anthony Wood, whom he furnished with much valuable information.
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