HENRY, the unfortunate secretary of the unfortunate Earl of Essex, was born at Hinton St George, in Somersetshire, about the year 1580, and descended of a respectable family, who were possessed of considerable estates in that county. In 1576 he was entered of Trinity College, Oxford, where he soon acquired considerable reputation as a Greek scholar and disputant. He obtained a fellowship in the above-mentioned college; but he was subsequently expelled for speaking disrespectfully of the founder. He was, however, soon afterwards admitted of Merton College, of which, in 1586, he was elected probationer, and in 1588 fellow. In this year he took the degree of master of arts. Some time afterwards he was elected professor of Greek, and in 1594 appointed proctor of the university. It is uncertain when he left Oxford; nor are we better informed as to the means of his introduction to the Earl of Essex. When that nobleman, however, was made lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Mr Cuff was appointed his secretary, and continued intimately connected with his lordship until his confinement in the tower; and he is generally supposed to have advised those violent measures which ended in their mutual destruction. The earl indeed confessed as much before his execution, and charged Cuff to his face with being the author of all his misfortunes. The unlucky secretary was tried for high treason, convicted, and executed at Tyburn on the 30th of March 1601. Lord Bacon, Sir Henry Wotton, and Camden, speak of him in very harsh terms. But he was certainly a man of learning and abilities. He wrote two books: the one entitled The Differences of the Ages of Man's Life; the other De Rebus Gestis in Sancto Concilio Niceno. The first was published after his death, but the second is still in manuscript.