RAPHAEL, one of that humble but useful class of historians called chroniclers, was descended of a family which lived at Bosely in Cheshire; but neither the time nor place of his birth is known, nor indeed any other circumstance of his life. According to Bishop Tanner, he was educated at Cambridge, and became master of arts in the year 1544. But the nature and extent of his education, as well as his profession, are involved in uncertainty. It seems probable, however, that he was steward to Thomas Burdett, of Bomcote in Warwickshire, where he died about the year 1580. He has given his name to a compilation of Chronicles of English History from the earliest times, the first edition of which was published at London in 1577, in two volumes folio; and the second edition, in three volumes, was printed about seven years after his death, being brought down to 1586. This work, according to the testimony of Holinshed himself, was begun by the advice of Reginald Wolfe, printer to Queen Elizabeth. Part of it was compiled by himself; but he received considerable assistance from William Harrison, John Hooker, Abraham Fleming, Francis Thynne, and some others. After the death of Holinshed, it was continued by John Stowe. Some parts of the first edition were altered in the second and third, because they gave offence to Queen Elizabeth and the ministry, who laid many restrictions on the liberty of the press; but the censured sheets were reprinted apart in 1723. The first volume of the Chronicles opens with an Historical Description of the Island of Britain by William Harrison; and this is followed by the History of England, from the time when it was first inhabited until that when it was last conquered, by Holinshed himself. The second volume contains the Description, Conquest, Inhabitation, and troublesome Estate of Ireland, by Richard Stanihurst; the conquest of Ireland, translated from the Latin of Giraldus Cambrensis by John Hooker, or Vowell; the Chronicles of Ireland, beginning where Giraldus ended, by Holinshed; the Description of Scotland, translated from the Latin of Hector Boethius, by Holinshed and Harrison; and the History of Scotland, containing the beginning, increase, proceedings, continuance, acts and government of the Scottish nation, from the original thereof unto the year 1571, compiled by Holinshed, and continued from 1571 to 1586 by Francis Boteville and others. The third volume commences with Duke William the Norman, commonly called the Conqueror, "and descends by degrees of yecres to all the kings and queenes of England." As already mentioned, the time of Holinshed's death, like the date of his birth, is unknown; but from his will, which Hearne has prefixed to his edition of Camden's Annals, it would appear that it must have happened between 1578 and 1582.