Charles Fitzgeoffrey was an Elizabethan poet and clergyman. Fitzgeoffrey was born in Cornwall, the son of a Protestant clergyman named Alexander Fitzgeoffrey (a surname sometimes spelled Fitzgeffrey), who was Rector of the parish of St Fimbarrus, Fowey. His father died during Charles's childhood, perhaps while he was around eight years old, and his mother then married into the distinguished Mohun family, which gave her son financial and social security. After early schooling under the Rev. Richard Harvey, at seventeen Fitzgeoffrey went up to Oxford University, matriculating at Broadgates Hall on 3 July 1593. Fitzgeoffrey was admitted B.A. in 1597 and M.A. in 1600, but had apparently left Oxford by 1599. It is not immediately clear where he went or what he did, though verses in Affaniae make reference to a time spent in Wiltshire, where he had relatives named Bellott; and also to a severe illness which he suffered about this period. Elsewhere in his verse Fitzgeoffrey also alludes to a disability: he had the sight of only one eye.
Also known as
Clergyman
