Born in
Blandford Forum,
Dorset,
England, Bastard is best known for seven books of 285 epigrams entitled
Chrestoleros published in 1598. He initially attended
Winchester College. Subsequently he began studying at
New College, Oxford, on 27 August 1586. By 1588, he was assigned as a perpetual Fellow of New College. Though later expelled from his Fellowship, Bastard still received a
BA in 1590, and an
MA 16 years later in 1606. Bastard became notorious for libeling the sexual doings of various
Oxford clergy and academics via a published tract entitled
An Admonition to the city of Oxford, &c. Despite disavowing authorship, he was nonetheless expelled from his Oxford fellowship in 1591. He still maintained a few supporters and admirers, primarily,
Sir Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy who appointed him as a
chaplain, and
Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk who appointed him
vicar of
Bere Regis and later, in 1606, Rector of Almer in Dorset. Bastard was married three times. He died impoverished in the
debtor's prison at Allhallows parish,
Dorchester, and was buried in parish churchyard. ==Death==