Elizabeth. Caleb went to Fort St. George in the East Indies, where he married, and had two sons, Abraham and Isaac; the elder of whom came to England with the late governor Harrison, but returned upon advice of his father's death, and whether he or his brother be now living is uncertain. Elizabeth, the youngest child of Mrs. Clarke, was married to Mr. Thomas Foster a weaver in Spital Fields, and had seven children who are all dead; and she herself is aged about sixty, and week and infirm. She seemeth to bě a. good plain sensible woman, and has confirmed several particulars related above, and informed me of some others, which she had often heard from her mother: that her grandfather lost two thousand pounds by a money-scrivener, whom he had intrusted with that sum, and likewise an estate at Westminster of sixty pounds a year, which belonged to the Dean and Chapter, and was restored to them at the Restoration; that he was very temperate in his eating and drinking, but what he had he always loved to have of the best: that he seldom went abroad in the latter part of his life, but was visited even then by persons of distinction, both foreigners and others: that he kept his daughters at a great distance, and would not allow them to learn to write, which he thought unnecessary for a woman; that her mother was his greatest favourite, and could read in seven or eight languages, though she under, stood none but English: that her mother inherited his head-aches and disorders, and had such a weakness in her eyes, that she was forced to make use of spectacles from the age of eighteen; and she herself, she says, has not been able to read a chapter in the Bible these twenty years: that she was mistaken in informing Mr. Birch, what he had printed upon her authority, that Milton's father was born in France; and a brother of hers who was then living was very angry with her for it, and like a true-born Englishman resented it highly, that the family should be thought to bear any relation to France: that Milton's second wife did not die in childbed, as Mr. Philips and Toland relate, but above three months after of a consumption; and this too Mr. Birch relates upon her authority; but in this particular she must be mistaken as well as in the other, for our author's sonnet on his deceased wife plainly implies, that she did die in childbed. She knows nothing of her aunt Philips or Agar's descendants, but believes that they are all extinct: as is likewise Sir Christopher Milton's family, the last of which, she says, were two maiden sisters, Mrs. Mary and Mrs. Catharine Milton, who lived and died at Highgate; but unknown to her, there is a Mrs. Milton living in Grosvenor street, [A. D. 1749,] the granddaughter of Sir Christopher, and the daughter of Mr. Thomas Milton before mentioned and she herself is the only survivor of Milton's own family, unless there be some in the East Indies, which she very much questions, for she used to hear from them sometimes, but has heard nothing now for several years; so that in all probability Milton's whole family will be extinct with her, and he can live only in his writings. And such is the caprice of fortune, this granddaughter of a man, who will be an everlasting glory to the nation, has now for some years with her husband kept a little chandler's or grocer's shop for their subsistence, lately at the lower Holloway in the road between Highgate and London, and at present in Cock Lane, not far from Shoreditch church. An Of Sir C. Milton's daughters it is stated in a note signed H, Lives of the Poets, ed. 1794, that they were both "living at Hollo"way, about the year 1734, and "at that time possessed such a "degree of health and strength "as enabled them on Sundays "and prayer-days to walk a mile up a steep hill to Highgate σε Chapel. One of these was "ninety-two at the time of her "death. Their parentage was "known to few, and their names were corrupted into Melton." Mr. Todd discovered in the parish registers of Allhallows, Bread-street, entries of the baptism of two other sisters of Milton younger than Anne. But one of these, and probably the other, died an infant. The lives of Edward and John Philips have been lately written by W. Godwin; but it has not. been ascertained whether either of them left children. Mr. Godwin supposes that E. Philips, the elder brother, died about 1696, and John, not till after 1706. They were both of them authors by profession, and there is a very long catalogue of their writings and translations, most of which however are now neglected. E. Philips appears to have been a man of respectable character; but his brother was thoroughly profligate and unprincipled. They both quitted their uncle's political party early in life. Of Milton's direct descendants a few particulars may yet be stated. In April, 1750, Comus was 1 acted for the benefit of Mrs. Foster. Dr. Johnson, who wrote the prologue, says, " she had so "little acquaintance with diver"sion or gaiety, that she did not "know what was intended when a benefit was offered her." The receipts of the house Mr. Todd ascertained to have been only £147. 14s. 6d. from which £80. were deducted for the expences; but Dr. Newton brought a large contribution, and £20. were given by Tonson the bookseller. And thus I presume the profits of the night were increased by subsequent contributions to £130. which Dr. Johnson and others say Mrs. Foster received; and with this little addition to their fortunes, she and her husband removed to Islington, where they both soon died; Mrs. Foster's death took place May 9, 1754. One of her brothers Mr. Urban Clarke was known to Dr. Birch in 1737. He was also a weaver, and died without children at the house of his sister, Mrs. Foster. In the Edinburgh Review, October, 1815, p. 493, I find it stated, professedly from an examination of the parish register of Fort St. George, that Caleb Clarke, who seems to have been parish-clerk of that place, from 1717 to 1719, was buried there Oct. 26, 1719. He had three children born at Madras; Abraham, baptized June 2d, 1703; Mary, baptized March 17th, and buried Dec. 15th, 1706; Isaac, baptized, Feb. 13, 1711. Of Isaac no further account appears. Abraham in 1725 married Anna Clarke, and the baptism of his other thing let me mention, that is equally to the honour of the present age. Though Milton received not above ten pounds at two different payments for the copy of Paradise Lost, yet Mr. Hoyle author of the treatise on the Game of Whist, after having disposed of all the first impression, sold the copy to the bookseller, as I have been informed, for two hundred guineas. As we have had occasion to mention more than once Milton's manuscripts preserved in the library of Trinity College in Cambridge, it may not be ungrateful to the reader, if we give a more particular account of them, before we conclude. There are, as we said, two draughts of a letter to a friend who had importuned him to take orders, together with a sonnet on his being arrived to the age of twenty-three: and by there being two draughts of this letter with several alterations and additions, it appears to have been written with great care and deliberation; and both the draughts have been published by Mr. Birch in his Historical and Critical Account of the life and writings of Milton. There are also several of his poems, Arcades, At a solemn music, On time, Upon the circumcision, the Mask, Lycidas, with five or six of his sonnets, all in his own daughter Mary is registered April 2d, 1727. With her all notices of this family cease. But the Reviewer remarks, that as neither Abraham nor Isaac Clarke died at Madras, and Abraham was only twenty-four years of age at the baptism of his daughter, it is probable that the family migrated to some other part of India, and that some trace of them may yet be discovered. I heard however from Sir James Mackintosh that he took pains, when he resided in India, to ascertain whether any remained there of the family of Milton's grandson, and that his conclusion was that the family was extinct. E. e Dr. Newton also has given them in the notes on Sonnet vii. E. hand-writing: and there are some others of his sonnets written by different hands, being most of them composed after he had lost his sight. It is curious to see the first thoughts and subsequent corrections of so great a poet as Milton: but it is remarkable in these manuscript poems, that he doth not often make his stops, or begin his lines with great letters. There are likewise in his own hand-writing different plans of Paradise Lost in the form of a tragedy: and it is an agreeable amusement to trace the gradual progress and improvement of such a work from its first dawnings in the plan of a tragedy to its full lustre in an epic poem. And together with the plans of Paradise Lost there are the plans or subjects of several other intended tragedies, some taken from the Scripture, others from the British or Scottish histories: and of the latter the last mentioned is Macbeth, as if he had an inclination to try his strength with Shakespeare; and to reduce the play more to the unities, he proposes beginning at the "arrival of Malcolm at Macduff; the matter of Duncan 66 66 may be expressed by the appearing of his ghost." These manuscripts of Milton were found by the learned Mr. Professor Mason among some other old papers, which, he says, belonged to Sir Henry Newton Puckering, who was a considerable benefactor to the library: and for the better preservation of such truly valuable reliques, they were collected together, and handsomely bound in a thin folio by the care and at the charge of a person who is now very eminent in his profession, and was always a lover of the Muses, and at that time a fellow of Trinity College, Mr Clarke, one of his Majesty's counsel. |