of displeasure had the deceased against them? Et fiat ut fupra.

5. Item, Afke Mr. [Chriftopher] MILTON, and each other witneffe, whether the deceased's Will, if any fuch was made, was not, that the deceafed's wife should have £.1000, and the children of the faid Christopher MILTON the refidue; and whether she hath not promised him that they fhould have it, if thee prevailed in this Caufe? Whether the faid Mr. MILTON hath not fince the deceased's death confeffed foe much, or fome part thereof? Et fiat ut fupra.

6. Item, Afke each witneffe, whether what is left to the miniftrants by the faid Will is not reputed a very bad or altogether desperate debt1? Et fiat ut fupra.

to those principles; which, in preference to his own, they had received, or rather inherited, from their mother's family, who were noted and active royalifts. Afterwards, the defcription good livers is not to be understood in its general and proper sense, which could not have offended Milton; but as arifing from what went before, and meaning much the fame thing, that is, regular in their attendance on the established worship.

That, the marriage portion, promifed, but never paid, to JOHN MILTON, by Mr. Richard Powell, the father of his first wife; and which the said JOHN bequeathed to the daughters of that match, the miniftrants, Anne, Mary, and Deborah. They were married in 1643. I have now before me an original "Inventorie of the goods of Mr. Richard Powell of Forrefthill, in the county of Oxon, taken the 10th of June, A. D. 1646." This seems to have been taken in confequence of a feizure of Mr. Powell's House by the rebels. His diftreffes in the royal caufe probably prevented the payment of his daughter's marriage portion. By the number, order, and furniture of the rooms, he appears to have lived as a country gentleman, in a very extensive and liberal style of houfe-keeping. This I mention to confirm

7. Aike the faid Mr. MILTON, whether he did not gett the said Will drawn upp, and inform the writer to what effect he should draw it? And did he not enquire of the other witneffes, what they would or could depofe? And whether he hath not folicited this Caufe, and pay'd fees to the Proctour about it? Et fiat ut fupra.

8. Item, Afke each witneffe, what fortune the deceafed did in his life-time beftowe on the miniftrants? And whether the faid Anne MILTON is not lame, and almost helpleffe? Et fiat ut fupra.

9. Item, Afke each witneffe, what value is the deceased's eftate of, as neare as they can guefs? Et fiat ut fupra'.

II.

Depofitions and cross-examinations of the faid witnesses.

Elizabetha MILTON, Relicta et Legataria principalis JOHANNIS MILTON defuncti, contra Annam, Mariam, et Deboram MILTON, filias ejufdem de

what is faid by Phillips, that Mr. Powell's daughter abruptly left her husband within a month after their marriage, difgufted with his fpare diet and hard ftudy, " after having been used at home to a great house, and much company and joviality, &c." I have alfo feen in Mr. Powell's houfe at Foresthill many papers, which fhow the active part he took in favour of the Royalifts: With fome others relating to the Rangership of the Shotover foreft, bearing his fignature.

* She was deformed, and had an impediment in her speech. His grand-daughter Elizabeth Fofter by the third daughter Deborah, often spoke of his harshness to his daughters, and that he refused to have them taught to write.

Regiftr. Cur. Prærog. Cant, ut fupr.

functi. Super Allegatione articulata et Teftamento nuncupativo JOHANNIS MILTON defuncti, ex parte Elizabethæ MILTON predictæ, in hoc negotio, fecundo Andreæ, 1674, dato "et exhibitis.

Quinto Decembris 1674. Chriftopherus MILTON, villa Gipwici in com. Suffolciæ ortus infra parochiam Omnium Sanctorum Bredftreete, London, ætat. 58 annor. aut eo circiter, teftis, &c. Ad omnes articulos dictæ Allegationis, et ad Teftamentum nuncupativum JOHANNIS MILTON, generofi, defuncti, in hoc negotio dat. et exhibit. deponit et dicit, That on, or about the twentieth day of July, 1674, the day certaine he now remembreth not, this deponent being a practicer in the Law, and a Bencher in the Inner Temple, but living in vacations at Ipfwich, did ufually at the end of the Terme vifit JOIN MILTON, his this deponent's brother the Teftator articulate, deceased, before his going home; and foe at the end of Midfummer Terme laft paft, he this deponent went to vifit his faid brother, and then found him in his chamber within his owne houfe, fcituate on Bunhill" within the

Sometimes called the Artillery-walk, leading to Bunhill fields. This was his laft fettled place of abode, and where he lived longeft. Richardfon calls this houfe a "fmall houfe, where he died about fourteen years after he was out of publick employ." Ubi fupr. p. xciii. It was here that he wrote or finished Paradife Loft, Paradife Regained, and Samfon Agonistes. But in 1665, when the plague broke out in London, he retired. to Chalfont Saint Giles, where his friend Elwood, a quaker, had taken a houfe for him; and the next year, when the danger was over, he came back to Bunhill-fields. The house at Chalfont, in which he refided in this fhort space of time, and where he planned or began Paradife Regained, is ftill ftanding, small, but

parish of S. Giles, Crepelgate, London: And at that tyme, he the faid Teftator, being not well, (and this deponent being then going into the country,) in a serious manner, with an intent, (as he believes,) that what he then spoke should be his WILL, if he dyed before his this deponent's coming the next time to London, declared his Will in thefe very words as neare as this deponent cann now call to mynd. Viz. "Brother, the porcion due to me from Mr. Powell, my former [firft] wife's father, I leave to the unkind children I had by her but I have reccaved noe part of it, and my Will and meaning is, they fhall have noe other benefit of my estate, than the said porcion and what I have befides don for them: they haveing been very undutifull to me. And all the refidue of my estate I leave to the difpofall of Elizabeth my loveing wife." She, the faid Elizabeth his the deceafed's wife, and Elizabeth Fysher his the deceased's then maide-fervant, was [at the] fame tyme goeing upp and downe the roome, but whether the then heard the said deceased, fo declare his will as above or not, he knoweth not.

pleafantly fituated. See Ellwood's Life of Himfelf, p. 246. Who calls it 66 a pretty box."

[Mr. Dunfter, in the additions to his edition of Paradife Regained, remarks that the houfe is not pleafantly fituated. "The adjacent country is indeed extremely pleafant; but the immediate fpot is as little picturefque or pleafing as can be well imagined. Immediately in front of the house, a grafs field rifeș fo abruptly as completely to exclude all prospect: and the common road of the village paffes by the gale end, adjoining to which is the end of a small dwelling, which runs behind that inhabited by Milton," TODD.]

And the faid teftator at the premises was of perfect mind and memory and talked and difcourfed fenfibly and well, et aliter nefcit deponere.

CHR. MILTON.

AD INTERROGATORIA.

Ad 1. Interr. refpondet, that the party producent in this cause was and is the relict of the said decafed, who was his this refpondent's brother; and the parties miniftring these interrogatories were and are in repute, and foe he beleeveth his the faid deceased's children by a former wife: and for his part, he wifheth right to take place, and foe would give it if in his power; and likewife wifheth that his brother's Will might take effect.

Ad 2. Interr. refpondet, that on what day of the moneth or weeke the said deceased declared his Will, as is above depofed, he now remembreth not precisely; but well remembreth, that it was in a forenoone, and on the very day he this deponent was goeing in the country in [the] Ipfwich coach, which goeth not out of towne till noone or thereabout: and he veryly beleeveth in his confcience, that the refidue of his eftate he did then difpofe of in these very words, viz. “And all the refidue of my eftate I leave to the difpofall of Elizabeth my loving wife;" or he ufed words to the felfe fame effect, et aliter referenda fe ad pre-depof. nefcit refpondere.

Ad 3. Interr. refpondet, that the faid deceased was then ill of the goute, and what he then spake touching his Will was in a very calme manner; only [he] complained, but without paffion, that his children had