I.

The Allegation propounding the IVill, on which Allegation the IVitneffes be examined. ©

Negotium Teftamentarium, five probacionis Teftamenti nuncupativi, five ultimæ Voluntatis, JOHANNIS MILTON, nuper dum vixit parochiæ S. Ægidii Cripplegate London generofi, defuncti, habent. &c. promotum per Elizabetham MILTON Relictam, et Legatariam principalem no

f

e Viz. Christopher MILTON, and JOHN MILTON's two fervant-maids Elizabeth and Mary Fisher. Witnesses on the part of the widow.

f This was his third wife, Elizabeth Minfhull, of a gentle. man's family in Cheshire. He married her at the recommendation of his friend, and her relation, Dr. Paget, about the year 1661, and in his fifty-fourth year, foon after he had obtained his pardon from the restored king; being now blind and infirm, and wanting some more conftant and confidential companion than a fervant to attend upon his perfon. The elder Richardson infinuates, that this lady, being no poet or philosopher like her husband, used frequently to teaze him for his careleffnefs or ignorance about moneymatters, and that she was a termagant. He adds, that soon after their marriage, a royal offer was made to Milton of the resumption of his old department of Latin Secretary, and that, being ftrongly preffed by his wife to an acceptance, he scornfully replied, "Thou art in the right; you, as other women, would ride in your Coach. My aim is to live and die an honeft man." LIFE, &c. p. xcix. feq. edit. 1734. From these papers, however, it appears, that she confulted her husband's humours, and treated his infirmities with tenderness. After his death in 1674, she retired to Namptwich in Cheshire, where he died about 1729. Mr. Pennant fays, her father, Mr. Minfhull, lived at Stoke in that

minatam in Testamento nuncupativo, five ultima Voluntate, dicti defuncti, contra Mariam, Annam, et Deboram MILTON, filias dicti defuncti.

THOMPSON. CLEMENTS.

Secundo Andreæ, A. D. 1674. Quo die.... Thompson, nomine, procuratione, ac ultimus procurator legitimus, dicta Elizabethæ MILTON, omnibus melioribus et effectualioribus [efficacioribus] via, modo, et meliori forma, necnon ad omnem juris effectum, exhibuit Teftamentum nuncupativum dicti JOHANNIS MILTON defuncti, fic incipiens, "MEMORANDUM, that JOHN MILTON, late of the parish of S. Giles, Cripplegate, &c." Which words, or words to the fame effect, were spoken in the presence of Chriftopher MILTON, and Elizabeth Fisher; et allegavit confimiliter, et dicens prout fequitur. I. Quod præfatus JOHANNes Milton, dum vixit, mentis compos, ac in fua fana memoria exiftens, .... Testamentum fuum nuncupativum modo in hoc negotio exhibitum tenoris fchedulæ teftamentariæ condidit, nun

....

...

neighbourhood. W. Tour, and Gough's Camden, Cheshire, P. 436.

The third edition of Paradise Loft was published in 1678; and this is the poet's widow, to whom the copy of that work was then to devolve by original agreement, but who fold all her claims to Samuel Simmons, his bookfeller, for eight pounds, according to her receipt given Decemb. 21, 1680.

cupavit, et declaravit; cæteraque omnia et fingula dedit, donavit, reliquit, et difpofuit, in omnibus, et per omnia, vel fimiliter in effectum, prout in dicto Teftamento nuncupativo continetur, ac poftea mortem obiit: ac Principalis Pars ifta proponit conjunctim, divifim, et de quolibet. II. Item, quod tempore conditionis, declarationis, nuncupationis Teftamenti, in hoc negotio exhibiti, præfatus JOHANNES MILTON perfecta fruebatur memoria; ac proponit ut fupra. 8

II.

Interrogatories addreffed to the Witnefjes examined upon the Allegation.

Decemb. 5, 1674. Interrogatoria ministrata et miniftranda ex parte Annæ, Mariæ, et Deboræ MILTON, teftibus ex parte Elizabethæ MILTON productis five producendis fequuntur.

Imprimis, Afke each witneffe, what relation to, or dependance on, the producent, they, or either of them, have; and to which of the parties they would give the victory were it in their power? Et interrogatur quilibit teftis conjunctim, et divifim, et de quolibet.

2. Item, Aske each witnesse, what day, and what time of the day, the Will nuncupative was declared; what positive words did the deceased

Regiftr. Cur. Prærog. Cant. ut fupr.

ufe in the declaring thereof? Can you positively fweare, that the deceafed did declare that hee did leave the refidue of his eftate to the difpofall of his wife, or did hee not fay, "I will leave the refidue of my eftate to my wife?" Et fiat ut Supra.

3. Item, Upon what occafion did the deceased declare the faid Will? Was not the deceased in perfect health at the fame time? Doe you not think, that the deceased, if he declared any fuch Will, declared it in a prefent paffion, or fome angry humour against fome or one of his children by his former [firft] wife? Et fiat ut Supra.

4. Item, Afke each witneffe, whether the parties miniftrant were not and are not greate frequenters of the Church, h and good livers; and what cause of displeasure had the deceased against them? Et fiat ut fupra.

5. Item, Afke Mr. [Christopher] MILTON, and each other witneffe, whether the deceased's Will, if any fuch was made, was not, that the

h Here feems to be an infinuation, that our poet's difpleasure against those three daughters, arofe partly from their adherence to thofe 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 fenfe, 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.

deceased's wife fhould have f. 1000, and the children of the faid Chriftopher MILTON the refidue; and whether she hath not promised him that they should have it, if shee 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 defperate debti? Et fiat ut fupra.

7.

Afke the faid Mr. MILTON, whether he did not gett the faid Will drawn upp, and inform

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That is, the marriage portion, promifed, but never paid, to JOHN MILTON, by Mr. Richard Powell, the father of his first wife; and which the faid 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 feems to have been taken in consequence 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 extenfive and liberal ftyle of house-keeping. This I mention to confirm what is faid by Philips, 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 house at Forefthill many papers, which fhow the active part he took in favour of the Royalists: With fome others relating to the Rangership of the Shotover foreft, bearing his fignature.