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, Cripple<< gate, &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 negatio exhibitum... tenoris fchedula,... teftamentaria condidit, nuncupavit, 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.

II.

Interrogatories addressed to the Witnesses examined upon the Allegation.

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

Dr. Paget, about the year 1661, and in his fifty fourth year, soon after he had obtained his pardon from the reftored king; being now blind and infirm, and wanting fome more constant and confidential companion than a fervant to attend upon his perfon. The elder Richårdfon infinuates, that this lady, being no poet or philofopher like her husband, used frequently to teaze him for his carelefinefs or ignorance about money-matters, and that she was a termagant. He adds, that foon after their marriage, a royal offer was made to Milton of the refumption of his old department of Latin Secretary, and that being strongly preffed by his wife to an acceptance, he fcornfully replied, "Thou art in the right; you, as other women, would ride in your Coach. My aim is to live and die an boneft man." LIFE, &c. P. xcix. feq. edit. 1734. From thefe papers, however, it appears, that the confulted her husband's humours, and treated his infirmities with tenderness. After his death in 1674, the retired to Namptwich in Cheshire, where she died about 1729. Mr. Penant fays, her father, Mr. Minfhull, lived at Stoke in that neighbourhood. W. TOUR, and Gough's Camden, Cheshire, p. 436.

The third edition of PARADISE LOST 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.

Regiftr. Cur. Prærog. Cant, ut fupr.

Imprimis,

Imprimis, Aske each witnesse, 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 testis conjunctim, et divifim, et de quolibet.

2. Item, Afke each witneffe, what day, and what time of the day, the Will nuncupative was declared; what pofitive words did the deceased use in the declaring thereof? Can you pofitively fweare, that the deceased did declare that hee did leave the refidue of his estate to the difpofall of his wife, or did hee not fay, "I will leave the refidue of my estate to my wife?" Et fiat ut fupra.

3. Item, Upon what occafion did the Deceased declare the faid Will? Was not the Deceased in perfect health at the same 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 [first] wife? Et fiat ut fupra.

h

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

5. Item, Afke Mr. [Christopher] MILTON, and each other witnesse, whether the Deceased's Will, if any such was made, was not, that the Deceafed's wife fhould have . 1000, and the children of the faid Chriftopher MILTON the refidue; and whether the hath not promised him that they should have it, if fhee 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 debt? Et fiat ut fupra.

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 royalists. Afterwards, the description good livers is not 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.

iThat 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

7. Afke the faid Mr. MILTON, whether he did not gett the faid Will drawn upp, and inform the writer to what effect he fhould draw it? And did he not enquire of the other witnesses, what they would or could depofe? And whether he hath not folicited this Cause, and payd 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.

k

9. Item, Afke each witnesse, what value is the Deceased's eftate of, as neare as they can guess? Et fiat ut fupra.'

III.

Depofitions and cross-examinations of the said witnesses. Elizabetha MILTON, Relicta et Legataria principalis JoHANNIS MILTON defuncti, contra Annam, Mariam, et Deborem MILTON, filias ejufdem defuncti. Super Allegatione articulata et Teftamento nuncupativo JOHANNIS MILTON defuncti, ex parte Elizabethæ MILTON predictæ, in hoc negotio, fecundo Andreæ, 1674, datom et exhibitis.

Quinto Decembris 1674. Chriftopherus MILTON, villæ Gipwici in com. Suffolcia ortus infra parochiam Omnium Sanctorum Bredftreete, London, ætat. 58 annor. aut eo circiter, teftis, &c. Ad omnes articulos dicta Allegationis, et bequeathed to the daughters of that match, the ministrants, 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 Forresthill, in the county of Oxon, ta"ken the 10th of June A. D. 1646." This feems to have been taken in confequence of a feizure of Mr. Powell's Houfe by the rebels. His diftrefies in the royal cause 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 houfe, and much company and joviality, &c." I have alfo feen in Mr. Powell's houfe at Forrefthill many papers, which thew the active part he took in favour of the Royalists. With fome others relating to the Rangership of the Shotover foreft, bearing his Signature.

She was deformed, and had an impediment in her speech.

His grand-daughter Elizabeth Fofter, by the third daughter Deborah, often fpoke of his harshness to his daughters, and that he refused to have them taught to write.

1 Registr. Cur. Prærog. Cant, ut fupr.

m Sic, ut et in infra, pro Milton.

ad

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 usually at the end of the Terme vifit JOHN 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 visit his faid brother, and then found him in his chamber within his owne house, scituate on Bunhill" within the parish of S. Giles, Crepelgate, London: And at that tyme, he the faid Teftator, being not well, (and this Deponent being then goeing into the country,) in a serious manner, with an intent, (as he believes,) that what he then spoke fhould be his WILL, if he dyed before his this Deponent's comeing the next time to London, declared his Will in these 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 receaved noe part of it, and my "Will and meaning is, they fhall have noe other benefit of my eftate, than the faid porcion and what I have befides "don for them: they haveing been very undutifull to me. "And all the refidue of my eftate I leave to the disposall of "Elizabeth my loveing wife." She, the faid Elizabeth his the Deceafed's wife, and Elizabeth Fyfher his the Deceased's then maide-servant, was [at the] fame tyme goeing upp and downe the roome, but whether fhe then heard the faid deceafed, foe declare his will as above or not, he knoweth not. 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.

Sometimes called the Artillery-walk, leading to Bunhill-fields. This was his taft fettled place of abode, and where he lived longest. Richardfon calls this house a "fmall houfe, where he died about fourteen years after he was out of public " employ." Ubi fupr. p. xciii. It was here that he wrote or finished PARADISE LOST, PARADISE REGAINED, and SAMSON AGONISTES. But in 1665, when the plague broke out in London, he retired to Chalfont Saint Giles, where his friend Ellwood, a quaker, had taken a house 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 be gan PARADIS REGAINED, is ftill standing, fmall, but pleafantly fituated. See Ellwood's LIFE of Himself, p. 246. Who calls it "a pretty box."

AD

AD INTERROGATORIA.

Ad 1m. Interr. refpondet, that the party producent in this cause was and is the relict of the faid deceased, 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, hẹ wifheth right to take place, and foe would give it if in his power; and likewise wisheth that his brother's will might take effect.

Ad 2m. Interr. refpondet, that on what day of the moneth or weeke the faid deceased declared his will, as is above deposed, 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 conscience, that the refidue of his eftate he did then dispose of in these very words, viz. “And "all the refidue of my eftate I leave to the difpofall of Eliza"beth my loving wife;" or he used words to the felfe fame effect, et aliter referendo fe ad pe. 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 been unkind to him, but that his wife had been very kind and careful of him; and he believeth the only reafon induced the faid deceased at that time to declare his will was, that he this deponent might know it before his goeing into the country, et aliter referendo fe ad pe. depofita, nefcit refpondere.

Ad 4m. Interr. refpondet, that he knoweth not how the parties miniftring thefe interrogatories frequent the church, or in what manner of behaviour of life and converfacion they are of, they living apart from their father four or five yeares laft paft; and as touching his the deceafed's difpleasure with them, he only heard him fay at the tyme of declareing of his will, that they were undutifull and unkind to him, not expreffing any particulars, but in former tymes he hath herd him complaine, that they were careless of him being blind, and made nothing of deserteing him, et aliter nefcit refpondere.

Ad 5m. Interr. refpondet, that fince this refpondent's comeing to London this Michaelmas Terme last paste, this respondent's

e

fifter,