APPENDIX. No. 1. LETTER TO DOWNHALL. [Vol. i. p. 78.] THE stolen Letter of the Ashmole Museum has been found printed, and even reprinted. It is of the last degree of insignificance: a mere Note of Invitation to Downhall to stand 'Godfather unto my Child.' Man-child now ten days old,1 who, as we may see, is christened on Thursday next' by the name of RICHARD,-and had strange ups and downs as a Man when it came to that! To my approved good Friend, Mr. Henry Downhall, at his Chambers in St. John's College, Cambridge: These. LOVING SIR, Huntingdon, 14th October, 1626. Make me so much your servant as to be? Godfather unto my Child. I would myself have come over to have made a formal invitation; but my occasions would not permit me and therefore hold me in that excused. The Day of your trouble is Thursday next. Let me entreat your company on Wednesday. By this time it appears, I am more apt to encroach upon you for new favours than to shew my thankfulness for the love I have already found. But I know your patience and your goodness cannot be exhausted by Your friend and servant, OLIVER CROMWELL.* Of this Downhall, sometimes written Downhault, and even Downett and Downtell; who grounds his claim, such as it is, to human remem 1 Vol: i. p. 100. 2 by being' in orig. * Hearne's Liber Niger Scaccarii (London, 1771), i. 261 n. brance on the above small Note from Oliver,—a helpful hand has, with unsubduable research, discovered various particulars, which might amount almost to an outline of a history of Downhall, were such needed. He was of Northamptonshire, come of gentlefolks in that County. Admitted Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, 12th April, 1614;-had known Oliver, and apparently been helpful and instructive to him, two years after that. More interesting still, he this same Downhall was Vicar of St. Ives when Oliver came thither in 1635; still Vicar when Oliver left it, though with far other tendencies than Oliver's now; and had, alas, to be' ejected with his Curate, in 1642,' as an Anti-Puritan Malignant :1. Oliver's course and his having altogether parted now! Nay farther, the same Downhall, surviving the Restoration, became Archdeacon of Huntingdon' in 1667: fifty-one years ago he had lodged there as Oliver Cromwell's Guest and Gossip; and now he comes as Archdeacon,—with a very strange set of Annals written in his old head, poor Downhall! He died "at Cottingham in Northamptonshire, his native region, in the winter-time ' of 1669;'-and so, with his Ashmole Letter, ends.2 No. 2. AT ELY. [Vol. i. p. 134.] THERE is at Ely a Charitable Foundation now above four centuries old; which in Oliver's time was named the Ely Feoffees' Fund, and is now known as Parsons' Charity; the old Records of which, though somewhat mutilated during those years, offer one or two faint but indubitable ves tiges of Oliver, not to be neglected on the present occasion. This Charity of ancient worthy Thomas Parsons, it appears, had, shortly before Oliver's arrival in Ely, been somewhat remodelled by a new Royal Charter: To be henceforth more specially devoted to the Poor of Ely; to be governed by Twelve Feoffees; namely, by Three 1 Vol. i. p. 127. 2 Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iii. 187; and мs. communicated by Mr. Cooper, resting on the following formidable mass of documentary Authorities: Cole Mss. (which is a Transcript of Baker's History of St. John's College), 166, 358. Rymer's Fœdera, xix. 261. Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, p. 160. Kennet's Register and Chronicle, pp. 207, 251. Walker's Sufferings, ii. 129, 130. Wood's Athena (2d edition, passage wanting in both the 1st and 3d), ii. 1179. Dignitaries of the Cathedral, and by Nine Townsmen of the better sort, who are permanent, and fill up their own vacancies,1-of which latter class, Oliver Cromwell Esquire, most likely elected in his Uncle's stead, was straightway made one. The old Books, as we say, are specially defective in those years; 'have lost 40 or 50 leaves at the end of Book I., and 12 leaves at the beginning of Book II.,'-leaves cut out for the sake of Oliver's autograph, or as probably for other reasons. Detached Fapers, however, still indicate that Oliver was one of the Feoffees, and a moderately diligent one, almost from his first residence there. Here, under date some six or seven months after his arrival, is a small Entry in certain loose Papers, labelled The Accompts of Mr. John Hand and Mr. Wm. Crauford, Collectors of the Revenewes belonging to the Towne of Ely' (that is, to Parsons' Charity in Ely); and under this special head, 'The Disbursements of Mr. John Hand, from the of August 1636 unto the of 1641: · Given to divers Poore People at ye Work-house, in £16 14 0. And under this other head, The Disbursements of Mr. Crauford,” which unluckily are not dated, and run vaguely from 1636 to 1641:} Item to Jones, by Mr. Cromwell's consent £1 0 0.' Twice or thrice elsewhere the name of Cromwell is mentioned, but not as indicating activity on his part, indicating merely Feoffeeship and passivity;3-except in the following instance, where there is still extant a small Letter of his. Mr. Hand,' as we have seen, is one of the 'Collectors,' himself likewise a Feoffee or Governor, the Governors (it would appear) taking that office in turn. MR. HAND, 6 'To Mr. Hand, at Ely: These.' 'Ely,' 13th September, 1638. I doubt not but I shall be as good as my word for your Money. I desire you to deliver Forty Shillings of the 1 Report of the Commissioners concerning Charities (London, 1837): distinct account of it there, § Cambridgeshire, pp. 218-20. 2 One' Wigmore;' the Dean was' William Fuller;' the Bishop Matthew Wren,' very famous for his Popish Candles and other fripperies, who lay long in the Tower afterwards. These were the three Clerical Feoffees in Oliver's time. 3 Excerpts of Documents obligingly communicated by the Dean of Ely, -now penes Mr. Cooper of Cambridge. Town Money to this Bearer, to pay for the physic for Benson's cure. If the Gentlemen will not allow it at the time of account, keep this Note, and I will pay it out of my own purse. So I rest, Your loving friend, OLIVER CROMWELL.* Poor' Benson' is an old invalid. Among Mr. Hand's Disbursements for the year 1636 is this, £2 7 4.' For phisicke and surgery for old Benson 'To Benson at divers times £0 15 0.' Let him have forty shillings more, poor old man; and if the Gentlemen won't allow it, Oliver Cromwell will pay it out of his own purse. No. 3. LETTER TO CAMBRIDGE, WITH 'PROTESTATION,' AND [Vol. i. p. 165.] 'A Preamble, with the Protestation made by the whole House of Com mons, the 3d of May, 1641, and assented unto by the Lords of the Upper House, the 4th of May. 'WE, the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House, ' in Parliament, finding, to the grief of our hearts, That the designs of the 'Priests and Jesuits, and other Adherents to the See of Rome, have been ' of late more boldly and frequently put in practice than formerly, to the undermining, and danger of ruin, of the True Reformed Religion in his Majesty's Dominions established: And finding also that there hath been, and having cause to suspect there still are even during the sitting 6 * Memoirs of the Protector, by Oliver Cromwell, a Descendant &c. (London, 1822), i. 351; where also (p. 350) is found, in a very indistinct state, the above-given Entry from Hand's Accompts, misdated '1641,' instead of 10 February, 1636-7. The Letter to Hand has not been among the Feoffees' Papers for several years;' and is now (1846) none knows where. in Parliament, endeavours to subvert the Fundamental Laws of Eng'land and Ireland, and to introduce the exercise of an Arbitrary and 6 Tyrannical Government, by most pernicious and wicked counsels, plots and conspiracies: And that the long intermission, and unhappier breach, ' of Parliaments hath occasioned many illegal Taxations, whereupon the Subjects have been prosecuted and grieved: And that divers Innovations and Superstitions have been brought into the Church; multitudes driven out of his Majesty's dominions; jealousies raised and fomented 'between the King and People; a Popish Army levied in Ireland,' and Two Armies brought into the bowels of this Kingdom, to the hazard 6 6 ་ ' of his Majesty's royal Person, the consumption of the revenue of the Crown, and the treasure of this Realm: And lastly, finding great causes 6 of jealousy that endeavours have been and are used to bring the English Army into misunderstanding of this Parliament, thereby to incline that Army by force to bring to pass those wicked counsels, 6 'Have therefore thought good to join ourselves in a declaration of our united affections and resolutions; and to make this ensuing 6 6 6 6 'PROTESTATION. I, A. B., do in the Presence of Almighty God promise, vow and protest, To maintain and defend as far as lawfully I may, with my life, power and estate, the True Reformed Protestant Religion, expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England, against all Popery and Popish 'Innovations, and according to the duty of my allegiance to his Majesty's royal Person, Honour and Estate: as also the Power and Privilege of Parliament, the Lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subjects; and every 6 Person that maketh this Protestation in whatsoever he shall do in the 'lawful pursuance of the same. And to my power, as far as lawfully I may, I will oppose, and by good ways and means endeavour to bring to condign punishment, all such as shall, by force, practice, counsel, plots, conspiracies or otherwise, do anything to the contrary in this present "Protestation contained. 6 6 6 And further I shall, in all just and honourable ways, endeavour to 6 preserve the union and peace betwixt the Three Kingdoms of England, "Scotland and Ireland: and neither for hope, fear nor other respect, shall ' relinquish this Promise, Vow and Protestation.'s 1 By Strafford lately, against the Scots and their enterprises. This is the important point, nearly shaded out of sight: finding the great causes of jealousy, endeavours have' &c. is the tremulous, indistinct and even ungrammatical phrase in the Original. |