For Our worthy Friends the Committee of the City of London for Gresham College: These. Whitehall, 9th May 1656. GENTLEMEN, We understanding that you have appointed an election this afternoon of a Geometry Professor in Gresham College, We desire you to suspend the same for some time, till We shall have an opportunity to speak with some of you in order to that business. I rest, Your loving friend, OLIVER P.§ Historical Neal says zealously, "If there was a man in "England who excelled in any faculty or science, the Protector "would find him out, and reward him according to his merit." The renowned Dr. Cudworth in Cambridge, I have likewise expressly read, had commission to mark among the ingenuous youth of that University such as he deemed apt for Public Employment, and to make the Protector aware of them. Which high and indeed sacred function we find the Doctor, as occasion offers, intent to discharge.* The choice this Protector made of men, "in nothing was his good under"standing better discovered;" "which gave a general satis"faction to the Public," say the Histories. ** As we can very well believe! He who is himself a true man, has a chance to know the truth of men when he sees them; he who is not, has none: and as for the poor Public and its satisfactions, - alas, is not the kind of "man" you set upon it the liveliest symbol of its, and your, veracity and victory and blessedness, or unveracity and misery and cursedness; the general summation, and practical outcome, of all else whatsoever in the Public, and in you? § Original, with Oliver's Signature, now (1846) in the Guildhall Library, London. * Thurloe, iii. 614, v. 522; &c. ** Burnet, in Neal, ii. 514; ib. ii. 461, 494. LETTER CCXII. ANOTHER Small Note still extant; relating to very small, altogether domestic matters. 'For my loving Son Richard Cromwell, Esquire, at Hursley: These.' SON, 'Whitehall,' 29th May 1656. You know there hath often been a desire to sell Newhall, because in these four years last past it hath yielded very little or no profit at all, nor did I ever hear you ever liked it for a Seat. It seems there may be a chapman had, who will give 18,000l. It shall either be laid out where you shall desire; at Mr. Wallop's, or elsewhere, and the money put into feoffees' hands in trust to be so disposed: or I shall settle Burleigh; which yields near 1,3007.* per annum, besides the woods. Waterhouse will give you farther information. I rest, Your loving father, OLIVER P. ** My love to your Father and Mother, and your dear Wife.§ Newhall is the House and Estate in Essex which had once belonged to the great Duke of Buckingham. Burleigh I guess to be Burleigh on the Hill, near Oakham, another House of the great Duke's, which Oliver in the beginning of his military services had known well: he took it by assault in 1643. Of Oliver's Lands, or even of his Public Lands granted by the Parliament, much more of the successive phases his Estate *Written above is "1,260 l." ** Mr. and Mrs. Mayor of Hursley. § Original in the possession of Henry William Field, Esq., of the Royal Mint. assumed by new purchase and exchange, there is, as we once observed already, no exact knowledge now anywhere to be had. Obscure incidental notices flit through the Commons Journals and other Records; but the sum of the matter alike with the details of it are sunk in antique Law-Parchments, in obliterated Committee-Papers, far beyond human sounding. Of the Lands he died possessed of, there is a List extant, more or less accurate; which is worth looking at here. On quitting the Protectorship in 1659, Richard Cromwell, with the hope of having his debts paid and some fixed revenue allowed him, gave-in a Schedule of his Liabilities and of his Properties, the latter all in Land; which Schedule poor Noble has found somewhere; and copied, probably with blunders. Subjoined is his List of the Properties, some of them misspelt, most likely; the exact localities of which, no indication being given or sought by Noble, may be a problem for persons learned in such matters. ** To us, only Burleigh and Newhall are of importance here. Newhall, we can observe, was not sold on the occasion of this Letter, nor at all sold; for it still stands in the List of 1659; and with some indication, too, as to what the cause of now trying to sell it may have been. "For a Portion to my Sister Frances," namely. Noble's citations from Morant's History of Essex; his and Morant's blunderings and somnam * Not where he says he did, "in Commons Journals, 14th May 1659" (Noble, i. 333, 4). ** REAL ESTATE IN 1659. settled on my Brother Henry Cromwell upon marriage: worth a-year Dalby Broughton Gower Newhall with woods, settled for security of 15,000l. for a Portion for my Sister Frances Chepstall Magore £989 9 1 533 8 8 479 0 0 1200 0 0 549 7 3 448 0 0 3121 9 6 Tydenham Woolaston Chaulton, with woods Burleigh 664 16 6 500 0 0 1236 12 8 326 14 11 79 11 6 These are all the Lands at this date in the possession of the Oliver Family. The five names printed here in italics are still recognisable: Villiers (Duke bulancies, in regard to this matter of Newhall, seem almost to approach the sublime.* Leaving these, let us attend a little to the "Portion for my Sister Frances;" concerning which and whom a few lines of musical domestic gossip, interesting to the mind, are once more audible, from the same flute-voice above listened to. "Mr. Rich," we should premise, is the Lord Rich's Son, the Earl of Warwick's Grandson; heir-apparent, though he did not live to be heir: - pious old Earl of Warwick, whom we have seen heretofore as Admiral in the Long-Parliament time; the poor Earl of Holland's Brother. Here are affairs of the heart, romances of reality, such as have to go on in all times, under all dialects and fashions of dress-caps, Puritan-Protectoral and other. The Lady Mary Cromwell to Henry Cromwell, Major-General of the Forces in Ireland. "Hampton Court,' 23d June 1656. "DEAR BROTHER, Your kind Letters do so much engage "my heart towards you, that I can never tell how to express "in writing the true affection and value I have for you,—who, of Buckingham) Properties all of these; the first two in Leicestershire, the last three contiguous to one another in Rutlandshire: of the others I at present (A. D. 1845) know nothing. As to poor Richard's finance-budget, encumbered "with 2,000l. yearly to my Mother," "with 3,000l. of debt contracted in my Father's lifetime," and plentifully otherwise, it shall not concern us farther. (Note of 1857.) The other Properties have now also been discovered: Lands, these, of the confiscated Marquis of Worcester; all of them in the South-Wales or Ragland quarter. "Gower" is in Glamorgan, not far from Swansea; "Chepstall" is Chepstow; "Tydenham," Tidenham, in the same neighbourhood; "Woolaston is in Gloucestershire, four miles from Chepstow; "Chaulton," one of the Charltons in the same county; "Magore," Magor (St. Mary's) in Monmouthshire. For Gower, Tidenham, Magor, and their connexion with Cromwell, there is still direct proof; for the others, which are all Ragland manors too, there is thus presumption to the verge of proof. So that all these Properties, in Richard's Schedule, are either Buckingham or else Worcester ones, grants by the Nation; - and of "my ould land" (now settled otherwise, or indeed not concerned in this question) there is no mention here. (Newspaper called Notes and Queries, Nos. 21-28; London, 23d March-11th May 1850.) *Noble, i. 334, 5. "truly I think, none that knows you but you may justly claim "it from.* "I must confess myself in a great fault in omitting to write "to you and your dear Wife so long a time. But I suppose 66 'you cannot be ignorant of the reason, which truly has been "the only cause; which is this business of my Sister Frances "and Mr. Rich. Truly I can truly say it, for these three "months I think our Family, and myself in particular, have "been in the greatest confusion and trouble as ever poor "Family can be in. The Lord tell us His 'mind'** in it; and "settle us, and make us what He would have us to be! I sup"pose you heard of the breaking-off of the business; and, "according to your desire in your last Letter, as well as I can, "I shall give you a full account of it. Which is this: "After a quarter of a year's admittance, my Father and "my Lord Warwick began to treat about the Estate; and it 'seems my Lord did not offer that which my Father expected. "I need not name particulars: for I suppose you have had "them from better hands: but if I may say the truth, I think "it was not so much estate, as from private reasons which my "Father discovered to none but to my Sister Frances and his own Family; which was a dislike to the young person. "Which he had from some reports of his being a vicious man, given to play and such-like things; which office was done by "some who had a mind to break-off the match. My Sister, "hearing these things, was resolved to know the truth of it; *** "and truly did find all the reports to be false that were recited "of him. And to tell you the truth, they were so much engaged "in affection before this, that she could not think of breaking "it off. So that my Sister engaged me and all the friends she "had, who truly were very few, to speak in her behalf to my "Father. Which we did, but could not be heard to any purpose: only this my Father promised, That if he were satisfied 'as to the report, the estate should not break it off. With "which she was satisfied. 66 *Young-Lady's grammar! *** Poor little Frances! ** Word torn out. |