For my loving Son, Richard Cromwell, Esquire, at Hursley: These.' 'Whitehall,' 29th May, 1656. SON, You know there hath often been a desire to sell Newhall, because in these four years last past it hath yielded very little cr 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. If shall either be laid out where you shall desire; at Mr. Wallop's, or elscwhere, 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. 'P.S.' 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 House near Stamford, 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 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 Liabi.ities and of his Properties, the latter all in Land; which Schedule poor Noble has found somewhere ;§ and copied, probably Written above is 1,2607. Mr. and Mrs. Mayor of Hursley. Original in the possession of Henry William Field, Esq., of the Royal Mint. § Not where he says he did, 'in Commons Journals, 14 May, 165@ (Noble, i, 333-4). 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 New. hall are known or 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 somnambulancies, 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 Dalby *REAL ESTATE IN 1659. settled on my Brother Henry Crom- Newhall with woods, settled for security of 15,000l. Chepstall. Magore. Tydenham Woolaston Chaulton, with woods Burleigh.. Okham 448 0 0 .3121 9 6 664 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. As to poor Richard's finance-budget, encumbered with 2,0007. yearly to my Mother,' 'with 3,0007. of debt contracted in my Father's lifetime,' and plentifully otherwise,-it shall not concern us farther. † Noble, pp. 334, ?35. 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, 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 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 suppose you heard of the breaking-off of the business; and, according to your desire in your last Letter, as well as I can, 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. * Young Lady's Grammar! Poor little Frances! "And so after this, there was a second Treaty; and my Lord War wick desired my Father, To name what it was he demanded more; and to his utmost he would satisfy him. So my Father upon this made new propositions; which my Lord Warwick has answered as much as he can. But it seems there are Five-hundred pounds a year in my Lord Rich's hands; which he has power to sell: and there are some people, who persuade his Highness, that it would be dishonorable for him to conclude it unless these 500l. a year be settled upon Mr. Rich, after his father's death. And my Lord Rich having no esteem at all of his son, because he is not so bad as himself, will not agree to it; and these people upon this persuade my Father, That it would be a dishonor to him to yield upon these terms; it would show, that he was made a fool of by my Lord Rich. So the truth is, how it shall be, I cannot understand, nor very few else ;* and truly I must tell you privately, they are so far engaged, that the match cannot be broke off! She acquainted none of her friends with her resolution, when she did it. "Dear Brother, this is, as far as I can tell, the state of the business. The Lord direct them what to do. And all, I think, ought to beg of God to pardon her in her doing of this thing;-which I must say truly she was put upon by the course' of things. Dear, let me beg my excuses to my Sister for not writing. My best respects to her. Pardon this trouble; and believe me that I shall ever strive to approve myself,— dear Brother, your affectionate sister and servant, "MARY CROMWELL."‡ Poor little Fanny Cromwell was not yet much turned of Seven.een, when she had these complex things to do, with her friends, 'who truly were very few.' What 'people' they were that put, or strove to put, such notions into his Highness's head, with intent to frustrate the decidedly eligible Mr. Rich, none knows. I could suspect Ashley Cooper, or some such hand, if his date of favor still lasted. But it is gone, long months ago. Ashley is himself frustrated; cannot obtain this musical glib-tongued Lady Mary, says Ludlow ;§-goes over to opposition in consequence; is dis † Torn out. Thurloe, v., 146. * Good little Mary! Here is the passage, not hitherto printed; one of several suppressed passages from Ludlow's Memoirs,' which still exist in the handwriting of John Locke (now in the possession of Lord Lovelace), having been duly copied out by Locke for his own poor Life of the Earl of Shaftesbury, to whom they all relate : 'Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, who was first for the King, then for the missed from his Highness's Council of State: and has to climb in this world by another ladder.-Poor Fanny's marriage did nevertheless take effect. Both Mary and she were duly wedded, Fanny to Rich, Mary to Lord Fauconberg, in November next year, within about a week of each other:* our friends,' who truly were very few,' and our destinies, and our own lively wits, brought all right in the end. LETTER CXLVIII. IT was last Spring Assizes, as we saw, that the 'great appearances of country gentlemen and persons of the highest quality' took place; leading to the inference generally that this Protectorate Government is found worth acknowledging by England. Certainly a somewhat successful Government hitherto; in spite of difficulties great and many. It carries eternal Gospel in the one hand, temporal drawn Sword in the other. Actually it has compressed the turbulent humors of this Country, and encouraged the better tendencies thereof, hitherto; it has set its foot resolutely on the neck of English Anarchy, and points with its armed hand to noble onward and upward paths. All which, England, thank 'Parliament; then in Cromwell's first Assembly,' the Little Parliament, was 'for the reformation; and afterwards for Cromwell against the reformation. Now,' again, being denied Cromwell's Daughter Mary in marriage, he appears against Cromwell's design in the last Assembly,' the constitutioning Parliament, where his behavior was none of the best; and is therefore dismissed the Council, Cromwell being resolved to act there as the chief juggler him elf; and one Colonel Mackworth, a Lawyer about Shrewsbury, a person fit for his purpose, is chosen in his room.'-Mackworth was a Soldier as well as Lawyer; the same who, as Governor of Shrewsbury, gave negative response to Charles Second, when he summoned him on the road to Worcester, once upon a time. Mackworth was in the Council, and had even died, and entirely left the Council, before Anthony Ashley left it (Thurloe, iii., 581; and Godwin, iv., 288). My solid friend, absent in Ireland, sulkily breathing the air in Essex, falls into some errors! Courtrumor, this of his; truth in the heart of it, details rather vague; not much worth verifying or rectifying here. Antea, vol. i., 68. |