if shee prevailed in this Cause? Whether the said Mr. MILTON hath not since the deceased's death confessed soe much, or some part thereof? Et fiat ut supra.

"6. Item, Aske each witnesse, whether what is left to the ministrants by the said Will is not reputed a very bad or altogether desperate debt? Et fiat ut supra.

"7. Aske the said Mr. MILTON, whether he did

That is, the marriage portion, promised, but never paid, to JOHN MILTON, by Mr. Richard Powell, the father of his first wife; and which the said JOHN 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, taken the 10th of June, A. D. 1646." This seems to have been taken in consequence of a seizure of Mr. Powell's house by the rebels. His distresses 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 extensive and liberal style of house-keeping. This I mention to confirm what is said by Phillips, that Mr. Powell's daughter abruptly left her husband within a month after their marriage, disgusted with his spare diet and hard study, "after having been used at home to a great house, and much company and joviality," &c. I have also seen in Mr. Powell's house at Foresthill many papers, which show the active part he took in favour of the Royalists: With some others relating to the Rangership of the Shotover forest, bearing his signature. WARTON.

See my concluding note upon the present document. See also what is said, in the preceding pages, of Milton's marriage with Mary Powell, and of her family. TODD.

not gett the said Will drawn upp, and inform the writer to what effect he should draw it? And did he not enquire of the other witnesses, what they would or could depose? And whether he hath not solicited this Cause, and pay'd fees to the Proctour about it? Et fiat ut supra.

"8. Item, Aske each witnesse, what fortune the deceased did in his life-time bestowe on the ministrants? And whether the said Anne MILTON is not lame, and almost 'helplesse ? Et fiat ut supra.

"9. Item, Aske each witnesse, what value is the deceased's estate of, as neare as they can guess? Et fiat ut supra.

III.

Depositions and cross-examinations of the said Witnesses.

"Elizabetha MILTON, Relicta et Legataria principalis JOHANNIS MILTON defuncti, contra Annam, Mariam, et Deboram MILTON, filias ejusdem defuncti. Super Allegatione articulata et Testamento nuncupativo JOHANNIS MILTON defuncti, ex parte

1 She was deformed, and had an impediment in her speech. His grand-daughter Elizabeth Foster by the third daughter Deborah, often spoke of his harshness to his daughters, and that he refused to have them taught to write. WARTON.

Registr. Cur. Prærog. Cant. ut supr. WARTON.

Elizabethæ MILTON predictæ, in hoc negotio, secundo Andreæ, 1674, dato" et exhibitis.

"Quinto Decembris 1674. Christopherus MILTON villæ Gipwici in com. Suffolciæ, ortus infra parochiam Omnium Sanctorum Bredstreete, London, ætat. 58 annor. aut eo circiter, testis, &c. Ad omnes articulos dictæ Allegationis, et ad Testamentum nuncupativum JOHANNIS MILTON, generosi, 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 Ipswich, did usually at the end of the Terme visit JOHN MILTON, his this deponent's brother the Testator articulate, deceased, before his going home; and soe at the end of Midsummer Terme last past, he this deponent went to visit his said brother, and then found him in his chamber within his owne house, situate on Bunhill within the parish of S. Giles, Crepel

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Sic, ut et infra, pro Milton. Warton.

• Sometimes called the Artillery-walk, leading to Bunhill fields. This was his last settled place of abode, and where he lived longest. Richardson calls this house a "small house, where he died about fourteen years after he was out of publick employ." Ubi supr. 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 Elwood, 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 resided in this short space of time, and

gate, London: And at that tyme, he the said Testator, being not well, (and this deponent being then going into the country,) in a serious manner, with an intent, (as he believes,) that what he then spoke should be his WILL, if he dyed before his this deponent's coming 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 [first] 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 shall have noe other benefit of my estate, than the said porcion and what I have besides don for them: they haveing been very undutiful to me. And all the residue of my estate I leave to the disposall of Elizabeth my loveing wife. She, the said Elizabeth his the deceased's wife, and Elizabeth Fysher his the deceased's then maide-servant, was [at the] same tyme goeing upp and downe the roome, but whether

where he planned or began Paradise Regained, is still standing, small, but pleasantly situated. See Elwood's Life of Himself, p. 246. Who calls it "a pretty box." WARTON.

Mr. Dunster, in the additions to his edition of Paradise Regained, remarks that the house is not pleasantly situated. "The adjacent country is indeed extremely pleasant; but the immediate spot is as little picturesque or pleasing as can be well imagined. Immediately in front of the house, a grass field rises so abruptly as completely to exclude all prospect: and the common road of the village passes by the gable end, adjoining to which is the end of a small dwelling, which runs behind that inhabited by Milton." TODD.

she then heard the said deceased, so declare his Will as above or not, he knoweth not.

"And the said testator at the premises was of perfect mind and memory and talked and discoursed sensibly and well, et aliter nescit deponere.

"CHR. MILTON.

"AD INTERROGATORIA.

"Ad 1m. Interr. respondet, that the party producent in this cause was and is the relict of the said deceased, who was his this respondent's brother; and the parties ministring these interrogatories were and are in repute, and soe he beleeveth, his the said deceased's children by a former wife: and for his part, he wisheth right to take place, and soe would give it if in his power; and likewise wisheth that his brother's Will might take effect.

"Ad 2m. Interr. respondet, that on what day of the moneth or weeke the said 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] Ipswich coach, which goeth not out of towne till noone or thereabout; and he veryly beleeveth in his conscience, that the residue of his estate he did then dispose of in these very words, viz. And all the residue of my estate I

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