Royalists' Composition-Papers, in his Majesty's StatePaper-Office, his fine and the circumstances attending it, as in the case of Milton's father-in-law, are left upon record, and are too curious to be omitted.

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Christopher Milton, of Reddinge in the County of Berks Esq'. Councellor at Lawe. His Delinquency, that he was a Commissioner for the Kinge, under the Great Seale of Oxford, for sequestringe the Parliament's friends of three Countyes; and afterwards went to Excester, and lived there, and was there at the tyme of the surrender, and is to have the benefitt of those Articles, as by the Deputy Governor's Certificate of that place of the 16th of May 1646 doth appeare. He hath taken the Nationall Covenant before William Barton Minister of John Zacharies the 20th of April 1646, and the Negative Oath heere the 8th August 1646. He compounds upon a Perticular delivered in under his hand, by which he doth submit to such fine &c. and by which it doth appeare :

"That he is seized in fee, to him and his heirs in possession, of and in a certain Messuage or Tenement scituate in St. Martin's Parish Ludgate, called the Signe of the Crosse Keys, and was of the Yeerely Value, before theis troubles, 407. Personal estate he hath none.

"To the Honorable Committee for Compositions with Delinquents sittinge at Goldsmith's Hall.

"The humble Petition of Christopher Milton of Reddinge in the County of Berks Esq. Shewinge, "That he executed a Commission of Sequestrations under the Great Seale at Oxford for three Countyes, and was at Exeter at the tyme of the Surrender thereof late made unto the Parliamente. And humbly prayes, that he may be admitted to compound, and to receive the benefitt of those Articles.

"A true Perticular of all the Estate, reall and personall, of me Christopher Milton of Reddinge in the County of Berks, a Councellor at Lawe.

"That I am seized in fee, to mee and my heires in possession, of and in a certaine Messuage or Tenemente scituate, standinge, and beinge within St. Martin's Parish Ludgate, called the Signe of the Cross Keyes, and was of the Yeerely value before theis troubles 40%. Personal estate I have none but what hath bin seized and taken from mee, and converted to the use of the State.

"This is a true Perticuler of all my estate, reall and personall, for which I onely desire to compound to free it out of sequestration; and doe submitt unto, and undertake to satisfye and pay, such fine as by

this Committee for Compositions with Delinquents shall be imposed and sett to pay for the same, in order to the freedome and dischardge of my person and

estate.

(Signed)

"CHR. MILTON."

This declaration is followed by certificates that he took the requisite oath, and that he had resided in Exeter seven months before the surrender of it to Fairfax. The final mention of his case is, that it was "reported 21 December, 1649, and that the fine (as already noticed) was 2007."

k

This brother of Milton was knighted by James the second. He had long resided in Ipswich, and is said to have fitted up a part of the mansion, which at one time belonged to the ancient family of Wingfield, for the celebration of the Roman Catholick worship; as he was professedly a papist. To a mansion in the village of Rushmere, (about two miles distant,) now called the White House, he then removed, and there died. He was buried in the church of St. Nicholas in the town of Ipswich. In

* What follows relating to Sir Christopher Milton, has been obligingly communicated to me by a learned friend, now resident at Ipswich, the Rev. James Ford, Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.

Parish Regist. of St. Nicholas, "1692. March 22, Sir Christopher Melton of Rushmore was buried in the church of this parish." In the Reg. of Baptisms in St. Nicholas' Parish also, the baptism of his daughter Mary, March 29, 1656, is entered.

the charter granted to this town, 36 Charles II. it may be added, he had been nominated and constituted the first and new deputy-recorder of it.

Anne, the sister of Milton, must have been elder than either of her brothers; for her birth is not to be found in the register already mentioned: She was probably the eldest child, and born before her father settled in Bread-street. Milton's Verses on her daughter, written in his seventeenth year, serve to corroborate this supposition. She was first married to Mr. Phillips, afterwards to Mr. Agar, a friend of her first husband, who succeeded him in the CrownOffice of the Court of Chancery. By her first husband she had two sons, Edward and John, whom Milton educated; by her second, two daughters. His brother, Christopher, had two daughters, Mary and Catherine; and a son, Thomas, who succeeded Mr. Agar in his office. Of Milton's children who survived him, and of his widow Elizabeth, the notes on the Nuncupative Will give a distinct, and, in some respects, a new account. The several branches of his family appear to be now extinct. The case of Deborah, the youngest, which Mr. Warton deplores with sensibility, was first noticed in a very feeling manner also, in Mist's Weekly Journal, April 29, 1727, and commended her to part of the little patronage which she obtained. While it has been ob

m

It is also printed in the European Magazine for 1787, p. 65.

served, that the Nuncupative Will of Milton presents indeed a melancholy picture of domestick connexions, and that his conduct towards his daughters has been feelingly defended even by an eminent female pen ; it has not been noticed, that part of the charge brought against him, I mean his teaching his children to read and pronounce Greek and several other languages without understanding any. but English, may be thought more strange and unaccountable, inasmuch as he appears to have been distinguished for the estimation in which he once held literary women; a circumstance which no biographer of Milton has hitherto recorded. Doctor Newton, indeed, facetiously tells us, that Milton used to say that one tongue was enough for a woman! But contemporary information will best illustrate this curious point in the history of the poet. "We believe," says the answerer to his Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, you count no woman to due conversation accessible, as to you, except she can speak Hebrew, Greek, Latine, and French, and dispute against the Canon law as well as you, or at least be able to hold discourse with you. But other gentlemen of good qualitie are content with meaner and fewer endowments, as you know well enough."-I now recur to the defence of Milton by the distinguished lady, who speaking of the modern revolutionary spirit in families, and elegantly enforcing the subordination of domestick manners, argues that,

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" Answer to the Doct. and Disc. of Divorce, 1644, p. 16.

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