among the faults with which it has been too much the fashion of recent times to load the memory of the incomparable Milton, one of the charges brought against his private character (for with his political character we have here nothing to do) has been, that he was so severe a father as to have compelled his daughters, after he was blind, to read aloud to him, for his sole pleasure, Greek and Latin authors of which they did not understand a word. But this is in fact nothing more than an instance of the strict domestick regulations of the age in which Milton lived; and should not be brought forward as a proof of the severity of his individual temper. Nor indeed in any case should it ever be considered as a hardship for an affectionate child to amuse an afflicted parent, even though it should be attended with a heavier sacrifice of her own pleasure than in the present instance."

• Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, by Mrs. Hannah More, vol. i. p. 147, 6th edit. 1799.

SECTION VII.

a

The Nuncupative Will of Milton: with Notes by the late Rev. Thomas Warton, and other Observations.

b MEMORANDUM, that JOHN MILTON, late of the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate in the Countie of Middlesex Gentleman, deceased, at severall times before his death, and in particular, on or about the twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord God 1674, being of perfect mind and memorie, declared his Will and intent as to the disposall of his estate after his death, in these words following, or of like effect: The portion due to me from Mr. Powell, my former wife's father, I leave to the unkind children I had by her, having received no parte of it: but my meaning is, they shall have no other benefit of my estate than the said portion, and what I have besides done for them; they having been very undutifull to me. All the residue of my estate I leave to [the] disposall of Elizabeth my loving wife. Which

First published by Mr. Warton, in his edit. of Milton's Smaller Poems, 1791. TODd.

b As propounded in the Prerogative Court. WARTON.

words, or to the same effect, were spoken in the presence of CHRISTOPHER MILTON .

"X [Mark of ELIZABETH FISHER.

"Nov. 23, 1674.

I.

The Allegation propounding the Will, on which Allegation the Witnesses be examined'.

"Negotium Testamentarium, sive probacionis Tes

JOHN MILTON's younger brother: a strong royalist, and a professed papist. After the civil war, he made his composition through his brother's interest. Being a practitioner in the law, he lived to be an ancient Bencher of the Inner Temple: was made a judge of the Common Pleas, and knighted by king James the second; but, on account of his age and infirmities, he was at length dismissed from business, and retired to Ipswich, where he resided all the latter part of his life. WARTON. But see what I have said of him Milton, pp. 256, seq. TODD.

d A servant-maid of John Milton.

e

in the preceding account of

WARTON.

Registr. Cur. Prærog. Cant. This Will was contested by Mary, Deborah, and Anne Milton, daughters of the poet's first wife Mary, daughter of Mr. Richard Powel, of Foresthill in Oxfordshire. The cause came to a regular sentence, which was given against the Will; and the Widow, Elizabeth, was ordered to take Administration instead of a Probate. I must add here, that this cause, the subject of which needed no additional lustre from great names, was tried by that upright and able statesman, Sir Leoline Jenkins, Judge of the Prerogative Court, and Secretary of State; and that the depositions were taken in part before Dr. Trumbull, afterwards Sir William Trumbull, Secretary of State, and the celebrated friend of Pope. As a circumstantial and authentick history of this process, the following instruments, which were otherwise thought too curious to be suppressed, are subjoined. WARTON.

Viz. Christopher MILTON, and JOHN MILTON's two ser

tamenti nuncupativi, sive ultimæ Voluntatis, JOHANNIS MILTON, nuper dum vixit parochiæ S. Ægidii Cripplegate London generosi, defuncti, habent. &c. promotum per Elizabetham MILTON & Relictam, et

vant-maids Elizabeth and Mary Fisher. of the widow. WARTON.

Witnesses on the part

This was his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, of a gentleman's family in Cheshire. He married her at the recommendation of his friend, and her relation, Dr. Paget, about the year 1661, and in his fifty-fourth year, soon after he had obtained his pardon from the restored king; being now blind and infirm, and wanting some more constant and confidential companion than a servant to attend upon his person. The elder Richardson insinuates, that this lady, being no poet or philosopher like her husband, used frequently to teaze him for his carelessness or ignorance about moneymatters, and that she was a termagant. He adds, that soon after their marriage, a royal offer was made to Milton of the resumption of his old department of Latin Secretary, and that, being strongly pressed by his wife to an acceptance, he scornfully replied, "Thou art in the right; you, as other women, would ride in your Coach. My aim is to live and die an honest man.” LIFE, &c. p. xcix. seq. edit. 1734. From these papers, however, it appears, that she consulted her husband's humours, and treated his infirmities with tenderness. After his death in 1674, she retired to Namptwich in Cheshire, where she died about 1729. Mr. Pennant says, her father, Mr. Minshull, lived at Stoke in that neighbourhood. W. Tour, and Gough's Camden, Cheshire, p. 436. The third edition of Paradise Lost was published in 1678 and this is the poet's widow, to whom the copy of that work was then to devolve by original agreement, but who sold all her claims to Samuel Simmons, his bookseller, for eight pounds, according to her receipt given Decemb. 21, 1680.. WARTON.

Among the letters of Mr. G. Grey to his brother Dr. Zach. Grey, was the following notice of this lady's death, which was obligingly communicated to me by J. Nichols, Esq. from the original in his possession: "There were three widow Miltons there,

Legatariam principalem nominatam in Testamentó nuncupativo, sive ultima Voluntate, dicti defuncti, contra Mariam, Annam, et Deboram MILTON, filias dicti defuncti.

"Secundo Andreæ, A. D. 1674. Quo die.... Thompson, nomine, procuratione, ac ultimus procurator legitimus, dicta Elizabethæ MILTON, Omnibus melioribus et effectualioribus [efficacioribus] via, modo, et meliori forma, necnon ad omnem juris. effectum, exhibuit Testamentum nuncupativum dicti JOHANNIS MILTON defuncti, sic incipiens, · MEMORANDUM, that JOHN MILTON, late of the parish of S. Giles, Cripplegate,' &c. Which words, or words to the same effect, were spoken in the presence of Christopher MILTON, and Elizabeth Fisher; et allegavit consimiliter, et dicens prout sequitur. I. Quod præfatus JOHANNES MILTON, dum vixit, mentis compos, ac in sua sana memoria existens, Testamentum suum nuncupativum modo in hoc negotio exhibitum .... tenoris schedulæ . . . . testamentariæ condidit, nuncupavit, et declaravit; cæteraque omnia et singula dedit, donavit, reliquit, et disposuit, in omnibus, et per omnia, vel similiter in effectum, prout in dicto Testamento nuncupativo continetur, (at Nantwich) viz. the poet's widow, my aunt, and another. The poet's widow died last summer." Dated July 30, 1731. But this must have been a mistake of the writer. Milton's widow, it indisputably appears, died in 1727. See a subsequent note on this Will. This lady also was married to Milton not in 1661, but in 1665. See what is before said in p. 186. TODD.