afterwards. She was wont moreover to say, that her husband was applied to by meffage from the King, and invited to write for the Court, but his anfwer was, that fuch a behaviour would be very inconfiftent with his former conduct, for he had never yet employed his pen against his confcience. By his first wife he had four children, a fon who died an infant, and three daughters who furvived him; by his fecond wife he had only one daughter, who died foon after her mother, who died in childbed; and by his laft wife he had no children at all. His daughters were not fent to school, but were inftructed by a miftrefs kept at home for that purpofe: and he himself, excufing the eldeft on account of an impediment in her speech, taught the two others to read and pronounce Greek and Latin and feveral other languages, without understanding any but English, for he used to say that one tongue was enough for a woman: but this employment was very irksome to them, and this together with the sharpness and feverity of their mother in law made them very uneafy at home; and therefore they were all fent abroad to learn things more proper for them, and particularly imbroidery in gold and filver. As Milton at his death left his affairs very much in the power of his widow, tho' fhe acknowledged that he died worth one thousand five hundred pounds, yet he allowed but one hundred pounds to each of his three daughters. Anne the eldest was decrepit and deformed, but had a very handsome face; fhe married a mafter-builder, and died in childbed of her first child, who died with her. Mary the second lived and died fingle. Deborah the youngest

youngest in her father's life time went over to Ireland with a lady, and afterwards was married to Mr. Abraham Clarke, a weaver in Spittle Fields, and died in Auguft 1727 in the 76th year of her age. She is faid to have been a woman of good understanding and genteel behaviour, though in low circumstances. As fhe had been often called upon to read Homer and Ovid's Metamorphofis to her father, fhe could have repeated a confiderable number of verfes from the beginning of both thefe poets, as Mr. Ward, Profeffor of Rhetoric in Grefham College, relates upon his own knowledge: and another Gentleman has informed me, that he has heard her repeat feveral verfes likewife out of Euripides. Mr. Addison, and the other gentlemen, who had opportunities of seeing her, knew her immediately to be Milton's daughter by the fimilitude of her countenance to her father's picture: and Mr. Addison made her a handfome prefent of a purse of guineas with a promise of procuring for her fome annual provifion for her life; but his death happening foon after, the loft the benefit of his generous defign. She received presents likewise from several other gentlemen, and Queen Caroline fent her fifty pounds by the hands of Dr. Freind the physician. She had ten children, seven fons and three daughters; but none of them had any children, except one of her fons named Caleb, and one of her daughters named Elizabeth. Caleb went to Fort St. George in the East Indies, where he married, and had two fons, Abraham and Ifaac; the elder of whom came to England with the late governor Harrison, but returned upon advice of his father's death, and whether he or his

brother be now living is uncertain. Elizabeth, the youngest child of Mrs. Clarke, was married to Mr. Thomas Fofter a weaver in Spittle Fields, and had feven children who are all dead; and the herself is aged about fixty, and weak and infirm. She feemeth to be a good plain fenfible woman, and has confirmed several particulars related above, and informed me of fome others, which he had often heard from her mother: that her grandfather lost two thousand pounds by a money-fcrivener, whom he had intrufted with that fum, and likewife an estate at Westminster of fixty pounds a year, which belonged to the Dean and Chapter, and was restored to them at the Reftoration: that he was very temperate in his eating and drinking, but what he had he always loved to have of the beft: that he feldom went abroad in the latter part of his life, but was vifited even then by persons of diftinction, both foreigners and others: that he kept his daughters at a great distance, and would not allow them to learn to write, which he thought unneceffary for a woman: that her mother was his greateft favorite, and could read in feven or eight languages, tho' fhe understood none but English: that her mother inherited his head-akes and diforders, and had fuch a weakness in her eyes, that he was forced to make use of fpectacles from the age of eighteen; and the herself, The fays, has not been able to read a chapter in the Bible these twenty years: that he was mistaken in informing Mr. Birch, what he had printed upon her authority, that Milton's father was born in France; and a brother of hers who was then living was very angry with her for it, and like a true-born English

man

man resented it highly, that the family fhould be thought to bear any relation to France: that Milton's fecond wife did not die in childbed, as Mr. Philips and Toland relate, but above three months after of a confumption; and this too Mr. Birch relates upon her authority; but in this particular she must be mistaken as well as in the other, for our author's fonnet on his deceased wife plainly implies, that she did die in childbed. She knows nothing of her aunt Philips or Agar's defcendents, but believes that they are all extinct: as is likewife Sir Chriftopher Milton's family, the last of which, fhe fays, were two maiden fifters, Mrs. Mary and Mrs. Catharine Milton, who lived and died at Highgate; but unknown to her, there is a Mrs. Milton living in Grofvenor ftreet, the grandaughter of Sir Chriftopher, and the daughter of Mr. Thomas Milton before mentioned: and she herfelf is the only furvivor of Milton's own family, unlefs there be fome in the Eaft Indies, which the very much questions, for fhe used to hear from them fometimes, but has heard nothing now for several years; fo that in all probability Milton's whole family will be extinct with her, and he can live only in his writings. And fuch is the caprice of fortune, this grandaughter of a man, who will be an everlafting glory to the nation, has now for fome years with her husband kept a little chandler's or grocer's fhop for their fubfiftence, lately at the lower Holloway in the road between Highgate and London, and at prefent in Cock Lane not far from Shoreditch Church. Another thing let me mention, that is equally to the honor of the prefent age. Tho' Milton received not above ten pounds at two different payments for the

copy

copy of Paradife Loft, yet Mr. Hoyle author of the treatife on the Game of Whift, after having difpofed of all the first impreffion, fold the copy to the bookfeller, as I have been informed, for two hundred guineas.

As we have had occafion to mention more than once Milton's manufcripts preferved in the library of Trinity College in Cambridge, it may not be ungrateful to the reader, if we give a more particular account of them, before we conclude. There are, as we faid, two draughts of a letter to a friend who had importuned him to take orders, together with a fonnet on his being arrived to the age of twenty three: and by there being two draughts of this letter with feveral alterations and additions, it appears to have been written with great care and deliberation; and both the draughts have been published by Mr. Birch in his Historical and Critical Account of the life and writings of Milton. There are alfo feveral of his poems, Arcades, At a folemn mufic, On time, Upon the circumcifion, the Mask, Lycidas, with five or fix of his fonnets, all in his own hand-writing: and there are fome others of his fonnets written by different hands, being most of them compofed after he had loft his fight. It is curious to fee the first thoughts and fubfequent corrections of fo great a poet as Milton: but it is remarkable in thefe manufcript poems, that he doth not often make his ftops, or begin his lines with great letters. There are likewife in his own hand-writing different plans of Paradife Loft in the form of a tragedy: and it is an agreeable amufement to trace the gradual progrefs and improvement of fuch a work from its firft dawnings in the plan of a tragedy

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