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- Camden Old Series , Volume 45: Certaine Considerations upon the Government of England. by Sir Roger Twysden, Kt. and Bart. , May 1849 , pp. v - lxxxv
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- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1849
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page xii note * The revival of Anglo-Saxon study was contemporaneous with the Reformation; Parker, L'Isle, and Fox, wielded it as a weapon against popery. But it was continued also, for the sake of history, in the later times, when, though every educated man was a theologian, theological struggles were no longer the exclusive objects of attention. Spelman, Selden, Somner, D'Ewes, and Twysden, all cite Anglo-Saxon usages and phrases, publish Anglo-Saxon laws or councils, and quote Anglo-Saxon homilies. Among the Surrenden MSS. is a very creditable Anglo-Saxon vocabulary in the hand of the celebrated Sir E. Dering, and obviously formed by himself in the course of his own reading.
page xii note † Hist. of England, i. 320.
page xiv note * Twysden's MS. Journal.
page xiv note † There is also an entry of sums paid by him on account of Castell's Dictionary in 1658, towards which he obtained six subscribers, at three pounds a copy, in the same county.
page xiv note ‡ This failed only through the breaking out of the Civil War; but the papers referring to it, including letters which show how warmly Usher entered into the scheme, are still preserved in the care of the registrar at Cambridge.
page xvi note * As these are most characteristic and beautiful, I have not scrupled to print one of them here, though in a note, that it may not interfere with the text. It is taken from a little manuscript handbook of passages selected from the Gospels, and prayers, once the property of Isabella, Sir E. T.'s wife, as appears from the following note on the title-page, in that lady's hand: “This was my Lady Anne Twysden booke, the plases of scriptvre all of hir owne election and plasing, which she had all by hart. Hir whole delight was on the Lord Jesus, and the waye to him, with whom she now is, and injoyes what all hir life she so mvch desired and longed for. The three first prayers hirselfe made; that which is to be sed in sicknes was, in hirs, often on hir command red to hir, and some verses which she had set together for that same pvrpus, which she likewise many times repeated. Extrem desirus she was to leve this vaine world, for so she held and calde it, and to be with hir Savior, intreating all to beleve and love him, and onanother for his sake. A more nobell, virtivs, religivs lady this earth bears not. The 14. of October, 1638, she left vs and this life to be a most blessed saint in heaven. As dearly as hir owne she loved me, and my love was more to hir than I can expres. This book she gave me; for whose deare sake I will never part from it, that am hir most humble davghter,
Isabella Twysden.”
“Lady Anne's Prayer for the Sick.
“O thou Eternall Word, by whome in the beginning all things were made, that wert God and with God, at and before all beginninge and eternally soe, hast yet been pleased to take on thee the forme of a servant to saue vs otherwise lost creatures, borne slaues to Sathan by the sinnes of our first parents, and the continuall increase of our own, still calling on the iudgement of euerlasting death, which thy infinite loue and mercy hath changed into eternall life, by becoming man for vs, suffering all due to vs, and being God and Man, performing all perfect righteousness, art thyself become ours, and taken away the sting of death from all beleeuers in the; O Lord, thou that camest into the world to saue sinners, hast taught vs to know thee in life eternall, promised that whosoeuer beleeueth in thee shall not perish but haue euerlasting life; by thy Holy Spirit, wee beseech thee to strengthen this faith in us all, and espetially in this thy sicke servant, and also to her former health, if it be thy will, restore her; in the meane time giue her patience to indure what thou shalt be pleased to lay on her, with assured confidence in thee, that, though heaviness doe indure for a night, sendeth ioy in the morning; but if thou, our God and Savior, beest determined to make this sickness her passage to thee, settle in her all comfortable assurances in thee, that her heart may with true ioy welcome it; fixe in her memory all thy mercies and generall promises to all beleeuers; draw her weary and heavy laden to thee to have ease, that forgiuest all our iniquities and healest all our infirmities; now double upon her what worke of thy Spirit she hath at any time felt in her, assure her soule that pardon of all her sinnes is signed and sealed in thy blood, take all earthly thoughts from her, and fill her only with the loue of thee; give to her understanding here if it bee thy blessed will some taste of the happiness she shal for euer inioy with thee, that with the more longing gladnesse to be in thy presence she may desire to be deliuered from this present evil world, out of which in thy appointed good hower wee most humbly beseech thee to giue her in thee so blessed and peaceful a parting, that the consideration of her great gaine may lessen the grief of her losse to her sad friends; and teach vs all to praise and glorifie thee for euer, and be ready prepared to come when thou callest, that art the life and light of all men; to whom wee, giuing our most humble thanks for all thy unspeakable goodnesse, doe farther beseech as thou hast taught vs,
“Our Father, &c.”
Of this truly noble woman, one of her children has left this characteristic description:
“She was of stature tall, of complexion very fayre, mixed with a settled rednes in her cheeks. By a fall at nurse received a lamenesse vpon her right hippe, which with her yeares increased. In her youth bred at the court of queene Eliz. vnder her noble parent, the lady Heneage, long enough to know the vanities of that life and to decline them. Afterwards maryed to Sr Win, Twysden; she was mother to fiue sonnes and two daughters, all aliue and men growne at her death. She was skilful in ffower languages, Latine, Italian, Spanish, and French, yet discreete to keepe the world from knowing to much of it. In her discourse she was graue and wise, in her pen short and judicious, in her answeres quick and pithy, in her meditations sad and heavy, in her life pious, and death glorious.”
page xvii note * “Beeing in the dead of winter when the ways are hardly passable from hynce.” MS. Journal.
page xviii note * Mal-administration by corrupt officers added to the mischief of a vexatious system. Sir Roger in his directions to his son, intended to be a guide after his own death, in suing out his successor's livery, does not scruple to say that bribery is the best resource, and in the end the cheapest husbandry: “The best way and the only way to passe as lightly and as well in all things wherein the king hath his share, is to bribe his offycers.”
page xx note * No one ever doubted the right of the House of Commons to tax the subject; but very grave doubts were entertained of their right to levy taxes by their own officers, or to distribute at their own pleasure the funds so raised. Most admitted that they alone could give aids and subsidies, but most also held that the crown was the sole judge how these sums were to be employed.
page xxi note * Sir R. T. more than once insinuates his belief that the severe treatment he met with at the hands of the Kentish Committee was due to the personal and family animosity of Sir A. Weldon. (MS. Journal, passim.) One instance may suffice; and the more readily given, that it is characteristic of Sir Roger's style and manner, and a specimen of the valuable materials contained in his Journal. “There was Sir John Sedley, Sir Anthony Weldon, with whom our family had heretofore some disputes, etc...... Of this gentleman I shall say the lesse, beecause there had beene former differences beetwixt our two famylys (I pray God he did not now take an oportunyty of revenging that by power he fayled of doing by justice); yet I cannot deny hym to haue beene a person had noble principles, yet shadowed with many vanities, if not vices; a good friend where he tooke, no lesse an enemy; in which notion he had long looked on our name; one, I dare say, did not in hys hart approve the actions of the two Howses, yet the desire of rule brought hym to run with the forwardest.” (MS. Journal 1643.) A standing cause of quarrel was the right to certain pews in East Peckham church, which the Twysdens ultimately won, at considerable expense to each party.
page xxii note * “Never did any man with more earnest expectation long for a Parlyament then I did; seeing, to my understanding, the great necessity of one both for church and state; nor did any (so far as my calling led me) more then I oppose any illegal course might retard the calling of one;—as my sute with the heralds for fees after my father's death, in my Lord Marischall's court, might give good evidence; as likewise the contest I had with one John Bristock, who, setting up a brew-house at Tunbridge, by a power as he pretended from court, prohibited men the brewing and selling beere of their own making, and thereupon uttered his owne, not only at unreasonable rates, but (as was informed) issued out unwholesome drink; which being complayned of, he was so proceeded against by that worthy patriot Mr. Dixon and myself, when others refused to meddle with it, as he made little farther use of his patent;—or did more joy at that honorable action of some Lords, who delivered a petition to his late Majesty (Charles I.) in the North, for the summoning of one; never imagining a Parlyament would haue tooke upon them the redressing things amisse, eyther in the ecelesiastique or temporall government, by a way not traced out unto them by their auncestors; or the House of Commons would haue assumed a power of commanding those who authorized their sitting in it, otherwise then by making lawes that both were to obey.” (MS. Journal 164 0/1). “Beside, I did not love to haue a King armed with booke lawe [that is, precedent by statute against the common law of the realm.—I. M. K.] agaynst me for my life and estate. Should his Majesty come in a conqueror,—which I wisht not—he could,” etc. (MS. Journal 1642.) “Soe that I am at a stoppe, what the grounds of those counsels should bee; neither can I imagine but that they were, eyther from such as desired to see his Majesty come in an absolute conqueror (which I was never Cavalier enough to wish), or those who held it theyr gayn to continue our miseries.” (MS. Journal 1643). The grounds upon which Sir R. T. deprecated the King's “coming in as a conqueror” are plainly expressed in the Journal of 1643. Speaking of one of the King's proclamations in the beginning of that year, he says, “I profess I was at first sight amazed to see a King, not able to giue protection to hys people, yet declare it high treason to pay any assessment or contribution unto them, as that which was ayding or assisting of them, prohybyted by the Act of the 25 Ed. III. And when the Parlyament (for so men now called the two Howses) had publisht a sequestration of the estates of those who had voluntaryly contributed to his Majesty, not lying under the power of any part of his army;—the King in this adds no qualification whatever. And yet I have beene taught since, the giving ayd in such a ease not to have beene treason. By this all men saw, if hys Majesty prevayled they must looke for nothing but the extremity of law, which in so generall revolts princes haue seldome put in execution, and never fortunate in professing beeforehand; as indeede what effect did it produce? but by making the adverse party more firmely combyne against hym from whom they expected no favor, in the end was a cause of his utter ruine.” Lilly, who was very likely to have good information on such a subject, says: “I haue heard it from the mouths of many worthy gentlemen whose hap it was to serue him in the late wars, that they did believe, had he, viz. the King, by arms conquered the Parlyament, he would haue proued the greatest tyrant the English nation euer had to rule ouer them; and therefore they did still pray for a reconcilement betwixt the Parliament and him, but could neuer endure to hear he should conquer our armies.”—Life of K. Charles I. p. 182.
page xxii note a Co. Inst. iii. p. 10, § “It was.” See 6 Ric. II. cap. 3, stat. 2.
page xxiii note * Sir Roger leased lands from Canterbury, which he held at a high rent, over which he often grumbled, and to diminish which he often squabbled with the Chapter in vain. When these were secularized he became their purchaser, because he had without them no road to his parish church at Chart. But he had no mind to profit by his purchase. I add an entry from his journal, as highly characteristic of the author of the “Historical Vindication of the Church of England.” The note is as follows (Christ Church Leas, 1649 and 1650):—
“The lands having in leas I was forced to buy because I had otherways no way to goe to ye church at Chart, so I was forced in my brother Francis, Philip Bartholomeu, and John Smallman's names to buy and pay for them at Grurny howse, but I payd after ye rate of 15 years' purchas for the same, onely for 20011 and some odde pounds of Collonell Tomlins I payd but 7011 for an hundred, they beeing upon debentures of pay due to hym on service: the whole purehas was 230—15—04, and 13—00—00 the charge of passing it to them; so Frank and I payd Col. Tomlinson, he, first, about ye beginning of March 164 9/50. 6111, and I myself to his servant Wat, ye 20th of March 164 9/50, 7911 at my brother Thomas hys howse in Barbycan, for wch I was alowed 20011 at Grurny howse.
“And God blesse this land to my heyrs and graunt it doe not infect the rest, wch I was necessitated to purchas and did never any more unwillingly; and if ever ye church of Canterbury come to bee restored, wch God graunt, I hope and desire my heyr wth all willingness returne what was wth violence by ye horrid injustice of ye parlyament torne from them, least it bee indeede a canker to all ye rest; and in ye mean tyme I desire he will wth ye revenue of it, at least soe much as was anually payd ye church, and somewhat more, as ten pounds a year or thereabouts, remember some poore orthodoxall ministers or schollers.
“Roger Twysden.”
[In a much later hand] “Wch is since returned to the trewe owners, of wch no man is more glad then I myself.”
[In another page, after reciting the leases, he says,] “The inheritance of this land I haue beene since forced to buy of ye parlyament, having no other way to ride to Chart church but through it, which otherwise I had neuer done (see p. 321), and is now returned to ye trewe owners.”
page xxv note * Among his letters is an interesting communication from Fulgentio, and a paper which I strongly suspect was prepared by Panzani himself (or some one in his confidence), for the instruction of the French court, in 1638. These documents contain information of singular interest respecting the opinion entertained by Cardinal Barberini and other leading papal ministers respecting Archbishop Laud, and other prelates of the Anglican Church.
page xxvii note * May 11, 1603.
page xxvii note † May 13th, 1619. See Nichols, 's Progresses of James I. vol. iii. p 609.Google Scholar
page xxxiiii note * Sir William's other children were:
1. Thomas, born Jan. 8th 1601–2, made first a Sergeant at Law by Cromwell, then imprisoned by him for the vigour with which he defended the corporation of London, who had retained him. Then advanced to the bench, and finally made a baronet by Charles the second. He married Jane Thomlinson, sister of Colonel Thomlinson, who commanded the guards at the execution of Charles the First, and to whom he gave the ribbon and George, upon the scaffold. By this lady he had eight children. Sir Thomas was reputed a sound lawyer and an upright judge. He died in 1682–3.
2. William, born 1605, died unmarried 1641. Several interesting letters from him while travelling in Italy are yet preserved.
3. John, a doctor of physic, and author of one or two learned works, a member of the College of Surgeons; born 1607, died 1688, unmarried.
4. Francis; born 1609–10, died 1675, unmarried.
5. Elizabeth; born 1600, was married to the celebrated Sir Hugh Cholmondley, and had issue: she died in 1655.
6. Anne; born 1602–3, was married to Sir Christopher Yelverton, and had issue: she died in 1670.
page xxxv note * Author of the “Logonomia Anglica,” “A treatise concerning the Trinity,” and “Sacred Philosophy of Holy Scripture.” Dr. Gill was an eminent theologian, and one of the best Latinists of his day: I think I see traces of his training in Sir Roger's Latin. He has, I believe, also the honour of having, as Head Master of St. Paul's, introduced a very improved system of education into that most distinguished school of philologists and divines.
page xxxviii note * Sir Nicholas was descended from a younger branch of the Saunders of Charlwood, and, through the frequent intermarriages of heireses with his family, he lineally represented several illustrious houses, whose arms he thereby quartered with his own, viz. Salaman, Collenden, Carew of Bedington, Peverell of Ermington, Willoughby, Dalamere, Marston, Carew of Bedington (a younger branch), Fitzstephen, De Courcy, Twyte, Digon, Stuteville, Mohun, Fleminge, Brewer, Hoo, D'Andeville, St. Leger, St. Omer, Malmaines, Wells, Engayne de Grainsby, Waterton, Corbet, Byran, Blunt, Bostock. The Twysdens, by this marriage with his daughter Isabella, became entitled, at the death of his son Henry without issue, to quarter all the abovenamed coats.
page xliii note * See Nalson.
page xlvi note * The conduct of Sir Harry Vane on this occasion has been greatly impugned. Many have accused him of treachery to the King, or at least of grave mismanagement. Bramston says, “When the parliament met, a kind of offer was made of buying off shipmoney, by granting the King three subsidies in lieu thereof; the popular orators made such harangues as inclined the maioritie of the House of Commons to stand stiffly to haue grievances redressed before any supply was granted. And Sir Henry Vane the elder, either as a knaue or foole, playd the king's cards so ill, that there was noe right vnderstanding betweene the King and the House of Commons in that matter. And yet I haue heard Mr. Porter, my brother (whoe serued in that parliament as burgess for Maldon), and others say, if they had binn permitted to sit awhile longer, they had complied with the Kinge in some good measure. But the Kinge, guessing otherwise, dissolued that parliament, very vnhappily for himselfe and the kingdome.”—Autobiog. p. 65, 66.
Charles, when he returned to his senses and perceived the fatal mistake he had made, did, it is well known, disavow Sir Harry Vane: but unfortunately this King wanted that first essential to a gentleman, the love of truth, and his assertion on this subject can prove no more than that he repented of the step he had taken, and would gladly have shifted the responsibility upon other shoulders. It is extremely improbable that Vane should have mistaken his measures; he was a man of much experience and good sense, and was thoroughly acquainted with the wishes of the people. Nor is it likely he acted with treachery. In the first place, he had himself advised the King to call a parliament, and for reasons of his own he was interested in its continuance: without it he could not hope to wreak his vengeance on Stafford, whom he persecuted with an energy not the less furious for being inflamed by merely personal motives. That he could desire to embroil the King and the Parliament is not to be imagined for a moment: he knew the relative strength of the parties far too well. I have little doubt that he was directly compelled to do what he did, and that when this failed—as it was sure to do—Charles with his usual honour endeavoured to make him the scapegoat. It was indeed rumoured at the time that Laud or the Queen herself were the King's chief advisers in this most fatal conjuncture. See Whitelock, Mem. p. 34; Dugdale's “View,” p. 61.
page xlviii note * Clarendon paints him (perhaps not quite justly) in two lines: “A man of levity and vanity, easily flattered by being commended.”—Hist. bk. iii. p. 95.
The subsequent fate of this unfortunate gentleman is instructive. He quarrelled with his former friends, was expelled the house, and went into active opposition, in his county. For this he was impeached, but escaped and joined the king; by him and his party he was treated with contempt, and finally died in misery.
page l note * It was printed as a separate pamphlet at the time; and being burnt by the hangman, copies are now scarce, but do exist.
page lv note * Comm. Journ. Lunre, 28° Martii, 1642.
page lv note † The following gentlemen were appointed a committee to meet a committee of the Lords on the subject: Mr. Pym, Sir A. Haselrig, Sir Ro. Coke, Mr. Whitacre, Sir Tho. Dacres, Mr. Sergt. Wilde, Sir Sam. Rolle, Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Jn. Moore, Sir Jo. Corbet, Sir H. Mildmay, Sir Ro. Harley, Mr. Trenchard, Sir E. Boyse, Sir O. Heyman, Sir H. Vane jr. Sir W. Massam, Mr. Peard, Sir Hugh Cholmely, Mr. Cage, Sir P. Went worth, Sir J. Holland, Mr. R. Goodwyn, and Mr. Rowse. And the Lords thereupon appointed a proportionable committee. (C. Journ. ii. 500, 501.)
page lvii note * Co. Journ. Die Martis, 29° Martii, 1642.
page lix note * Com. Journ. Die Veneris, 1° Aprilis, 1642.
page lix note † Com. Journ. Jovis, 7° Aprilis.
page lx note * Com. Journ. Sabbat. 9° Aprilis.
page lx note † Com. Journ. Jovis, 21° Aprilis.
page lxi note * Com.Journ. Sabbat, ult. Aprilis.—Verncy's Notes, p. 175.
page lxii note * Lovelace and Boteler were bailed towards the end of June, the principals in 10,000, the sureties in 5,000 pounds each.
page lxii note † Die Jovis, 12° Maii.
page lxii note ‡ Com. Journ. Die Veneris, 22° July, 1642.
page lxiv * Of Linton Place, near Maidstone; he commanded the Royalists, in the gallant defence of Maidstone against Fairfax, in 1648.
page lxiv note † Eldest son of Sir Humphry Tufton of the Mote, who was one of the commissioners appointed by the Parliament to go down into Kent on this occasion.
page lxiv note ‡ Eldest son of Sir Robert Filmer, and brother to the first baronet of that name.
page lxiv note § He was of Ford in Wrotham. He fell at the early age of 36, in the skirmish a Cropredy Bridge, where he commanded a regiment raised at his own expense.
page lxv note * Captain Augustine Skinner of Tutsham Hall.
page lxvi note * Com. Journ. Martis, 2° Aug.
page lxvi note † Com. Journ. Veneris, 5° Aug.
page lxvi note ‡ The humble petition of Sir R. T. who is in restraint in the Serjeant's custody, for his liberty to go down into the country, was read: and, the question being put, it passed in the negative. (Com. Journ. Merc. 10° Aug.)
page lxvi note § Sir H. Cholmely of Whitby, Yorkshire, Sir Roger's brother-in-law, was at this time a zealous Parliamentarian. It is well known that he afterwards deserted their cause, and surrendered Scarborough Castle, of which he was governor, to the Queen, at a very critical conjuncture.
page lxvii note * Com. Journ. Merc. 24° Aug.
page lxvii note † De Jure Belli et Pacis, lib. iii. cap. 17, § 1.
page lxviii note * MS. Journal.
page lxviii note † Com. Journ. Martis, 30° Augt.
page lxix note * An overture was made by “divers (in the city) under the style of affected persons, that they would advance a considerable number of soldiers for the supply and recruit of the Parliament forces, and would arm, maintain, and pay them for several months, or during the times of danger and distractions; provided that they might have the public faith of the kingdom for repayment of all such sums of money which they should so advance by way of loan.” An ordinance was immediately framed, and passed both Houses: “That all such as should furnish men, money, horse, or arms, for that service, should have the same fully repaid again, with interest for the forbearance thereof, from the times disbursed. And for the true payment thereof they did engage to all and every such person and persons the public faith of the kingdom.”—Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 60. Immediately upon this ordinance being published (Novr. 29th 1642), “the active mayor and sheriffs appointed a committee of such persons, whose inclinations they well knew, to press all kind of people, especially those who were not forward, to new subscriptions: and by degrees, from this unconsidered passage, grew the monthly tax of six thousand pounds, to be set upon the city for the payment of the army.”
page lxx note * Sir Roger Twysden was not the only gentleman who, being unable to join either party, desired to leave England for a time; we have seen that Sir John Pinch entertained this intention, and Evelyn obtained licence to do the same. In fact the country gentlemen felt that it was impossible to save a king who never spoke a word of truth in his life; and yet could not arm against him, or remain neutral between the two parties.
page lxx note † Of Hollingbourne Hill, near Maidstone, and M.P. for that town.
page lxxi note * Of the Fryars in Aylesford, near Maidstone, father of Sir Charles Sedley, the celebrated wit and roué of Charles the Second's time.
page lxxi note † Of Swanscombe and East Peckham; an hereditary opponent of the house of Twysden.
page lxxi note ‡ Lib. 10, fol. 139 b.
page lxxii note * Lib. 2, fol. 3 b.
page lxxii note † Oxford, April 7th. See Collect, of Orders, ii. 27, 28.
page lxxii note ‡ Oxford, April 1st. See Collect, of Orders, ii. 13.
page lxxiv note * Coke, Instit. iii. p. 10, § “It was.” See 6 Ric. II. cap. 3, stat. 2.
page lxxiv note * 5 Ric. II. cap. 2.
page lxxiv note † Augustine Skinner, Esq. of Tutsham Hall, in West Farleigh, near Maidstone. On the expulsion of Sir E. Dering, he was returned to Parliament in his place.
page lxxiv note ‡ Of the Court Lodge, Ightham.
page lxxv note * At another and later part of his journal Sir Roger denies that he had any passport at all, saying he had left the one from the Council in London: that he had a false one from the Lord Mayor, in order to pass the city gates, and that he meant to slip through as the attendant of one of the strangers who had a passport for two. There seems some confusion here in his own account of the matter.
page lxxv note † The warrant to Samuel Warecoppe, keeper of that prison, bears date June 10th, 1643.
page lxxvi note * “As it is certayn there was at this tyme no party considerable of ye Parlyament's, but those wth my Lord of Essex, to oppose hys Matye, and hys men perhaps dishartened; yet there is no doubt they, wth such as ye City would have lent hym, might have beene enough to have made honorable conditions, not to have left ye City and kingdome wholly to ye rage of a conqueror, and fury of an army. And I remember I heard some citizens then to have been designed for the treating wth the King; and it was spoke by some, of no mean note, they must buy their peace, did hys army Iooke this way, on any termes; and I have beene told from ye mouth of one then in great auctoryty, it was resolved in ye Close Committee (for ye Howse did nothing but what they first projected), upon ye King's march hitherward, they had such conditions prepared privately as would have beene accepted.” (MS. Journal.)
page lxxvi note † The warrant for delivering the bodies of Doctor Fairfax, Sir Roger Twysden, Captain John Hichwell, Dr. Middleton, and Dr. Layfield, to George Hawes, Master of the “Prosperous Sarah,” to be kept in safe custody as prisoners on board the said ship, till the pleasure of the House be signified to the contrary, bears date August 10th, 1643, and is signed by Lenthall, as Speaker. The next day but one they were removed on board.
page lxxvii note * See p. xl.
page lxxvii note † Son of the celebrated Sir Henry Yelverton, Baronet, of Easton Mauduit in the county of Northampton.
page lxxix note * Sir Roger's account of Alexander Leighton is interesting. He says, “My keeper was one Alexander Leighton, a Scot, who writ himself Dr. of Phisick, sometyme heretofore a divine, no ille-disposed person, but an earnest Presbyterian, and one who had not many yeeres beefore beene censured in ye Starchamber for a booke called ‘Zions Plea against the Prelacy;’ but now, to shew their greater contempt of ye Archbishop, had ye keeping of Lambeth House (by order of ye 5 January, 164 ⅔, from ye Lords and Commons), committed unto hym for a prison...... I parted wth very great kindnesse from Doctor Leighton; the man beeing no ille dispositioned person, but one who loved the Presbytery, and loved money.” Sir Roger uses a strangely moderate expression to denote the horrible sufferings inflicted upon Leighton by that execrable court; but perhaps the censure of the Starchamber was too well understood and appreciated to require any nearer definition of the diabolical spirit of vengeance with which the sentence was passed, or the unparalleled cruelty with which its full rigours were inflicted. Laud—who as a bishop should have known himself precluded by the canons of the Church from being a judge in any cause which could lead to penalties involving death or mutilation—took off his cap in the court, and returned thanks to God, when the sentence was pronounced! In pursuance of it, Leighton was severely whipped, exposed on the pillory, where one of his ears was cut off, one of his nostrils slit, and one cheek branded with hot irons, and the letters S.S. “sower of sedition:” the very next week, ere the wounds inflicted upon every part of his miserable frame were healed, he was again dragged forth, again severely whipped, again pilloried, his other ear cut off, his other nostril slit, his other cheek branded with hot irons, and in this state he was committed to prison, where he languished for eleven years. He was released by the Long Parliament, and compensation was attempted to be made for his sufferings: but exhausted nature could not endure the change. He died soon after, both body and mind having given way; not however in 1644, as most of his biographers assert, but in 1646, as we learn from this jurnal of Sir Roger Twysden. His son, by another curious freak of fortune, was the learned, pious, and amiable Archbishop Leighton.
page lxxix note * Sir Roger had what our continental neighbours call an “apartment” of four rooms, for which twelve shillings a week were demanded of him. But on his settlement with Leighton, at his release, the twelve were reduced to eight shillings a week.
page lxxix note † The Parliament to their great honour did not proceed as some modern Emperors and Kings have done, but even when they sequestered a malignant's estate assigned at least a fifth part of it for the maintenance of the wife and family. A very little management was generally sufficient to cause the mansion and park to be called this fifth, and thus many a family retained its ancestral home. Thus was Roydon Hall assiged to Dame Isabella Twysden. (See the order of the Committee of the House of Commons, Sept. 6th, 1644.) An admirable speech of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, in favour of moderation towards delinquents, is preserved among the Twysden papers. It is a full and excellent specimen of parliamentary eloquence in the seventeenth century.
page lxxx note * This,£1,500 was reckoned as a tenth, or two years' value. It was afterwards reduced to £1,340, and finally Sir Roger paid about £1,200.
page lxxx note † The last date which occurs in it is 1642.
page lxxxii note * Letters to Arlington, of Nov. 28th, 1668, from the Duke of Richmond and Lennox, and ten deputy lieutenants.