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THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

MR.

APRIL, 1831.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

ORIGINAL LETTER OF KING CHARLES I.

Dalby Terrace, URBAN, City Road, March 1. I INCLOSE you a copy of an original Letter in my possession from the unfortunate Charles to the Marquis of Ormond. The Letter is in perfect preservation, and the copy is exact in every particular. The commencement and conclusion are particularly striking. Indeed, the forlorn and melancholy situation in which the unhappy Monarch was placed by his adverse fortunes, is depicted throughout in language well calculated to draw

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ORMOND, Cardif, 13 July, 1645. 1r hath pleased God, by many successive misfortunes, to reduce my af. faires, of late, from a verry prosperous condition, to so low an eb, as to be a perfect tryall of all mens integrities to me; and you being a person whom I consider as most entyrly and generously resolved to stand and fall with your King, I doe principally rely upon you, for your utermost assistance in my present hazards: I have com'anded Digby to acquaint you at large, with all particulars of my condition; what I have to hope, trust too, or feare; wherin you will fynde that, if my expectation of Relife out of Irland be not in some good measure and speedely answered, I am lykely to be reduced to great extremities. I hope some of those Expresses I sent you since my misfortune, by the, Battaile of Nazeby, ar come to you, and

am therfor confident that you ar in a good forwardness, for the sending over to me a considerable supply of men, artillery, and amunition; all that I have to add is, that the necessity of your speedy performing them is made much more pressing, by new disasters; so that I absolutly Comand you, (what hazard soever that kingdome may run by it,) personally to bring me all the Forses, of what sort soever you can draw from thence, and leave the Governement there (during your absence) in the fittest hands, that you shall judge, to discharge it; for I may not want you heere to Comand those forces wch will be brought from thence, and such as from hence shall be joyned to them: But you must not understand this as a permission for you to grant to the Irish (in case they will not otherwais have Religion, then what I have allowed a Peace) any thing more, in matter of you alreddy; except only in some convenient parishes, where the much greater number ar Papists, I give you power to permitt them to have some places, we they may use as Chapells for theire Devotions, if there be no other impediment for obtaining a Peace; but I will rather chuse to suffer all extremities, then ever to abandon my Religion, and particularly ether to English or Irish Rebells, to wch effect, I have com'anded Digby to wryt to their Agents that were imployed hither, giving you power to cause, deliver, or suppresse the letter, as you shall judge best, for my service: To conclude, if the Irish shall so unworthily take advantage of my weake condition, as to press me to that weh I cannot grant with a safe conscience, and, without it, to reject a Peace; I com'and you, if you can, to procure a further Cessation; if not, to make what devisions you can So in the original.

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Petition of Mr. Hickman to Charles II.

among them, and rather leave it to
the chance of Warr betweene them
and those Forces wch you have not
power to draw to my assistance, then
to give my consent to any such al-
lowance of Popery, as must evidently
bring distruction to that Profession,
web, by the grace of God, I shall ever
maintaine through all extremities: 1
know, Ormond, that I impose a verry
hard Taske upon you, but if God pros-
per me, you will be a happy and glo-
rious subject; If otherwais, you will
perishe nobly and generously, with
and for him, who is

Your constant reall faithfull
Frend,

The Marquis of Ormond.

CHARLES R.

* The words printed in Italics are interlined.

MR. URBAN, Mere, April 6. I SEND you a copy of an old paper in the possession of one of my neighbours. It is the counterpart of a petition to King Charles the Second, from a Mr. Hickman; whose family had suffered from its adherence to the King in the civil war.

"To the King's Most Excellent Mastic. "The humble Petition of Nathaniell Hickman, of West Knoyle, in ye county of Wilts; most humbly sheweth: Dread Soveraigne,

"That in ye late usurpation your Maties poore petitioner's father, Thomas Hickman, was invested of a parsonage in Upton Louell, in ye county aforesaid, and dureing the same did wholy imploy him selfe at his owne proper charges in providing horses and armes and sending forth of his sones and servants in vindication of your Maties sacred Father of blessed memory, and in restoration of youre most sacred person, for which your poor petitioner's father was throwne out of his parsonage, worth one hundred and twenty pounds pr ann.; plundered of his goods, and divers times and in severall places imprisoned, and constrained to purchase his life at great cost, and to borrow a hundred pounds to satisfie the avaritious Com'itte; all which losses amounting to one thousand eight hundra pounds and upwards. And yor poore petitioner's father, after fourteen years expulsion from his liveing, departed this miserable life, leaving your poore petitioner two hundred pounds indebted, and hardly anything wherewithall to subsist.

Youre petitioner humbly prays your sacred Maties commisseration of his sad and deplorable condic'on in some releife as shall seeme good to your princ'ly mercy, and yor

[April,

petitioner as in duty bound will for ever pray, &c."

Underneath this petition, in the same handwriting, but written at a different time, is this observation :

"This petition was presented att London severall times, but to no purpose, about y' yeare 1688."

And in the margin, this—

sity (his name being Samuell), and made him "His eldest son he took from y Univercaptaine of a troop of horse which was all maintained at his owne proper charge. He was killed at Newbery first fite by a cannon ball, as he was waiting on yR King's person, &c."

On the back of the paper are some verses, written by the petitioner's "brother Edmund," to the memory of his father, who died " y 19th day of Septm3. 1703, aged 77." These verses are written in a quaint style; but, as they express generally only the most common sentiments, I shall forbear to transcribe more than a few lines which refer to his pedigree.

"All that I hear shall mention of his line

Is that 'twas noble, loyall, and divine [clerical] Two Bishops his greate grandsiers by his mother, [of Curlile t'other. Great Pilkington of Durham one, and Mey The eldest son of Durham maried Carlile's daughter; fa 12 months after. From whom his mo'er had her birth about (In holy orders he) at last they came To live at Hambledon i'th' shier of Buckingham.

"Tho's father's line was not so high in blood, [and good;

Yet 'twas devine [clerical] and loyall, just He from the north near the same place did

come,

Whence this great doctor did of Hambledon Not meane nor low, as plainly doe appeare, His grandfTM haveing at lest five hundred pounds a year;

Breeding his second son for the priesthood, A studiant came to th' University. [he Where marring this great Doc's eldest daughter,

They came to live in Wiltshire shortly after.” The petition, it seems, was preferred "to no purpose:' " a fact that coincides with the statement recorded on the page of History, that Charles the Second "took no care to reward his former friends, as he had taken few steps to be avenged of his former enemies."

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1831.] Families of Hickman, Pilkington, and Mey.

Walker's "Sufferings of the Clergy." It is there in the name of Elizabeth the widow of the ejected Divine, and addressed to Lord Chancellor Clarendon. Walker adds: “I am loth to tell the reader what success, or rather what disappointment this moving petition met with, from the hands of that great person to whom it was presented; and have only to add that Mr. Hickman had a temporal estate of about 201. per annum, on which his wife and four or five children subsisted during the Usurpation; and that his immediate successor was one Bradish, an Irishman, of whose ridiculous preaching (not to give it the worse name which it deserveth) I could let the reader have a very particular instance, if modesty would permit me to relate the story."

Thomas Hickman was instituted to the rectory of Upton Lovel as early as 1619, on the presentation of the Crown. It might, perhaps, be difficult to trace further the history of his family; but the statement made in the verses regarding their episcopal descent, will admit of a few observations, The family of Pilkington was a very numerous one, as will be seen by reference to the pedigree in the first volume of Surtees's History of Durham, p. lxxix, and to that of another branch in Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. 111. p. 650. But the "great doctor of Hambledon," whose name was Richard, and who was also Archdeacon of Leicester, does not occur either among the Bishop's children, or his numerous nephews. The particulars preserved of Bishop Pilkington's domestic history are, that he married late in life, and at first, perhaps from the prejudices of Queen Elizabeth and her times against a married clergy, concealed the connection; that he had four children, whom, after the taste of families inclined to puritanism, he named Joshua, Isaac, Deborah, and Ruth; that the sons died young; and that he saved such large fortunes for the daughters as to provoke the jea

293

lousy of Queen Elizabeth, who in consequence deprived the Bishopric of 1000l. a year, which she settled on the garrison of Berwick.* In the Bishop's epitaph this wife and the four children already enumerated are alone named ; and the executors appointed by his will, were " Alice Kyngsmill, my now knowne wife, and Deborah and Ruth my daughters." His two sons had died in infancy.

This evidence might be considered sufficient to disprove the accuracy of Mr. Hickman's poetical genealogy, did not he claim so immediate a descent from the Bishop. The precision of his statements, however, aided by the mystery which involves the prelate's early domestic history, may justify the belief that they present some adumbration of the truth. His other episcopal descent, from Bishop Mey of Carlisle, is corroborated by several authorities, as will be seen hereafter.

"He

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Wood gives, in his Athenæ Oxonienses, a short article on Dr. Richard Pilkington. He states him to have been descended from the ancient family seated at Pilkington in Lancashire, which was that of the Bishop; and adds, somewhat remarkably, "but where born (unless in the County Pal. of Durham) I cannot justly say.' was sent to St. John's College, Cambridge, "at about 17 years of age, and took the degree of M.A. in 1598. These dates would fix his birth hardly before 1578, and the Bishop died in 1575-6, which forms another reason for discrediting the genealogical poet. However, he was instituted to the rectory of Hambledon in Buckinghamshire, on the presentation of Lord Scrope of Bolton, May 27, 1596.† In 1597 he was collated by his father-inlaw, Bishop Mey, to the Archdeaconry of Carlisle; but he resigned it about the end of the next year. The Bishop was then dead, and Mr. Pilkington was probably no longer anxious to retain a preferment so distant from his living. In 1599 he removed to Queen's College, Cambridge, and was incorpo

"I have heard that Queen Elizabeth, being informed that Dr. Pilkington, Bishop of Durham, had given ten thousand pound in marriage with his daughter, and being offended that a Prelate's daughter should equal a princess in portion [i. e. herself by Henry the Eighth's will], took away one thousand pound a year from that Bishoprick, and assigned it for the better maintenance of the garrison of Berwick."-Strype's Church History, book v. p. 258; compare with book ix. p. 109.

+ Langley's Desborough Hundred, p. 270.

Willis's Cathedrals, vol. 1. p. 307. In Hutchinson's Cumberland the name is misprinted Pickington.

K

294

Preservation of St. Saviour's Church recommended. [April,

rated Master of Arts in that University, Oct. 30. He proceeded B.D. 1600, and D.D. 1607. In 1618 he published "Parallela: or, the grounds of the new Roman Catholic and of the ancient Christian Religion, out of the holy scriptures, compared together; in answer to a late Popish pamphlet, entitled A Manual of Controversies, &c. by A. C. S." On the 16th of August, 1625, he was collated to the Archdeaconry of Leicester; and on the 19th of September 1631, he was buried in the chancel of his church at Hambledon, in the midst of a violent tempest, on which Anthony à Wood enlarges from the account given to a subsequent rector by Dr. Pilkington's servant; thus concluding: " certain

it is that that most unusual storm did occasion certain odd reports concerning the said doctor to be made by the R. Catholics, to whom in general he had been a bitter enemy in his preaching and writing." No epitaph appears to have been put over his grave.

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Regarding the marriage of Dr. Pilkington with the daughter of Bishop Mey, the connection is traced not only in the preferment of our great doctor to the Archdeaconry of Carlisle; but in an entry in the parish register of Hambledon, which records the burial, Dec. 20, 1620, of Amey Mey, widow to the Bishop of Carlisle.* It is also mentioned by Anthony à Wood, in his memoir of William Crompton, the author of several works in divinity, and preacher of the word of God at Little Kimble in Buckinghamshire. Being acquainted with Dr. Rich. Pilkington, rector of Hambleton in the said county, he married one of his daughters, begotten on the body of his wife the dau. of Dr. John Mey, sometime Bishop of Carlisle, and received from him instructions to proceed in his theological studies, and withal an inveterate averseness popery, or any thing that looked that way."t

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THE altar-screen of York Minster has been saved from destruction by the exertions of the press. I have now to call for the aid of the same power to avert the threatened demolition of the Lady Chapel of St. Saviour's Church, Southwark. This

* Willis, 1. 299.

† Athenæ (edit. Bliss), vol. 111. col. 23.

part of the Church is in the same
style of architecture as the choir so
lately restored with so much effect by
Mr. Gwilt; it was a part of the Church
built in the reign of Henry III. by
Bishop de Rupibus; and, as in all per-
fect Churches the Lady Chapel forms
a complete and tasteful finish to the
edifice, more especially so does the ele-
gant structure which forms the eastern
extremity of St. Saviour's. To destroy
it would be to inflict on the Church
an injury equal to the removal of the
head from the body of a statue, and
without it the Church will appear an
unfinished, half-destroyed, awkward
pile of building. It is true that consider-
able sums of money have been raised by
the parish for the repairs of the choir
and the transepts, and now, the nave
being declared dangerous, a large sum
must necessarily be expended upon it;
20,000l. it is said; but if the parish
funds are not sufficient, or are not
considered applicable to the purposes
of the repairs of the Lady Chapel,
why is not a subscription solicited?
Let the diocese of Winchester be
appealed to; for this portion of the
building has an especial claim on the
diocese at large, being the spiritual
court for the deanery of Southwark.
To the public it has claims of an ex-
tensive nature; as a beautiful specimen
of ancient architecture it would inte-
rest the antiquary and the man of
taste, and as the scene of the trials of
some of the martyrs of the Reforma-
tion, it has claims upon all who cherish
an object on account of historical recol-
lections connected with it. But the ex-
pense of the reparations necessary for
the stability and decency of appearance
of the structure, is not the only reason
for its destruction. The London Bridge
approaches, which are peculiarly ini-
mical to Churches, are said to inter-
fere with it, and that the Committee
which directs these works has de-
creed its destruction; for what reason
I cannot tell, as a carriage road now
passes between it and the Bridge, and
which will become useless when the
Bridge is finished.

I therefore take this opportunity of
appealing, through your pages, to all
interested in the preservation of a
structure so elegant, with the confident
hope that when it shall be known that
this wanton act of mischief and barba-
rity is to take place, that a degree of
interest commensurate with the im-
portance of the structure, will be ex-

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1831.3

Remains at St. Michael's, Crooked-lane.

cited, and that its threatened fate will be averted.

The proposed mutilation of St. Saviour's Church leads me to another sacred edifice destroyed by the same system of improvement which threatens so severe a visitation to this interesting structure; and with reference to St. Michael's Church, I beg to observe that the two pointed arches referred to by A.J. K. (March Mag. p. 196,) could not have formed any part of a College built by Sir William Walworth, inasmuch as the style of architecture of the remains belongs to a period nearly two centuries earlier. This relic of ancient London adjoined the southern wall of the vestry room of St. Michael's Church, and was previous to the destruction of that edifice concealed by some vaults which were tenanted by a basket-maker, and approached from Crooked-lane by a flap door. The remains consisted of the piers appertaining to two vaulted compartments of a crypt, and appear

295

to have been constructed about the conclusion of the twelfth century. The angle of the centre pier was worked into a small pillar between a torus and a cavetto, the latter situated on the return of the pier; the capitals of the small columns are now mutilated, but were enriched with simple leaves. This style of decoration was essentially Norman, and is found in the earliest specimens of pointed architecture. From the circumstances of the Norman mouldings being accompanied with pointed windows, I am induced to fix the conclusion of the 12th century as the age of the structure; and I do not assign an earlier period, because the Temple Church, built in 1185, of which the main arches are pointed, has circular-headed windows, and the circumstance of Norman mouldings being found, forbid the assumption of a more recent date.

The accompanying slight sketch preserves the appearance of the remains.

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