25 Feb. 1650–1
To the Honourable the Commissioners for Sequestration at Haberdashers’ Hall
The Petition of John Milton
Sheweth,
That he being to compound by the late Act for certaine land at Whately, in Oxfordshire, belonging to Mr. Richard Powell, late of Forest-Hill, in the same county, by reason of an extent which he hath upon the said lands by a statute, did put in his Petition about the middle of August last, which was referred accordingly; but having had important business ever since, by order of the Councell of State, he hath no time to proceed in the perfeting of his composition; and in the meantime finds that order hath bin giv’n out from hence to forbidd his tenents to pay him rent; he therefore now desires he may have all convenient dispatch, and that the order of sequestring may be recalled, and that the composition may be moderated as much as may bee, in regard that Mrs. Powell, the widow of the said Mr. Richard Powell, hath her cause depending before the commissioners in the Painted Chamber for breach of articles, who have adjudg’d her satisfaction to be made for the great damage don her by seizing and selling the personall estate divers days after the articles were sealed. But by reason of the expiring of that court she hath received as yet no satisfaction, and beside she hath her thirds out of that land which was not considered when her husband followed his composition, and lastly the taxes, free quartering, and finding of armes, were not then considered, which have bin since very great and are likely to be greater.
And your petitioner shall be ready to pay what shall be thought reasonable at any day that shall be appointed.
(Signed) JOHN MILTON.
25 Feb. 1650–1.
Mr. Brereton is desired by the Commissioners to perfect his report in Mr. Milton’s case by Tuesday next.
A. S., E. W.
[In the margin, in Milton’s own hand]
“I doe swear that this debt for which I am to compound according to my petition is a true and real debt, as will appear upon record.
“John Milton.”
Jur. 25 Feb., 1650–1.
IV
MRS. ANN POWELL’S PETITION, 16TH JULY, 1651.
To the Honourable the Commissioners for Compounding, &c.
The humble Petition of Anne Powell, widow, the relict of Richard Powell, of Forrest Hill, in the county of Oxon, deceased,
Sheweth,
That the petitioner brought £3,000 portion to her late husband, and is now left in a most sadd condition, the estate left being but £80 per annum, the thirds whereof is but £26 13s. 4d. to maintaine herselfe and 8 children.
The said estate being extended by Jo. Milton on a statute staple for a debt of £300 for which he hath compounded with your honours on the Act of the first of August, and therein allowance given him for the petitioner’s thirds, yet the said Mr. Milton expects your further order therein before he will pay the same.
She therefore humbly prayeth your honours’ order and direction to the said Mr. Milton for the payment of her said thirds, and the arreares thereof to preserve her and her children from starving.
And, as in duty bound, &c.
ANNE POWELL.
To be read next petition day, July the 14th, 1651.
S. M.
16 July, 1651.
[On the fly-leaf of this petition are the following notes]
Mrs. Powell,—By the law she might recover her thirds without doubt, but she is so extreame poore she hath not wherewithall to prosecute, and beside, Mr. Milton is a harsh and chollericke man, and married Mrs. Powell’s daughter, who would be undone if any such course were taken against him by Mrs. Powell, he having turned away his wife heretofore for a long space upon some other occasion.
This note ensuing Mr. Milton writ, whereof this is a copy.
Although I have compounded for my extent, and shall be so much the longer in receiving my debt, yet at the request of Mrs. Powell in regard to her present necessitys I am contented as farre as belongs to my consent to allow her the 3rds of what I receive from the estate, if the Commissioners shall so order it that what I allow her may not be reckoned upon my accompt.
[In the margin, Mrs. Powell’s note, 16 July, 1651]
The estate is wholly extended, and a saving as to the 3rds prayed but not granted we cannot therefore allow the 3rds to the petitioner.
Glossary
abecedarian
one who is still learning his A B C
account
period of pregnancy
acrimonious
acrid
aegilops
ulcer in the inner corner of the eye
Anabaptists
a sect that considered it necessary to be re-baptized
anothergates
Otherwise
antics
grotesque figures imitating the antique
anti-Scripturists
a sect that denied the final authority of the Scripture
armiger
entitled to a coat-of-arms
atlasses
Eastern silk-satins
Auriga
charioteer
avence
herb bennet
Aqua-Mirabilis
“The wonderful water prepared of cloves, galangals, cubebs, mace, cardamums, nutmegs, ginger and spirit of wine, digested 24 hours, then distilled”
bagnio
a Turkish-bath establishment which was also a brothel
battle
battalion
Bezoartis
a preparation against poison, made from the livers and hearts of vipers, etc.
blind buzzard
a wilfully ignorant person
brawl
a sort of cotillon
breeching
beating on the breeches
brown-bill
a halberd or battle-axe with the blade stained brown, usually with ox-blood
budge
stiffly grave
buff-coat
a soldier’s coat of stout buff-coloured leather
buffle-head
a person as stupid as a buffalo
butt
tree-trunk with its branches lopped off
buzz
rumour
camp-fever
typhus, complicated by relapsing fever
cashiered
paid off from the Army. (Not necessarily discharged with ignominy)
cat-in-pan, to turn
to be a political turn-coat
caudle
warm spiced gruel, mixed with wine or ale
chaldron
36 bushels
to cheek
to grasp the pike by the cheeks, or side-pieces, and bring it to the ready, as if about to lunge
Chiliasts
a sect that “expected the Millennium any day soon”
the claps
gonorrhea
clerk-ale
a feast for the benefit of the parish clerk
clip
hug
coat and conduct money
a tax to provide soldiers with service coats
coat card
court card
cocker up
pamper
collop
slice of meat for frying or grilling
commons
rations
compound
come to terms with
concoct the surfeits
digest the excesses
copula carnalis
coition
corky
dry as cork
costive
constipating
coven
a group of twelve female witches, with a male devil
culgees
figured Indian silks
to cry “cupboard”
to ask for food
cupped
bled with a cupping-glass
cuttanee
East Indian linen
daggy
bedraggled like a sheep that has lain in muck
deboshed
debauched
dehortations
exhortations against something or someone
deliration
delirious speech
demise
the expiration of a title to property
diurnals
journals
dividual
separate
to doltify
make doltish
to droil
to labour
to droll
to joke
house of easement
earth closet
elicampane
horse-head
endemial
endemic
ends and awls
a cobbler’s odds and ends
ex animo
voluntarily
extended
seized upon in satisfaction of a debt
extrude
to remove forcibly
fadge
agree
Familists
a “monstrous and horrible sect that held religion to be based on Love rather than Fear”
ferule
a flat ruler with a pear-shaped end and a hole in the middle to raise blisters; used by schoolmasters
fescennine
bawdy
fico
fig
to firk
to move briskly
flaggy-haired
with lank, wispy hair
flibbergib
a flighty gossip
fliperous
flippant and frivolous
flux hepaticus
discharge from the liver
Fogo
volcanic fire
Fortune
Company of soldiers
fossilia
ancient objects dug up. (Not necessarily fossils)
frammer
hurdle-making instrument, rather like a wrench
fribbling
petty
to fub
to take down or outwit
fucus
cosmetic paint
gaggling
cackling
galliard
a lively dance in triple time
gerfalcon
male falcon
gillyflowers
carnations or pinks
gingerline
of the rich brown colour of gingili
girdlestead
waist
gitterning
playing on the gittern, a sort of guitar
glabrification
making smooth or bald
gloat upon
cast amorous glances upon. (Not in the modern sense of gazing with lustful satisfaction)
glooming
gloomy-looking
gloze
explain away deceitfully
goddamme blade
a swaggering gallant
gorge me that!
swallow that!
gorget
piece of armour protecting the throat
green-geese-pie
pie made of freshly-killed geese (i.e. not pickled or smoked)
gricomed
syphilitic. (A nobleman or knight was said to be “gricomed”, whereas a citizen “suffered from the Neapolitan scab” and a serving man “had the plain pox”)
grutch
grudge
gust
appetite
heart-breakers
a man’s long side locks
Hiera Picra
“sacred-bitter”: a drug of aloes, honey and canella which “purges choler from the stomach”
hinnies
mules dammed by an ass and sired by a horse
Hocktide
a festival celebrated on the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter, when rents were paid
hogen-mogen
high and mighty. (A Dutch term)
to huddle
to jumble away into concealment
hugger-mugger
hole-and-corner secrecy
hydromel
Russian mead
Ibis
“this foul bird feedeth upon watersnakes and useth his beak for a clyster-pipe. Wherefore the poet Ovid, taking example from the poet Callimachus, cast this word satirically at an author whom his soul loathed”
to imbecilitate
to weaken
impostume
a swelling
indifferent good
fairly good
indurated
hardened
infall
assault
issues
artificial ulcers created to cause a discharge of matter
Jacobus
gold coin of King James I
jakes
latrine
jauncing
bouncing
jaunt
a fatiguing journey
jennet
small Spanish horse
John apples
apples ripe about St. John’s Day (June 24th)
dowry
jump right with
fit in with
junto
governmental clique
keck
retch
kill-cow
a person of great importance
kind, against
unnaturally
Lamia
a vampire witch
lapides sui generis
stones of a distinct variety
lardons of lard
slices of pork or fat bacon for enriching a pie
leaguer
the camp of an army investing a fortress
leash of hawks
three hawks
leet-ale
festival at the time of the annual Manorial Court of Record
lick-dish
servile person
licorish
lustful
logger-head
“one whose wit is as little as his head is great”
losel
ruined or worthless
lozenge figure
diamond shape: used for enclosing a woman’s coat-of-arms where a man would use a shield-shape
to make legs
to bow ceremoniously
to make the beast with two backs
to have sexual intercourse
malignant
an enemy to Parliament—but the Royalists occasionally used this same word against the Parliamentarians
manna
the crystallized juice of the manna-ash
mantling
drapery or leaves fastened to a helmet to keep off the sun; now shown in coats-of-arms as ornamental scroll work
mastline
like “maslin,” “mesclan,” etc., a different spelling of “mislan”
matches
lengths of perpetually-smouldering wick used by musketeers for touching off their muskets, or by cannoneers for their cannon
maw
crop of a fowl, honey-bag of a bee
melon-pompion
large pumpkin-like melon
mislan
rye and wheat mixed
Mithridate
a compound drug invented by King Mithridates of Pontus to protect him against every sort of poison; also used against infectious diseases
mittimus
warrant for commitment to prison
mixen
manure heap
montero-cap
a Spanish hunter’s cap, with ear-flaps
morion
steel helmet without any face protection
Mundungo
tobacco that has gone mouldy
musk-melon
a small sweet melon
muster
a parade of soldiers, or a parade list
nappy
heady
Natura Naturata
the passive as opposed to the active principle of Nature
nimmed
pilfered
niny-hammer
a conceited fool
nuncupative
given by word of mouth
Obs
objections in a logical dispute
obsequious
obedient. (Not necessarily in the sense of being servile)
officiously
dutifully. (Not in the sense of being a nuisance)
Old Brownists
followers of Robert Brown, an Elizabethan clergyman, the “Father of Religious Independency”
oyster, choking
a damaging retort
panagories
popular festivals