THE PEDIGREE OF MILTON.

BY THE REV. MARK NOBLE, F. A. S. OF L. AND E.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MONTHLY MIRROR.

SIR,

SOME time ago I sent you a genealogy of our greatest poet, SHAKSPEARE, which you published; permit me to present you with a pedigree of our second bard, MILTON.

We are naturally sedulous to learn all we can of the family of a person who has greatly distinguished himself, and is regarded by posterity as illustrious. It is not an idle curiosity to wish to obtain such intelligence, for often by it we find circumstances which led the character to attain his celebrity.

The Miltons were undoubtedly an ancient family of gentry, seated at a place from whence they took their surname, which is near Tame, in the county of Oxford. It is represented that the protracted wars between the branches of the royal house of Plantagenet was fatal to their fortunes. It is not said whether they declared for the white or the red rose. The Miltons could only have been very minor gentry, holding under some family of higher consequence. I have carefully examined my MS history of the wars of York and Lancaster. I do not find even the name of Milton. It may be remarked too that we do not see the family allied to our considerable, much less our higher gentry.

The pedigree can only be commenced with the poet's grandfather, John Milton, gentleman. It is evident that he was a native of, and a resident in Oxfordshire. He obtained the office of under-ranger of the forest of Shotover, in that county. The forest lies near to Milton, where they had, in better times, lived.

Allowing twenty-five years for a descent, and carrying it up from the poet's birth, this Mr. Milton would be born about the year 1558. The whole, or the greatest part of his life, therefore, must have been in the long reign of Elizabeth. It is alledged that he was a bigoted Roman Catholic. His marriage, or the time of his death, are not mentioned. He is supposed to have left at least two children.

1. John Milton, father of the poet, of whom, below; and 2. Mr. Henry Milton, who resided in St. Giles, Cripplegate parish in London, in which church he buried a daughter on SepC C-VOL. VI.*

tember 30, 1635. It does not appear that he left any child surviving. He devised to his nephew, the poet, his house standing in Bunhill Fields.

Mr. John Milton, the poet's father, it is acknowledged by all, was his eldest son, but not his heir, for he was disinherited because he chose to conform to the national church. It is evident that he was sent to Christ Church in Oxford. Yet it appears extraordinary that a bigoted papist should let his son go to a Protestant University for education. I know that in Elizabeth's reign there are instances of Roman Catholics going to Oxford and Cambridge. At that time youths of fifteen years of age, and even still younger, went to college, and with a design to be taken away early, and placed in professions lower than is now usual, owing to education being there, then, at a far proportionably less expence, than now. It is believed that here he first disliked the Papal faith, but I suppose he did not dare to leave the Romish church until he was a man. If so, his father brought him up, and settled him in a line of life he thought most proper for his station, and the fortune he originally had intended to give him. The profession to which he was bred was that of a scrivener. This, now obsolete, calling was formerly well known, especially in towns, and then held in the same estimation to attorneys, as apothecaries are now to surgeons. Attorneys may be said to be scriveners, but scriveners were not attorneys. So late as the reign of George II. we read in the Historical Registers of "Eminent Scriveners." The calling was lucrative. Many scriveners were wealthy. They procured money for their clients at legal interest. In his time, James I. made them a company.*

I am well aware that we are told a sad tale of this gentleman, having been disinherited. It may be that the real estate which the father had, did not come to him, as heir at law, but was left to some other son; but can it be believed that a person who had Kittle, or no paternal inheritance, could have much to give his children, except providing them with good educations? Who ever heard of an under-ranger of any of our forests leaving considerable landed estates? If Mr. Milton had such an estate, would not his family have told us where it had been? Would it not have declared itself? It was a thing visible. Let us then dis

Dr. Johnson thought his acquaintance, Jack Ellis, the scrivener, was the best informed man he ever knew.

miss this idle story, leaving in its room a plain fact, that some inconsiderable real property was given from him, but which, if he had obtained it, would not have altered his original destination; for we can learn nothing of a brother of Mr. Milton, who was an independent gentleman; indeed it is foolish to suppose the under-ranger ever had such to devise to any child; and I must own, had not the constant current run of the father being a bigoted papist, I should not have believed that he, if of the Romish church, would have sent his son to Christ Church, though he had been of more liberal sentiments, but as to the estate, that, there is every reason to believe, was very inconsiderable.

That Mr. Milton had received a good education is undoubted, and that he was successful in acquiring, and prudent in the management of the fortune he obtained, is self-evident. He resided in Bread-street, in the parish of Allhallows, in London. It surprizes us now to think that this man of the quill, had a sign, and it will still more surprize us that his sign should be the armorial bearings of his family:-Argent, an Eagle displayed, Sable.* This was uniting gentility with business. He joined with the latter, learning and other accomplishments. He was a good Latin scholar, he excelled in music, and he could pen a sonnet. We have instances of other scriveners being attentive to literature. We must highly commend his liberality in bringing up his children. It appears that he had obtained a sufficiency to retire in part, or wholly from business. In his declining days he visited his eldest son at Horton,† and his younger one at Reading; but he did not quit his house in town; dying there, he was buried in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, March 15, 1656-7, at which time he must have been, I should think, between seventy and eighty years old.

Nothing shews the difficulty of obtaining accurate informa tion relative to very private families, more, than the uncertainty

* The Miltons used for a crest the gamb of a lion, holding the head of an eagle erased. The colours are not traced like those of the arms in the shield: both are given under some of the prints of the poet.

+ Co. Bucks. The poet was at Great Marlow, near Horton, in 1669; his name occurs in that register, says the Topographer. Unwilling that any thing should be omitted that I could obtain relative to the poet or the family of Milton his relations, I requested my eldest son, Mr. Mark

of the family of the poet's mother. Peck, the antiquary, heard that she was a Hoghton, of Hoghton Tower, in Lancaster. This idea seems to have no foundation to support it. Others have gi ven her to the Bradshaw family of that county.* The pedigree of that name is well known, and none of them married a Milton. Her grandson, Mr. John Philips, says she was a Caston of Wales. I see no reason to doubt his knowledge: he brings indeed no

Noble, of the Royal Military College at Great Marlow, to make an inspection into the registers of that parish. From him I received these extracts :--

John, ye sonn of Ralph Milton, and Julia, his wife, was baptised ye 5th of August, 1638.

January, 1669. Marriages.

Robert Sknelling, and Elizabeth Milltonn, boath of this parish, with Banes the 19 day.

Ralph Milltonn, the 30.

May, 1670. Burialles.

December, 1670. Marriages.

John Milltonn, and Ann East, boath of this parish, by way of lisences, the 25th day.

The name of Milton, or Milltonn, is of frequent occurrence in the register of Great Marlow; but these are all the items near the time which the Topographer mentions. The registers are well kept, and the clerk (for the vicer was from home) told my son that they go up as high as the reign of Henry VIII. It is not unlikely that these Miltons might be related to the poet; we know that affinity was remembered, and affection entertained to a distance, which now would be considered not only as extraordinary but ridiculous.

*There is no alliance between the Miltons and the Hoghtons, as may be seen by the history of the baronets Hoghton. I cannot help querying whether there is not a confusion about the Bradshaws. The family in Lancashire, baronets, spell the name Bradshaigh: the title is extinct It was long thought that the president Bradshaw, who presided at the trial, and condemned Charles I., was a Lancashire man. It is now well ascertained that he was the sou of Mr. Henry Bradshaw, of Marple Hall, Cheshire; but they originally came from the county of Lancaster. He was at first designed only for an attorney, having served his clerk, ship to one of that profession at Congleton. If Mrs. Milton's mother was allied to those Bradshaws maternally, it might well account for the poet's political creed.

proof. He thought none wanting. It is well known that the Castons were an ancient family in Salop; an heir-general of the eldest branch, married an ancestor of Sir Robert Lawley, bart. From the name we must be certain that they did not derive their beginning from the principality. The surnames of the Welch being, with very few exceptions, taken from baptismal ones. Blome does not mention the Castons amongst the gentry of Wales. It is probable the Castons resided near Cheshire, and were, like the Miltons, of very slender landed property. As to Mr. Milton marrying a wife from Wales, we are not to wonder. A scrivener often went far upon business, and even to as great a distance as the Principality; besides, Miss Caston might have come to London, or elsewhere, so as to have been seen and admired by him. She was a most suitable alliance to a man of his education, and acquirements, for she was extremely amiable; and accomplished beyond the usual station of the daughters of the middle rank. Her son bears honourable testimony of her worth. She was eminently charitable. She died in 1637.*

*It is greatly to the credit of Mr. Milton that he knew how to sufficiently esteem and love the amiable woman he married. We find that he had a miniature of her, as well as their son, the poet; they were both in the collection of the duchess of Portland.

[To be continued.]

VACCINATION.

SIR,

Ar this time when the public opinion is still divided regarding the merits and the originality of the Jennerian discovery, the following article, which may perhaps be new to the major part of your readers, is respectfully submitted to your notice. It goes to prove that the practice of vaccination has, though in a limited degree, been known in the northern parts of Hindoostan, long before its introduction into Europe. The fact, however, detracts nothing from the merits of our European discoverer; nor is its