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goodnesse of the lord who hath caused my lott to fall in a good ground, who hath fed me in a pleasant pasture where the wellsprings of life flow to all that desire to drinke of themn. And this is no small favour, if I consider how many poore people pérish among the heathen, where they never heare the name of Christ; how many poore christians spring up in countries enslaved by Turkish and antichristian tirants, whose soules and bodies languish under miserable slavery. None knowes what mercy it is to live under a good and wholsome law, that have not considered the sad condition of being subject to the will of an unlimited man, and surely it is too universall a sin in this nation, that the common mercies of God to the whole land, are so slightly regarded and so unconsiderately past over; certainely these are circumstances which much magnifie God's lovingkindnesse and his special favor to all that are of English birth, and call for a greater returne of duty from us then from all other people of the world.

"Nor is the place only, but the time of my comming into the world a considerable mercy to me. It was not in the midnight of poperie, nor in the dawne of the gospell's restorcd day, when light and shades were blended and almost undistinguisht, but when the sun of truth was exalted in his progresse and hastening towards a meridian glory. It was indeed early in the morning, God being pleased to allow me the privelledge of beholding the admirable growth of gospell light in my dayes: and oh! that my soule may never forgett to blesse and prayse his name for the wonders of power and

goodnesse, wisdome and truth, which have bene manisfested in this my time.

"The next blessing I have to consider in my nativity is my pl rents, both of them pious and ver. tuous in their owne conversation, and carefull instructors of my youth, not only by precept but ex. ample. Which if I had leizure and abillity, I should have transmitted to my posterity, both to give them the honor due from me in such a gratefull memoriall, and to encrease my children's emproovement of the patterns they sett them; but since I shall detract from those I would celebrate, by my imperfect com. memorations, I shall content.myselfe to summe up some few things for my owne use, and let the rest alone, which I either knew not, or have forgotten, or cannot worthy. ly expresse.

"My grandfather by the father's side was a gentleman of a compe tent estate, about 7 or 8001, a yeare, in Sussex. He being descended of a younger house, had his residence att a place called Pulborough; the famely out of which he came was an Apsley of Apsley, a towne where they had bene seated before the com quest, and ever since continued, til of late the last heire male of that e dest house, being the sonne of si Edward Apsley, is dead without issue, and his estate gone with b sister's daughters into other fame lies. Particularities concerning my father's kindred or country, I never knew much of, by reason of my youth, at the time of his death, and iny education in farre distant places only in generall I have heard, th my grandfather was a man well re puted and beloved in his country, and that it had bene such a continu

ed custome for my ancestors to take wives att home, that there was not scarce a famely of any note in Sussex, to which they were not by intermarriages neerely related; but I was myselfe a stranger to them all, except my lord Goring, who living att court, I have sene with my father, and heard of him, because he was appoynted one of my father's executors, though he de clin'd the trouble. My grand. father had seven sonns, of which my father was the youngest: to the eldest he gave his whole estate, and to the rest, according to the custome of those times, slight annuities. The eldest brother married to a gentlewoman of a good famely, and by her had only one sonne, whose mother dying, my uncle married himselfe againe to one of his own maides, and by her had three more sons, whom, with their mother, my cousin William Apsley, the sonne of the first wife, held in such contempt, that a greate while after, dying without children, he gave his estate of inheritance to my father, and two of my brothers, except about 100l. a yeare to the eldest of his halfe brothers, and annuities of 301. a piece to the 3 for their lives. He died before I was borne, but I have heard very honourable mention of him in our famely; the rest of my father's brothers went into the warres in Ireland, and the Low Countries, and there remain'd none of them, nor their issues when I was born, but only three daughters who bestowed themselves mcanely, and their generations are worne out except two or three unregarded children. My father att the death of my grandfather, being but a youth att schoole had not patience to stay the perfecting of his studies, VOL. XLVIII.

but putt himselfe into present ac tion, sold his annuitie, bought himselfe good clothes, put some moný in his purse, and came to London; and by meanes of a relation at court, got a place in the household of queene Elizabeth, where he be hav'd himselfe so that he won the love of many of the court; but being young tooke an affection to gaming, and spent most of the mo ny he had in his purse. About that time the earle of Essex was setting forth for Cales voyage, and my father that had a mind to quitt his idle court life, procur'd an employment from the victuallar of the navie, to goe allong with that fleete. In which voyage he demean'd himselfe with so much courage and prudence, that after his returne hé was honor'd with a very noble and profitable employment in Ireland. There a rich widow that had many children cast her affections upon him, and he married her; but she not living many yeares with him, and having no children by him, af. ter her death he distributed all her estate among her children, for whom he ever preserv'd a fatherly kindnesse, and some of her grandchildren were brought up in his house after I was borne. He, by God's blessing, and his fidellity and industry, growing in estate and honor, receiv'd a knighthood from king James soone after his coming to the crowne, for some eminent service done to him in Ireland, which having only heard in my childhood, I cannot perfectly sett downe. After that growing into a familliarity with sr. George Carew, made now by the king earle of Totnesse, a niece of this earl's, the daughter of sr. Peter Carew, who liv'd a young widow in her uncle's house, fell in 4 B

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love with him, which her uncle perceiving, procur'd a marriage betweene them. She had divers chil dren by my father, but only two of them, a sonne and daughter, surviv'd her, who died whilst my father was absent from her in Ireland. He led all the time of his widdow. hood a very disconsolate life care. full for nothing in the world but to educate and advance the sonne and daughter, the deare pledges she had left him, for whose sake he quitted himselfe of his employments abroad, and procur'd himselfe the office of victualler of the navie, a place then both of credit and greate revenue. His friends, considering his solitude, had procur'd him a match of a very rich widdow, who was a lady of as much discretion as wealth; but while he was upon this designe he chanc'd to see my mother, att the house of sr. William St. John, who had married her elder sister, and though he went on his journey, yett something in her person and behaviour, he carried allong with him, which would not lett him accomplish it, but brought him back to my mother. She was of a noble famely, being the youngest daughter of sr. John St. John, of Lidiar Tregoz, in the county of Wiltz; her father and mother died when she was not above five ycares of age, and yet at her nurses, from whence she was carri ed to be brought up in the house of the lord Grandison, her father's younger brother, an honorable and excellent person, but married to a lady so iealous of him, and so illnatured in her iealous fitts to any thing that was related to him, that her cruelties to my mother exceeded the stories of stepmothers: the rest of my aunts, my mother's sisters,

were disperst to severall places, where they grew up till my uncle sr. John St. John being married to the daughter of sr. Thomas Laten, they were all againe brought home to their brother's house. There were not in those days so many beautifull women found in any fa mely as these, but my mother was by the most iudgements preferr'd before all her elder sisters, who, something envious att it us'd her unkindly, yett all the suiters that came to them, still turned their addresses to her, which she in her youthful innocency neglected, till one of greater name, estate, and re. putation then the rest, hapned to fall deeply in love with her, and to manage it so discretely, that my mother could not but entertaine him, and my uncle's wife, who had a mother's kindnesse for her, perswaded her to remoove herselfe from her sister's envie, by going along with her to Isle of Jernsey, where her father was governor; which she did, and there went into the towne, and boarded in a French minister's house, to learne the language, that minister having bene, by the persecution in France, driven to seeke his shelter there. Contracting a deare friendship with this holy man and his wife, she was instructed in their Geneva discipline, which she liked so much bet ter then our more superstitious ser vice, that she could have bene contented to have liv'd there, had not a powerfull passion in her heart drawn her back. But at her returne she met with many afflictions, the gentleman who had professt so much love to her, in her absence had bene, by most vile pactises and treacheries, drawne out of his sences, and into the marriage of aper

son, whom when he recover'd his reason he hated: but that serv'd only to augment his misfortune, and the circumstances of that story not being necessary to be here inserted, I shall only adde that my mother liv'd in my uncle's house, secretly discontented at this accident, but was comforted by the kindnesse of my uncle's wife, who had contracted such an intimate friendship with her, that they seemed to have but one soule. And in this kindnesse she had some time a great sollace, till some mallicious persons had wrought some iealousies which were very groundlesse in my uncle, concerning his wife, but his nature being inclinable to that passion, which was fomented in him by subtile wicked persons, and my mother endeavouring to vindicate iniur'd innocence, she was herselfe not well treated by my uncle, whereupon she left his house, with a resolution to withdraw herselfe into the island, where the good minister was, and there to weare out her life in the service of God. While she was deliberating, and had fixt upon it in her owne thoughts, resolving to impart it to none, she was with sr. William St. John, who had married my aunt, when my father accidentally came in there, and fell so heartily in love with her, that he perswaded her to marry him, which she did, and her melancholly made her conforme chearfully to that gravity of habitt and conversation, which was becoming the wife of such a person; who was then 48 yeares of age, and she not above 16. The 1st yeare of their marriage was crown'd with a sonne, call'd after my father's name, and borne at East Smithfield, in that house of the king's which

belong'd to my father's employment in the navie: the next year they removed to the Tower of London, whereof my father was made lieftenant, and there had 2 sonns more before me and 4 daughters, and two sonnes after: of all which only three sons and two daughters surviv'd him att the time of his death, which was in the sixty-third yeare of his age, after he had three yeares before languisht of a consumption that succeeded a feaver which he gott in the unfortunate voyage to the Isle of Rhec.

"He died in the month of May 1630, sadly bewail'd by not only all his dependants and relations, but by all that were acquainted with him, for he never converst with any to whom he was not at some time or in some way beneficiall; and his nature was so delighted in doing good, that it wan him the love of all men, even his enemies, whose envie and mallice it was his custome to overcome with obligations. He had greate naturall parts, but was too active in his youth to stay the heightning of them by study of dead writings, but in the living bookes of men's conversations he soone became so skillfull that he was never mistaken but where his owne good would not lett him give creditt to the evill he discern'd in others. He was a most indulgent husband, and no lesse kind to his children; a most noble master, who thought it not enough to maintaine his servants honorably while they were with him, but for all that deserv'd it, provided offices or settlements as for chil dren. He was a father to all his prisoners, sweetning with such compassionate kindnesse their restraint, 4 B 2

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that the afliction of a prison was not felt in his dayes. He had a singular kindnesse for all persons that were eminent either in learnifig or armes, and when through the ingratitude and vice of that age many of the wives and chilldren of queene Elizabeth's glorious captaincs were reduc'd to poverty, his purse was their common treasury, and they knew not the inconvenience of decay'd fortunes till he was dead many of those valliant seamen he maintain'd in prison, many he redeem'd out of prison and cherisht with an extraordinary bounty. If among his excellencies one out shin'd the rest, it was the gene. rous liberality of his mind, wherein goodnesse and greatenesse were so equally distributed that they mutually embellisht each other. Pride and coveteousnesse had not the least place in his brest. As he was in love with true honor, so he contemn'd vaine titles, and though in his youth he accepted an ad. dition to his birth, in his riper yeares he refus'd a barondry, which the king offer'd him. He was severe in the regulating of his famely, especially would not endure the least immodest behaviour or dresse in any woman under his roofe. There was nothing he hated more then an insignificant gallant, that could only make his leggs and prune himselfe, and court a lady, but had not braines to employ himselfe in things more suteable to man's nobler sex. Fi. delity in his trust, love and loyalty to his prince, were not the Jeast of his virtues, but those wherein he was not excell'd by any of his owne or succeeding times. The large estate he reapt

by his happie industry, he did many times over as freely resigne againe to the king's service till he left the greatest part of itt at his death in the king's hands. All his virtues wanted not the crowne of all vertue, piety and true devotion to God. As his life was a continued exercise of faith and charity, it concluded with prayers and blessings, which were the only consolations his desolate famely could receive in his death. Ne. ver did any two better agree in magnanimity and bounty then he and my mother, who seem'd to be acted by the same soule, so little did she grutch any of his libe rallities to strangers, or he contradict any of her kindnesse to all her relations; her house being a common home to all of them, and a nursery to their children. He gave her a noble allowance of 300%. a yeare for her owne private expence, and had given her all her owne por. tion to dispose of how she pleas'd, as soone as she was married: which she suffer'd to encrease in her friend's hands; and what my father allow'd her she spent not in vanities, although she had what was rich and requisite upon occasions, but she lay'd most of it out in pious and charitable uses. Sr. Walter Rawleigh and Mr. Ruthin being prisoners in the Tower, and addic ting themselves to chimistrie, she suffer'd them to make their rare ex. periments at her cost, partly to comfort and divert the poore prisoners, and partly to gaine the knowledge of their experiments, and the medicines to helpe such poore people as were not able to seeke to phisitians. By these means she acquir'd a greate deale of skill, which was very profitable to many all her life. She

was

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