with. Witness our hands the thirtieth day of September in the year of our Lord, one thousand sevea hundred and forty five.

John Pennington, 107. 10s. T. Warner, 101. 10s.

Benj. Woodward, 107: 10s. John Newcome, 201,

F. Thong, 10%. 10s.

Robt. Hodson, 51. 5s.

The Signatures of several other residents in the borough were annexed, as also subscriptions from Brampton, Buckworth, Buckden, Ellington, Connington, Chesterton, Old Hurst, Sibson cum Stibbington, Haddon, Waresley, Alwalton, Elton, and Spaldwick. The total amount of the money subscribed was £2059. 13s. 10d.

CHAPTER IV.

Eminent Natives-Henry of Huntingdon, the Historian, and Oliver Cromwell.

Henry, surnamed de Huntingdon, from his being a native of this town and also Archdeacon of Huntingdon, lived in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward 1. and died A.D. 1280. He is celebrated as being the author of a History of England down to the reign of King Stephen, which was published at Frankfort by that munificent patron of literature Sir Henry Saville, in the year 1601. The history forms part of a volume entitled

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Scriptores post Bedam," which also includes the writings of William of Malmesbury and Roger de Hoveden. The earlier portion of Henry of Huntingdon's work is compiled from the Monkish Chroniclers, but the latter part is original and valuable. No English translation of it, we believe, has ever been printed.

Oliver Cromwell, Protector of the Commonwealth of England, was born in the parish of St. John in the borough of Huntingdon, on the 25th of April 1599, of an ancient family of unspotted reputation and distinguished for unbounded loyalty and hospitality. By the paternal side he was

*The house in which Cromwell was born was built upon the site, and out of the ruins of one of the religious houses---that of Augustine Friars, although Mr. Noble, the biographer of the Protectorate family, from the report at Huntingdon, as he informs us, erroneously states it to be St. John's Hospital. The house was built of stone. We are not informed when it was taken down, but the chamber in which Oliver was born and the room under it, remained as they were then till within the last twelve or thirteen years. When Mr. Audley (vide p. 109) shewed the room in which the Protector was born, he used sportively to desire that it might be noticed that the devil was behind the door, alluding to a figure of Satau in the old tapestry with which the room was at that time hung.In 1810 theestate was purchased by James Rust Esq. the present resident, whose extensive improvements have entirely obliterated every trace of the Cromwell mansion. The outbuilding noticed by Mr. Noble, in which Oliver is said to have occasionally held forth to the Puritans, was taken down at this time. We have been thus minute because a

descended from Sir Richard Williams, a knight of gallantry and renown in the court of Henry the Eighth, whose father, Morgan ap Williams, a Welchman, was married to a sister of Thomas, Lord Cromwell, who from the obscure condition of a blacksmith's son, raised himself by the favour of his sovereign to the title of Earl of Essex. Lord Cromwell founded the fortunes of the Williams' family, to which he was so nearly related. He introduced his nephew Richard to court and at the request of the King the name of Cromwell was added to Richard's original surname of Williams, in honour of his noble relative. Thus the name of Cromwell became that of the Protectorate family by assumption only. By his bravery and accomplishments, Richard speedily gained the favour and affection of the King. He was

mistaken notion is entertained by some of our townsmen that the present building is the Cromwell house only altered in the interior, whereas not a vestige of the ancient fabric, which was built of stone with Gothic windows and projecting attics, now remains.