fame, with which Mr. Haynes lived in friendly connection, I have been favoured with the infcription on the ring, which was given away at his funeral, together with that of his lady, which I have inferted in the margin*; and from this it appears, that our author was born in the year 1672.

But

Mr. Baron †, hereafter to be quoted, who was perfonally acquainted with Mr. Haynes, relates, that he ferved many years in the • Mint-office, under Sir Ifaac Newton.' a more exact account of his employment in that office, which may lead to some farther particulars concerning him, is to be learned from the following facts obligingly furnished by the King's prefent Affay-mafter, S. Alchorne, Efq. which I obtained from that gentleman by means of a friend, and fhall give in his own words.

*Hopton Haynes, æt. 77, Nov. 18, 1749, Mrs. Mary Haynes, æt. 65. Sept. 22. 1750.

+ The Rev. Richard Baron, a perfon of great probity and public spirit, known by many valuable and seasonable publications.

It is evident from the books in his Majefty's Mint, that Hopton Haynes, Efq. was engaged in that office for more than fifty years; though very few particulars are <recorded of him. His patents of appoint‹ ment do not appear; but in an official certificate respecting the importation of gold from Boston, at the beginning of the year 1706, the weight is certified under his hand, ftiling himself weigber and teller of the Mint. From that time no mention is made of this gentleman, till April 1737, when in a memorial to the Treasury he <ftates his having been employed above forty years in the Mint, and for fourteen of 'them as His Majesty's Affay-mafter, which business requiring much labour and attendance, he defires to appoint a Deputy, as an Affiftant; and his request was granted. Twelve years afterwards, the honourable Mr. Chetwynd, (afterwards Lord Viscount Chetwynd) then Mafter of the Mint, applied to the Lords Commiffioners of the 'Treasury, reprefenting, that Hopton Haynes, Efq. the King's Affay-master, was; • through

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C through age and other infirmities, rendered incapable of attending the duties of his of• fice, and defiring leave therefore to resign the employment; but recommending that his falary should nevertheless be continued, in confideration of his long and faithful < fervices; this was accordingly granted to him for life, under his late Majefty's fpecial warrant, dated the 8th of February 1748. Mr. Haynes however enjoyed the bounty of his Royal Mafter but a fhort time, for on the 20th of April 1749*, it appears, that his will, having been proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, was produced and registered in the Mint-office.

As it appears hence, that in the year 1737 Mr. Haynes had been upwards of forty years in the Mint-office, fuppofing it only to have been forty-one, it will make his first entrance to have been at the age of 24, in 1696, the year when Sir Ifaac (then Mr.) Newton, became

* This, it is prefumed, was a mistake in the entry at the Mint-office, instead of 1750.

* Warden

* Warden. In three years Sir Ifaac was made Master of the Mint, in which place he continued to the time of his death in 1727; and Mr. Haynes continuing in office all the while, till he rose to be the King's Affay-. mafter; as there muft have been continual intercourse between our author and Sir Ifaac Newton, it could hardly be but their converfation would fometimes touch upon religious topics; efpecially as both of them dedicated much of their time to the reading of the +bible, and were fincere in their belief of

In 1696, Mr. Montague, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and afterwards Earl of Halifax, obtained of the King for him the office of Warden of the Mint; in which employment he did very fignal fervice at the time when the money was called in to be recoined. Three years after he was appointed Master of the Mint, a place of very confiderable profit, which he held to the day of his death.

General Dictionary. Art. Newton. t "Not that he confined his principles to natural religion, for he was thoroughly perfuaded of the truth of revelation; and amidst the great variety of books which he had conftantly before him, that which he ftudied with the greatest application was the Bible." ld. Ibid.

divine revelation, whilft each took the liberty of judging for himself, and in many things differed widely from the doctrines established by the civil power.

This prefumption, of an amicable corref= pondence between two fuch perfons so many years together in the fame office, is only mentioned as tending to corroborate the following facts, and teftimony of Mr. Haynes, that the fentiments of Sir Ifaac Newton did not differ from his own, in what concerned the divine unity and the perfon of Chrift.

Mr. Baron, in the place and work abovecited, adds; He (Mr. Haynes) was the moft zealous unitarian I ever knew: and in • a converfation with him on that fubject, he

told me, that Sir Jaac Newton did not believe our Lord's pre-existence, being a Socinian, as we call it, in that article; that Sir Ifaac much lamented Mr. Clarke's embracing Arianifm, which opinion he feared had been, and still would be, if maintained

* Preface to a valuable collection of curious tracts, intitled, a "Cordial for low Spirits." Vol. I. pag. xviii. note. 3d impreffion. 1763.

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