Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/13

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Sir William Petty.
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more than I had carried out of England. With this seventy pounds, and my endeavours, in less than four years more I obtained my degree of M.D. in Oxford,2 and forthwith thereupon, to be admitted into the College of Physicians, London, and into several clubs of the virtuous;3 after all which expences defrayed I I had left twenty-eight pounds, and in the next two years, being made Fellow of Brasenose4 and Anatomy Professor in Oxford and also Reader at Gresham College, I advanced my said stock to about £400, and with £100 more advanced and given me to go for Ireland, unto full £500. Upon the 10th of September, 1652, I landed at Waterford in Ireland, physician to the army, who had suppressed the rebellion begun in 1641, and to the general of the same, and the headquarters, at the rate of twenty shillings per diem, at which I continued till June, 1659." Here follows an account of his public career in Ireland, more fully related in his other works. He estimates his profits at £13,000. "I bestowed part of the said £13,000 in soldiers debentures, part in purchasing the Earl of Arundel's house and garden in Lothbury, London, and part I keep in cash to answer emergencies. I purchased lands in Ireland, .... a great part whereof I lost by the Court of Innocents, anno 1663, and built the said garden called Token House Yard in Lothbury, which was for the most part destroyed by the dreadful fire, anno 1666. Afterwards, anno 1667, I married Elizabeth, the relict of Sir Maurice Fenton, Bart. I set up iron works and pilchard fishing in Kerry, and opened the lead mines and timber trade there." Here follow detailed accounts of his investments by all of which he estimates that he has an income of £15,000, "As for myself, I being now three-score and two