110
NOTES AND QUERIES. tns.iii.FKB.in9u.
years after Elizabeth Minshull married the
poet as his third wife). On the last leaf
(imprint) are the names " L. Matthews,"
"W m Minshull," and " Eliz. Mingam
1730." On the fly-leaves at the end are
"Elizabeth Minshull" and the following
note :
"Deo ye 27 1714 I gave this Book to my mother, the widow Mathews, but if she dyes before me, I desire that it should be Retorn to me againe. W m Matthews.'*
There are two other signatures of the Mathews family and a pedigree of several of them (see ' Book-Prices Current, 1901,' pp. 298-9). Milton married Elizabeth Minshull 26 February, 1662/3, and after Milton's death in 1674 his widow retired to Nantwich, where her family lived. She died there in 1727. The signature Elizabeth Minshull on the fly-leaf at the end suggests that the book belonged to her before her marriage with Milton, and that his signature in 1654 (two years after his blindness became com- plete) must have been cut out of some document and inserted. The volume in any case has an interesting connexion with Milton.
3. British Museum Bible, London, Printed by R. Barker, 1612, small 4to. The first 4tp edition of the Authorized Version, printed in Roman letter. The entries in this Bible were published in facsimile with other autographs and documents, by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, on the occasion of the Milton Tercentenary, with a note :
"Milton used this version, and not the Geneva Bible, which was the favourite version of the Puritans in general, and contested the supremacy with King James's version for a long time after the first appearance of the latter in 1611."
The purchase by the Trustees of the British Museum of this Bible is noted at 6 S. x. 45 ; and the particulars as to Milton's pedigree are recorded at 7 S. vi. 253.
4. Authorized Version, London (? Robert Barker), 1613, small 4to. A copy of this edition with alleged autograph of John Milton was formerly in the possession of George Offor (2 S. xii. 233). This is probably the book next described.
5. Authorized Version, London (Robert Barker), 1614, small 4to. A copy with the autograph of " John Milton " on the back of the title-page of the New Testament was formerly in the possession of George Offor Above the name of Milton is the autograph of Robert Colecraft. Bound with this Bible is a Concordance, 1615, and on the reverse of the title is " Robert Colecraft," and in a
very small hand, " John Milton " (2 S. iv.
334-5). Samuel Leigh Sotheby was of
opinion that the second signature had all
the appearance of having been written by a
man at an advanced period of life and when
blind, and that the writer was no other
than the poet (' Ramblings,' 1861, pp. 128-9).
This book formed lot 697 of the Catalogue
of the sale of George Offer's books in 1865,
and was, I believe, destroyed at Sotheby's
fire on the second day of the sale.
6. Bible seen by Dr. Birch, 1749-50, who describes it as "in 8vo, printed by Young in 1636 " (Hunter, 1850, p. 34). There are 8vo editions by Young of Edinburgh dated 1633, 1637, and 1638, but neither Bohn's ' Lowndes,' the B.M. Printed Catalogue of Bibles, nor Cotton mentions one dated 1636. If 1636 be the correct date, Mary Powell would have been ten years old when it was published. The limitation of the family references to the births of Milton's four children by his first wife, its comparatively small size, and its being last seen in the possession of her granddaughter seem to corroborate the entry " I am the book of Mary Milton."
7. Bible mentioned by Thomas Kerslake in The Athenceum of 5 January, 1884, as of no value and as having been sold by him by auction. Kerslake states that it formerly belonged to Bishop Law, and that the name of Milton written in the book had no simi- larity to his known autographs.
Now as No. 7 appears unworthy of con- sideration, No. 1 to be identical with No. 2, and No. 5 (destroyed by fire) to be identical with No. 4, only two Bibles associated with Milton are known to exist, viz., his own family Bible in the British Museum (No. 3) and that of his third wife (No. 2) ; while No. 6, seen by Dr. Birch, may still be in existence, although its whereabouts are not known. WYNNE E. BAXTER.
NEWENHAM ABBEY, DEVON (11 S. iii. 70).
From a note to p. 317 of Oliver's 'Monasti-
con Diocesis Exoniensis ' it appears that the
register formerly belonging to my grand-
father afterwards belonged to Sir Thomas
Phillipps, Bt. The book was published in
1846. W. WAVELL.
Reform Club, S.W.
LADY CONYNGHAM (11 S. ii. 508 ; iii. 37, 71). The ewer to which MB. JOHN LANE alludes at the first reference was included in the sale of the Marchioness Conyngham's collection at Christie's in May, 1908. It was not of crystal, but entirely gilt, and bore the
