(Vol. viii., pp. 452. 544. &c.)
Your correspondents MR. MARSH and MR. HUGHES are entitled to an apology
from me for having so long delayed noticing their comments on my
communication on the above subject in Vol. viii, p. 134., which comments
have failed in convincing me that I have fallen into the error they
attribute to me, because it is manifest Richard Minshull of Chester, son of
Richard of Wistaston, the writer of the letter of May 3rd, 1656, set forth
in the Rev. Mr. Hunter's _Milton Pamphlet_, pp. 37. and 38., could only
have been _fifteen_ years old when that letter was written, he having, as
MR. HUGHES states, been born in 1641, so that he must have been only three
years the junior of his supposed niece, Mrs. Milton, then Miss Minshull,
born in 1638, according to MR. MARSH'S account of her baptism; and
furthermore he, Richard, son of the writer of the said letter, must be
fairly presumed to have been married at the date of such letter, which he
(the Father) thus commences: "My love and best respects to you and my
daughter [meaning no doubt his daughter-in-law], tendered with trust of
your health." Very unlikely language for a parent to address to his son, a
boy of _fifteen_, on so important a subject as a family pedigree. If this
youthful Richard Minshull really was Mrs. Milton's uncle, his brother
Randle Minshull, her father, must have been very many years older than him,
which was not very probable.
I noticed in a recent Number of your pages, with great satisfaction, a
communication from CRANMER, who has avowed himself to be your correspondent
MR. ARTHUR PAGET, for which, in common with MR. HUGHES and others, I feel
very thankful to him, notwithstanding it falls short of connecting Mrs.
Milton with Richard Minshull of Wistaston, the Holme correspondent of 1656.
That historians have been much misled in assuming that Mrs. Milton was a
daughter of Sir Edward Minshull of Stoke, cannot, I think, be questioned;
although it may be very fairly asked whether there were not other
respectable Minshull families living in the neighbourhood of Wistaston, of
which Mrs. Milton might have been a member, and yet allied to the Paget and
Goldsmith families.