_Law Courts at St. Albans_.--Can any of your correspondents give
me the reference to a communication in the _Gentleman's Magazine_
(between, I think, the years 1815 and 1836), in which a passage
in Massinger, which alludes to lawyers going to St. Albans, is
illustrated by an inscription in the nave of St. Alban's Abbey Church,
which records that the courts were held there on account of the
sweating-sickness in the reign of Elizabeth?
[Greek: Sigma.]
_Richard Haley, or Hales.--Milton Pedigree_.--I should feel obliged
by any particulars respecting Richard Haley, or Hales, of Idlestreete,
otherwise Ilstreyd, in com. Hertford, yeoman; my object being to
ascertain the nature of some transaction he had with Milton, in July
1674, referred to in a bond which the former executed, dated the
27th of that month, for performance of the covenants contained in an
indenture of even date.
Is any thing known of Richard Milton, who signs his name as the
attesting witness to the releases given by two of the poet's daughters
for their share of his estate? Is there any pedigree of the family of
Sir Christopher Milton, the poet's brother, drawn up with sufficient
apparent accuracy to exclude the probability of Richard Milton being
his son? I have referred to the pedigree in the British Museum (Harl.
MS. 5802. fo. 19b.), which makes no mention of the letter; but it is
evidently so imperfect a notice, as to be of little authority one way
or other.