Manchester.
_Milton's Widow_ (Vol. viii., p. 12.).--The information once promised by
your correspondent CRANMORE still seems very desirable, because the
statements of your correspondent MR. HUGHES are not reconcilable with two
letters given in Mr. Hunter's very interesting historical tract on Milton,
pages 37-8., to which tract I beg to refer MR. HUGHES, who may not have
seen it. These letters clearly show that Richard Minshull, the writer of
them, had only _two aunts_, neither of whom could have been Mrs. Milton, as
she must have been if she was the daughter of the writer's grandfather,
Randall Minshull. Probably this Elizabeth died in infancy, which the
Wistaston parish register may show, and which register would perhaps also
show (supposing Milton took his wife from Wistaston) the wanting marriage;
or if Mrs. Milton was of the Stoke-Minshull family, that parish register
would most likely {135} disclose his third marriage, which certainly did
not take place sooner than 1662.