Robert Watkins, churchwarden.
[680]She went to schoole at Hackney to Mris Salmon, a famous
schoolmistris, Presbyterian, <John> Ball's catechism[681].
_Amici_[682],--Mris Mary Aubrey and Mris ... Harvey since, lady
(Sir ...) Deering. Loved poetrey at schoole, and made verses there.
She takes after her grandmother Oxenbridge, her grandmother, who was
an acquaintance of Mr. Francis Quarles, being much inclined to poetrie
herselfe.
Maried to James Philips of the Priorie at Cardigan, esq., about 1647
(scil. the yeare after the army was at Putney), by whom she had one
sonne, dead (in her booke), and one daughter married to Mr. Wgan
of ..., in some degree like her mother.
She was very religiously devoted when she was young[683]; prayed by
herself an hower together, and tooke sermons _verbatim_ when she was
but 10 yeares old.
She died of the small pox in Fleet Street. Shee lies buried at St.
Benet-Sherehog at the end of Syth's lane in London.
_Ex registro istius ecclesiae_:--'Mris Katherine Philippes, the wife of
James Philippes, was buried the 23 of June 1664 in the north ayle under
the great stone with the brasen monyment'--the brasse is now lost.
She was when a child much against the bishops, and prayd to God to take
them to him, but afterwards was reconciled to them. Prayed aloud, as
the hypocriticall fashion then was, and was overheared--vide [=a] of
T<homas> H<obbes> Civill Warres and Satyre against Hypocrites.
My cozen Montague <told me that she had a> read pumpled face; wrote
out verses in innes, or mottos in windowes, in her table-booke.
[684]Memorandum:--_La Solitude_ de St. Amant was englished by Mris
Katherine Philips. 'Tis 20 stanzas--I thinke not yet printed--I had
them from Elizabeth, the countesse of Thanet, 1672.
Quaere what shee wrote?
_Poemes._
_Pompey_--tragedy.
She went into Ireland (after her mariage) with the lady Dungannon (whom
she calles _Lucatia_); and at Dublin she wrote Pompey.
Her husband had a good estate, but bought Crowne landes; he mortgaged,
etc. His brother Hector tooke off the mortgages and haz the lands.
From her cosen Blacket, who lived with her from her swadling cloutes
to eight, and taught her to read:--She informes me viz.--when a child
she was mighty apt to learne, and she assures me that she had read the
Bible thorough before she was full four yeares old; she could have
sayd I know not how many places of Scripture and chapters. She was a
frequent hearer of sermons; had an excellent memory and could have
brought away a sermon in her memory. Very good-natured; not at all
high-minded; pretty fatt; not tall; reddish faced.
Quaere my cosen Montagu[685] when she began to make verses.--Quaere how
many children she had.--Quaere her coat of arms, and her husband's.
Major-Generall Skippen[686] was her mother's third husband.
'She[687] lies interred under a gravestone with her father and
grandfather and grandmother, just opposite to the dore of the new
churchyard, about 3 yards distant'--quaere if from the doore or the
opposite wal; and quaere if any inscription on her relations on the
said stone.
She had only one daughter ... who is maried to ... Wgan esq. of
Pembrokeshire or Caermarthenshire--quaere iterum her uncle Oxenbridge.
=Thomas Pigot= (1657-1686).
[688]Mr. Thomas Pigot was borne at Brindle, in Lancashire, about eleven
a clock at night (sed quaere his brother Henry + de hoc)--from Mr. Pond.
[689]I have got Mr. Pigot's birth, as to the month and howre from his
kinswoman who was at his mother's labour and recieved him in her lapp.
If you are acquainted with his brother, desire him to give you the anno
Domini.
[690]Mr. Thomas Pigot, M.A. Coll. Wadh., my worthy friend, obiit August
14, A.D. 1686, of a feaver, about one a clock in the afternoon.
He was fellow of Wadham College and chaplain in ordinary to the
earle of Ossory, at whose house in St. James' Square he deceased. He
was buried in St. James's church by St. James's fields, Sunday the
15th, in the middle aisle between the pulpit and the railes of the
communion-table of the north side of this aisle, in the grave of Mr.
Rigby, the first rector[691] here, upon whose coffin he lies. His head
lies under 14.
His brother haz a MS. of musick written by him, a little 4to.
Quaere for his decyphering the inscription on Sir Thomas More's
family-picture at Bessills-Leigh. Memorandum--this decyphering gives
great light to the antiquitie of the family which els would be lost
utterly.
He haz some pieces of _opus tessellatum_ found at or near Badmanton
(the duke of Beauford's) not long before his death.
=Thomas Pittis= (1636-1687).
[692]Dr. Thomas Pittis, rector of St. Botolph's Bishopsgate, died
Wednesday in Christmas weeke in December 1687. He was buryed in the
Isle of Wight at the west Cowes.
He haz a sonne of the same College[693] in Oxford that he was of.
=Sir William Platers.=
[694]Sir William Plater[695], knight, was a Cambridgeshire gentleman
at.... He had a good estate (about 3000 _li. per annum_). He was a
very well bred gentleman, as most was of those times; had travelled
France, Italie, etc., and understood well those languages. He was one
of the Long Parliament in the time of the late warres.
He was a great admirer and lover of handsome woemen, and kept severall.
Henry Martyn and he were great cronies, but one time (about 1644)
there was some difference between them--Sir William had gott away one
of Henry's girles, and Sir John Berkinhead inserted in his _Mercurius
Aulicus_ how the saintes fell out. He was temperate and thriftie as to
all other things.
He had onely one sonne, who was handsome and ingeniose, and whome he
cultivated with all imaginable care and education[696].... He allowed
his son liberally but enjoyned him still temperance, and to sett downe
his expences[697]....
The father was a good linguist and a good antiquary. This beloved
sonne of his dyeing ..., shortned his father's dayes. He built the
triumphall-like arch wheron the king's armes is in the partition
between church and chancell at St. Margaret's Westminster, under which
he lies buried. The following inscription is on the arch[AS], viz....
[698]Sir William Platers[AT], knight and baronet; about 5000 _li._
per annum. His sonne very ingeniose, and made a very good returne of
his education. He was a colonel in the king's army and was killed in
his service, which his father tooke so to heart that he enjoyed not
himselfe afterwards.
Henry Martyn, his crony, invited him to a treat, where Sir William fell
in love with one of his misses and slockst her away--which Sir J<ohn>
B<irkenhead> putt in the _Mercurius Aulicus_.
In St. Margaret's Westminster he erected a monument against the south
wall for Mr. James Palmer[AU], B.D., sequestred minister of St. Bride's
London. He (Mr Palmer) was a very pious good man, and a benefactor to
his native parish here, where he built an almes-howse; obiit 1659; and
this monument was erected at the sole chardge of Sir William Platers,
knight and baronet--sett downe so there.
_Notes._