Z"* S. No 113., Fiiii. 27. '68.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



173 



pendix, xvi. p. 318.), is, that he was "said to 

 have been an eloquent preacher," and " died in 

 London, Feb. 4, 1780." Tlie date of Dr. Crigan's 

 death I have also been unable to ascertain ex- 

 actly ; it must have been in April or May, 1813, 

 and probably occurred in the Isle of Man, at his 

 residence there, as his remains were interred in 

 the churchyard of Kirkmichael there. It is also 

 noticeable that the names of neither are found in 

 the lists of graduates of the Universities of Ox- 

 ford or Cambridge, though both had the degree 

 of D.D. ; but that might have been granted from 

 Lambeth, as was not unusual in those days, and 

 as in the case of the present Bishop of Madras in 

 1846 ; as also, I believe, in that of Bishop Gobat 

 at Jerusalem, who certainly received his education 

 at no British university, but he might have ob- 

 tained his degree from some of the Continental 

 or American academical institutions, which grant 

 these degrees without much difficulty. A. S. A. 

 Barrackpore. 



[Richard Richmoncl, the son of the Eev. R. Richmond, 

 was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge ; LL.B., 

 1752 ; LL.D., 1758 {Graduati Cantabrigienses, p. 396., 

 edit, 1823). He was vicar of Walton-on-the-Hill, and 

 chaplain to the Duke of Athol ; nominated Bishop of 

 Sodor and Man, Jan. 23, 1773 ; confirmed, Feb. 5, and 

 consecrated on the 14lh of the same month. He died in 

 Cecil Street, London, Feb. 4, 1780, and was buried in St. 

 Mary le Strand. Arms : Sable, a cross fleury between four 

 estoilles, or. 



Claudius Crigan was the third son of Claude Crigan of 

 T3'rone, and educated at Trinit}' College, Dublin. The 

 Dowager Duchess of Athol, during the minority of her 

 son, nominated him Bishop of Sodor and Man, March 1, 

 1784, tlie royal assent being received on the 25th of the 

 same mouth. He was confirmed April 3, and consecrated 

 the following day by tl)e Archbishop of York and the 

 Bishops of Rochester, Oxford, and Exeter. He died 

 April 26, 1813, aged seventy-four, at Bishop's Court. 

 Arms : Gules, between three harts, or, a chevron, arg. 

 For some of these particulars we are indebted to Walcott's 

 MS. English Episcopate, now in course of publication.] 



milton's autograph. 



(2"'J S. iv. 287. 334. 371. 459.,- v. 115.) 



I venture to suggest that the best mode of 

 testing the genuineness of autographs supposed 

 to be Milton's, written prior to the year 1654, 

 when it appears pretty certain he wholly lost 

 his sight (judging by the touching letter he 

 wrote in that year to his esteemed Athenian 

 friend and correspondent Leonard Philaris, which 

 he thus beautifully concludes : " I bid you adieu, 

 my dear Philaris, with as constant and fixed af- 

 fection as if I had the sight of Lynceas"), would 

 be, by making a close comparison of autographs 

 indisputably Milton's with such as have only the 

 reputation of being so considered ; for which pur- 

 pose resort might be had to the following and 



other sources, viz. : — To Milton's manuscripts 

 known to be preserved in the library of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, — to his official documents 

 and correspondence during the period he filled 

 the office of Latin Secretary to the Council of 

 State, which probably may be found in the State 

 Paper Office, — to his epistle to his early friend, 

 the distinguished Sir Henry Wotton, written in 

 1637, on the eve of making his foreign tour, ac- 

 companied by a presentation-copy of his admirable 

 mask Comus, if such letter fortunately exists, — to 

 his Latin autograph contained in the Album 

 (1639) of his Neapolitan friend Camillo Cordoyin, 

 referred to by your contributor Lethrediensis, 

 — and to his Latin Letter, written, in 1647, to his 

 intimate Florentine friend Carlo Dati, with a 

 copy of his minor poems in Italian, which letter 

 is now in the possession of John FItchett Marsh, 

 Esq., of Warrington, who most courteously al- 

 lowed me to inspect the same several years ago, — a 

 portion whereof, with Milton's signature thereto, 

 are lithographed in some highly valuable Milton 

 Papers, edited by Mr. Marsh, and printed by the 

 Chetham Society in 1851. I cannot help remark- 

 ing that Milton's signature to this letter bears a 

 very strong similitude to his autograph in the 

 Camillo Cordoyin Album, an engraving of which 

 I have seen. Although Milton, when quite dark, 

 might have subscribed his name to instruments 

 requiring his signature only, and perhaps did so 

 to his contract with Symonds for the sale of the 

 first edition of Paradise Lost (1667), preserved, 

 as I am informed, in the British Museum, I con- 

 fess several original autographs of this class I 

 have examined very slightly resembled the un- 

 questionable Milton signatures I have alluded to. 



Here I would observe that I am inclined to 

 think Gwalter Frost, who succeeded Milton as 

 Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell, was occasion- 

 ally his amanuensis. I cordially coincide with 

 Lethrediensis in the opinion expressed by him, 

 that the subject is one of much interest, and t 

 sincerely hope all lovers of Milton and his works 

 will hasten to contribute, through " N. & Q..," 

 everything they know respecting his autographs, 

 so as to afford Professor Masson an opportunity 

 of availing himself of their communications in his 

 forthcoming Life of Milton. T. W. Jones. 



Nantwich. 



John Milton. — Being one Of the warmest ad- 

 mirers of this great poet and of his political prin- 

 ciples, my surprise was unbounded to find him 

 most grievously libelled by a man cruelly suffer- 

 ing under the loyal jaundice, William Winstanley, 

 author of The English Worthies, in his Lives of 

 the Poets from the Conquest to James II. p. 195. : — 



" John Milton was one whose natural parts might de- 

 servedly give him a place amongst the principal of our 

 English Poets, having written two heroic poems and a 



