103 



Etje Conbeision of IHarg l^urll, lEace^Jlafeei's apprnitice 

 at JlarlfaorouQl}, X675: toitl) fjrr Iiitientuics, 21 3une, 1671. 



By the Eev. Chr. Wordsworth, M.A. 



Mr. James Waylen makes two references to the " Account of 

 the Remarkable Conversion and Experience of Mary Hurll,^ as 

 taken from her own Mouth." {Hist, of Marlborough, 1854, pp. 120, 

 304. The only indication of date which he has given us — " in the 

 time of Charles I." — is incorrect ; for Mary Huril, according to her 

 own narration, must have been born after the Eestoration of K. 

 Charles 11. As the little book appears to be now scarce, and is 

 not found in the I^ritish Museum, nor in some other large col- 

 lections where I have searched for it, I will give some account of 

 a copy of the " Third Edition, London Printed, ctnd are to be had 

 at Mr. Thompson's in Eed Lyon Court, in Watling-street, 1711. 

 Price stitch'd, 6d." It is a small duodecimo of 83 pages, preserved 

 in a volume of Miscellaneous Tracts, 1670 — 1788, in Dr. Williams' 

 Library, now established, after some wanderings, in Gordon Square. 

 The book is marked "M.* B, 3," and the tract is the second in the 

 volume. There is a copy of the same edition at Oxford in the 

 Bodleian (141, h. 229). Miss E. A. Higgs, of Hungerford, has a 

 MS. copy, made in 1737, by " Mary Smith, Tid worth." 



Through the kindness of Mr. Gwillim, Mr. Milburn, and the 

 Vicar of St. Mary's, I am enabled to preface my brief extracts with 

 a few particulars about Mary Hurll and her family. 



In June, 1635, " Synion Hurle " (who is described in one docu- 

 ment as a glover) married Mary Blissett, at St. Mary's,Marlborough. 

 In 1661, he held of the Corporation two acres in Portfield, at a 

 rent of 'Is. M. In 1567 he obtained the lease of part of a cottage 

 garden, at a rent of 2s. He appears, however, to have paid rent to 



MVaylen gives an alternative spelling of the name " Hurll, or Hurdle." 

 It was written " Hurle " in local contemporary documents. 



