[ " 1 



importance as the proofs of their authenticity are fufEciently 

 ftrong. It may however deferve notice that the reverend Sic 

 PhiHp Hoby, Baronet, who died in the year 1766 Dean of Ard- 

 fert, was a lineal defcendant of Sir Edward Hoby, Knight, the 

 nephew and heir of the ambaffadour. By his death the title of 

 Baronet conferred in 1666 became extindt, but there is an ac- 

 count of the family in the firft edition of Collins's baronetage. 

 That the papers were firft colleded and bound together by Sir Ed- 

 ward Hoby is probable from the initials E. H^ which are marked 

 on one fide of each volume. 



In proof of the authenticity of thefe papers it may be obfervcd 

 that Biftiop Burnet (a) mentions fuch a collection which he had 

 fcen from which he took extrads, and the whole of which he 

 would have published if it had been in his power. Some of 

 the letters mentioned by Burnet have been found in the manu- 

 fcript colledion, but refpeding one he feems to have fallen into 

 an error, a circumftance very excufeable when it is confidered 

 how he was circumftanced. From thofe which have been found 

 it is however very probable, if not. certain, that the manufcripts 

 belonging to Mr. Hare are the very fame which the Bifiiop met 

 with. There are alfo two letters written by Hoby and Sir 

 William Paget jointly, found by Burnet in the Cotton library, 

 copies of which and of fome others on the fame fubjed arc in; 

 Vol. VI. [ B ] thefe 



( n ) Hift. of Reform. Vol. iii. p. 133, 134. 



