218 Wild Darell of LittUcote. 



offers of dealing towards me, in yv"^ yt may plese yo" to proeede at yo' liking. I 

 am gyltlesse of these accusacions. 



" Yo' poore neghbor, 



" ASTHOIfT HiNTON. 



"To the Right Worshipful! 



"Mr. Willm Darell at Litlecote, geve these." 



Indorsed by Darell, 



"Receyved this Ire the xtj"" of January, 1588." 



Cawley's Declaration. 



" Whereas Mr. Willm Darell reporteth that I, Michaell Cawley, have sayed 

 unto him that my Cosen, Anthony Hinton, was the only occasion of the Bill of 

 Inditmt pferred againste him at the Sessions at Marleboroughe, holden there in 

 October the laste was twelvemoneth, I utterlye denye that I ever spake these or 

 the like words unto him, or that he was any doer against him in the matter at 

 the same Sessions. And I do pteste that I am unjustlie accusea thereof, W*" 1 

 wilbe redie to averre at all tymes. And do thinke my selfe greatlie wronged 

 therein. 



"Michaell Cawlet." 



The rougli copy of Darell's reply to Hinton is preserved with 

 the rest of these papers, and may, hereafter, with other matter, 

 serve as a sequel to this article : meanwhile, this indictment alluded 

 to, may be thought by many, to bear upon the great charge at issue. 

 Yet I never can think that so heinous a crime could be so carelessly 

 disposed of, nor that the Sessions at Marlborough would be the 

 place for the investigation. 



On the first of October, 1589, Darell died at his house at Little- 

 cote. This is distinctly stated by the Jurors at the holding of the 

 Inquisition at Hungerford, on the 22nd of the following September, 

 nearly a year afterwards. He was then not seized of Littlecote, in 

 the ordinary sense of that term, but his other estates, which are 

 enumerated, descended to his brother as next heir.^ We may there- 

 fore fairly infer that he had sold the reversion of Littlecote to his 

 friend Popham, and that, if the close of his own brief career is still 

 to be shrouded in mystery, we have no right to carry our credulity 



' The Jurors found that Maria Fortescue, alias Danyell, widow, was seized for 

 her life of the manor of Balsdon ; also, that one Robert Oxenbridge was seized 

 of the manor of West Woodhay, &c. for a term (5f 50 years, if Anne Cheyney, 

 widow, should live so long ; also, that Robert Oxenbridge and John Gimter 

 were seized of the manor of Kintbury Amesbury, for 30 years, if Dorothy, wife 

 of William Niell, alias Parsons, should live so long. These latter facts seem to 

 show that Darell was raising money wherever and whenever he could. 



