26 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 32. 



published in 1753, by Dean Tucker and others, 

 1 beg to send the following extracts, which may 

 be of some use in replying to the inquiry (Vol. i., 

 p. 401.) respecting the Jews during the Common- 

 wealth. 



Dean Tucker, in his Second Letter to a Friend 

 concerning Naturalisation, says (p. 29.) : — 



" The Jews liavhig departed out of the realm in the 

 year 1290, or being expelled by the authority of par- 

 liament (it matters not which), made no efforts to 

 return till the Protectorship of Oliver Cromwell ; but 

 this negotiation is known to have proved unsuccessful. 

 However, the affair was not dropped, for the next ap- 

 plication was to King Charles himself, then in his exile 

 at Bruges, as appears by a copy of a commission dated 

 the 24th of September, \65G, granted to Lt.-Gen. Mid- 

 dleton, to treat with the Jews of Amsterdam : — ' That 

 whereas the Lt.-Gen. bad represented to bis Mnjosty 

 their good affection to him, and disowned the appli- 

 cation lately made to Cromwell in their behalf by some 

 persons of their nation, as absolutely without their 

 consent, the king empowers the Lt.-Gen. to treat 

 with tbem. That if in that conjunction they shall 

 assist his Majesty by any money, arms, or ammunition, 

 they shall find, when God should restore him, that be 

 would extend that protection to tliem which they could 

 reasonably expect, and abate that rigour of the law 

 which was against them in bis several dominions, and 

 repay them." 



This paper, Dean Tucker says, was found 

 among the original papers of Sir Edward Nicholas, 

 Secretary of State to King Cliarles I. and II., and 

 was communicated to him by a learned and worthy 

 friend. The Dean goes on to remark, that the 

 restoration of the royal family of the Stuarts was 

 attended with the return of the Jews into Great 

 Britain ; and that Lord Chancellor Clarendon 

 granted to many of them letters of denization 

 under the great seal. 



From another pamphlet in the same collection, 

 entitleil. An Answer to a Pamphlet entitled Con- 

 siderations on the Bill to permit Persons professing 

 the Jewish Religion to be naim-alized, the following 

 is an extract : — 



" There is a curious anecdote of tbis affiiir, " (about 

 the Jews thinking Oliver Cromwell to be the Messiah,) 

 "in Ilaguenet's Histoire d' Oliver Cromwell, which I 

 will give the reader at length. About the time Rabbi 

 Manasseh Ben Israel came to England to solicit the 

 Jews' admission, the Asiastic Jews sent hither the noted 

 Rabbi Jacob Ben Azahel, with several others of his 

 nation, to make private inquiry whether Cromwell was 

 not that Messiah, whom they bad so long expected. 

 ( Page 3:J. — I leave the reader to judge what an accom- 

 plished villain be will then be.) Which deputies upon 

 their arrival pretending other business, were several times 

 indulged the favour of a private audience from him, and 

 at one of tbem proposed buying the Hebrew books and 

 MSS. belonging to the University of CuminVpe*, in order 



* Query : May not this be another version of the same 



to have an opportunity, under pretence of viewing them, 

 to inquire amongst bis relations, in Huntingdonshire, 

 where he was born, whether any of his ancestors could 

 be proved of Jewish extract. This project of theirs was 

 very readily agreed to (the University at that time being 

 under a cloud, on accoimt of their former loyalty to the 

 King), and accordingly the ambassadors set forwards 

 upon their journey. But discovering by their much 

 longer continuance at Huntingdon than at Cambridge, 

 that their business at the last place was not such as was 

 pretended, and by not making their enquiries into 

 Oliver's pedigree with that caution and secrecy which 

 was necessary in such an affair, the true purpose of 

 tbcir errand into England became quickly known at 

 London, and was very much talked of, which causing 

 great scandal among the Saints, be was forced suddenly 

 to pack them out of the kingdom, without granting any 

 of their requests." 



J. M. 



Mrjiltcji t0 iHtu0r cattcn'c^. 

 Wellington, Wyrwast, and Cokam (Vol. i., 

 p. 401). — The garrison in Wellington was, no 

 doubt, at the large house built by Sir John Top- 

 ham in th.at town, where the rebels, who had 

 gained possession of it by stratagem, held out for 

 some time against the king's forces under Sir 

 Richard Grenville. The house, though of great 

 strength, was much damaged on that occasion, and 

 shortly fell into ruin. Cokam probably designates 

 Colcombe Caslle, a mansion of the Courtenays, 

 near Colytoii, in Devonshire, which was occupied 

 by a detachment of the King's troops under Prince 

 Maurice in 1644, but soon after fell into the hands 

 of tiie rebels. It is now in a state of ruin, but is 

 in part occupied as a farm-house. I am at a loss 

 for Wi/rwast, and should doubt the reading of 

 the MS. S. S. S. 



Sir William Skipwyth (Vol. i., p. 23.). — Mr.Foss 

 will find some notices of Will. Skipwyth in pp. 83, 

 84, 85, of Potulorum Pat. ^- Claus. Cancellariee 

 Hib. Calendarium, printed in 1828. H.B. 



Trim, Miiy 13. 1850. 



Dr. Johnson and Dr. Wa?-ton (Vol. i., p. 48 1 .). — 

 Mr. Markland is probably i-igiit in his conjecture 

 that Johnson had Warton's lines in his memory ; 

 but the original source of the allusion to Peru is 

 Boileau : 



" De tous les anlmaux^ 

 De Paris au Penru, du Japon jusqu'a Rome, 

 Le plus sot animal, a mon avis, c'est I'homme." 



AVarton's Poems appeared in March, 1748. 

 Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes via.s published 

 the 9th January, 1749, and was written probably 

 in December or November preceding. C. 



story, quoted by your correspondent, B. A.,of Christ 

 Church, Oxford, from Monteith, (m Vol. i., p. 475.), 

 of the .Tews desiring to buy the Library of Oxford? 



