INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 29 



Greinivood now dwelleth, in which is now about sixteen years to come : I 

 give these two leases to them, they saving my executor from all damage 

 concerning the same. And I give to my son, Izaak, all my right and title 

 to a lease of Norington Farme, which I hold from the Lord Bishop of 

 Winton ; and I do also give him all my right and title to a farm or land 

 near to Stafford, which I bought of Mr. Walter Noell ; I say, I give it to 

 him and his heirs forever ; but upon the condition following, namely : if 

 my son shall not marry before he shall be of the age of forty and one years, 

 or, being married, shall dye before the said age, and leave no son to in- 

 herit the said farme or land ; or if his son or sons shall not live to attain 

 the age of twenty and one years, to dispose otherways of it ; then I give 

 the said farme or land to the towne or corporation of Stafford, in which I 

 was borne, for the good and benefit of some of the said towne, as I shall 

 direct, and as followeth : (but first note, that it is at this present time 

 rented for twenty-one pound ten shillings a year, and is like to hold the 

 said rent, if care be taken to keep the barn and housing in repair ;) and I 

 would have, and do give ten pound of the said rent, to bind out, yearly, 

 two boys, the sons of honest and poor parents, to be apprentices to some 

 tradesmen or handicraft-men, to the intent the said boys may the better 

 afterward get their own living. And I do also give five pound yearly, 

 out of the said rent, to be given to some maid-servant, that hath attained 

 the age of twenty and one year, not less, and dwelt long in one service, or 

 to some honest poor man's daughter, that hath attained to that age, to be 

 paid her at or on the day of her marriage : and this being done, my will 

 is, that what rent shall remain of the said farme or land shall be disposed 

 of as followeth : first I do give twenty shillings yearly, to be spent by the 

 Major of Stafford, and those that shall collect the said rent, and dispose 

 of it as I have, and shall hereafter direct ; and that what money or rent 

 shall remain undisposed of, shall be employed to buy coals for some poor 

 people, that shall most need them, in the said towne ; the said coals to be 

 delivered the first weeke in January, or in every first weeke in Febru- 

 ary ; I say then, because I take that time to be the hardest and most 

 pinching times with poor people ; and God reward those that shall do this 

 without partialitie, and with honesty, and a good conscience. And if the 

 said Major and others of the said towne of Stafford, shall prove so negli- 

 gent, or dishonest, as not to imploy the rent by me given as intended and 

 exprest in this my will, which God forbid, then I give the said rents and 

 profits of the said farme or land to the towne and chief magistrates, or gov- 

 ernors of Ecleshall, to be disposed of by them in such a manner as I have 

 ordered the disposal of it by the towne of Stafford, the said farme or land 

 being near the towne of Ecleshall. And I give to my son-in-law, Doctor 

 Hawkins, whom I love as my own son, and to my daughter, his wife, and 



