By W. W. Ravcnhill, Esq. 



21 



Mrs. Penruddock to my Lord Richard Cromwell. 



* My V. 



"Were niy misery less my modesty would be more and check my pen 

 from a rudeness which nothing but a widow's distress dare own. 



That I am a trouble to your Lordshipp I cannot but with blushes confess, and 

 yet where I tind such a noble pity I cannot but beg a charitable remembrance. 



Till, therefore, my IA you cease to be less worthy I cannot forbear to be 

 passionately importunate. Were my siugle self concerned I should, with a 

 suffering patience earn the bread I eat, but when the want of six orphans is 

 added to the distress of a widow, the calamity becomes a charm to compassion, 

 and adds a confident hope of obtaining. My cousin Bowman, my IA is the 

 only sollicitour we have, whose letter acquainting me of your Lordship's favorable 

 receiving my last, gives me the boldness of this second address, beseeching your 

 L d ship, to free me from the severity of those who have seized our small estate, 

 by requesting it of his Highness for yourself, to whom I have a desire to owe 

 the preservation of my yet unruined family, and to whom I shall ever acknow- 

 ledge myself 



My L d . your L d ships obliged 



and most humble servant 

 A. P. 



July 3 

 1657." 



Whether she obtained the favours asked by her second petition I 

 have not discovered. Fourteen months to a day (" his own day ") 

 after her last letter, the Lord Protector passed away to his rest, and 

 her friend Richard Cromwell entered on his little reign. Then 

 followed the Restoration, which yields one other record of her, 

 commonplace enough, bat still a part of her own and her husband's 

 story : — 1 



" To the King's most excellent Majesty. 



1660 \ The Humble Petition of Arundell Penruddock Relict of John Penruddock. 

 Nov: j 



Humbly sheweth 



That besydes the Irreparable Losse of her late Husband shee hath beene 

 damnified in her estate by the Loyalty of her ffamily to the value of fifteen 

 Thousand Pounds. 



That (being encouraged by your Sacred Ma tie ) shee hath endeavoured to find 

 out somethinge in your Ma tie 's Power to Grant that might make her some satis- 

 faction for her great Losse. 



That shee is Informed that your Ma tie 's Royale Predecessors have ever granted 

 by way of ffarme the Liberty of makinge glasses, namely to S r . Robert Mansell 

 and others. 



That it being none of the English Trade or Manufacture it was never here- 

 tofore accounted A Monoply but grantable by the Kinge as his Prerogative. 



1 State Papers, Domes. (A.D. 1660), vol, 22, p. 107. 



