06 



The Wiltshire Compounders. 



that lady's jointure by a former husband, for her maintenance and 

 to be at her own dispose. [This lady was Elizabeth, daughter of 

 William West, of Tirbeck, Co. York, and widow of John, Lord 

 Darcy. She died in 1649.] Sir Francis's fine does not appear to 

 have been fully declared till May, 1652, when he was adjudged to 

 pay £1206 and to settle £160 per annum on some ministry, not 

 specified. His case possesses more than ordinary interest owing to 

 the survival of an almost unbroken series of letters passing from 

 him to his Wiltshire agent, Mr. Thomas Michell, of Bewley Court, 

 near Laeock, who, with his father, Mr. Edward Michell, had long 

 been in the service of the Fane family. They extend over the 

 whole period of the Commonwealth, that is from 1639 till the 

 [Restoration of Charles II., and are far too numerous to be recited. 

 The few here following must be accepted as samples of the whole. 

 The originals came into the possession of Mr. John Strange, of 

 Devizes, and subsequently of Streatley, near Reading, through his 

 maternal descent from the Michells, of Bewley Court. Mr. Strange 

 died in 1884. One of the bundles is docketed thus All these 

 are letters I received from the right hon. Sir Francis Fane, except 

 a ticket I had from Captain Hutcheson for corn he sent for to 

 Chalfield, and an acquittance I had of Mr. Jesse for £50 paid at 

 Malmesbury." We trace in them Sir Francis's contests with the 

 sequestrators, and his private advice to Mr. Michell how to deal 

 with them, sundry negociations with his Wiltshire neighbours, 

 Ashe, Yerbury, Chappel, Norborne, Hungerford, and others ; we 

 discover Mr. Ashe's great power in the county, as one of the Gold- 

 smiths' Hall dictators ; domestic details also crop up from time to 

 time ; and Mr. Michell is cautioned, when he sends gold coin, to 

 conceal it in the pannel of his man's saddle ; — until at last, Sir 

 Francis, having survived the unquiet times, is able to tell his tried 

 ;riend that the King hath pricked his son, Francis, for a knight at 

 le approaching coronation ; but withal, that the expenses attending 

 aat affair will make the prompt remittance of his gathered rents 

 more urgent than ever. 



"To my hind friends Mr. Edward and Mr. Thomas Michell at Seend and\ 

 MelJcsham in Wiltshire* 



