342 
WILLIAM LILLY. 
he could not have exerted to advantage at any juncture but that of a 
civil w'ar, inflamed by religious contests. His character was formed 
from an amazing conjunction of enthusiasm, hypocrisy, and ambition. 
He\vas possessed of courage and resolution, that overlooked all dan- 
gers and saw no difficulties. He dived into the characters of mankind 
with wonderful sagacity, whilst he concealed his own purposes under 
the impenetrable shield of dissimulation. He reconciled the most 
atrocious crimes to the most rigid notions of religious obliga- 
tions. From the severest exercises of devotion, he relaxed into the 
most ludicrous and idle buffoonery. He preserved the dignity and 
distance of his character in the midst of the coarsest familiarity. He 
was cruel and tyrannical from policy, just and temperate from incli- 
nation, perplexed and despicable in his discourse, clear and consum- 
mate in his designs, ridiculous in his reveries, respectable in his con- 
duct ; in a word, the strangest compound of villany and virtue, base- 
ness and magnanimity, absurdity and good sense, that we find upon 
record in the annals of mankind.” 
The Protector married, August 22, 1620, at St. Giles’s church, 
Cripplegatc, London, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Bourchier, of 
Felsted, in Essex, knight, who, notwithstanding she has been greatly 
traduced by the enemies of her husband, appears to have been a 
virtuous and deserving woman. In her person she was certainly very 
ordinary, and was usually denominated by the royalists, on account 
of the plainness of her person, Joan Cromwell, She bore him nine 
children, five sons and four daughters, most of whom were very amia- 
ble characters, particularly Elizabeth, the second and favourite child 
of Oliver, who was married to John Claypole, esq. and died a short 
time before her father ; and Henry, who was appointed by Oliver, 
lord lieutenant of Ireland ; where he, not only by the wisdom and 
equity of his administration soon procured the love of the Irish, so 
that they regarded him as a blessing, but was constantly treated with 
every mark of esteem even by the cavaliers of both kingdoms. What 
is remarkable in Oliver’s children is, that most of them disapproved 
of the violent steps their father was taking, and were warm partisans 
for Charles I. as well as for his son, whose restoration" they greatly 
approved of, and lived quietly under his government. 
Besides the foregoing ciiildren by his wife, Oliver is supposed to 
have had several illegitimate children ; for though a great devotee, and 
affecting an outward sanctity of manners, he is known to have indulged 
himself, after he arrived at power, with the company of ladies, and 
that not in the most innocent manner. 
William Lilly. 
Some account of this man has been given in many publications ; 
but he was altogether so remarkable a character, that a general out- 
line of his history, in this place, may not be unacceptable to the curious 
reader : 
He was born at Diseworth in Leicestershire, in 1692, and was put 
to school at Ashby-de-la-Zouch in the same county ; but his father 
not being in circumstances to give him a liberal education, as he 
