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the subpoena on the last day of the Term immediately preceding, that so I might not be able to get in my answer, the drawing of which required some time, for the writings to be perused were at Shenton. But I used expedition, and stopped his mouth. He had been misled by ill people, which was no novelty; but it was a great charge to me; and he had been thrown back into prison again, by contracting new debts to lawyers, &c. had not I been compassionate, even to foolishness. After all this, I gave him 50l. per annum, and several considerable sums besides. Going to live at Chester, he died there of a bruise in his head, got by a fall, in 1694. During the time of his confinement it was said (but the thing is not very certain) that he married a woman, whose father was a prisoner likewise. However, he left no issue.

Whether my brother Tom was here in town before I came, or whether he followed me, I have really forgot; but I maintained him privately, and did some irksome things for him. I have not set down the particular sums he had of me in those days. Now I allow him 60l. per annum, beside his own annuity, and the many debts I have paid for him over and over, of which my accompts are witnesses. God forgive his follies, and the disturbances which he has occasioned to me! Other relations have been chargeable to me; but I shall not mention them after these two instances.

I shall here take an opportunity to say something more of my dear father; a man, from whose sobriety, regularity, and unexceptionable morals, some of his children might have transcribed better copies than they did. After the death of my cousin, he was not altogether pleased that I had the estate, because he had it not himself; but he had now a competence, upon which he might live comfortably without dependance, and more agreeably to his own desires; and this satisfaction I believe he enjoyed. He removed to Lichfield; died there March 10, 1691:

and

and lies buried in the church of Shenstone, with his father, some of his children, and now his only and beloved wife, lately deceased, &c. I guess him to have been then about 57 years old [he was born Oct. 27, 1634]. He was a man of natural good parts, had the seeds of religion sowed in him early, and read one sort of books much, for the exercise of devotion. But, not having learning enough to enlarge his mind, and enable him to judge for himself, he became something obnoxious to prejudices, stinted himself in the use of his own judgment, which was naturally very strong and good, and seemed not so sensible of the force and obligation of reason. This I ascribe to the conversation he had in his younger years with the minister of a neighbouring parish, who was one of those canting zealots that make reason to be a species of impiety, and who infused such Presbyterian principles into his mind, as stuck by him to the last. Yet he never deserted the Church, where he used to be constantly; unless he did it after the Revolution (as it is called), when separate meetings became legal. He would sometimes be angry (and who is not?), but not to the prejudice of any body; and perhaps he was not so active to get, as the narrowness of his circumstances required. But, in the course of his almost incessant devotions, the integrity and inoffensiveness of his life and manners, and the care he took to behave himself soberly and virtuously, and to avoid all expences incompatible with his little income, he had scarce any equal. In one word, the want of learning was not his fault, but infelicity; and, take him altogether, he was the most conscientious and best man that ever came within my observation. My dear mother, I dare say, parted with him not without great regret. And that I may not separate the characters of them who always lived so faithfully and inseparably together, I shall add here, concerning her, what justice, as well as duty and affection,

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obliges

obliges me to say. She was not only a singular good woman, but such an one as by her great care

and ingenious management supplied many of my fa

ther's wants, and without which it would have been almost impossible for him to have brought up his children. She was in truth a help meet for him; and followed him Sept. 24, 1707 [she was born Dec. 27, 1628]. And they now together reap the fruits of their innocent and pious lives, as they formerly participated in the same difficulties and afflictions.

And now I shall only add two or three lines concerning myself, whom they have left behind to act out my part. May I act it as I ought; and make my exit not less innocently and piously than my parents have done before me!

I

In 1688, Nov. 10, I came to London. Here, after I had in good measure settled my affairs that winter, I took a prospect of all those toils and troubles that I had undergone in the long 30 years had now lived, and began to thirst after repose and settlement. In order to this, it was become necessary that I should marry. And so, to omit here many things that might perhaps be entertaining, but can be of no great use, upon November the 26th, 1689, I was married to Mrs. Catherine Charlton, since that time my dearest wife; whose family and relations being known to my children as much as to myself, I shall add nothing as to them.

By her I have had these children: Charlton Wollaston, born Sept. 8, 1690; William, April 26, 1693; Francis, June 6, 1694; Catharine, July 18, 1695; Nicholas, July 30, 1696; Bethiah, Sept. 15, 1697 ; John, Dec. 21, 1698; Theophilus, Aug. 1, 1700 (he died Jan. 17 after); Anne, Sept. 9, 1702; Richard, Aug. 10, 1705 (who died the 11th of November following); Elizabeth, July 13, 1707.

God grant that all we who survive may be mutual and lasting comforts each to other!

WILLIAM WOLLASTON, April 15, 1709.

ANECDOTES OF

CHARLES GEORGE DEERING*, M. D.. Written by himself, in a Letter to a Friend.

(From a Manuscript in the Doctor's hand-writing, now in the Possession of JAMES DOWLAND, Esq.)

DEAR MR. BURY,

July 31, 1737.

You are by this time sensible that a false and malicious report being industriously blown about, that I was a Quack, had kept a Mountebank stage, and lived at the sign of the Urinal, has almost entirely frustrated your sincere intention of serving both this Town and me, in recommending me to your friends: such is the disposition of the major part of men, to lend more readily an ear to slander and detraction, than to praise and commendation ; and what is worse, they will not only give credit to an ill report, without taking the least trouble to inquire whether it be true or false, though the consequence of its being believed should be ever so detrimental to the person injured, but eagerly go about to spread it. The sad experience of this, I have hitherto borne with the patience of a Stoic, and have endeavoured rather to convince the thinking part, of my ability in my profession, by the success of the charitable assistance which I have cheerfully given to the sick poor, than by a formal justification of my injured character. All, till this very day, to no purpose: in so much that I am quite at a loss what steps to take, to induce the good inhabitants of Nottingham to try whether I am capable of being useful to them or not. Could I but find out that secret, I should think it an ample satisfaction for my past hardships. But whither am I rambling? the confidence I have in your sincere friendship

* Otherwise Dering. He was a German by birth.

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makes

makes me thus trespass upon your patience; and you know that it is no small relief to an afflicted person, to tell his tale to a compassionate friend; which gives me hope you will excuse this my excursion. Now to the purpose. The odious reflections cast upon me laying also upon you an indirect charge, either of want of probity, in offering to impose upon the Town a person whose character is the reverse of what you have given out and he pretends to, or of extreme weakness, to espouse the interest of one whose character you are unacquainted with; I think it my duty both to you and myself to furnish you with some farther materials (besides what you know already of me) to clear yourself and me from all such malignant aspersions. In order to which, I need not be prolix in telling you, that, having passed through the several classes of the public school, performed my exercises at the Gymnasium of Hamburg, and acquainted myself with three or four of the living languages, I set out for Leyden in 1708, where, for the space of two years and an half, I diligently frequented both the public and private theoretical and practical lectures of Dr. Boerhaave and Albinus, the anatomical and chirurgical of Professor Raw, the chemical of Lettort, and I also attended the botanical in the Physic garden. I spent besides some time under the famous Ruysch at Amsterdam, where falling into acquaintance with an Holsatian Nobleman, I had an opportunity of visiting several parts of Europe with him in quality of a companion. At my return to Hamburg an offer was made to me, to enter into the service of the late Czar Peter Alexeiwitz, as Secretary to Baron Schack, Envoy Extraordinary to her late Majesty Queen Anne from that Prince; and being at the same time informed that that Nobleman employed a great part of his leisure time in chemical experiments, I gladly embraced the opportunity, and went on board of the Thomas and Elizabeth, an English

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