The Life of Mr. Richard Savage / Who was Condemn'd with Mr. James Gregory, the last Sessions at the Old Baily, for the Murder of Mr. James Sinclair, at Robinson's Coffee-house at Charing-Cross.

Transcriber's Note
Who was Condemn'd with Mr. James Gregory , the last Sessions at the Old Baily , for the Murder of Mr. James Sinclair , at Robinson's Coffee-house at Charing-Cross .
With some very remarkable Circumstances, relating to the Birth and Education , of that Gentleman, which were never yet made publick.
———— Quis talia fando, Temperet à Lachrymis?
LONDON :
Printed for, and Sold by J. Roberts , at the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane ; and by the Booksellers of London and Westminster . 1727.
(Price Six Pence.)

But to give the Reader his History in as exact Order of Time as possible, we shall begin with the Day of his Birth, which was January the 10th , 1697-8. A Day, that he might very reasonably, in the Language of the despairing Job , have repented his ever seeing, when he considered, as he had too frequently the bitterest Occasions to do, what an almost uninterrupted Train of Miseries it had introduced him into. The Reader may easily imagine, that an Affair of this extraordinary Kind, among Persons of that high Rank, did not a little employ the Conversation and Scandal of the Town, for which Reason, the Lady resolving to move out of her Sight, and if possible, by that, out of her Remembrance, him, who was innocently the Cause of her Reproach, committed him to the Care of a poor Woman, with Orders to breed him up as her own, and in a Manner suitable to her Condition, withal, laying a strict Injunction upon her, never to let him come to the Knowledge of his real Parents. The Nurse was faithful to the Trust reposed in her, at the same Time not neglecting to do her Duty to the Infant in a homely Manner, agreeable to the Disposition of a well-meaning ordinary Person, and her scanty Allowance from his Mother's Relations; for she did not appear in the Affair herself, but her Mother, my Lady Mason , whether at her Daughter's Desire, or prompted by her own natural Compassion, I shall not pretend to determine, transacted every Thing with the Nurse , whose Name was the only one, for many Years, he knew he had any Claim to, and was called after it accordingly; although his real Father, the late Earl Rivers , was himself one of his God-fathers, and had his right Name regularly Registered in the Parish Books of St. Andrew's Holbourn ; Mrs. Lloyd , his God-mother, was as kind to him as the Time she lived would admit of, but her Death, next to his own Birth, was his earliest Misfortune; for he not only lost, in all likelihood, a very good Friend, but could never recover any Part of the 300 Pounds she left him as a Legacy. When he arrived at Years capable of receiving the first Rudiments of Learning, and after an Attempt had been made in vain, to have had him spirited away to one of the American Plantations, he was sent to a little Grammar School at St. Alban's in Hertfordshire . Here I hope I shall be excused saying, That by the great Natural Genius he discover'd, this School has had ample Retribution for the little Assistance he receiv'd from it, for as he never was favour'd with any Academical Learning, so it was no Secret to those he most familiarly conversed with, that his Knowledge of the Classics was very slender and imperfect: Tho', with humble Submission to the Judgment of those Gentlemen who are such bigotted sticklers for the Ancients , he had something in the Force and Sprightliness of his own Imagination, that more than made amends for the want of it.