MILTON'S WIDOW.
(Vol. viii., pp. 12. 134. 200. 375. 452. 471.)
It is pleasing to find so much interest excited among the readers of "N. & Q." relative to the parentage of this lady; and we may fairly hope that the spirit of research which has thus been awakened, will not die away until the last spark of error and mystery has been extinguished.
T. L. P. has favoured us with quotations from a little pamphlet, entitled Historical Facts connected with Nantwich and its Neighbourhood. Now, after giving this work a most careful perusal, I cannot but think that the title of the book is, in this instance at least, a misnomer. The authoress, for it was written by a lady long resident in the vicinity, has evidently wrought upon the foundations of others; and taking the veteran Ormerod as a sufficient authority, has given full vent to her imagination, and pictured, with "no 'prentice hand," the welcome visits of Milton to Stoke Hall, a place which, in all probability, was never once honoured with the presence of this great man. There is no evidence whatever adduced to give even the semblance of colour to this unfortunate error; whereas, on the side of the Wistaston family, the proofs of its identity as the family of Mrs. Milton are numerous and, to my notion, incontrovertible.
As if, indeed, to give us "confirmation sure" of the truth of this position, our old friend Cranmore starts up, "like a spirit from the vasty deep," and, after an absence of many months from our ranks, pays off his ancient score by producing the evidence he so long ago promised us. From it we gather that Thomas Paget, the father, named his cousin Minshull, apothecary in Manchester, overseer of his will; and that his son, Nathan Paget, eighteen years afterwards, names in his will John Goldsmith and Elizabeth Milton as his cousins, and makes bequests to them accordingly. Now, it so happens that Thomas, son of Richard Minshull of Wistaston, was an apothecary, and that he settled in Manchester, and thereupon founded the family of Minshull of Manchester. This
gentleman was doubtless the cousin referred to in the will of the elder Paget. It farther happens, that Thomas Minshull, the grandfather of this Manchester apothecary, married a daughter of Goldsmith of Nantwich. The John Goldsmith of the Middle Temple would then doubtless be the nephew or grand-nephew of this lady, and in either case a cousin of Thomas Minshull of Manchester, and of Elizabeth Minshull of Wistaston. This is another, if not a completing link in the genealogical chain, and convinces me, now more than ever, of the correctness of my conclusions.
I may add that the whole of the deeds referred to by Mr. Singer are now in the safe and worthy keeping of Mr. J. Fitchett Marsh of Warrington; and that they are published in extenso, together with a valuable essay on their historical importance by their present possessor, in the first volume of Miscellanies issued by the Chetham Society.
T. Hughes.