NICHOLAS FERRAR OF LITTLE GIDDING.
Dr. Peckard, in his Preface to the Life of Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding, says the memoir he published was edited or compiled by him from "the original MS. still in my possession" (p. xi.); and in the Appendix adds, that "Mr. John Ferrar," the elder brother of Nicholas, was the author of it (p. 279.).
How he compiled or edited "the original MS." he states with much candour in his Preface (p. xv.):
"The editor's intention," in altering the narrative, "was to give what is not observed in the original, a regular series of facts; and through the whole a sort of evenness and simplicity of stile equally free from meanness and affectation. In short, to make the old and the new, as far as he could, uniform; that he might not appear to have sewed a piece of new cloth to an old garment, and made its condition worse by his endeavours to mend it."
Again, at page 308., he says,
"There is an antient MS. in folio, giving an account of Mr. N. Ferrar, which at length, from Gidding, came into the hands of Mr. Ed. Ferrar of Huntingdon, and is now in the possession of the editor. Mr. Peck had the use of this MS. as appears by several marginal notes in his handwriting; from this and some loose and unconnected papers of Mr. Peck.... the editor, as well as he was able, has made out the foregoing memoirs."
Can any of your numerous correspondents inform me if this "antient MS." is still in existence, and in whose possession?
Peckard was related to the Ferrars, and was Master of Magdalen Coll., Cambridge.
In "A Catalogue of MSS. (once) at Gidding," Peckard, p. 306., the third article is "Lives, Characters, Histories, and Tales for moral and religious Instruction, in five volumes folio, neatly bound and gilt, by Mary Collet." This work, with five others, "undoubtedly were all written by N. Ferrar, Sen.," says Dr. Peckard; and in the Memoir, at page 191., he gives a list of these "short histories," ninety-eight in number, "which are still remaining in my possession;" and adds further, at p. 194.,
"These lives, characters, and moral essays would, I think, fill two or three volumes in 8vo., but they are written in so minute a character, that I cannot form any conjecture to be depended upon."
I have been thus particular in describing these "histories", because the subjects of them are identical with those in Fuller's Holy and Profane State, the first edition of which was published at Cambridge, in 1642. "The characters I have conformed," says Fuller in his Preface, "to the then standing laws of the realm (a twelvemonth ago were they sent to the press), since which time the wisdom of the King and state hath" altered many things. Nicholas Ferrar died December 2, 1637, and the Query I wish to ask is, Did Fuller compose them (for that he was really the author of them can hardly be doubted) at the suggestion and for the benefit of the community at Gidding, some years before he published them; and is it possible to ascertain and determine if the MS. is in the handwriting of Ferrar or Fuller?
Is there any print or view in existence of the "Nunnery," at Little Gidding?
In the Life of Dr. Thomas Fuller, published anonymously in 1661, it is stated, that at his funeral a customary sermon was preached by Dr. Hardy, Dean of Rochester, "which hath not yet (though it is hoped and much desired may) passe the presse," p. 63.
Query. Was this sermon ever published? and secondly, who was the author of the Life from which the above passage is quoted?
John Miland.