SPEAKER LENTHALL.
In a biographical notice (MS.) of Speaker Lenthall by the Rev. Mark Noble, I find the following passage:
"His (Lenthall's) ancestor is mentioned in the will of Sir Richard Williams alias Cromwell. Sir Richard was the great-grandfather of Oliver Lord Protector. There was always a friendship between the family of Cromwell and that of Lenthall."
Can any one versed in Cromwellian lore kindly inform me if any such will is in existence; and if so, what is its date? I should be glad to know too if there is any further authority for the statement in the text, that there was always a friendship between the Cromwells and Lenthalls, assuming such friendship to have subsisted anterior to the days of the Commonwealth.
It is stated by Wood (Athen. Oxon., article LENTHALL), and repeated in substance by Noble in his Protectoral House of Cromwell, that "two or more" of the Speaker's son, Sir John Lenthall's speeches, "spoken in the time of usurpation," are in print. Having hitherto failed in discovering any trace of these speeches, I should greatly value any clue that may direct me to them if still extant. On Noble's authority, when unsupported, of course little reliance can be placed; but in any matter of detail, or pure and simple fact, related by Wood, I have considerable, though not altogether implicit, faith.
In a brief and singularly inaccurate memoir of Lenthall, in the Lives of the Speakers, lately published by Churton, the following passage occurs:
"We omitted to state in reference to Mr. Lenthall's strenuous exertions in favour of the gallant Earl of Derby, that Mrs. Cromwell, in one of her letters to the Protector, urges him to endeavour to effect a reconciliation with the Speaker," &c. &c.
As no authority is cited, I should be glad to learn where the letters of Mrs. Cromwell thus referred to are to be found. Are they in print or MS.? If any of your readers should be able to enlighten me in respect of all or any of the above Queries, and would kindly do so either through the medium of the Notes, or to my address as below, I should be greatly obliged.
F. KYFFIN LENTHALL.
36. Mount Street, Grosvenor Square.