Old Mourning ring.
Miss Agnes Strickland, in her ‘Lives of the Four Princesses of the Royal House of Stuart,’ mentions a circumstance in the life of the Princess Henrietta Anne (1670), that, ‘as Bossuet was kneeling by her bedside, she suddenly turned to one of her ladies and spoke to her in English, which the Bishop did not understand, to tell her that when she should have entered into her rest, she was to give Bossuet the emerald ring which had been ordered to be made for him as a memorial of her.’
Izaak Walton added a codicil to his will (1683) for the distribution of memorial rings to several of his relations and friends, with the motto, ‘A friend’s farewell. I. W., obiit;’ the value of the rings to be thirteen shillings and fourpence each. In the will itself he gives to his son-in-law, Dr. Hawkins, ‘whom I love as my own son;’ to his daughter, his wife, and his son Izaak, a ring to each of them, with the motto, ‘Love my memory. I. W., obiit.’ To the Lord Bishop of Winchester a ring, with the motto, ‘A mite for a million. I. W., obiit.’
In a codicil of the last testament of Nell Gwyn (1687) she requests that Lady Fairborne may have fifty pounds given to her to buy a ring.
Dr. John Spencer, Master of Corpus Christi College, in his will (1693) left twenty shillings to each of the Fellows of his college for a funeral ring.
Queen Elizabeth, eldest daughter to James the First, wore to the day of her death a mourning ring, in which was a lock of her brother’s hair, brought over to Bohemia by a faithful servant, with the device of a crown over a skull and cross-bones, and the letters ‘C. R.’ After her death, in 1662, it was much prized by her descendants, and was long a heirloom among them.
On the eve of the death of Henrietta Anne, the daughter of Charles the First, she sent most tender messages to her brothers King Charles the Second, and James, Duke of York; and, drawing from her finger a ring, she expressed a wish that it might be sent to the former, as a memorial of her dying love.
A remarkable interest is attached to the bequest of a ring by Sir Charles Cotterell, master of the ceremonies, who died in 1700. The particulars are given in the ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries’ (January 30, 1862). ‘I bequeath to my constantly obliging Friend, Sr Stephen Fox, a ring wth a figure cut in an onyx, which was given by King Charles ye first, from his Finger to Sr Philip Warwick, at ye Treaty in the Isle of Wight, to seal letters he there writt for him, and whch Sr Philip left to me for a Legacy, and wch I cannot leave to anybody that has been a greater Honourer of that Excellent Prince’s Memory, nor a Worthier Friend to us both, and who for these reasons I know will value it.’ To this has been added, by Sir Stephen Fox, ‘which I leave to my son Stephen and his Heirs, enjoining him to keep it in remembrance of the excellent King that gave it off his Finger to Sr Philip Warwick, who died in August 1684, and his son Philip at New Market a month after, and excellent Sr Charles Cotterell died in the year 1700, and after this was left to my good son Charles, who died in September 1713. Ste(phen) Fox.’
At the commencement of the first of these memoranda, and (observes Mr. Franks, by whom these particulars were given to the Society) at the conclusion of the last are much-mutilated impressions from a very small antique gem, which, there can be no doubt, is the onyx set in the ring in question. The figure is of fine workmanship, and represents a partially-draped young man standing in profile to the right. It is, possibly, a representation of Mercury, and resembles somewhat in attitude the bronze statue found at Huis, in the south of France, and known as the Payne Knight Mercury.