[CL] In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 97v, Aubrey has this note:—'Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice—when I was first of the Middle Temple, I heard an old (80 <years old>) Norfolke gentleman of the <name of> Dunstable affirme that Sir Edward Coke was borne but to 300 li. a yeare land.'
[CM] This story is repeated at the foot of the leaf:—'Sir John Danvers told me that he had heard one say to him, reflecting on his great scraping of wealth, that his sonnes would spend his estate faster then he gott it. He replied, they cannot take more delight in the spending of it then I did in the getting of it.'
[CN] George Wilde, Serjeant at Law, 1614; father of Sir John Wilde, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 1648.
Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683).
[669]Monsieur ... Colbert was a merchant and an excellent accomptant, i.e. for Debtor and Creditor. He is of Scotish extraction and that obscure enough, his grandfather being a Scotish bag-piper to the Scotch regiment.
Cardinal Mezarin found that his stables were very chardgeable to him, and was imposed upon in accompts. He hearing of this merchant Colbert to be a great master in this art, sends for him and desires him to make inspection into his accounts and putt him into a better method to avoyd being abused. Which he did, and that so well that he imployed him in ordering the accounts of all his estate and found him so usefull that he also made use of him to methodize and settle the accompts of the king. This was his rise.—From Dr. John Pell.