1669 and 1670 I sold all my Estate in Wilts. From 1670 to this very day (I thank God) I have enjoyed a happy delitescency.
1671. Danger of Arrests.
1677. Latter end of June an impostume brake in my head. Mdm. St John's night 1673 in danger of being run through with a sword by a young templer at M. Burges' chamber in the M. Temple.
I was in danger of being killed by William Earl of Pembroke then Lord Herbert at the election of Sir William Salkeld for New Sarum. I have been in danger of being drowned twice.
The year that I lay at M. Neve's (for a short time) I was in great danger of being killed by a drunkard in the Street of Grays Inn Gate by a Gentleman whom I never saw before but (Deo gratias) one of his companions hindred his thrust.
[1754 June 11. transcribed from a MS. in M. Aubrey's own handwriting in the possession of Dr. R. Rawlinson.]
These incidents are so curiously narrated, and afford such interesting glimpses of the times to which they refer, that it is to be regretted they exist in so brief a form.
Several of Aubrey's biographers have given a very loose and unsatisfactory account of him, and it was left for Mr. Britton to prepare a more authentic Life of one who had laboured long and zealously to preserve the records of the past. To that gentleman we owe many particulars regarding the close of Aubrey's career; among others, the entry of his burial at Oxford, in the church of St. Mary Magdalene- "1697. John Aubery a stranger was Buryed Jun. 7th."
To Mr. Britton we are also indebted for the fact that Aubrey was never married; the statement that he had been united to Joan Sumner, resting on no surer foundation than the allusion to that lady in the "Accidents" above quoted. He died intestate, and Letters of Administration were granted on the 18th December, 1697, to his surviving brother William. In that license he is described as "late of Broad Chalk in the County of Wilts, Batchelor."