That historians have been much misled in assuming that Mrs. Milton was a daughter of Sir Edward Minshull of Stoke, cannot, I think, be questioned; although it may be very fairly asked whether there were not other respectable Minshull families living in the neighbourhood of Wistaston, of which Mrs. Milton might have been a member, and yet allied to the Paget and Goldsmith families.
Garlichithe.
Mr. Hughes is quite right, both in his facts, so far as they go, and in the inference he draws from them in confirmation of the now well ascertained identity of Milton's widow with the daughter of Randle Mynshull of Wistaston. His observations derive additional force from the fact, that two generations of Minshull of Wistaston married ladies of the name of Goldsmith. Thomas Minshull, the great-grandfather of Milton's widow, married —— Goldsmith of Nantwich, as his son Richard informed Randal Holmes, in a letter among the Harl. MSS., noticed by Mr. Hunter, and as pointed out by Mr. Hughes; but the writer of that letter also married a lady of the same name, Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas Goldsmith, of Bosworth, in the county of Leicester. The fact is worth noticing, though no very accurate estimate can be formed of the precise degree of relationship to be inferred from the title of "cousin" a couple of centuries ago. My authority is the Cheshire visitation of 1663-4. Several other MS. pedigrees are in existence; in some of which the lady's name is stated as Ellen, instead of Elizabeth, and her father's as Richard instead of Nicholas. Thomas Minshull of Manchester, the uncle of Milton's widow, deserves perhaps a passing word of notice, as having embalmed the mortal remains of Humphrey Chetham.
J. F. M.
Warrington.
Our elegant poet Fenton, having written a Life of Milton, and no doubt often visited his place of nativity (Shelton, in the Staffordshire Potteries), he surely must have known something respecting Milton's third wife's family, who lived only a few miles from thence; and if the Fenton papers have, as is probable, been preserved by his family, some of whom I am informed still live in the neighbourhood of Shelton, it is not unlikely they will throw some light on the family of the poet's widow.
Newington.