the estate to one another.

Sir Anthony's trus- A.D. 1631.

tees, who were excluded from the commission, desired time to sell the lands at better rates, and that Sir Anthony (who had an estate from his mother's father, for which he was not in wardship) might be allowed to be a purchaser himself. This was pressed in open court, but refused, unless the purchasers would consent; which could not be expected, as they knew the value of their bargains, and had taken such irregular steps to gain them.

The trustees, upon this, refused to convey the lands, and were therefore committed by the Court of Wards to the Fleet, and kept in confinement till they consented. But, notwithstanding their forced conveyance, they preferred a bill in equity against Sir Francis Ashley and the others, upon consideration that they had before agreed with a purchaser for the lands, for Sir Anthony's use, at a much greater value. Sir Francis being sensible that the separate estate, which his brother left to his grandson, enabled the trustees to make this opposition, immediately projected the total ruin of his nephew's fortune; and desired to be heard in behalf of

A.D. 1631. the king, to show that the deed by which Sir

Anthony claimed that estate was not sufficient A.D. 1634. to preserve it from wardship. A day was appointed for the hearing. Mr. Noy was then attorney-general, having been an intimate friend of old Sir Anthony. He had drawn his will; but it was imagined he would not undertake to support the cause against the crown, and without him it would be in imminent danger from the influence which the crown had in that court. Sir Anthony (then but thirteen years old) went alone to Mr. Noy, and acquainted him with the proceedings, saying he had no one to depend on but him, who had been the friend of his grandfather. Noy was pleased with his spirit and behaviour, and told him he would defend the cause, though he should lose his place; and accordingly performed his promise with success, and without taking any fees."

11 This gentleman has all the credit of having originated the claim of the crown to ship-money. The king's orders were imperative to discover some statutable mode of raising money; so, in the words of an old law writer of the period, "Away goes the subtile engineer, and at length from old records bolts out an ancient president of raising a tax for setting out a navy in case of danger. The king, glad of the discovery as treature

cause, his A.D. 1634.

hasty and Instance of However, sity.

Though Sir Anthony carried this estate suffered very much by the clandestine sale of such a part of it. it furnished him with an opportunity, some years afterwards, of showing his generous and reconcileable temper. Rockborne, which was his father's seat, was sold to Mr. Tregonwell, who was in such haste for the purchase, that he was not sufficiently careful in examining the title. Sir Anthony discovered that this estate had been entailed at his father's marriage, and that his

trove, presently issued out writs for providing twenty-seven ships of so many tons, with guns, gunpowder, tackle, and all other things necessary. But this business no sooner ripened than the author of it dyeth." This account is repeated by many old authors, and particularly by Heylyn in his Life of Laud, who gives a circumstantial account of the manner in which Noy had long preserved all the extracts and precedents in favour of naval aids that he could gather from the old records, which formed his favourite study. "He kept them," says Heylyn," in the coffin of a pye which had been sent him by his mother, and kept there till the mouldiness and corruption had perished many of his papers." But notwithstanding this story, and notwithstanding the reported remark of Laud, that, of a layman, Noy was the man who had rendered his majesty greater service than any other in his kingdom, it is impossible that Noy could have originated this idea, since it was acted upon, although not to the same extent, before Noy had received the attorney-generalship as the price of his desertion,

his genero

A.D. 1634. father had not levied any fine to cut off the He, therefore, immediately commenced

entail.

a suit against Mr. Tregonwell, who was grandson and heir of the purchaser. Mr. Tregonwell, whether from a sense of a defect in his title, or the injustice of his grandfather, proposed to Sir Anthony (who was his relation) that, if he might be permitted to enjoy that estate during his life, he would not only consent that it should return to Sir Anthony, but as he had himself no children, he would settle

and while he was yet a keen and able advocate of the popular

cause.

His conduct to our young baronet is not the only instance of kindness related of Noy. He was one day in court when a case was being tried in which a poor widow was the defendant. Three graziers at a fair had left a sum of money with her, and one of them coming back, received the whole sum deposited, and ran away. The other two then sued the woman for delivering what she had received from the three before the three came and demanded it. The widow's counsel had abandoned the case in despair, and the jury were about to return their verdict for the plaintiffs when Noy, who was not retained, took part in the defence. "The defendant," he said, "has received the money of the three together; that she confesses. She was not to deliver it until the same three demanded it; that the plantiff's insist. Agreed. Well, the money is ready; let the three come together to receive it, and it shall be paid." This defence soon put an end to the action.

his own estate upon him likewise. Sir Anthony A.D. 1634. replied, that he would not consent to Mr. Tregonwell's settling his own estate to the prejudice of his family; nay more, since Mr. Tregonwell had been so frank in his offer, he should not only retain Rockborne for his own life, but his wife should hold it for her's also, in case she should survive; and upon these terms he concluded an agreement with Mr. Tregonwell, who enjoyed that estate near forty years.

rage.

In the year 1636 Sir Anthony went to Exeter A.D. 1636. College at Oxford, under the immediate tuition of his couof Dr. Prideaux, rector of the college. The circumstances of his affairs obliged him to go to London in term-time, and he was entered of Lincoln's Inn. Thus he soon acquired an useful education, by being led into an early knowledge of the world. As his reading enlarged and improved his conversation, this quickened and strengthened his application to the other. His wit, affability, and liberal temper, soon distinguished and procured him esteem in the university; and his courage making him the leader of all the young men of his college, he showed several instances of that spirit which he so remarkably maintained through the whole course