eldest son;* to each of his other sons were given estates of about the annual value, at that period, of 3001. each. ROBERT CROMWELL, Esq. second son to Sir Henry, and father of the Protector Oliver, settled at Huntingdon, his estate consisting chiefly of possessions in and near that town, and which had previously belonged to the Monastery of Augustine Friars. His principal residence, however, was in a house that formed part of the dissolved Hospital of St. John, or had been erected upon its site. He was a gentleman of good sense, and competent learning, and was one of the Members for Huntingdon in the Parliament held in the thirty-fifth of Elizabeth. So different was his character from that of the aspiring Oliver, that this situation, and a place upon the bench as a Justice of the Peace,' are thought to have marked the utmost extent of his wishes. He married ELIZABETH, daughter of William Steward, Esq. of the city of Ely, a descendant from a younger branch of the Royal House of Scotland, and widow of William Lynne, Gent. of Bassingbourne. By her he had ten children; and, "to ease the expenses incident on such a numerous progeny, and so much felt where the fortune is small, and the descent ancient, Mr. Cromwell carried on a large brewing business, but which was chiefly conducted by servants, whose accounts were intirely inspected by Mrs. Cromwell herself. She was a careful prudent mother, and brought up her family after her husband's decease in June, 1617, in a very handsome, though frugal manner, chiefly from the profits arising from the brewhouse, which she continued to carry on upon her own account; and by that means gave each of her daughters a fortune sufficient to marry them to persons of genteel families. Her greatest fondness was lavished upon her only (surviving) son, Oliver, whom she ever partially loved; and to her he was every way deserving of it, as he behaved always in the most filial and tender manner; and upon exalting himself to sovereign greatness, he gave her apartments in the Palace at Whitehall, where she continued until her death, which happened on the eighteenth of November, 1654. death, Some particulars of this gentleman, will be given under Hinchinbrook; and of his younger brothers, under Upwood and Ramsey. As it was with reluctance she partook of the pageantry of sovereignty, so she continued undazzled with its splendour; and the regard she possessed for Oliver, rendered her constantly wretched from the apprehension she had of his danger."* Ludlow says, that "by reason of her great age, she very much mistrusted the issue of affairs, and would be often afraid, when she heard the noise of a musquet, that her son was shot; and was exceedingly dissatisfied, unless she might see him once a day, at least."+ She was buried with much pomp in Westminster Abbey; but "at the Restoration her body was taken up, and indecently thrown (with others) into a hole made before the back door of the lodgings belonging to one of the Canons or Prebendaries in St. Margaret's Church-yard." The above particulars of the Cromwells render it evident, that the descent of the Protector Oliver, was not so ignoble as some party writers have represented. They fully justify, however, the assertion of Father Orleans, who, in his History of the Revolutions of England,' says, that he was well enough born not to be contemptible; and yet not so well as to be suspected of aspiring to sovereignty.' The mention which he made of himself in his speech to the Parliament in September, 1654, is, indeed, perfectly characteristic of his true condition. "I was by birth," said he, "a gentleman; neither living in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity." What he subsequently added, will not, perhaps, be generally admitted as equally valid. "I have been called to several employments in the nation, and to serve in Parliaments, and I did endeavour to discharge the duties of an honest man in those services." OLIVER CROMWELL received his baptismal name from his uncle and god-father, Sir Oliver, of Hinchinbrook.§ His father paid + Ludlow's Mem. p. 186, fo. * Noble's Crom. Vol. I. p. 85. "His very infancy," says Mr. Noble, "if we believe what Mr. Audley, brother to the famous civilian, says he had heard some old men tell paid great attention to his education, and after placing him for a short time under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Long, of Huntingdon, he removed him to the care of the learned Dr. Beard, Master of the Free Grammar School in that town. The activity of his disposition suited not with the severity of scholastic discipline; and his character at this early period, may be described as more addicted to mischievous daring, than prone to studious contemplations. Heath, who, though seldom to be credited, may on this point be admitted to speak truly, as his testimony has been corroborated by others, says in his Flagellum, that Oliver, when at school, had fits of learning; now a hard student for a week or two, then a truant, or otioso, for twice as many months, of no settled constancy. His youthful pranks sometimes led him into danger; and he is said to have been once saved from drowning by a clergyman named Johnson, (some time Curate of Connington,) who many years afterwards was recognised by Oliver when the latter was marching at the head of his troops through Huntingdon, and asked by him, whether he did not remember having saved his life?" "Yes," replied the other, "I do; but I wish I had put you in, rather than see you thus in arms against your King." Several circumstances are related as occurring during the time that Oliver continued at the Grammar School, which have been considered by some as omens of his future greatness. "They have tell his grandfather, was marked with a peculiar accident, that seemed to threaten the existence of the future Protector: for his grandfather, Sir Henry Cromwell, having sent for him to Hinchinbrook, when an infant in arms, a monkey took him from his cradle, and ran with him upon the lead that covered the roofing of the house. Alarmed at the danger Oliver was in, the family brought beds to catch him upon, fearing the creature's dropping him; but the sagacious animal brought the Fortune of England' down in safety; so narrow an escape had he, who was doomed to be the Conqueror and Sovereign Magistrate of three mighty nations, from the paws of a monkey." Vol. I. p. 92, from Dr. Lort's MSS. Ibid. p. 93,-4, from Lort's MSS. have a tradition at Huntingdon," says Mr. Noble, " that when the Duke of York, afterwards Charles the First, in his journey from Scotland to London, in 1604, rested in his way at Hinchinbrook, Sir Oliver Cromwell, to divert the young Prince, sent for his ne phew Oliver, that he, with his own sons, might play with his Royal Highness; but they had not been long together, before Charles and Oliver disagreed; and the former being then as weakly as the latter was strong, it was no wonder that the Royal visitant was worsted; and Oliver, even at this age, so little regarded dignity, that he made the blood flow in copious streams from the Prince's nose. I give this only as the report of the place. It is more certain that Oliver averred (and mentioned it often, when he was in the height of his glory) that he saw a gigantic figure, which came and opened the curtains of his bed, and told him that he should be the greatest person in the kingdom,' but did not mention the word King. Though informed of the folly of such an assertion, he persisted in it, for which he was flogged by Dr. Beard, at the particular desire of his father; yet, notwithstanding this, he would sometimes repeat it to his uncle Steward, who told him it was traitorous to relate it."† Additional evidence of the early ambition, and aspiring mind, of Oliver, is inferred from the enthusiasm and fire with which he performed the character of Tactus, in the comedy of 'Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue and the Five Senses for the Superiority,' when it was acted at the Free Gram mar * When James's Queen, and Henry, and Elizabeth, his two elder children, came to England in 1603, Charles, being indisposed, was left bee hind, and remained in Scotland till September in the following year. Rapin, Vol. II. p. 161. Sandford says, that Charles was born on the nine, teenth of November, 1600; consequently at the time of the transaction mentioned above, he had not completed his fourth year; and Oliver was then about five years and a half old. + Noble's Crom. Vol. I. p. 94. Some pretend that the vision was seen by Oliver when he was walking: the Flagellum gives it as a dream: it certainly is a proof of the warmth of his imagination, and his early ambition." Ibid. mar School at Huntingdon. No other part would satisfy him. The scene that more particularly fixed his attention, was the fourth of the first act, wherein Tactus is represented stumbling over a crown and robe, and afterwards, putting them on, as thus giving utterance to his delight at his good fortune. Tactus, thy sneezing somewhat did portend: To break his shins at such a stumbling block? How gallantly it fits me! Sure the slave In April, 1616, Oliver was removed from the Huntingdon Grammar School, and entered of Sydney-Sussex College, in the University of Cambridge:† he was then seventeen years of age within This comedy was printed in 1607, and in that impression is said to have been first acted at Trinity College, Cambridge, and afterwards at the Free Grammar School in Huntingdon.-The plot of the play is, that Lingua gives a crown and robe to be contested for by the senses.' The time of his admisson to the College is thus noticed in the Register. A festo Anunciationis 1616. OLIVERIUS CROMWELL Huntingdoniensis |