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And my will is, that, when the said college shall be erected and to the number of ten of the infidels' children therein placed to be educated in Christian religion and civility,—that1 then my executor shall give and pay the sum of £300 unto the company of Virginia, to be disposed of with the advice and consent of sir Edwin Sandys, now treasurer of the company, and my son John Farrar, so as may most tend to the furtherance of that godly work of the college and thereby to the advancement of God's glory. And in the meanwhile, until such time as the said college shall be erected and at least ten of the infidels' children therein placed (until which time I will not that the said £300 shall be paid or delivered by my executor unto the company of Virginia) my will is that my executor shall pay and deliver yearly the sum of £24 in the hands of sir Edwin Sandys and John Farrar, which said sum of £24 my will and desire is the said sir Edwin Sandys and John Farrar shall yearly pay by eight pounds a year to any three several persons in Virginia of good life and fame, that will undertake therewith to procure and bring up each of them one of the infidels' children, instructing them carefully in the grounds of Christian religion and entreating them in all things so christianly, as by the good usage and bringing of them up the infidels may be persuaded that it is not the intent of our nation to make their children slaves, but to bring them to a better manner of living in this world and to the way of eternal happiness in the life to come. Item, I give and bequeath unto St. Thomas's hospital £10; to Christ's hospital £5; to St. Bartholomew's £5; to Bridewell £5; which money my mind is shall be paid unto every one of them within six months after my death. Item, I give and bequeath unto the poor in Harford 2, where I was born, the sum of £10 to be given and distributed amongst them within one month after my death, to every one according to the discretion of the ministers and churchwardens then being there

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and as the necessities of the poor persons, some more and some less, to the full sum of the said £10. Item, I give unto the worshipful company of the skinners, whereof I am a brother, three or four bowls of silver plain to drink in of the value of twenty marks, to be made and given within six months after my death, and also twenty marks to make them a dinner or supper the same day I shall be buried. Item, I give unto my dear and well beloved friend and sometime my partner that was, now sir Thomas Middleton, a ring of gold of three pounds. Item, I give unto my good friends Mr. Hugh Middleton and Mr. Richard Wyche, each of them, a ring of gold of three pounds. Item, I give unto my good and loving friend Mr. Robert Bateman my white silver bason. Item, I give unto my good friend Mr. Thomas Shepherd my diamond ring. Item, I give unto my good friend Mrs. Anna Middleton, widow, my watch. Item, I give unto my cousin Mary Stead a ring of gold of three pounds. Item, I give unto my daughter Farrar my great gilt bason and ewer. Item, I give unto my son John Collett and his wife my bason and ewer of parcel gilt. Item, I give unto Mary Collett their daughter (whom I have brought up from her cradle) five hundred pounds (I say, five hundred pounds) to be paid unto her at her age of one and twenty years or at the day of her marriage, which shall come first: and I will that my executor shall in the mean time, till the said Mary Collett be married or of age to receive the said five hundred pounds (I say, five hundred pounds) pay unto her the sum of £30 yearly towards and for her maintenance. And to the rest of my daughter Collett's children then living £20 a-piece, to be paid unto them at the day of their marriage or the age of one and twenty years, which of them shall be first. Item, I give unto my grandchild Nicholas Farrar £100. unto my son John Farrar my house wherein I now dwell, which I bought of Mr. William Allen, lying and being in the parish of St. Bennett Sherehogge in St. Sythe's Lane in London, to him and his heirs males for ever; provided always that my dear and well beloved wife Mary Farrar shall enjoy

Item, I give

the same so long as she doth live. Item, I give unto my son Nicholas Farrar my house at Hertford called the Bell, to him and his heirs from and after the decease of his mother, who I will (during her life) shall enjoy the same. Item, give unto my dear and well beloved wife Mary Farrar one third part of all my goods, which is her due by custom1. And I give her no more in regard I have formerly estated upon her the value of £200 per ann. And one other third of my goods I do give unto my sons Nicholas and Richard Farrar; and the other third of my own remaining (my debts paid, my legacies and all other things discharged) I do give unto my three sons, John, Nicholas and Richard Farrar, to be equally divided amongst them. Item, I do forgive and release unto my son Nicholas Farrar all such sums of money which he hath received in part of his portion. And I do will that my son Richard shall enjoy and receive to his own use all those debts and specialties that I have given him which his mother knows of; and further my will and mind is, that when it shall please God to take me forth of this mortal world, that there shall be no blacks given for me unto any of my friends, but unto my sons and daughter and her children; but to the poor three score and fifteen gowns, which is my age; whereof I would have [twenty] given to twenty poor men free of the worshipful company of skinners, and ten unto ten poor men in Hertford where I was born, the others at my wife's discretion, where she shall think good, and those of my servants that will remain one year at the least with my wife, if she will entertain them, the men-servants clothes and the maidservants gowns of broad cloth; and to no other. And I will my body to be committed to the grave, which is the way of all flesh, in decent and comely order, and no other ways,

1 The same custom appears in the will of John Donne, citizen and ironmonger of London, whose will bearing date 16 Jan. 1575-6, and proved 8 Feb., orders that his property "according to the laudable custom of that city of London," be divided into three portions, one of which is to be given his wife, one to his children in equal shares, &c.

which I do refer the same to the discretion of my most dear and loving wife, who hath been most loving and careful over me always. And of this my last will and testament I do ordain and make my son Nicholas Farrar my full and sole executor, and my dearly beloved wife Mary Farrar and my son John Farrar overseers to see the same faithfully and truly performed; and I do utterly revoke and disannul all and every former will and testament by me before made, and I will that this my last will now made, together with all my legacies, bequests, and executor, by me here made and named, shall stand remain and abide for my last will and testament and executor, and no other. In witness whereof I have hereunder set my hand and seal the day and year above-written NIC. FARRAR sealed and delivered in the presence of us THOME SHEPHEARD, MARYE COLLETT, RICHARDE FARRAR. Proved at London before Edmund

Pope L.L.D. surrogate, April

4. 1620.

Page 67. line 8. whereat. and whereat. MS.

15. never. supplied by Baker.

Page 68. line ro. from foot. he preached there. "His second and particular visitation made amends for the former, at Little Gidding in the same county: where he found a congregation of saints, not walking after the flesh, but after the spirit. Let this history give glory to God in their behalf: shewing in a touch, on what religious grounds their polity was founded: and how uncharitably suspected, and how unhappily dissolved. A family of the Farrars, the mother, with sons and daughters of both sexes in the plural number, other branches of the kindred, with servants fit to be about them, were collected into a house of their own at Gidding aforesaid, purposing and covenanting between themselves to live in as strict a way, according to the gospel of Christ, as good rules could chalk out, and human infirmity undergo. This pious design was proposed, and persuaded to them by the eldest son, in holy orders, bred in Clare Hall in Cambridge,

an humble, diligent, devout servant of God, learned in the theory, more in the practice of divinity. Their house, fit for their contemplation, stood alone. All were single persons in it, to the best I could learn. The church was so near, that it was next to the pale of their yard: the easier for them that frequented it so often. The whole village of Gidding had been depopulated or I am misinformed: the house which contained them remaining for an whole parish. The tithes had been impropriated: but were restored back again by the mother, to the use of the rector then, her own son; and to the succeeding rectors by a firm deed, as law could make, which in its time shall be declared. They kept much at home their turns of prayer, and watching, which they observed, required it. Yet visits, perhaps once a month, they made abroad: but shunning such diversions, as much as they could, which rob us of a great part of the employment of our life. Non horam tecum esse potes: non otia recte-Ponere:' as an heathen complained, Horat. Serm. ii. 7. 112. Strangers that came to them were fairly received: all the tribe was meek and courteous, and did let none depart, before they gave them an account of their conversation, if they asked it. And withal offered to read to them, what was written in a table hanging up in their parlour, as followeth :

He that [&c. as in Lenton's letter in the preface.]

Their apparel had nothing in it of fashion, but that which was common, yet plain: and much of it for linen and woollen spun at home; such as modest Christians thought to be the best habit. Fateor vobis de pretiosa veste erubesco,' says St. Austin. Inter. Serm. de Diver. They gave no entertainment but to the poor, whom they instructed first, and then relieved, not with fragments, but with the best they had: and having sufficiency did abound to every good work, 2 Cor. xi. 8. Their business was, either they were at prayer, or at work; nothing came between: the devil had the less power to tempt them, that he never found them idle. They had the more leisure for work, because they fasted so much: and their diet at their meals was soon drest; beside, their daily temperance was such,

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