To the Earl of Buckingham. My very good Lord, I know your lordship hath a special care of any thing that concerneth the Queen. She was entered into dislike of her solicitor, this bearer Mr. Lowder, and resolute in it. To serve, and not to please, is no man's condition. Therefore upon knowledge of her pleasure he was willing to part with his place, upon hopes not to be destituted, but to be preferred to one of the Barons places in Ireland. I pray move the King for him, and let his majesty know from me that I think (howsoever he pleased not here) he is fit to do his majesty service in that place; he is grave and formal, which is somewhat there, and sufficient enough for that place. The Queen hath made Mr. Hackwell her solicitor, who hath for a long time taken much pains in her business, wherein she hath done well. He was an opposite in parliament, as Jones was, that the King hath made Chief Justice of Ireland. But I hold it no ill counsel to join, or to remove such men. God preserve and prosper you. Your true and devoted Friend and Servant, FR. BACON, C. S. Whitehall, May 25, 1617. To the Lord Chancellor. My most honourable Lord, I acquainted his majesty with your letter, at the first opportunity after I received it, who was very well pleased with that account of your careful and speedy dispatch of businesses, &c. Greenwich, May 13, 1619. Yours, &c. G. BUCKINGHAM. P.S. Your business had been done before this, but I knew not whether you would have the attorney or solicitor to draw it. To my very loving friends Sir Thomas Leigh and Sir Thomas Puckering, Knights and Baronets. After my hearty commendations, being informed by the petition of Mr. Thomas Porten, a poor Yorkshireman, of a heavy accident by fire, whereby his house, his wife, and a child, together with all his goods, were utterly burnt and consumed; which misfortune the petitioner suggests, with much eagerness, was occasioned by the wicked practices and conjurations of one John Clarkson of Knowington, in the county of Warwick, and his daughter, persons of a wandering condition; affirming, for instance, that one Mr. Hailes of Warwick did take from the said Clarkson certain books of conjuration and witchcraft. That the truth of the matter may be rightly known, and that Clarkson and his daughter, if there be ground for it, may answer the law according to the merit of so heinous a fact, I have thought good to wish and desire you to send for Clarkson, and his daughter; and as upon due examination you shall find cause, to take orders for their forthcoming, and answering of the matter at the next assize for the county of York; and also to confer with Mr. Hailes, whether he took from the said Clarkson any such book of conjuration, as the petitioner pretends he did, and to see them in safe custody. Whereupon I desire to be certified how you find the matter; and your doing thereupon. So not doubting of your special care and diligence herein, I bid you heartily farewell, and rest York House, May 15, 1619. Your very loving Friend, To the Marquis of Buckingham. My very good Lord, Your lordship I know, and the King both, might think me very unworthy of that I have been, or that I am, if I should not by all means desire to be freed from the restraint which debarreth my approach to his majesty's person, which I ever so much loved and admired; and severeth me likewise from all conference with your lordship, which is my second comfort. Nevertheless, if it be conceived that it may be matter of inconvenience, or envy, my particular respects must give place; only in regard of my present urgent occasions, to take some present order for the debts that press me most. I have petitioned his majesty to give me leave to stay at London till the last of July, and then I will dispose of my abode according to the sentence. I have sent to the Prince to join with you in it, for though the matter seem small, yet it importeth me much. God prosper you. June 20, 1621. Your Lordship's true Servant, My very good Lord, I thank God I am come very well to Gorhambury, whereof I thought your lordship would be glad to hear sometimes. My lord, I wish myself by you in this stirring world, not for any love to place or business, for that is almost gone with me, but for my love to yourself, which can never cease in Your Lordship's most obliged Friend and true Servant, FR. ST. ALBAN. Being now out of use, and out of sight, I recommend myself to your lordship's love and favour, to maintain me in his majesty's grace and good intention. To the Duke of Buckingham. Excellent Lord, I have received the warrant, not for land but for the money, which if it may be speedily served, is sure the better; for this I humbly kiss your grace's hands. But because the exchequer is thought to be somewhat barren, although I have good affiance of Mr. Chancellor, yet İ hold it very essential, and therein I most humbly pray your grace's favour, that you would be pleased by your letter to recommend to Mr. Chancellor the speedy issuing of the money by this warrant, as a business whereof your grace hath an especial care; the rather for that I understand from him, there be some other warrants for money to private suitors at this time on foot. But your grace may be pleased to remember this difference, that the other are mere gifts; this of mine is a bargain, with an advance only. I most humbly pray your grace likewise to present my most humble thanks to his majesty. God ever guide you by the hand. I always rest Your faithful and more and more obliged Servant, Gray's Inn, this 17th of November, 1624. FR. ST. ALBAN. I most humbly thank your grace for your grace's favour to my honest deserving servant. To the Lord St. Alban. My noble Lord, The hearty affection I have borne to your person and service, hath made me ambitious to be a messenger of good news to you, and an eschewer of ill; this hath been the true reason why I have been thus long in answering you, not any negligence in your discreet modest servant, you sent with your letter, nor his who now returns you answer, ofttimes given me by your master and mine; who though by this may seem not to satisfy your desert and expectation, yet, take the word of a friend, who will never this fail you, hath a tender care of you, full of a fresh memory Your Lordship's humble Servant, LETTERS FROM STEPHENS. To the King. It may please your most excellent Majesty, According to your commandment, I send enclosed the Preface to the Patent of Creation of Sir George Villiers. I have not used any glaring terms, but drawn it according to your majesty's instructions, and the note which thereupon I framed, and your majesty allowed, with some additions, which I have inserted. But I hope your majesty will be pleased to correct and perfect it. Your majesty will be also pleased to remember, that if the creation shall be at Roughford, your pleasure and this draught be speedily returned; for it will ask a sending of the bill for your majesty's signature, and a sending back of the same to pass the seals, and a sending thereupon of the patent itself: so it must be twice sent up and down before the day. God evermore preserve your majesty. Your Majesty's most devoted and most bounden Servant, July 28, 1616. FR. BACON. To Sir Francis Bacon, his Majesty's Attorney Sir, General. I have acquainted his majesty with your letter, and the other papers enclosed, who liketh very well of the course you purpose touching the manifest to be published of Bertram's fact, and will have you, according to your own motion, advise with my Lord Chancellor of the manner of it. His majesty's pleasure likewise is, that according to the declaration he made before the lords of his council at Whitehall, touching the review of my Lord Coke's Reports, you draw a warrant ready for his signature, directed to those judges whom he then named to that effect, and send it speedily to him to be signed, that there may be a despatch of that business before the end of the term. And so I rest Your faithful Friend at command, Newmarket, Nov. 19, 1616. GEORGE VILLIERS. To the Earl of Buckingham. My singular good Lord, When I heard here your lordship was dead, I thought I had lived too long. That was (to tell your lordship truly) the state of my mind upon that report. Since, I hear it was an idle mistaking of my Lord Evers for my Lord Villiers: God's name be blessed, that you are alive to do infinite good, and not so much as sick or ill disposed for any thing I now hear. I have resigned the Prince's seal, and my Lord Hobart is placed. I made the Prince laugh, when I told him I resigned it with more comfort than I received it; he understanding me that I had changed for a better: but after I had given him that thought, I turned it upon this, that I left his state and business in good case, whereof I gave him a particular account. The Queen calleth upon me for the matter of her house, wherein your lordship and my Lord Chamberlain and Í dealt, and received his majesty's direction, so that I shall prepare a warrant first to my Lord Treasurer and Mr. Chancellor (for that is the right way) to advise how to settle it by assignment, in case she survive his majesty, which I hope in God she shall not. Her desire was expressly and of herself, that when I had prepared a warrant to be sent to his majesty, I should send it by your lordship's hands. We sit in council, that is all I can yet say. Sir John Denham is not come, upon whose coming the King shall have account of our consultations touching Ireland, which we cannot conclude, till we have spoken with him. God ever preserve and prosper you. It grieveth me much that I cannot hear enough of his majesty's good disposition of health, and his pleasures, and other ordinary occurrences of his journey: I pray your Lordship will direct Mr. Packer to write to me sometime |