MRP: 12th March 1662/63, Letter from Samuell Stephens to Sir GO
12th March 1662/63, Letter from Samuell Stephens to Sir GO
BL, Add. MS. XX,XXX, f. 16
Editorial history
26/05/09, CSG: Completed transcription
18/12/11, CSG: Page created & posted transcription to wiki
Abstract & context
Samuell Stephens wrote to Sir George Oxenden in a letter dated March 12th, 1662/63.
The letter contained pious, but effusive, good wishes to Sir George Oxenden, and thanks to Sir George for looking after his son, Joseph Stephens. As yet, no trace has been found of Joseph Stephens in English East India Company records. It is just possible that he was sent to Bantam in the early 1670s.
Samuell Stephens (b. ?, m. ??1644, d. ?1668, or 1672) was the long serving minister of the parish of Wingham, who Sir George Oxenden would have known from his childhood and from his return visits from Surat to Wingham. At the time of his letter Samuell Stephens was in his late sixties or early seventies. A secondary source states that in 1664 the vicar of Wingham, Samuell Stephens married Jane Masters of St. Mary's, Northgate, Canterbury.[1] If the secondary source is correct, this would have been a second or later marriage, with his son, Joseph Stephens, born to a previous wife. It is possible that Jane Masters was a relative of Sir George Oxenden. However, the primary source referred to by Hussey states 1644 as the date of Samuell Stephens' marriage, so his son Joseph Stephens could thus have been a relative of Sir George Oxenden's.[2]
Sir George Oxenden remembered Samuell Stephens and his family generously in his will, bequeathing to:
Mr Samuell Stepens Minister of Wingham Parrish the summe of Fifty Pounds and to every child of his body Twenty pounds to putt them forth into callings or otherwise to be paid them as their Occasions and needs shall require itt[3]
Furthermore, Sir George Oxenden gave five hundred pounds for the "repair & building upp and decent furnishing the Parish Church att Wingham" and three hundred pounds for the "repair & building upp and decent furnishing the Parish Church att Adsham neer Deane in Kent". Samuell Stephens had held the curacy at both Adisham and Wingham.
Samuell Stephens died five years later in 1668 (or possibly in 1672), a year before Sir George Oxenden's own death, though news of his death had not reached Surat when Sir George Oxenden rewrote his own will in June 1668.[4]
He was probably born at Maldon, Essex, and was admitted as a sizar to Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1605/1606, graduating with a B.A. in 1610.[5] Ordained as deacon and priest in 1616, he was appointed as curate at Adisham in 1617 and at Wingham in 1619. He was made preacher at Wingham in 1633.[6]
Suggested links
See Wingham
To do
(1) Check transcription against physical manuscript at BL
(2) Obtain copy of the will of Samuell Stephens from the Berkshire Record Office
(3) Check a physical copy of the CCM, 1671-1673, for any trace of Joseph Stephens in Bantam
Transcription
This transcription has been completed, but requires checking
[BL, Add. MS. XX,XXX, f. 16]
S:r
How Glad am I to Embrace all Opportunities wherein I may Express y:e Love & hon:e I beare to you, yo:r many & Eminent favo:rs to mee, & mine; have Exceedingly engaged, & Devoted my Thankfullness to you, as for a Requirall I know none w:thin y:e Spheare of my power; but onely my hearty Pray:es to God for you, these are my dayly Sacrifices offred to his Divine Maj:ties yo:r behalfe, y:t it would please him to prosper all yo:r Affaires, to preserve you from dang:er to continue yo:r health, to Crowne you w:th his Grace in this life, & w:th Glory in y:e Next, & in y:e meane time, in y:e due Season happily to bring you home, to y:e great comfort of all yo:r ffreinds, good S:r I hope my Sonn Joseph behaveth himselfe Worthy Soo hon:ble á M:r, or else I should disclaime him for my Sonn.
News I have none to write to you of, buy y:t w:ch you may have from bett:r hands, & it is my great Joy y:t I can congratulate to you y:e health of ally:e Deare , & Worthy ffreinds w:th us.
Thus ceasing to Interrupt yo:r more Serious employment I humbly take my leave hoping Shortly to heare of yo:r health and Prosperitie w:ch is y:e constant Request of
Yo:r Fatithfull ffreind & Serv:t
Samuell Stephens
March y:e 12:th 1662/3
Notes
Alumni cantabrigienses, Samuel Stephens, adm. 1605-1606
"STEVENS, SAMUEL. Adm. sizar at Peterhouse, 1605-6. Perhaps s. of Thomas (1566), R. of Liston, Essex. B. at Maldon, Essex. B.A. 1610. Ord. deacon (London) May 26, age 25; priest, Dec. 22, 1616. Chaplain to Sir Roger Vaughan. C. of Adisham, Kent. Perhaps P.C. of Wingham, 1618."[7]
Thomas Denne, will, 1648
"Item I give to the poor of the said Parish of Wingham £5 and to Mr Samuel Stevens, Minister 40 shillings."[8]
Vincent Denne, will, dated April 28th, 1642
"Vincent desired, after a funeral sermon by the Vicar, Samuel Stephens, to be laid " in the Church of Wingham, near to the usual seat where I have used to sit as with convenience may be."[9]
Arthur Hussey (1896), Samuel Stevens, vicar of Wingham
"Vicars:
1618-1672 — Samuel Stevens.
Who married, in 1664, Jane Masters of St. Mary's, Northgate, Canterbury— (Canterbury Marriage Licences, Second series by J. M. Cowper)[10]
- Note, will of Samuel Stephens, clerk of Wingham, 1668, at Berkshire Record Office. Possibly the 1668 date is the date of writing, rather than proving, of the will
EEIC, 1671-1673
"XXX Stephens died on the voyage from Bantam, and it was decided that Delboe should take his place and that Baron should remain at Formosa."[11]
"The Auditor is to draw up a statement of what is owing to the Company from the late Mr. Stephens' XXXX"[12]
"At the request of Mr. Sawyer, one of the securities of the late Mr. Stephens, a copy of XXXX"[13]
"The petition of Samuel Stephens is read and referred to the Committee for for Lawsuits"[14]
"The Committee for Lawsuits to make such agreement with Samuel Stephens as they deem right"[15]
Possible primary sources
Berkshire Record Office
- ↑ Arthur Hussey, Chronicles of Wingham (London, 1896), p. 151
- ↑ "Stevens, Samuel, clerk, MA, curate of Wingham, and Jane Master of SM Northgate, Cant., w. At SM Northgate, Cant. Nov. 11, 1644..." (Joseph Meadows Cowper, Canterbury Marriage Licences, vol. 2 (XXXX, 1906), p. 939)
- ↑ Sir George Oxenden will
- ↑ Berkshire Record Office: The Bouverie-Pusey Papers: Wills and Settlements. [no ref. or date]: Wills D/EBp/T140 [n.d.]:, Samuel Stephens of Wingham (co. Kent.), clerk (P) D/EBp/T140/4 1668
- ↑ John Venn, J.A. Venn, Alumni cantabrigienses, pt. 1, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1927), p. 156
- ↑ http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?PersonID=38626, viewed 26/01/12
- ↑ John Venn, J.A. Venn, Alumni cantabrigienses, pt. 1, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1927), p. 156
- ↑ Will of Thomas Denne, PCC, 1648, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mrawson/denn1648b.html, viewed 26/01/12
- ↑ Dorothy K. Gardiner, The Oxinden and Peyton letters, 1642-1670: being the correspondence of Henry Oxinden of Barham, Sir Thomas Peyton of Knowlton and their circle (XXXX, 1937), p. 9
- ↑ Arthur Hussey, Chronicles of Wingham (London, 1896), p. 151
- ↑ 'Introduction' in Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), A Calendar of the Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1671-1673 (Oxford, 19XX), p. ix
- ↑ 'A Court of Committees, July 19, 1671' (Court Book, vol. xxvii, p. 283) in Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), A Calendar of the Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1671-1673 (Oxford, 19XX), p. 55
- ↑ Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), A Calendar of the Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1671-1673 (Oxford, 19XX), p. 62
- ↑ Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), A Calendar of the Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1671-1673 (Oxford, 19XX), p. 237
- ↑ Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), A Calendar of the Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1671-1673 (Oxford, 19XX), p. 238
