MRP: Letter from Henry Oxinden (of Barham) to Elizabeth Dallison (his cousin): Letter 11
Letter from Henry Oxinden (of Barham) to Elizabeth Dallison (his cousin): Letter 11
Editorial history
16/12/11, CSG: Restructured page
(MS. 28,000, f. 158)
Printed as Letter CCXXIX in D.K.Gardiner (1933:298-300)
HONORED COZIN,
I am much delighted with your resemblance of my cozin M:rs verses to a beare unlicked; as allso with your two other following conceits, wherein you shewed your owne mother witt soe eloquently as it greves me that my deare beloved Cozin is not in these partes that I might make him partake of the happines of the sight of them, together with myselfe; for to him and him alone my iudgement will permit me to shew them. As concerning that which my most honored unkle desires to bee informed of concerning my neighbour Sir Anthony, this much; viz. that for aught Sir George Theobald, my Cozin Masters and myselfe, or any of the courtears should perceive the king was noe way disliked at Sir Anthony Percifal's busynes and about his bulwarke; otherwise he would not have gon thither severall times himselfe and carried his Q. thither with him and received entertaynements there; and Sir George positively affirmed unto mee that he can not perceive but that Sir Anthony stands in great favour at Court, etc. I have this morning sent to Mr. Mayor and some others for a copy of the Canterbury petition if it bee to bee had. I have given order to have it put up with my letter and sent unto you; if I cannot get it I hope my unkle will excuse of my endeavour, which hath bene earnest and according to my best judgement: I thanke you for sending mee the bookes I rd: if Sir Edward Deering's booke bee yet to bee had at a low rate I would willinglie have it, otherwise noe. Amongst the books you sent mee there was one contening Rules to get children by with handsome faces; but I beleive I know a better rule than any there, and that is to chose a fair wife, and then, if it be not the man's fault, the children are likely to bee beautyfull enough.
I thank you for your care in buying mee a ring, wee shall expect noe better than 5 or 6 and twenty nobles will by: wee doe thinke one of one diamond will bee most compleate: I shuld thinke in these dead times such toyes might be had at easiest rates: I shall rest wholy uppon your iudgement in the choice of that, as allso of the bed, and assure yourselfe I cannot but bee in love with what in your judgement shall thinke to be best for us.
The hight of the bed is 7 f. 7 inches: the bredth 6 foote three inches; the length is 7 foote: the 4 posts at the biggest place 1 f. round; and at the top, at the least place, 7 inches and a halfe, and growe lesse and lesse by equall proportions. We would willingly have of the latest fashion, for this is all the beds we are like to make in our time, and were it not, as I may say, a case of absolute necessity, we shuld not put ourselves to the cost (of) a bed, and now especially these turbulent and uncertaine times. We shall send up money when wee know how much will sele the bond ...(Gardiner ommits a passage which she states is repeated in another letter about Mrs Oxinden's attitude to Katherine Culling)...
I shall acquaint my brother James as from my Ant how dangerous it will bee for him to converse with the minister you have named in your letter; if I shuld doe it as from myselfe I doe find hee will now little regard my counsell, for hee thinks hee knows soe much more than I, that I shall but lose my labour to goe about it: besides his tenets are soe mightily different from mine as causes the more strangenes betweene us: my conscience tells moee that it is fitting there should be a reformation both in life and doctrine, and his, according to the Episcopall Cathedrall or prelaticall priests, needs noe soe much that as a Religion which may advance the pompe and libertie of the clergie over the Laytie; and I find him to dislike all these men who are of a different opinion with him, though his friends and good men.
It was a noble act of Sir James, my Lady and yourselfe, act most worthy to be requited amongst everlasting rewards, in procuring for him this liveing; and my prayers are that he may soe live and teach as that noe envious adversaries may ever have just occasion to goe about to put him from it. Would hee but consider with himselfe how many kindes of men no less deserving than himselfe live all their lives and are not able to gett any preferment at all; or would hee but seriously weigh with himselfe how that learning hee hath, hath cost him full at 300:l of his own mony, besides 200:l of mine, I should thinke it might make him the more warie and vigilant (toward) his enemies and the more apt and willing to hearken to the good consell of his frends. It might make him the more studious to keepe what his friends have procured for him.
UNSIGNED
UNDATED
Notes
(1) HO flatters his cousin ED regarding her writing, but his reference to a specific conceit ("your resemblance of my cozin M:rs verses to a beare unlicked") captures ED's direct graphic voice seen in her letters, 1663-1665, to her brother Sir GO. This suggests that ED's sparky writing style was well developed by the early 1640s, when she was a woman in her early thirties, shortly before the death of her husband, and that her writing (as well as her man other abilities) were well regarded within her family.
(2) HO picks up in this letter on a previous letter to ED in which he asked for fashion advice on beds. In this letter he gives the bed's specification and assumes ED's good taste and knowledge of the latest fashion in delegating the purchase of new bed hangings. Almost certainly therefore ED is in London - but is she with her father and brother Henry, is she in her own lodgings, or is she in the St. John Street house which Sir Maximilian Dallison had at the time of his death in 1631?
(3) ED appears in a previous unpublished letter to HO of Barham to have warned that HO's brother, James Oxinden, should not talk to a specific minister, or be exceedingly careful ("I shall acquaint my brother James as from my Ant how dangerous it will bee for him to converse with the minister you have named in your letter"). This shows a religious and political awareness in ED that is hinted at in several of ED's 1663-1665/6 letters to Sir GO. In those later letters she notes that she has attended Stepney church to hear speak a potential minister for Surat. She also warns in those letters of certain merchants with strong Presbyterian connections
Possible research followup
(1) "Amongst the books you sent mee there was one contening Rules to get children by with handsome faces". What book title is HO referring to? ED appears to be in the habit of sending HO of Barham books, which she appears to be chosing, and which range from "lifestyle" (handsome faces) to "politics" (Deering's book)
(2) How has ED assisted in procuring James Oxinden a living, and how was this coordinated with the assistance of her father and mother?
