[Footnote 2: In the preface to the catalogue the assistance of two friends is mentioned; it appears that the other was Dr. Thomas Warton.]
This deed Tredescant had, on the 16th of December (1659), confirmed under his hand and seal. Mrs. Tredescant fetched a Queen Elizabeth's milled shilling, which Tredescant handed over to him, together with the conveyance, and thereby he came into possession of the collection.[3]
[Footnote 3: Ashmole says, "It was not thought fit to clogge the deed with the payment of the said hundred pounds to Mrs. Edmonds or her children, to the end that the same might better appear to be a free and generous gift, and therefore the consideracion of the deed was expressed to be for the entire affeccion and singular esteeme the said John Tredescant had to him (Ashmole), who he did not doubt would preserve and augment the said rarities for posterity." He declares that he will pay the money; and in his Diary we find that after Mrs. Tredescant's death, in 1678, he pays to a Mrs. Lea, probably one of the daughters of Mrs. Edmonds, one hundred pounds.]
Mrs. Tredescant had signed the deed as witness; but, when Ashmole was about to leave the house, she had requested him to leave it with her, as she wished to ask some of her friends whether, by having signed it as witness, her right as joint proprietress of the collection might not be diminished. He left the document with her, in expectation that it would soon be restored to him, but this was never done. Now, after the death of Tredescant, she maintains that her husband never made such a conveyance; but the truth is she has burnt or destroyed it in some other manner.
Against this Mrs. Tredescant refers to her husband's last will and testament of the 4th of May, 1661, by which all previous dispositions of his property, of whatever kind, were declared invalid, and strongly urges that the museum was expressly bequeathed to her and her alone, with the stipulation that she should leave it either to the University of Oxford or to that of Cambridge. And she adds, that she had determined to leave it to the University of Oxford.
I must not now further trespass upon your space; you shall have the sequel for your next Number.