[Sir Norton Knatchbull, parliamentarian and biblical scholar.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Norton Knatchbull') [to Sir Anthony St Leger?], repeating financial undertakings made regarding 'a covenant for securing of the land from Sr William Parkhurst'.

Author: 
Sir Norton Knatchbull (1602-1685) of Mersham Hatch, Kent, parliamentarian, Hebraist and biblical scholar [Sir William Parkhurst (d.1667), Warden of the Royal Mint; Sir Anthony St Leger (c.1605-1680)]
Publication details: 
'Munday night | Dec. 12. 1659'.
£220.00
SKU: 22642

This item appears to relate to the efforts of Sir William Parkhurst to raise money in order to pay fines and other demands made on him as a royalist by the Commonwealth. Parkhurst had served as Warden of the Royal Mint from 1623 until its seizure by Parliament in 1642, being deprived of his post the following year. By the time of the present letter his circumstances become so straitened that he was obliged to sell his family’s Kent estates, to which he had retired after the fall of Oxford in 1646. The recipient of the letter may well be Sir Anthony St Leger, who had been joint-Warden with Parkhurst from 1629 to 1643, and who would serve with him again after the Restoration. See Knatchbull's entry in the Oxford DNB, and Parkhurst's entry in the History of Parliament. Both men came from prominent Kent families: Knatchbull's hailing from Mersham Hatch, and Parkhurst's from Lenham, sixteen miles distant. 1p, folio. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-stained paper, with some wear and unobtrusive repair with archival tape to closed tear along central crease. Folded twice. The handwriting is neat and the signature is elegant. The recipient is not named, and the letter begins: 'Sr | I had thought I had returned you my answer so plaine and my resolution so positive, that you could have made no question of my meaning, Which is, that I do expect according to the advice of my Counsell that you should give a covenant for securing of the land from Sr William Parkhurst, as accomptant as officer [sic] in the Mint, for your doing whereof I cannot allow of any consideration to be given on my part, neyther shall I ever be induced to it.' The letter continues with a discussion of 'the payment of the monyes', with Knatchbull repeating his undertaking to 'lay down present 3000£ and for the remainder shall be willing to mortgage the land eyther to yourselfe or to any other from whome you shall procure it, whereto also I shall adde my owne best indeavour, And this is the summe of my meaning whereto if you please to agree, I shall desyre you to send me your present answer that my counsell may accordingly proceed in finishing of the articles'. He explains that the articles 'must be signed to morrow, for I must necessarily go out of the towne on Wednesday'. Should the recipient not accept the condition, Knatchbull asks to 'know [his] minde, wherein I shall be fully satisfyed, assuring myselfe, I have not failed in the performance of any thing on my part. I rest in hast | Your friend and Servant | Norton Knatchbull'.