# Life of Sir William Petty 1623 - 1687/Chapter X

CHAPTER X
DEATH OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY
1687
'O God, Cousin,' Sir William writes in March 1687 to Southwell, 'how doth my foot slip, when I consider what Providence hath winked at in its dispensations of Ireland!' The news which had arrived from Kerry was of the most serious import, as it announced that the native Irish had commenced a series of attacks on the Protestants; that Lieutenant-General Justin Macarthy had been made Governor of that County and Sir Valentine Brown Lieutenant-Governor, both of them noted adherents of Tyrconnel. The colony at Kenmare at once became the object of special hostility. The surrounding population drove off the cattle, 'plundered haggard, barn, and granary,' and carried off even the goods and provisions in the houses. These outrages being evidently winked at by the authorities, the colonists decided on retiring to Kilowen House, situated on a kind of peninsula at the head of the Bay of Kenmare, which they fortified. Thither came in forty-two families, consisting of 180 persons, among whom were seventy-five fighting men. 'They had four blunderbusses,' says the author of an account by one of the party, 'forty muskets, carabines and fowling pieces, twenty cases of pistols, thirty-six swords, twelve pikes and six scythes, with 170 lbs. weight of powder, and a proportionable quantity of ball. They encompassed half an acre with a clay wall fourteen feet ​high, which lay round the house, and twelve feet thick, and fortified it with flankers in the manner of an irregular pentagon, in which work they were assisted by 150 of the natives that lived amongst them; and they erected small huts of planks within the wall, in which some of the families lodged.'
They made Mr. Orpen, Sir William Petty' s agent and clergyman of the place, who combined the duties of Judge of Admiralty for the western coast with his ecclesiastical functions, their leader, and they entered into a solemn association to stand by one another in defence of their lives, religion, and liberties. These proceedings, the narrator of these events quaintly observes, 'greatly disgusted the neighbouring Irish.' Success rewarded their early efforts. They made an attack on the known leaders of the recent robberies and captured six of them; but the prisoners, although seized under warrants of Lieutenant-General Macarthy, were almost immediately released by his direction. All further ​disguise as to the sympathies of the representatives of the law were soon at an end, for on February 25, Colonel Phelim Macarthy himself attempted to surprise the garrison at night. Failing in this he next day summoned the place, in the name of Sir Valentine Brown, to surrender, with a promise of good conditions, but threatening them with fire and sword if they held out. They were at the same time informed that all the Protestants in Cork had been disarmed, that Castle Martyr had surrendered, and that Bandon was about to do so. Finding resistance hopeless, the little garrison surrendered on honourable terms, security for life and property being promised. But hardly had the surrender taken place, before the native Irish rushed in, and, having plundered the house, turned out the occupants in a miserable and starving condition. It is probable that all would have perished, but for the fortunate arrival at this moment of two small vessels, which Mr. James Waller, foreseeing trouble, had despatched into Kenmare Bay. On board these vessels all the fugitives crowded, with the exception of eight, whom the officers of Captain Macarthy's force compelled to stay in order to work in the iron-mines. But the troubles of the fugitives were not even then over; for the native Irish, encouraged by their success in plundering some French Protestant refugees who had been driven by stress of weather into the bay in 1685, succeeded in carrying off the sails of the vessels. A delay of eight days took place in consequence, and an order then arrived from Captain Hussey, representing Sir Valentine Brown, prohibiting a journey to England. Mr. Orpen thereupon passed a bond for 5,000l., to be forfeited if they did not go to Cork, considering this a cheap price to pay for life and liberty. At length, with only five barrels of beef, forty gallons of oatmeal, and some unbaked dough, the little party was allowed to embark. The masters of the barques knew nothing of navigation, but the gentlemen on board were able to shape the course. They made for Bristol, but the winds were contrary, and they did not arrive till March 25, 1688, and in so miserable a condition that the mayor ordered collections for their relief. Many of the party ​died soon after landing from the effects of cold and exposure. The survivors went to London and were hospitably entertained by Lady Petty. Sir William they found had died a short time before.
When, in 1687, the serious position of the little colony at Kenmare first became known, Sir William was in his sixtyfifth year, and the labours and anxieties of his career had already begun to impair his strength. The change in Ireland was an almost intolerable blow to him. It seemed as if his lifework had been destroyed, and the catastrophe was the harder to bear because he could not well believe—in spite of his natural buoyancy of temperament—that he could live to baffle his enemies himself, even if those who came after him might succeed in doing so.
A troublesome disease in the feet, apparently some complicated form of gout, now partially lamed him. His health was shaken and the conviction that his end was not far off was constantly present to his mind, and he commenced putting his house in order, so far as events permitted, against the arrival of 'the horse bridled and saddled,' which he thought was soon to carry him off.
Already in 1684 he had written from Dublin to Lady Petty that 'he had rummaged and methodized his papers,' which amounted to 'fifty-three chests,' and are, he says, 'so many monuments of my labours and misfortunes.' He also completed the full and detailed account of the 'Down Survey of Ireland,' to which frequent reference has been made in this narrative. 'I shrine all up,' Southwell told him, 'and premise that in after times, I shall be resorted to for your works, as Mr. Hedges is for the true Opobalsamum.' 'As to your fifty years' adventures, I have them and keep them more preciously than Cæsar's Commentaries.'
To Lady Petty, Sir William also sent a summary of his claims on the nation as a legacy to his children.
Sir William to Lady Petty.
'Do not, my dearest, too much despise the enclosed to our boys.—We have Acts of Parliament for a reward to the Survey; authentic accompts of our Wearys in Kerry; the hands of Lord Halifax, D. of Ormond, and L$^d$ Rochester, for the revenue; and the laws of God and Nature for the shipping. Meethinks your gossips should instead of silver spoons, help their gossoons upon these matters. Oh! God how many Offices, Rewards and Titles, have been bestowed these last hundred years for lesse merit. You may show the enclosed letter, (not to every body), but where it may do noe harme, if noe good. Meethinks these 4 cows should yield some milk this next summer, to make butter for the present, and cheese for the next age. Gods will be done and lett me be satisfied with the "conscienscia rerum gestarum" and expect noe more.'
Enclosure.
'Deare Children,—Your father from his Infancy tryed many ways to raise an Estate for you and a faire name in the world; and among the rest he did in the year 1655 measure Ireland, viz. as much line, in 13 months, as would compasse the globe of earth neare six times about: of all which many records and Books, confirmed by two Acts of Parliament, doe remaine.
'He hath suffered a loss stated by the King's Auditor (in concernments of Kerry above all other the King's subjects) about 20 thousand pounds, by the folly and malice of flatterers.
'He hath propounded a demonstrable way of advancing the King's Revenue about 10,000 pounds per ann: with the benefit, ease, and accomodation of all his subjects in Ireland; tho' not yet embraced.
'He hath made so many modells and experiments on shipping within two and twenty years, and at 1,500l. expense of his owne money and 3,500l. of other friends, and has begotten the enclosed opinion concerning shipping.
​'The Reputation and Recompense due to these performances by the King and Country, I hereby bequeath to you, hoping you will not do lesse nor worse in the stations wherein Providence shall place you.
'Yr careful Father W. P.'
[Here follows an account of a ship designed to be built in a particular manner.]
But his mind travelled back as well as forward, and in some letters to Southwell he enshrined a pithy account of his early struggles.
'June 12, 1686.—I have drawn out a paper shewing what money I had Xmas 1636, which was Is.; how it riss to 4s. 6d.; then to 24s. next to 4l., then to 70l., next how it fell to 26l., then riss to 480l. at my landing in Ireland; next to 13,060l. at finishing the Survey; and how after I got my land in Ireland and Estate in England &c, it was 3,200l. at the King's Restoration; and so all along to the present day. Perhaps the like hath not been seen. This and the like gave me the courage wherewith I have fought Zanchy. Whatever becomes of me, I can leave such arguments of arts and industry as will be a credit to my children and friends. And now I say, naked came I into the world and naked must I go out of it.'
'July 13, 1686.—Concerning myselfe, I say that I had £13,060 in cash, anno 1656; which at 10 per cent., above 12 being then justly taken, would, anno 1666, have been £26,120, and anno 1676, £52,240; and in the yeare 1686, £104,480. I further say that without meddling with forfeited lands, I could, anno 1656, have returned into England and been at the top of practice in Oliver's Court, when Dr. Willis was casting waters at Alington Market and the Cock louse was but an egg. And what the superlucration thereof, besides the £104,000, might have been in 30 years, I leave to your judgement. I say the profit of these two funds would have exceeded my present estate.'
​'July 17, 1686.—I said in mine of the 13th instant, that after I had with £13,060, and £4000, bought my Irish lands, built Lothbury, and marryed my sister, I had at the King's restoration £3,200 left. Then you have had the Debtor: now the creditor side.1. My troubles with Zanchy, the Rump, and the Army, 1659.2. The 49 mens siege of my Limerick concernments, and Sir A. Brodrick, 1661-2.3. The Court of Clayms and Innocents, 1663.4. The great double bottom, 1664. The Plague, 1665. L$^d$ Ranelagh and Fire of London, 1666.5. Warrs with L$^d$ Kingston 1667, 68, 69, 70, 71 & 2, when W. Fenton died.6. The rebuilding of London; years value; Iron works, and Fisheryes defray, within the said year and 1672.7. Reducement of quit rent and Sir G. Carteret 1673 and 4.8. Sir James Shean and partners; and Kerry, 1675, 76 & 77.9. Kerry custodium & imprint, from 1678 to 82.10. More mischief about the same and stopping the law to 1685.11. The fright of 1685 and 1686, with faylure of Rents.12. Strange wrongs from paupers set up on purpose to plague me.
'Now to what my said £3,200, anno 1660, is shrunk to ann: 1686, I leave to consideration. Think also of my 53 chests of papers containing an epitome of my services and sufferings; my Bookes and survey, and Copperplates, with the accurate and authentic History thereof and the first distributions; what I might have gotten without the least meddling with Irish estates, as from first letters; how little I have gotten by religion and factions; how I have been industriously opprest and supprest 27 years; was never the Toole or Turnshovell to any person or party; never convicted to have wronged either private persons or public interests—but have gotten all, as I did the first 1s., 4s. 6d., 24s. and 4l.—Dear Cousin adieu.—When I am dead pick me out an epitaph out of these 3 letters, and let my children be ashamed of it, if they dare; but out-doe it. What anatomy I have made of myself, I am able to make also of my enemies. I have herein followed the advice which Sir P. Pett heretofore gave: viz. That at the country feasts every man (when he was near drunk but not quite drunk) should disclose to the company the real cause of ​his coming to Ireland. So lett (I say) a dozen others whom I can name, tell to the next Powers the cause of their coming to their estates: I say to the next powers; for the last powers that gave them were but the summer; the next may be the winter, and frost nip them. I have already past the summer and winter both, as I told Sir George Lane, upon occasion given. Again, adieu.'
July 31, 1687.—'I told you that in Sep. 1652, when I first landed in Ireland that I had £280 in cash, and £120 out of Brazenose; the Anatomy Lecture of Oxford; and Gresham College; and that I had £365 p$^r$ annum salary, and the value of £35 per annum more out of the State's apotheca: in all £520 per annum, besides my practice (which tho' it were not in those days like Willis, Lowse, or Short's) made my superlucration full £800 a year; which for 4⅓ years, to Xmas 1656, was £3,456; which made my aforementioned £480 to be £13,060, as in my letter; which is about £2,176 p$^r$ ann., a sum which Boys have gotten in the late offices, and which I have only had for measuring the whole world with the Chain and Instrument for near 6 times about, the monuments whereof are to be seen in the Survey. ... I have indices and catalogues of the gross wrongs I suffered between 1656 and 1686 by the Anabaptists, Presbyterians, and the 49 men, with the rest of the "drinking" interest, till the present time, which I conceive the new expected Powers cannot well outdo. Notwithstanding all I have said, I apprehend it will be said to me:
Pro te non plurima... Labenti pietas, nee pro te vota valebunt.
Nevertheless, I will endeavour to leave in some good hand wherewith to shew I have deserved a better fate; that I am no mushroom, or upstart; but that my estate is the oyle of flint, and that "ut apes feci geometriam."'
Illustrating this last adage, he had devised a coat of ​arms, and wrote some verses upon it, which young Edward Southwell carried off to his father. 'To vindicate myself,' Sir William writes to the latter, 'from wildness of imagination in the Scutcheon and verses which were sent you, I further add by way of explanation viz., that I would have those Emblems and Symbols rather called my Coat and Armes, than my Coat of Armes; for what is signified are indeed my Coat, Covering, Shelter and Defence; viz.:
Cæruleus candore nitor mea scuta decoret, Non atrum aut fulvum nee cruor horrificet, Stellam ut spectat avis, positoque tremore quiescit, Sic mens quæ spectat sola quieta Deum. Mella ut Apes condunt, sic scire geometra quærit, Utile quærere apum est; scire geometriæ. Sedulus ergo ut apes feci geometriam, ut inde Utile cum dulci scire et habere queam. At si perdam ut apes quæ per geometriam habebam, Heu vos non vobis mellificatis apes.
And thus,' he concludes, 'you have my field of azure, my magnet, my star, my Pole, and my beehive expounded.'
Sir William was constantly occupied with the education of his sons, Charles and Henry. In regard to his daughter Anne, who appears to have inherited much of her father's talent for business and to have been a favourite child, he expressed a hope in writing to Southwell 'that one day Arithmetick and Accountantship willadorn a young woman better than a suit of ribbands, to keep her warmer than a damnable dear manteau.' Charles was Sir Robert Southwell's godson. He was sent abroad about this time to see the world. 'The end of Charles' travels,' Sir William writes to Sir Robert, 'is not to learne French, Latin, nor Arts nor science, but to learne a competency of Teutonick and Italian; to see "mores et urbes multorum hominum," to shift among dangerous men, to be a frugal accomptant and manager reipublicæ suæ; to distinguish friendship, civility, and flattery; and lastly, ad faciendum populum, to make fools believe he is more than he is, as to appear something at the University ​after he comes home. Wee do not hope he shall make an interest with the great men abroade; but are content if he know their persons and can talk of them, and have their names in his album.'
To Sir Robert's regret, Charles appears to have inherited the faculty of imitation from his father, for Sir William, who had been evidently again put on his defence, continues as follows: 'As for the mimicall faculty I say that it was never planted by me, but one of the weeds mentioned in my former letters, and which I want pulled up by the roots. I never sent him to the Playhouse to be instructed in either tragic or comicall Recitations or Acting; nor is he a frequent spectator there, but when he is, he doth oftener offer to correct, than to applaud their performances. I doe neither indulge him in it, nor doth he value himself upon it; tho' I am much pleased 1. that he discerneth the persons who are fit matter for the stage.2. That he readily picks out the genius, words, action, voice and tone, of any mimicable man, and can turne them to sample them.3. That when he sees anything written, he can without art or industry, but by nature and instinct, adapt an action, speech, voice and tone, suitable to the matter and shape thereof.5. That he can execute a just and judicious punishment and revenge on his enemies by this faculty.6. Make himself loved by women, feared by men, at once.
'N.B.—He is taught to be careful in ridiculing nations, great posts of men, and coxcombs in commission, without a stake proportionable to the hazard thereof; and must prepare himself to justify by the sword what he justly does in this way. His sister hath a dash of the same.'
'Your Godson Charles,' he tells Southwell, 'grows like a weede without much culture or help of the gardiners. Perhaps it may be never the worse, for the race will not be to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Nor will favour go to the men of skill, or bread to the men of understanding.' 'Henry,' he says, 'is more for the bar than the stage. His talent is in stating arguments impromptu, pro and contra, for every thing he meets with. In short I lett ​nature work with them all, and plant no clove nor cinnamon trees upon them, but am content with the roses, peas and violets, and even with the hemlocks, nettles, and thistles, that grow vigorously. The one please the taste and smell of their friends, and the others sting, prick, and poison their enemies.'
Sir William was much interested at this time in a paper of Pascal's on a definition of ability, disagreeing from his views, which Sir Robert Southwell supported. He tells his friend to let the question alone till he comes to town, and promises that he 'will then roast him and Sir James Lowther on one spit.' 'As to Pascal's paper whose name I honour,' he goes on: 'I must say as followeth viz. 1st, That there be many words, phrases and sentences in it, which have not a certain, sensible signification; and therefore cannot beget any clear notion, sense, or science in the reader.2nd, He distinguisheth witts only by their learning or aptitude, either for geometry, or sagacity: whereas I think the best geometricians were the most sagacious men, or that the most sagacious men did ever make the best geometricians. Wherefore the distinction of Witts is not well made by those words, which are but the cause and effect, and consequently the same.3. He maketh the difference of the great achievements made by the severall great men undernamed to have depended upon, either their making use of many or few principles, whereas the words "many," "few," have noe real difference, no man being able to say whether the number ten be many or few, or be a small or great number.
'Those I would name among the
| Ancient are: | Ancient are: | Modern are: | Modern are: |
| Archimedes | Julius Cæsar | Molière | Sir Francis Bacon |
| Aristotle | Cicero | Suarez | Dr. Donne |
| Hippocrates | Varro | Galileo | Mr. Hobbes |
| Homer | Tacitus | Sir Thomas More | Descartes |
'Whereas the good parts of men are in generall:
'1. Good sense.
'2. Tenacious Memory of Figures, Colors, Sounds, Names, &c. ​'3. A quickness in finding out, matching and comparing; as also in adding and substracting the Sensata layd up in the Memory.
'4. A good method of thinking.
'5. The true use of words.
'6. Good organs of speech and voice.
'7. Strength, agility and health of Body and of all its parts.
'The severall achievements of the severall great persons above named, have proceeded from the just and proportionable applications of those last mentioned faculties to severall matters and ends.
'I have now given you a description of what I call good parts, which I resemble to the severall colours upon a Painters pallet, out of which any colour may be made by composition. And I say that I can out of the ingredients before mentioned make you an Archimedes, a Homer, a Julius Cæsar, a Cicero, a Chess player, a Musican, a Painter, a dancer of the Ropes, a courageous spark, a fighting fool, a Metaphisicall Suarez, etc. And I would faine see how, out of Mr. Pascals grounds, viz. of aptitude for geometry, or sagacity, and the use by many of few principles, the same can be performed; and how thereby all the above mentioned species of transcendental men can be produced.'
Charles Petty was abroad in 1686. 'I am glad,' Sir William wrote to his godfather, 'that wee agree that the main end of travelling is to learn frugality, circumspection, discreet jealousy, and generall prudence; with such Behaviours as will adapt us for conversation with all mankind — without laying much weight upon Languages, University Arts and Sciences—and Interest in the famous men of other nations. As I did, Deare Cousin, venture to fall upon the great Pascal, soe I shall now again venture to set down some of my thoughts on the faculty of Imitation, which you think soe ill of, and I say viz.:1. That no man can be a good Painter without a perfect faculty of imitating all colours, figures and proportions of magnitude.2. Noe man can be said to sing well or to ​learn the same happily, that cannot readily imitate all the sounds and tones of voices hee heareth.3. No man can danse well or fence well, that cannot readily imitate all the motions which are taught in those exercises.4. No man can be a good orrator that cannot attune and put on all the miens, looks, gestures, and appearances, which attend the passions that he would excite in his hearers.5. Representation, or the art of making absent Persons and things present, as often as is requisite—this is imitation, monstration, or demonstration of persons and things. These are the only Mimicks that I like in my children, applied to good uses and not to hurt neighbours. If this be crooked timber, instead of straight, we must dispose of it to shipping—and beast hooks. I suppose you do not blame mimicking in this sense, but rather mean the act or practice of ridiculing any person or thing and making the same vile and contemptible, which faculty who is master of, saith your author, Clerambault, is master of the world. I incline to this opinion, notwithstanding what you say of the D. of Buckingham, whose case requires a special Essay. For why do you learn to ride the great horse, but to trample down your enemies? Why to fence, but to disarm or disable them? Why do you affect great offices, but to make men subject to you and to become low and weak, in comparison of yourself? Yet in all these cases you are not certain of victory, but only encouraged to fight upon occasion; nor doth it follow that whoever can ride or fence and shoot and wrestle, is thereby made more apt to offend or wrong his friends, but rather to defend himself against wrongs, by the reputation that hee can repay them. Now if the art of ridiculing be used as aforesaid, where is the evil, when it is only another more manlike sort of fighting; whereas in the other sort of fighting, beasts commonly excell men? I have expounded the faculty of mimic or ridiculing: there is another between them, which is, not to make men laughed at, but to bee facetious; that is to make the generality of men laugh, without offending any, but be conscious of their owne fault; of which more hereafter.'
​Among the various studies which Sir William encouraged his children to pursue, law, notwithstanding his dislike for the practitioners of it, bore a prominent part. Perhaps he regretted not having had a more intimate knowledge of it himself. At Christmas 1685 we find it used to introduce a kind of family diversion, possibly to gratify the disputatious talents of Henry Petty. 'As you tell us,' he writes to Sir Robert, his old humour breaking out for a moment through the gloom, 'what excellent exercise Neddy and the fair spinsters are employed upon, so I tell you that my two sons are busy upon the Law. Harry is the Lions Attorney General, and counsel for most of those whom Reynard has wronged; and Charles is of counsel to Reynard, to defend him against all accusations. I will not prejudice you to be of either side; but will only give you a list of the principal points which will come in question: viz. whether Reynard conspired with the Carpenter that wedg'd Sir Bruin into the hollow tree; about the murder of Dame Coppett, whether she was a sorceresse and intended to poison Reynard; about the great trepann upon Kynward, so as he lost his life; what kind of action Curtis may bring against Reynard for the pudding taken from her; whether the earth of Malepardus be a privileged place; and whether replevin will not lye for the goods which Reynard hath lodged in it; ' and so on under thirteen heads of legal quip and joke.
The following instructions to his sons were also written at this time:—
'Directions for my son Charles, 7 July 1686.
'To pursue dansing, fencing, and riding; to fence in public, if you do well; otherwise not.
'To pursue the flute and sing justly.
'To write fair, straight, and clerklike.
'To practise Arithmetick upon real business that shall be given you.
'To copy flats, and draw after round and dead life.
'To dress yourself well without help.
'To carve at table and treat friends and strangers. ​'To pitch upon ten good families, whereupon to practise civility and conversation.
'To heare 4 or 5 of the most eminent preachers.
'To go to plays, and learn the company, as alsoe to the Drawing room, S$^t$ James Park, Hyde Park, and balls.
'To know the seats upon the river of Thames, between Windsor and Greenwich, and within 6 miles of London Bridge.
'To know the alliances of all the noble families, with their friends and friendship.
'To know the names of the most famous persons for every faculty and talent at home and abroad.
'To know the names of 3 or 4 of the best authors upon every faculty.
'To be well acquainted with 3 or 4 that make news their businesse.
'To have a Friend in every great office.
'To heare Tryals, criminal and others.
'To read Josephus, Molière, Virgil, Caesar, Sallust and Tacitus without bounds.
'To study the Mathematicks, Globe, Mapps, measuring Instruments.
'To learn logick, by reading the most rational Discourses, the History of England and chronological tables.
'To read Aristotles Rhetorick, Hobbes de Cive, Justinians Institutions, and the Common Law.
'To go to Gresham College.'
'8 July 1686. Directions for my son Henry, borne the 22nd of October, 1675.
'1. To perfect his Latin by reading the Latin Testament, Corderius, Erasmus, Cicero's Epistles and Offices, and Justin.
'2. To write a fast and short hand.
'3. To make a Leg salute to come into a room.
'4. To sing.
'5. To write and read the Court hands and manner of writing.
​'6. Arithmetick and measuring and the Globe.
'7. Map of the world: Europe, England, France, Holland, and, pro re natâ, of the countryes which are the scenes of warre and businesse pro tempore.
'8. Josephus, and the 6 first chapters of Genesis, St. Luke's Gospell, The Acts of the Apostles, The Catholic Epistles of Peter, James, John, Jude; and Homilies, Catechism, Duty of Man, Psalms, Eclesiasticus.
'9. The English Chronicle; Bacon's Collections.
'10. Reynard the fox.
'To know the Inns of Court, Chancery, and Guild Hall; the Sessions Houses; Doctors Commons, Westminster Hall; the great offices and priveleged places; The Arches, &c.
'To hear Tryals of Criminals, and see executions of several kinds.
'To read Latin abreviations in printed books of law.
'To know the names and chambers of all the chief Lawyers and Atorneys.
'A list of 500 great Estates in England, Coats of Armes and Pedigrees.
'At 14 or 15 years old to be with the best attorney for 3 years, and to be entered at some Inn of Court at 17 years old.
'To read Aristotles Rhetorick and Logick; Hobbes de Cive; Logick; Argumentative Discourses; and begin the Law.
'Some more History, Casuistry and Morals.
'His father's writings.'
Southwell himself was constantly consulting his friend on the education of his son Edward—'that honey seeking youth,' as Sir William called him—and was prone to devise elaborate plans for his instruction, according to the most approved methods of the age. On many of these plans Sir William poured good-humoured ridicule. 'You would have me do by deare Neddy's head,' he tells Southwell, 'as my Lady Dutchess of Ormond did to the round tower in Kilkenny; that is, make his walls thinner, breake out lights, make partitions, set up ​shelves, bring in furniture, new frame the stairs, make new passages etc., after which there would be very little left of his head.' 'Remember me to dear Neddy,' he writes on another occasion. 'Bid him study moderately, and not burn his fingers with his tonge, nor pinch them in his nose. I say, cram into him some Lattin, some mathematicks, some drawing and some law, (which is almost all done already), and then let Nature work, and let him follow his own inclinations; for further forcing him to learne what you like, and not what he chooses himself, will come to no great matter. But when you see what he thrives and prospers in, provide him a course of life whereby he may make the best use of his own natural wares.'
'For further impositions' about Neddy, he writes later on, 'I think them needless. You have planted all necessarys in his ground; you have led him through all the shops and Warehouses of other things. Let Nature now worke, and see what he will choose and learn of himself. What is cramed in by much teaching will never come to much, but parch away when the teachers are gone. Within a year or two, you will have a crisis on him: let's mark that.' ... 'As to the burthen of providing for families, do you mean that a young man of 26 years old should provide for all that may descend from him before fourscore, and that not only for his ordinary food and raiment, but all the extraordinary disasters and calamities incidental to man, without any care or labour of ours. For my own part I have made my 3 children to learn and labour proportionally to their ages, and the common rate of others; and a man may as well exceed in his aims and solicitudes concerning the matter as in talking of meyriads and millions. I have laboured for them 64 years. I do not make my House a Bridewell unto them, nor myself a Bedel. I will take to myself as much as I can use, and divide the rest according to their merits, and it will become them to be thankful for so much, without grumbling that per fas et nefas I had not gotten more. To conclude, I do not think ​that I have managed this matter so as to be worser than an infidel. I have been an Ant, but not an Ant which "ore trahit quodcunque potest," but only "quod Jure potuit, quod posset honore." Concerning alliances, that is lofty Marriages, I sett down with the Greek posey of my Romsey Schoolmaster King, which is in English: "he that is Married according to himself is well Married:" that is to say in parity or proportion of parts, person, parentage, and fortune. The common opinion of the world shall be my rule. I will not sweat to make my Daughter a fortune nor to be honey for Drones. And I desire to enable my Son to live within the compass of that wifes fortune which himself best loveth. Concerning leaving money or land to a son, I incline to your opinion: it is better to leave a Son 50l. worth of land well settled than 50l. in money. But if he be an ingenious active lad it is better to bestow 5 thousand pounds upon him in an office worth one thousand pounds per ann., than to sett him to plow upon a farm of 250 pounds per ann. Five thousand pounds will buy but 250 pounds per ann. in land, about 400 pound a year in houses. A thousand pound a year in offices will buy as many things as will bring in 2 thousand pounds per ann. and as many low priced houses as may be hyred for above 4l. Soe that it dependeth upon a good Judgment to determine with what species of effects to stock ones Children.'
In 1687 the 'Principia' of Newton appeared. Sir William was one of the few who at once perceived the transcendent merits and importance of the book. 'Poor Mr. Newton,' he wrote on July 9 of that year to Southwell, 'I have not met with one person that put an extraordinary value on his book. ... I would give 500l. to have been the author of it; and 200l. that Charles understood it.'
On August 16, 1687, he wrote to Southwell: 'I have had no letter from Charles, since the 8th instant from Amsterdam. I only say God send him luck; and then a little learning will serve his turn; for of the hundred prosperous men which we have seen since the year 1660, neither the learning nor parts of five have been admirable; and the forty ​five contemptible; nor have one quarter of that hundred thriven by following the course which their parents put them into. I do perfectly approve of your advice concerning Mountebank players; but we eate toads and wash our hands in molten lead to sell of our oyntments for the itch. ... I gave the King a paper at Windsor,' he goes on to tell Southwell 'entitled "the weight of the Crown of England in 20 short articles," more stupendous than what I sent you. I desired the King to pick out of the whole one article which he wisheth to be true, and another which he thinketh to be false, and command me within 24 hours and within one sheet of paper, to shew him my further thoughts concerning them. All was very well taken, but without getting butter to my parsnips, or Hobnayles for my shoes; and poor M$^r$ Newton will certainly meet with the same fate, for I have not met with one man that putt an extraordinary value on his book. Now because you cannot believe that my Projects can gaine the Nation 140 millions, I send you another paper to shew how 619 millions might be gotten in 25 years, and have the five points whereon the same is bottom'd, as well demonstrated as in the Pulpit and at the Bar. As usual you will ask me why I persist in these fruitless labours. I say they are labours of pleasure; of which ratiocination is the greatest and most angelicall; and, being by my age near Heaven, I think it high time to build myself a Tomb on Earth, out of these Materialls to which I hope you will furnish mortar in due time. You will say the "double-bottom" hath poysoned my proposals, to which I say that y$^e$ Closet I shew'd you containes the solution of all questions in Shipping and Sayling. A vehement combination against me made the fourth attempt worse than the first; I courted the King's mysteries, and like Actæon would have seen Diana naked, and was therefore sett upon by many cruel dogs.'
The end was now very near. In December he was taken ill, but without apparently entertaining any serious fear for his life at the moment, and he wrote to Southwell, the old combative spirit reviving: ' On Saturday I was taken with a great lameness. I have nevertheless shewn how the Farmers are overpaid all their demands by 2,183l.;' and he announces ​his intention of yet being even with them. If he was to die, he would fight up to the end and die in harness; and, notwithstanding the acute pain he suffered, he attended the annual dinner of the Royal Society. But it was the last flicker of the expiring lamp, and he was observed by his friends to be discomposed. Immediately afterwards he sickened, his foot gangrened, mortification set in, and on the night of December 16 he died in a house in Piccadilly, opposite to St. James's Church. It was just a year before King James fled from England.
'Sir W$^m$ Petty,' Lord Weymouth wrote to Sir Robert Southwell, 'dyed whilst I was in towne, and I think I saw him the moment he was taken ill. You know St. Andrew's day is the Election of Officers for the Society, when my Lord Brouncker was again chosen President. At dinner at Pentack's, where we had but one bottle of wine between two, Sir W$^m$ Petty fell very roughly upon Mr. Tovey, to soe unusual a degree for a man of his breeding and temper, that my Lord Carbery and I wondered at it, and fancied he might have drunk some wine in the morning; but it appeared afterwards to be the beginning of his distemper, for he went home ill, and the humours fell into his leg, which gangrened in a very few days. The subject of his dispute with Mr. Tovey was about the weight of woods; Sir William affirming that Quince wood was the heaviest of all woods, and though Mr. T. argued little and very modestly, Sir William fell upon him with reproachful language. He was certainly a very great man, and I heartily wish some knowing person might have the perusal of his papers, for I am told he had excellent things by him. It was for some time observed by some of his friends that the injustices done to him in Ireland, where he had lost above 700l. per annum very much discomposed him, upon the apprehension that the same method would strip him of the rest.'
Charles Petty had returned to England before his father's death. 'Dear Cousin,' he wrote to Edward Southwell, 'if there be anything to ease the great affliction I lie under for the loss of such a father, the part Sir Robert and yourself take in ​it would much contribute thereunto; but what shall I say? The blow is very heavy and lowde. God make me to submit to his will; for myself I can do nothing. I know you have kindness enough for me to suffer my complaint, but all I can say is too short to express my sorrow. And as an high aggravation I see dayly my dear mother under an unexpressable grief; and indeed she has reason, for she has lost the best of friends, who living and dying manifested his true value for her, commanding us to obey her as the best mother in the world. It was a great satisfaction to me to see how like a Christian and philosopher he left this world. It has taken off from me the fear of death to see him die, and I do not think death so terrible as people make it. I have no more to say, only to beg you to intercede with your father that he will please, for my father's sake, to take me under his protection and preserve me a place in his friendship, which I shall endeavour to deserve by all wayes imaginable and in the power of his and yours most affectionate kinsman and humble Servant,'Charles Petty.
'As soon as my mother is able to write, she will not faile to acknowledge the favour of Sir Robert's letter,'
Sir William was at work till the end, and there was found in his pocket on his decease a paper entitled: 'Twelve Articles of a good Catholique and good patriot's creed'—which appears to be the paper alluded to in his letter of August 16, as having been sent to Southwell. It contained a summary of the plans with which the reader is already acquainted.
'Twelve Articles of a good Catholicque and good patriots creed. By Sir William Petty.
'1. That $^1$⁄$_{100}$th parte of the Men naturally able to learn Arms is a Competent Army to be kept in pay. ​'2. That $^1$⁄$_{24}$th parte of the peoples Expence, is a Competent Revenue for England in peace and warr.
'3. That the officers of the above Army, being $^1$⁄$_{10}$th of the same, with a few others, seems to be the Naturall and to have been the originall House of Peers.
'4. That the Council elsewhere described, chosen by God and the whole people, is a good Representation of them and of the Church Nationall.
'5. That an account of [the] lands and hands of all the King's Subjects, is an effectuall Instrument of Government.
'6. That it is not the Interest of England to seek more Territoryes nor send out its Subjects, but to unite Ireland with England and soe enlarge their trade.
'7. That the Navy Royall should consist of particular ships, with a perfect account of all others, both at home and abroad.
'8. That there should be a Bank, sufficient for all the trade these Nations are capable of, as alsoe a Register of lands.
'9. That Liberty of Religion and Naturalization be secured.
' 10. That the Coynes, weights, and measures, be made regular and unabuseable.
'11. That there be a Reformation of Diocesses, parishes, and Church Duties.
'12. That means be used to lessen the plagues of London which probably the next time will carry away twenty thousand people, worth seventy pound p. head.'
Another paper in his handwriting was found on the table in his room, containing a remarkable forecast of the course of events in England and Ireland in the great struggle which was so clearly at hand. It ran as follows:—
'When the Establishment of Popery in England is found impracticable, then K.J., being a friend, and the Irish officers, with their 8,000 soldiers, will make a Convention of the forfeiting Irish and a Militia of 15,000 men. The French will send 7,000 men and shipping; and will have Cautionary Townes. The Revenue will be 300 thousand per annum, and the Protestants estates, above 800 thousand, in all 1100 thousand; ​whereas 450 thousand will suffice. The Irish will send 100 thousand Protestants into France, which 100 small vessells will do in one Sumer; the East India and other trades will be taken from England by the Hollanders. England will swarme and be pestered with poore English driven out of Ireland.
'The Princess of Orange will question the loosing of Ireland.
'The Hollanders and all Northerne States will oppose France in having Ireland.
'The 30 thousand papists of England and Scotland will be sent into Ireland in exchange of the Protestants.
'The Scotts and fugitive English will come in with Orange and Holland.
'The French and Irish will invade England, and will be left Prisoners there.
'The Emperour and Spain will fall upon France.
'The Venetian and the Turk [will be] busyed.
'1. The Brittish will beat the French and Irish, and keep them Prisoners in England.
'2. The Irish and French will be brought Captives into England.
'3. Ireland and the Northern third of Scotland will be made a place of pasturage.
'4. 9,600 thousand English, Irish, and Scotch, and 2,000 thousand out of France, will plant in 58 millions, and be a Republick, at y$^e$ upshot of the troubles, at 5 livres to each head.'
Lady Petty was created a Peeress for life by King James, who appears to have entertained a sincere goodwill for Sir William, and possibly regretted that his own policy in Ireland had proved so disastrous to his friend. She became Baroness Shelburne in the Peerage of Ireland, and Charles, her eldest son, Baron Shelburne, by a simultaneous creation. In the events which followed, Lord Shelburne was attainted, and the whole of the Petty estates were sequestered by the Irish Parliament in 1689, but they were restored by the events of ​1690. The barony became extinct by the death of Lord Shelburne without issue in 1696. It was revived in favour of his brother Henry in 1699, who was further created Viscount Dunkerron and Earl of Shelburne in 1719. These titles becoming extinct on his death without issue in 1751, the estates and property passed to his nephew, John Fitzmaurice, the second surviving son of Thomas Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry, who, as his grandson afterwards wrote, had 'married luckily for me and mine, a very ugly woman, who brought into his family whatever degree of sense may have appeared in it, or whatever wealth is likely to remain in it.' This ugly but sagacious woman was Sir William's daughter, Anne Petty, who by marrying in Ireland had complied with the express desire of her father, that such a sum as he had left her in his will should not be carried out of that country.
A short time before his death Sir William had written to Southwell on the question of mourning for the dead. The letter was occasioned by the loss of a favourite child by Sir Robert, who in his grief had asked his friend's views on what degree of sorrow it was legitimate to express by public and outward show. 'When any one dies,' he replied, 'who had promoted your honour, pleasure, or profit, and still desired so to do, 'tis manifest you mourn for yourself and your own Life, and may express or suppress the signs of it, as you think fit to make the world understand what esteem you had of the defunct, and to encourage the living to serve you as the defunct had done. And you shall mourn very properly in this case, if you give to the defunct's surviving friends what you owed to the defunct for the good he had done you in his life more than you had requited by reciprocal kindness; whether by black, called mourning garments, or by rings with Death's heads on them, by boxes of sweetmeats, burnt wine or rosemary within sweet water, or by gloves and scarfs, or any other effectual way or signs of gratitude, which the world understands, but without ​cutting off your joints, as the "Foppes" and other Coxcombs you mention. I say you need not punish yourself, but with parting with what you can spare as aforesaid, and giving to those of the Defunct's friends that most want it. As for Bells, Sermons, Coffins and Couches, you are to defend yourself from the reproaches, grounded upon the custom and opinions, true or false, of the country and age you live in. If you found such signs of God's grace in your friend as persuade you he is in Abraham's bosom with poor Lazarus, or in Paradise with the penitent thief expecting a glorious resurrection and consummation of his bliss, I think you need not mourn at all, except as aforesaid. But if you suspect him to be in chains of darkness, you must grieve that you did not by your precepts and example prevent his sad condition; and if you believe that any sort of man can relieve him, you shall do well to hire him at any rate to do so, and in the meantime have such a compassion with the defunct, as unison harp-strings have one with another: and you must warn the living (especially the defunct's friends) to avoid all those things that caused your fears concerning him; for Dives desired that one might be sent from the dead to his brethren on earth for that purpose.'
Sir William in his will ordered his own funeral charges not to exceed 300l. He was buried in the Abbey Church at Rumsey near his father and mother. He left a sum of 150l. for a family monument, which he had intended to erect during his lifetime, and he had actually gone as far as to write the inscription for it, in which he specially recorded his affection for his brother, Anthony Petty, in whose memory he also ordered 'a stone worth 5l.' to be set up in Lothbury Church. The inscription was to be as follows:
'Here lyeth Anthony Petty, who died 22 July 1654, and Francesca his wife, who dyed Oct$^r$ 1663, whose children were Anthony, Francesca, William, Susan, Anthony J$^r$ and Dorothy, of whom the first, second and fourth dyed Infants. Anthony Jun$^r$ dyed at London 16 Oct$^r$ 1649, admirably skilled in all naturall and practicall knowledge. Dorothy, marryed to James, Son of Sir Nathaniel Naper, Baronet, liveth yet in ​Meath in Ireland; and William having many wayes tryed his fortunes was, anno 1649, after much foreign travel, made Doctor of Physic and Professor of Medicine in Oxford. Then, having geometrically surveyed all Ireland in 13 months and therein measuring as much Line as would encompass the whole Earth above 5 times about, was anno 1661 Knighted, and now being 46 anm. of age hath in memory of his family and in due acknowledgment of his Parents exemplary care in the education of their children, erected this Tomb and given his whole patrimony for pious uses to this Town.'
But altered circumstances and the stress of the times caused him to abandon his good intentions towards his native town, and his will, dated May 2, 1685, was found to contain the following curious passage in regard to charitable bequests:—
'As for legacies for the poor, I am at a stand; as for beggars by trade and election I give them nothing; as for impotents by the hand of God, the publick ought to maintain them; as for those who have been bred to no calling nor estate they should be put upon their kindred; as for those who can get no work, the magistrate should cause them to be employed, which may be well done in Ireland, where is fifteen acres of improveable land for every head: prisoners for crimes by the King; for debt by their prosecutors.
'As for those who compassionate the sufferings of any object, let them relieve themselves by relieving such sufferers; that is, giving them alms pro re natâ, and for God's sake relieve those several species above mentioned, where the abovementioned obligees fail in their duties. Wherefore I am contented that I have assisted all my poor relations, and put many into a way of getting their own bread; and have laboured in publick works, and by inventions have sought out real objects of charity; and do hereby conjure all who partake of my estate, from time to time to do the same at their peril. Nevertheless to answer custom, and to take the surer side, I give 20l. to the most wanting of the parish wherein I die....
​'As for religion, I die in the profession of that faith and in the practice of such worship, as I find established by the law of my country, not being able to believe what I myself please, nor to worship God better than by doing as I would be done unto, and observing the laws of my country, and expressing my love and honour to Almighty God by such signs and tokens as are understood to be such by the people among whom I live, God knowing my heart even without any at all. And thus, begging the Divine Majesty to make me what he would have me to be, both as to faith and good works, I willingly resign my soul into his hands, relying only on his infinite mercy and the merits of my Saviour for my happiness after this life; where I expect to know and see God more clearly, than by the study of the Scriptures and of his works, I have been hitherto able to do.
'Grant me, Lord, an easy passage to thyself, that as I have lived in thy fear, I may be known to die in thy favour. Amen.'
It does not appear that the projected monument was ever set up after his death, and till a descendant in comparatively recent years raised a permanent record in the west end of the nave to the fame of his ancestor, not even an inscription indicated that the founder of political economy lay in Rumsey Abbey; for the hand of the Church restorer had desecrated even the stone in the aisle which in a previous generation had marked the grave with the simple legend, 'Here layes Sir William Pety.'
* ↑ March, 1687.
* ↑ Smith's History of Kerry, ed. 1756, p. 319.
* ↑ Losses sustained by the Protestants of Kenmare, 4to. London, 1689; Smith's History of Kerry, pp. 317-320.
* ↑ Southwell to Petty, September 11, 1682. The letter quoted in ch. i. belongs to this series.
* ↑ Southwell to Petty, September 11, 1682.
* ↑ Ibid., November, 1686.
* ↑ June 1684.
* ↑ This is apparently an allusion to one of the leading practitioners of the day (see below, p. 296).
* ↑ The allusion is not clear.
* ↑ The quotation is partly from Virgil, Æneid, ii. 429:— nec te tua plurima, Panthu, Labentem pietas nec Apollinis infula texit.
* ↑ The letter quoted in chap. i. p. 3, July 14, 1686, belongs to the above series.
* ↑ August 7, 1686.
* ↑ To Southwell, December 4, 1685.
* ↑ April 8, 1686.
* ↑ December 4.
* ↑ April 8, 1686.
* ↑ British Museum, Egerton MSS.; also among Petty MSS. The paper referred to is to be found in the Appendix to the Pensées: 'Différence entre l'esprit de Géométrie et l'esprit de Finesse.'
* ↑ The allusion is not clear. Clerambault, the celebrated musical composer, was only born in 1676.
* ↑ May 4, 1686.
* ↑ Dec. 31, 1685.
* ↑ The connection of these two books by Sir William is worth noting, for Hobbes was the translator of the Rhetoric of Aristotle.
* ↑ The above papers are at the British Museum, among the Philosophical Papers, &c., collected by Dr. Hill, Sloane Collection, 2063; also among the Petty MSS.
* ↑ October 10, 1686.
* ↑ To Southwell, September 16, 1682.
* ↑ Petty to Southwell, 1686.
* ↑ December 13, 1686.
* ↑ To Southwell, July 9-23, 1687.
* ↑ To Southwell, January 4, 1688.
* ↑ Sir Robert Southwell became Secretary of State for Ireland in 1690. He died September 11, 1702, at King's Weston, near Bristol. He served in three Parliaments and was five times President of the Irish Royal Society. Edward Southwell became Secretary of State in succession to his father till 1720. He died in 1730.
* ↑ Longleat MS.; endorsed, 'Found in his pocket after his death.'
* ↑ Longleat MS.
* ↑ The privy seal is dated December 6, 1688, five days before the flight of James II. from England. The patent was passed December 31 of the same year. Rot. de A$^o$., 4 Jac. II. 6, p. 1.
* ↑ Life of Lord Shelburne, Chapter of Autobiography, vol. i. p. 3. The Shelburne title was again revived in favour of John Fitzmaurice.
* ↑ See Appendix, 'Will.'
* ↑ In the sense of a knot of ribbands.
* ↑ June 5, 1686.
* ↑ The patrimony was the family house and property in the town.
* ↑ In the present century, Henry, third Marquess of Lansdowne, erected a monument by Westmacott. It represents a full-length recumbent effigy of Sir William Petty.
* ↑ The original of the will is in the Registry Office of the Court of Probate in Ireland. There is a copy in the Egerton MSS. (2225), British Museum.