The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-21
INTERESTING MANUSCRIPTS.

A correspondent writes to the New York EUe.
ming Post as follows:-
In one of the old mansions of rural Chelsea,
which tradition says was the home Of Sir Thomas
More, the warm friend Of Erasmus, and author
of the political romance of Utopia, there dwelt
in 1924 Sir John Danyers, a prominent member
OF the Virginia Company, who had married the
gentle and comely widow Herbert, already the
mother Of ten children, of whom were George
the holy poet, and Edward, the philosophical
Deist.
Soon afterwards King James began to scheme
for the dissolution OF the Virginia Company
which was odious, because Its prominent mem
bers believed in freedom of debate, and in the
submission OF minority to the VIII of ma
jority expressed through the ballotboX. One
of its secretaries, Edward Colling gwood, hurried
from london, ana told Danvers that three mer-
chants of that city had visited him aud en-.
deaVored to obtain papers and inflammation
which might be used against the corporaton
and as the King might send officers to seize the
records, he suggested that exact copies be inn
medlately obtained.
A man Of loose life, but a fair and ready
writer, clerk OF Collingwood, was secured bv
Danvers to aid in this work, and was locked m
in the chamber where he wrote, so that he
might not be tempted to diVulge the secret
After the transactions We're copied on folio
paper, to prevent Interpolation, each page care
fully compared with the originals by Colling.
wood an then subscribed Com. CollinrWoodu
Danyers took them TO the president of the
company, who was Shakespeare's friend, Henry
Wrlothesly, Earl of southampton. The Earl
duplicate copy of the company's transactions,
| and expressed it by throwing his arms around
the neck of Sir John, and then turning to his
brother, said d:-"Let them be kept at nv house
at Ltchfeld; they are the evidences of my
honor, and ! value them more than the eyi.
dences OF my lands
During the same year Southampton died; and
! Thomas, his son. was heir and successor to the
! title, and became Lord High Treasurer of
! England and lived until 1867. Shortly after his
| death William Byrd OF Virginia, the father of
InT, lia p, Vl NaeF oh,
| manuscript records from the executors of the
| earl for sixty gWneas.
Rev. William Sulh, who became President of
! the William and Mary College, while living at
! VaTina, on James river, the old settlement of
| Sir Thomas Dale, better known since the civil
war as Dutch Gap, obtained these records from
| the Byrd ltorary ~ Westoyer; aud most of the
material of his History OF Virginia, completed
! in l746, was drawn Lherefrom.
Stith's brolhern-law, Peyton Randolph,
| became the first President of the Continental
Congress, and while visiting a friend at his seat
near Philadelphia, in October, l775, suddenly
! died. When his library was sold it was pur-
! chased by Thomas Jefferson, and among the
! books were the manuscript records of the
! London Company, that had been used by Stlth
! in the preparation o. his history of Virginia.
The United States having purchased the books
! OF President Jefferson, these manuscripts are
now preserved in the library OF Congress. They
are bound in two volumes, and contain the
! companys transactions from April %, 1919, until
June Z, lG4. The first volume contains 354
pages, ana concludes with this statement:-
! "Memoranda that wee, Edward Waterhouse
and Edward COlllngwood. secretaries for the
companies for Virginia and the Sumer Islands,
| have examined and compared the Booke going
before, embracing one hundred seyenty-seven
! leaves from Page to Page 354 with the oIignall
| Booke of Courts Itself. And doe fnde this Booke
to be a true and perfect cope of the said
original Courte Booke, saving that there is
wanting in the cOpe, of Court on the goth May,
1920, and the beginning of the Quarter Court
held 22d; but as farre as IS here entered this
copie doth truly agree with the original itself.
"And 10 every page /, Edward Colingwood,