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Lost MS (1)
Letter from Lord Wilmot to Prince Rupert, 31 August 1643 JL
This is a lost manuscript text. There is evidence that it once existed but its location is now unknown or in a private collection.
Manuscript copy
| Instance of: | Letter |
|---|---|
| Evidence for existence: | Printed in Warburton. |
Copyright
| Copyright status of text: | Copyright expired |
|---|---|
| Licence conditions of text: | No copyright restrictions |
| Copyright explanation: | First published in 19th century and author died 1658. |
Dates
| Earliest date of existence: | Wednesday 31 August 1642 JL / 10 September 1642 GR |
|---|---|
| Covers period from: | Tuesday 30 August 1642 JL / 9 September 1642 GR |
| Covers period to: | Wednesday 31 August 1642 JL / 10 September 1642 GR |
Related entities
Published versions
Published in Warburton, Memoirs of Prince Rupert, 2:273n1. View at Internet Archive.
Any other information
This letter was published by Warburton in the 19th century but the location of the original is now unknown. It is not in the collections of Prince Rupert's letters in British Library, Add MS 18980 or the Pythouse Papers. There is no 19th-century transcript in Bodleian Library Firth Manuscript c.6-8.
Warburton dates the letter to 3 August 1643 JL but Jon Day convincingly argues, based on comparison with other contemporary sources, that it must have been written on 31 August 1643 JL.[1] It is not clear whether the letter was misdated by Warburton or by Wilmot, but Warburton is the more likely suspect.
Transcript
| Copied from Warburton, Memoirs of Prince Rupert, 2:273n1 at Internet Archive.
Transcription conventions: Warburton has put some words in all caps but it is very unlikely that this represents the original capitalization. Punctuation appears to have been modernized. Spelling may have been modernized. |
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HIGHNESS,
The last night, Essex lay himself with his foot at Chilton and his horse at Wotton; this day, I am informed, his rendezvous is near Bicester. I shall not fail to attend him with as much diligence as I am capable of, and daily to give your Highness an account of his and my motions. The Kentish, Hampshire, and Sussex forces joined last night with Essex. A party of mine met with their avant-couriers, took five prisoners, and killed more. I learned of them that they were not, in all, horse and foot, two thousand five hundred. I most humbly kiss your Highness's hands.
Your Highness's most humble and most faithful servant,
WILMOT.
Blechington, Aug. 3rd, 1643.[2]
- ↑ Day - Gloucester and Newbury (1st edition, 2007), p. 229n10.
- ↑ Editorial note: Almost certainly misdated. More likely to be 31 August 1643 JL.
