99 Nathaniel Hulton to Increase Mather

    Newingtongreene March 5th, 1691/[92]

    Reverend Sir

    and my much honoured Friend, I hoped that I might have bin so well as to have waited upon you this Day, but I continueing ill Hill the Doctor ordered mee to take a vomitt Last night which I Did and it Did work well so that I dare not Stir out this Day, besides I am now quite Lame of one foot with the gout I think. And therefore must write to you a few Lines about that which you have severall times spoken to mee about, Namely the giving somethinge to the Colledge in Cambridge in New England for the benefit of it, and now I doe tell you that it is my Resolution to give one hundred Pound, I say £100, which is as much as I can doe considering my Estate and the many Poor Relations I have, and this £100 I Doe wholely and absolutely Leave to you to Lay it out upon Something that will bring in a yearly revenue for Ever and That upon a true Title that will Last, and as soon as you have found a Place you may charge me with a £100 Starling money, and I shall Pay it if I be alive, and if I be Dead I will take care to Leave order it shall be Payd when you charge it. You were speaking of buying 2000 acres of Mrs. Blackwell in the Nipmug Countrey, I should have a 1000 acres in the Nipmug Countrey, it was Promised me from the beginning; if you think well of that, I will speak to Mr. Gungston1 and if I can Perswade him I will, to give another hundred Pound, and when hee sayes hee will you shall have notice, if God spare my Life, and that is all I think needfull about that affair, only I Leave it wholly to you to Lay it out, and how the Income shall be bestowed so as may doe most good, the Lord be with you, and Preserve you, and bring you to your Relations with comfort, after your weary and troublesome Toyles here, my Love to your Son and to your Relations in New England,

    Your hearty and true Friend

    Nath. Hulton

    I have heard my Mother say

    your Father and mine Loved one

    another very well, Pray for us

    Especially for Spirituall blessings

    for soul Blessings

    A copy of Mr. Hulton’s Letter

    compared with the original.

    [Addressed:] For the Reverend Mr. Increase Mather Minister in London.

    College Papers, i. 17 (No. 38). This is not the original letter but an early copy. For Nathaniel Hulton, see K. B. Murdock, Increase Mather, p. 278 and Morison, Seventeenth Century, ii. 485. For the codicil to his Will, in which he left £100 to the College, see New England Historical and Genealogical Register, xlvi (1892), 237, or CSM Publications, xv. 386, and xvi. 837–838. Mather was at this time in London on business for the College and Colony.