4

Nor did the Book of Spirits see the light of day during Arthur's lifetime. Perhaps had Casaubon appealed to him as Ashmole had done, it would never have been issued at all. A son would certainly have remonstrated against this revelations, this tearing down the veil from the inner tabernacle of his father's soul.

Arthur died in the autumn of 1651, eight years before Casaubon published his book. He made his will on September 17, describing himself as Doctor of Physick, of the city of Norwich, and leaving a small legacy of twenty shillings to the poor of the parish of St. George Tombland, in which he had lived.

Only three sons out of his seven, and three daughters of the six ar named in the will, all the others being dead, unless it was Arthur, the eldest, who had been a merchant in Amsterdam. There is a legacy of twenty pounds to his wife.

The second son, Rowland, was established, as we have seen, in Lombard Street as a merchant. To him Arthur had already had already given his father's portrait, now in the Ashmolean Museum and reproduced as the Frontispiece to this book; and a painted coat of arms. Sir Thomas Browne, who had often seen it, speaks of an addition made to the coat by grant of the Emperor Rudolph in the shape of a mathematical figure; probably the delta which Dee always used for his name in the spiritual diary. To Rowland's wife there is a legacy of twenty pounds.

"To John Dee, my youngest son," Arthur left one hundred pounds and his gold seal ring with the coat of arms cut in a sapphire. John was a Russia merchant.

There is no mention of his eldest child and daughter, Margaret, who is said to have married another Russia merchant named Abraham Ashe.

To three sons-in-law, "my son Grymes;" "my son Anguish" (this was the husband of his youngest child, Anne); and "my son Fowell," he leaves respectively a plush coat; a saddle and pistol; and a black gown and plush suit.

To each of his three daughters, their wives (none of them mentioned by name), he gives £20; and to the two elder, his two iron-barred sealskin trunks with long cushions and foot carpets, feather bed, blankets, bolsters and coverlets. He appoints his friend John Toley, of Norwich, his executor, and gives him his watch and silver chain, with a square box of cypress wood, double-leafed, with drawers. His servant, John Sergeant, is to have all the contents of his extensive wardrobe, consisting of his coloured cloth suit and and cloak; black suit and cloak lined iwth rough bayes (Norwich was the seat of the bay and say industry); his winter pair of boots, and two pairs of summer boots; his "hatts;" his "stokins whatsoever;" his black satin doublet; shirts; six of his "worst-falling bands and ruffs;" and forty shillings due for wages at the Michaelmas following.

Arthur Dee died before October 16 of the same year, 1650, when the will was proved by John Toley.

Rowland, Arthur's fourth son, married and died in 1687, when his wife was executrix of his will. Rowland's sons by this wife Jane (d. 1698) were Rowland, born March 25, 1646, married October, 1675; Elizabeth Gardiner of Aldersgate (d. September, 1698); and Duncan, born November 3, 1657. Both were educated at Merchant Taylors' School on the Bishop of Peterborough's foundation (see below). Duncan went on to St. John's College, Oxford, and entered the legal profession. He was chosen Common Serjeant of London in 1700. He defended Dr. Sacheverell for four days of his trial in the House of Lords in 1710; died in 1720, and was buried in St. Mary Aldermanbury. By his wife Mary (d. Stoke Newington, March 24, 1728) he left a son Henry (d. 1725), others having died young.

David Dee, born in Shropshire, of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, rector of St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, 1587 - 1605, is said to have been a grandson of Bedo Dee. If so, he must have been either brother or cousin of John Dee of Mortlake, who, strange to say, alludes nowhere in his diary to any relation of the name of Dee, although he speaks often of his Welsh kinsfolk, and of his cousin Aubrey. As he died at Mortlake in 1608, aged eighty and a half, David, who survived him twelve years, must have been his junior. David Dee was deprived of St. Bartholomew, "for what," says Newcourt, "I know not"; but he was brought back there to be buried on February 3, 1620. By his wife Martia, daughter of John Rogers, David Dee had three sons, of whom Francis, the eldest, was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and St. John's College, Cambridge. He entered the Church, held various livings in London and elsewhere, and four years before his death was consecrated Bishop of Peterborough. By his will (dated May 28, 1638), he gave his rectory of Pagham, Sussex, to found two fellowships and two scholarships in St. John's College, one of which was to be held for ever by "one of my kindred or of my name, from either Merchant Taylors' School, London, or from Peterborough School." We have seen that two of John Dee's great grandchildren were sent to Merchant Taylors', and one, Duncan, proceeded to St. John's, probably on this foundation. The Bishop's eldest son, Adrian Dee, Canon of Chichester, died unmarried, but his younger sons, John and Daniel, left descendants.