Add MS 78311

EVELYN PAPERS. Vol. CXLIV (ff. 75).

1. ff. 1-31. Letters from James Thicknesse (or Thickins); 1640-1661. Partly Latin. Evelyn's friend at Oxford and companion on his travels in France and Italy, he appears to have died of an ague at Malden in Essex, not long after the last letter in this series was written; see Evelyn, Diary, I, pp. 13-14.

2. ff. 32-59. Letters from Thomas Henshaw; 1645-1659, n.d. Followed by one undated draft from Evelyn, [1697?]. Two more letters from Henshaw to Evelyn, 1656-1657, are Add. MS 15948, ff. 61-62. Copies of three letters from Evelyn to Henshaw, 1645-1658, are included in his letterbook. Evelyn shared his Middle Temple chambers with Henshaw (1618-1700), travelled with him in Italy in the 1640s, and later shared a common enthusiasm for gardening and virtuoso pursuits. After the Restoration Henshaw was F.R.S., French secretary to Charles II and Resident in Denmark. For his alchemical diary, 1668, see Sloane MS 2222, ff. 136-141v.

3. ff. 60-75. Letters from Philip Packer, of Groombridge; 1649-1682. Including one retained copy of a letter from Evelyn of 1678. Packer (circa 1618-1686) was Evelyn's contemporary at Oxford and the Middle Temple. After the Restoration he was F.R.S. and Paymaster of the King's Works, 1668-1686. See Evelyn, Diary, II, pp. 547-548, and Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, 5 (1976), pp. 10-11. For letters from his daughters to Mary Evelyn, see Add. MS 78436 below.