ondon. He
was a man of considerable wealth during the Commonwealth. After the
Restoration he negotiated Charles II.'s principal money
transactions. He was M.P. for Wendover in the parliament of 1679,
and in the Oxford parliament of 1680. According to the writer of
the life in the "Diet. of Nat. Biog. "his heirs did not ultimately
suffer any pecuniary loss by the closure of the Exchequer. Mr.
Hilton Price stated that Backwell removed to Holland in 1676, and
died therein 1679; but this is disproved by the pedigree in
Lipscomb's "Hist. of Bucks," where the date of his death is given
as 1683, as well as by the fact that he sat for Wendover in 1679 and
1680, as stated above.]

and there discoursed with him about the remitting of this L6000 to
Tangier, which he hath promised to do by the first post, and that will
be by Monday next, the 18th, and he and I agreed that I would take
notice of it that so he may be found to have done his best upon the
desire of the Lords Commissioners. From this we went to discourse of
his condition, and he with some vain glory told me that the business
of Sheernesse did make him quite mad, and indeed might well have undone
him; but yet that he did the very next day pay here and got bills to
answer his promise to the King for the Swedes Embassadors (who were then
doing our business at the treaty at Breda) L7000, and did promise the
Bankers there, that if they would draw upon him all that he had of
theirs and L10,000 more, he would answer it. He told me that Serjeant
Maynard come to him for a sum of money that he had in his hands of his,
and so did many others, and his answer was, What countrymen are you? And
when they told him, why then, says he, here is a tally upon the Receiver
of your country for so [much], and to yours for so much, and did offer
to lay by tallies to the full value of all that he owed in the world,
and L40,000 more for the security thereof, and not to touch a penny of
his own till the full of what he owed was paid, which so pleased every
body that he hath mastered all, so that he hath lent the Commissioners
of the Treasury above L40,000 in money since that business, and did this
morning offer to a lady who come to give him notice that she should need
her money L3000, in twenty days, he bid her if she pleased send for it
to-day and she should have it. Which is a very great thing, and will
make them greater than ever th