t favour was obtained. In February,
1604, all Ralegh's goods, chattels, and money due to him, though
forfeited for treason, were granted by the Crown to trustees for payment
of debts owing before his attainder, and for the maintenance of his wife
and child. The trustees named were Robert Smith and John Shelbury.
Shelbury was Ralegh's steward, 'a man I can better entreat than know how
to reward.'

[Sidenote: _The Sandersons._]

The grant included, beside the wine arrearages, money in the hands of
the wine licenser's deputy, William Sanderson. Sanderson was husband to
Ralegh's niece, Margaret Snedale. He was father of Sir William
Sanderson, writer in 1656 of a _History of Queen Mary and King James_,
full of calumnies upon Ralegh. He denied the debt, and claimed L2000
from his principal. Thereupon Ralegh, 'in great anger,' sued him,
apparently with success. It is unnecessary to credit the further
allegation by the author, supposed to have been Ralegh's son Carew,
though more probably somebody inspired by him, of the _Observations_,
already cited, upon Sanderson's _History_, that the deputy was for the
debt cast into prison, where he died a beggar. On the contrary, slender
as is the authority of the historian, as of his critic, it is easier, as
well as preferable, to accept Sir William Sanderson's statement, in
answer to the _Observations_, that his father and his family continued
to be prosperous, and, having resumed amicable relations with Ralegh,
remained kind and faithful kinsfolk to the last. It is pleasant to be
able to believe that Ralegh disappointed a relative's temporary
calculations upon his incapacity of resistance, without acting the part
of the insolvent steward of the Parable.

[Sidenote: _The Wreck of his Estate._]

The mercy of the Crown extended for the present to the maintenance even
of his rights over the estate of Sherborne itself. A dozen suitors had
applied for it, Cecil told a Scotch courtier in October, 1603. But on
July 30, 1604, in place of Ralegh's life interest, which was forfeited
by the attainder, a sixty years' term of Sherborne and ten other Dorset
and Somerset manors, with all other lands escheated, was conveyed by the
Crown to trustees for Lady Ralegh and young Walter, should Ralegh so
long live. This boon, following the rest, went far towards remedying the
overwhelming pecuniary consequences of a judicial crime. The King is
entitled to share the credit with Cecil. He was not incapable