ought intrudes, it is how largely he is indebted to a
devoted diligence he never could have emulated; how painfully Professor
Masson's successors must resemble the Turk who builds his cabin out of
Grecian or Roman ruins.

Milton's genealogy has taxed the zeal and acumen of many investigators.
He himself merely claims a respectable ancestry (_ex genere honesto_).
His nephew Phillips professed to have come upon the root of the family
tree at Great Milton, in Oxfordshire, where tombs attested the residence
of the clan, and tradition its proscription and impoverishment in the
Wars of the Roses. Monuments, station, and confiscation have vanished
before the scrutiny of the Rev. Joseph Hunter; it can only be safely
concluded that Milton's ancestors dwelt in or near the village of
Holton, by Shotover Forest, in Oxfordshire, and that their rank in life
was probably that of yeomen. Notwithstanding Aubrey's statement that
Milton's grandfather's name was John, Mr. Hyde Clarke's researches in
the registers of the Scriveners' Company have proved that Mr. Hunter and
Professor Masson were right in identifying him with Richard Milton, of
Stanton St. John, near Holton; and Professor Masson has traced the
family a generation further back to Henry Milton, whose will, dated
November 21, 1558, attests a condition of plain comfort, nearer poverty
than riches. Henry Milton's goods at his death were inventoried at L6
19s.; when his widow's will is proved, two years afterwards, the
estimate is L7 4s. 4d. Richard, his son, is stated, but not proved, to
have been an under-ranger of Shotover Forest. He appears to have married
a widow named Jeffrey, whose maiden name had been Haughton, and who had
some connection with a Cheshire family of station. He would also seem to
have improved his circumstances by the match, which may account for the
superior education of his son John, whose birth is fixed by an affidavit
to 1562 or 1563. Aubrey, indeed, next to Phillips and Milton himself,
the chief contemporary authority, says that he was for a time at Christ
Church, Oxford--a statement in itself improbable, but slightly confirmed
by his apparent acquaintance with Latin, and the family tradition that
his course of life was diverted by a quarrel with his father. Queen
Mary's stakes and faggots had not affected Richard Milton as they
affected most Englishmen. Though churchwarden in 1582, he must have
continued to adhere to the ancient faith, for he was twice fi