ain
Woodcock of Hackney"; and that is nearly all that we know of her
family. A Captain John Woodcock, who is found giving a receipt for
L13 8_s._ to the Treasurer-at-War on Oct. 6, 1653, on the
disbanding of his troop, may possibly have been her father, as no
other Captain Woodcock of the time has been discovered.[2] There is
reason to believe that Milton had not been acquainted with the lady
before his blindness, and so that, literally, he had never
_seen_ her. Not the less, for the brief space of her life
allotted to their union, she was to be a light and blessing in his
dark household.

[Footnote 1: Given in Gentleman's Magazine for June, 1840; but I owe
my copy to the kindness of Colonel Chester, who took it direct from
the Register of St. Mary, Aldermanbury; and who supplies me with
the following information in connexion with it: "It is generally
said that the marriage took place in that church; but this, I
think, may be doubted. I noticed, in several instances, that, when
the religious ceremony was performed after the civil one, the fact
was recorded; but it is not so in this case. I think that the
City marriages at that period usually took place in the Guildhall,
where a magistrate sat daily; though I believe they were sometimes
solemnized at the residence of one of the parties."]

[Footnote 2: Phillips; Hunter's _Milton Gleanings_, p. 35.
Colonel Chester tells me that, although Katharine Woodcock is
described in the Register as "of the parish of Mary's in
Aldermanbury," he found no trace of her family in that parish at the
time. "There were Woodcocks there at a much earlier period (say 100
years before); but about this time I found only one burial, that of
Michael Woodcock, whose will I have since looked at, but which does
not mention her." The conjecture that Mr. Francis Woodcock, minister
of St. Olave's, Southwark, was a relative, receives no support from
what is known of his principles (see Vol. III, 184). A contemporary
Puritan divine, Thomas Woodcock, for some time minister of St. Andrew
Undershaft, is found living at Hackney after the Restoration.]

The household better ordered; the three young orphan girls of the
first marriage better tended; more of lightsomeness and cheerfulness
for Milton himself among his books; continuance, under new
management, of the little hospitalities to the learned foreigners who
occasionally call, and to the habitual visitors: so, we are to
imagine, pass away at home thos