Page:Life of Oliver Cromwell.pdf/2



, the subject of these pages, was born in the parish of St John’s Huntingdon, on the 25th April, 1599. He was descended of an ancient family of Welsh extraction, whose name was originally Williams, but afterwards changed to Cromwell, in consequence of a matrimonial alliance formed between one of his ancestors, and Thomas Cromwell the celebrated but hapless favourite of Henry VIII., who was raised by that monarch from a humble situation to be Earl of Essex, Vicar-General, and Knight of the Garter. From an original genealogical table of the family of Cromwell, drawn up in the year 1602, by the order of Sir Henry Cromwell, grandfather to Oliver, and still in the possession of his descendants, it appears sufficiently evident that the latter extraordinary personage made no unfounded boast when he asserted, in the course of a speech which he delivered in Parliament, that he “was by birth a gentleman, neither living in any considerable height, nor yet in obscurity.” It is certain that his family was both ancient and respectable, and many of his ancestors were men of rank and fortune.

The early years of the future Loid Protector of England, like those of every great personage, were marked, if we believe credulous biographers, and the gossip of tradition, by numerous omens and strange occurrences presaging his future greatness. Two anecdotes of his earlier years we shall give.