Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/32

 tell me yt they know no certayne conveyances these troublesome tymes. The waytyng their comming home to know what they could doe, hath occasioned my so long silence; which I pray you to excuse, and believe that I will attempt an amends of it by all ye offices of an affectionate friend and servant, which I am,

'Endorsed Mons. Jean Pell.

Friendship with Hobbes, Dr. Pell, and the other learned refugees was, however, no remunerative investment, and William Petty was at times reduced to great poverty. On one occasion, according to Aubrey, he had to live for a week on 'three pennyworth of walnuts;' on another he seems to have been arrested for debt. In spite, however, of his sufferings he ultimately returned in 1646 to England with improved means, having increased his 60l. to 70l., and paid the costs of his younger brother Antony's education. His father was just dead, and, according to Aubrey, 'left him little or no estate.' His elder brother had also died when quite young.

On his return he seems for a time to have followed his father's business, and to have been occupied with mechanical inventions to improve it. But he had other and larger ideas. In 1647 he obtained a patent from the Commonwealth for seventeen years for an instrument of his own invention, the prototype of the manifold letter-writer of modern times. The use of it, Rushworth says, 'might be learnt in an hour's practice; and it was of great advantage to lawyers, scriveners, merchants, scholars, registrars, clerks, &c.; it saving the labour of examination, discovering or preventing falsification, and performing the whole business of writing, as with ease and speed, so with privacy also.' Petty announced his patent