Page:Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's life.djvu/53

 writing the accounts I was gathering on that head, & sent them in letters to Dr. Mead, to be transmitted to Mr Conduit. His daughter was marryed to eldest son of Lord Lymington; into whose hands all Sir Isaacs papers & manuscripts came, along with Mr Conduits: & also the letters that I wrote. as these & Mr Conduit's cannot now be obtain'd, I thought it advisable to recover as well as I cd. what I had wrote, from the original draughts left by me. & tis my happyness that whatever relates to him, requires no ornament of speech; & tis sufficient if I can but imitate his own plain way of writing.

Mr Ralf Clark, apothecary at Grantham (with whose grandfar.grandfather [sic] Sr. Isaac had lodged when a schoolboy) & I, were busy at Mr Mason's rector of Colsterworth, in our inquirys; when the Express came by post, of the death of King George I. I made diligent search for the Registers of the parish, of births, buryals, & marriages: especially the older ones, which generally have been very ill kept. nor can we say much in commendation of those of more modern date. they commonly give us the bare name of persons, without far.father [sic], mor.mother [sic], or such other marks, as ascertain the identity of person. the old ones for