Page:The Life of Mr. Richard Savage - Johnson (1727).djvu/12

 come to the Knowledge of his real Parents. The Nurse was faithful to the Trust reposed in her, at the same Time not neglecting to do her Duty to the Infant in a homely Manner, agreeable to the Disposition of a well-meaning ordinary Person, and her scanty Allowance from his Mother's Relations; for she did not appear in the Affair herself, but her Mother, my Lady Mason, whether at her Daughter's Desire, or prompted by her own natural Compassion, I shall not pretend to determine, transacted every Thing with the Nurse, whose Name was the only one, for many Years, he knew he had any Claim to, and was called after it accordingly; although his real Father, the late Earl Rivers, was himself one of his God-fathers, and had his right Name regularly Registered in the Parish Books of St. Andrew's Holbourn; Mrs. Lloyd, his God-mother, was as kind to him as the Time she lived would admit of, but her Death, next to his own Birth, was his earliest Misfortune; for he not only lost, in all likelihood, a very good Friend, but could never recover any Part of the 300 Pounds she left him as a Legacy. When he arrived at Years capable of receiving the first Rudiments of Learning, and after an Attempt had been made in vain, to have had him spirited away to one of the American Plantations, he was sent to a little Grammar School at St. Alban's in Hertfordshire. Here I hope I shall be excused saying,