Note 141 — MORTON OF MERRY-MOUNT. (continued 2)

In January, 1640, Richard Vines wrote to Governor Winthrop, of Sir Ferdinando, that he was then “nere 80 yeares ould.” (IV. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vii. p. 342.) This can hardly be correct, however, as subsequently he served on the royal side in the civil wars, and was among the prisoners taken by Fairfax when he stormed Bristol in September, 1645. (III. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. iii. p. 342.) He must, however, have then been a very old man, as fifty-four years before, in 1591, he had distinguished himself at the siege of Rouen, in Essex’s English contingent. (Devereux’s Earls of Essex, vol. i. p. 271).