Mr. Cranford’s disbursements show no dates.  His receipts immediately followed Mr. Hand’s in point of dates.

About the year 1639 a petition was filed in the Court of Chancery by one Thomas Fowler, on behalf of himself and others, inhabitants of Ely, against the feoffees of Parson’s Charity, and a commission for charitable uses was issued.  The commissioners sat at Ely, on the 25th of January, 1641, and at Cambridge on the 3rd of March in the same year, when several of the feoffees with other persons were examined.

At the conclusion of the joint deposition of John Hand and William Cranford, two of the feoffees, is the following statement:—­

“And as to the Profitts of the said Lands in theire tyme receaved, they never disposed of any parte thereof but by the direction and appointment of Mr. Daniell Wigmore, Archdeacon of Ely, Mr. William March, and Mr. Oliver Cromwell.”

    “These last two names were inserted att Camb. 8 Mar. 1641, by
    Mr. Hy.  C.”

The last name in the above note is illegible, and the last two names in the deposition are of a different ink and handwriting from the preceding part, but of the same ink and writing as the note.

An original summons to the feoffees, signed by the commissioners, is preserved.  It requires them to appear before the commissioners at the Dolphin Inn, in Ely, on the 25th of the then instant January, to produce before the commissioners a true account “of the monies, fines, rents, and profits by you and every of you and your predecessors feoffees receaved out of the lands given by one Parsons for the benefitt of the inhabitants of Ely for 16 years past,” &c.  The summons is dated at Cambridge, the 13th of January, 1641, and is signed by the three commissioners,

  “Tho.  Symon. 
  Tho.  Duckett. 
  Dudley Page.”

The summons is addressed

  “To Matthew, Lord Bishop of Ely,
    Willm.  Fuller, Deane of Ely, and to
    Daniell Wigmore, Archdeacon of Ely. 
    William March, Esq. 
    Anthony Page, Esq. 
    Henry Gooderick, Gent. 
    Oliver Cromwell, Esq. 
    Willm.  Anger. 
    Willm.  Cranford. 
    John Hand, and
    Willm.  Austen.”

Whether Cromwell attended the sitting of the commissioners does not appear.

The letter from Cromwell to Mr. John Hand, published in Cromwell’s Memoirs of Cromwell, has not been in the possession of the feoffees for some years.

There is, however, an item in Mr. Hand’s disbursements, which probably refers to the person mentioned in that letter.  It is as follows:—­

                                             L s. d. 
  “Ffor phisicke and surgery for old Benson, 2 7 4”

Cromwell’s letter appears to be at a later date than this item.

John Hand was a feoffee for many years, and during his time executed, as was usual, the office of collector or treasurer.  It may be gathered from the documents preserved that Cromwell never executed that office.  The office was usually taken by the feoffees in turn then, as at the present time; but Cromwell most probably was called to a higher sphere of action before his turn arrived.