Footnotes 1. W. Squire wrote from Gt. Yarmouth, 29 Jan., to say that, having admired Cromwell, he wished to report to TC that he possessed “certain papers relating to the time of the troubles written by one who rode
with Oliver” and that, although thinking of publishing them one day, he in the meantime was sending notes and copies of letters
pertinent to certain passages in TC's biography that his papers would clarify. William Squire (1809–80), eldest of twelve children of a Norwich merchant. Matthew Squire (d. 1837); educ. Oundle School; m., 1840, Elizabeth Playters (d. 1851), widow of an army officer, Robert Moore (m., 1825), heiress to landed property in Norfolk from her father (d. 1832), and mother of several children (four by 1832); interested in archaeology and antiquarian subjects; had a local reputation as a hoaxer. He was staying in Yarmouth on account
of his wife's health at the time of his correspondence with TC. After her death he seems to have become impoverished and then
emigrated to New Zealand, where he died. Overloyal Carlyleans have often been unwilling to discuss the “Squire Papers” or
admit that they were forgeries, but there is now no question of this. For an account of TC's dealing with the Squire forgeries,
see Ryals, Squire.
2. Oliver Cromwell (1623–44), the Protector's son; see TC to JAC, 12 Oct. 1844. Squire reported that his “MS” described skirmishing before the battle of Marston Moor, 2 July 1644, and said that “Oliver looked sad and wearyed for he had had a sad loss young Oliver got killed to death not long before,”
not far away at Knaresborough. It is a good example of Squire's guile and how it was eventually exposed by later discoveries.
TC had written: “‘Cornet Oliver,’ we know not in the least where, must have died” (Cromwell, Works 6:299); and he later explained how Squire had first given him the excerpt about the death, “illuminating completely a point
on which I had otherwise sought light in vain” (Works 7:344). That was exactly Squire's aim, and it took forty years before the historian Samuel L. Gardiner in “Death of Cromwell's
Son,” Academy. 14 March 1885, p. 188, showed that a parliamentary newspaper had in fact reported young Oliver's death from smallpox in Newport Pagnel,
March 1644. Gardiner declared against the Squire forgeries in this and subsequent letters.
3. A copy of one of the letters allegedly by Cromwell was said to be addressed “For Captn—— / at his quarters Oundle,” Northamptonshire,
28 mi. NE of Northampton.” Squire replied, 11 Feb., that the writer of most of the papers (which, at this stage, he simply called his “MS”) was his ancestor Samuel Squire and
that the recipient of Cromwell's letter was a Capt. Berry, an “Auditor” (or kind of adjutant) about whom he offered no further
information. Moreover, Squire said, he did not wish to provide TC with proper names because “certain ones are now horrified
at the name of Oliver, when these very mens G G Grandfathers fathers rode along with the very man” (Wright, SP 312); “it is a sore subject even now to them” (315).
4. It was an inconvenient 50 mi. or so for FitzGerald at Boulge to reach Gt. Yarmouth, but easy enough if he were on a visit
to Lowestoft or Norwich. It was characteristic of TC that he refused to make the effort of travel and research for anything
less than a battlefield.
5. Lowestoft, on the coast of NE Suffolk, is ca. 10 mi. S of Gt. Yarmouth. In his letter Squire had referred to a mention in
his MSS of troops in “Lowestoffe.” FitzGerald in his reply to TC, ca. 8 Feb., said: “When I go into Norfolk,—which will be some time this Spring,—I will go to Yarmouth & see for Mr. Squire, if you like.
But if he is so rusty as you say, & as I also fancy, I doubt if he will open his treasures to any but to you who have already
set him creaking. But we shall see. Some of his MSS. extracts are curious & amusing. He writes himself something like … some
… ancient book-worm.”
