Letter 3045

Young claims to be a gentleman by birth. His parents tried to give him the ‘most Liberall and most Ingenious’ education by sending him to St John’s College, Cambridge, which he calls ‘the English Athens’. He moved to London and worked for Denzil Holles (1599-1680), 1st Baron Holles, enjoying his time in the service of so great a man. Young is in a bad way in his old age and ‘wanting both friends, and money, food […] good Linnen, I mean shirts, Muzlin Neck cloths, and large coloured silke handkerchiefs and glasses’. He requests Sloane’s Christian sympathy and charity. His ‘Rent must be payd’. He claims that ‘Doctor Core knows me very well and hath been My good friend.’