His eldest son, Peter Courten, had married a daughter of Lord Stanhope of Harrington, and died without issue. Sir William Courten bought the widow’s jointure of £1200 a year by the present payment of £10,000, according to a statement in MS. Sloane, 3515. Footnote 41: ‘Hoc excepto quod scilicet qui se jacturam passos dicunt in duabus navibus ... poterunt litem inceptam prosequi.’—_Treaty of Commerce_ of 1662. Footnote 42: After elaborate inquiries in the Admiralty Court the losses were certified as amounting to £151,612; and that assessment was adopted in a subsequent Commission under the Great Seal. Footnote 43: This, of course, is the statement, _ex parte_, of the claimants. Footnote 44: This allusion I am unable to explain. It is quite an exceptional phrase in the Courten correspondence. But, possibly, ‘station’ may be understood as meaning merely place of residence. Footnote 45: This volume undoubtedly passed into the Sloane Collection, but is not so described as to be identified quite satisfactorily. Footnote 46: The fact is unquestionably so, although upon his tomb it is said that his age was sixty-two years, eleven months, and twenty-eight days. The same inaccurate statement occurs also—and more than once—in papers written by Sir Hans Sloane. Courten was born on the 28th March, 1642. There is an entry of his baptism in the Register of St. Gabriel, Fenchurch, on the 31st of the same month; and a copy of it in MS. Sloane, 3515, fol. 53. Footnote 47: Staphorst was, by birth, a German. He is known in English literature as the translator of Rauwolf’s _Travels in Asia_. This task he undertook upon Sloane’s recommendation. Footnote 48: As, for example, under the words ‘_Lapathum_;’ _Poonnacai Malabarorum_; ‘_Ricinus_;’ ‘_Salix_;’ and several others. See _Almagesti Botanici Mantissa_, pp. 113; 143; 161; 165, &c. Footnote 49: Dr. Arthur Charlett’s long and intimate correspondence with Sir Hans Sloane began in this year (1696), and continued without interruption until 1720. It has much interest, and fills MS. Sloane 4040, from f. 193 to f. 285. That with John Chamberlayne was of nearly equal duration, and is preserved in the same volume (ff. 100–167). The correspondence with James Bobart contains much valuable material for the history of botanical study in England, and is preserved in MS. Sloane, 4037 (ff. 158–185). It began in 1685, and was continued until Bobart’s death, in 1716. Still more curious is the correspondence with John Burnet (1722–1738), who was originally a surgeon in the service of the East India Company, and afterwards Surgeon to the King of Spain. Burnet’s letters to Sloane, written from Madrid, contain valuable illustrations of Spanish society and manners as they were in the first half of the Eighteenth Century. This correspondence is in MS. Sloane, 4039. Footnote 50: