The family of the Cholmondeleys is very ancient in this county and takes its name from a place so called near Nantwich; there are also Cholmton and Cholmondeston; but the seat of that branch of the family which kept our prophet Nixon is at Vale-Royal, on the river Weave in Delamere forest. It was formerly an abbey, {43} founded by Edward I. and came to the Cholmondeleys from the famous family of the Holcrofts. When Nixon prophesied this family was near being extinct, the heir having married Sir Walter St. John’s daughter, a lady not esteemed very young, who, notwithstanding, being with child, fell in labour and continued so for many days, during which time an eagle sat upon the house-top and flew away when she was delivered of a son. A raven is also known to have built in a stone lion’s mouth in the steeple of the church of Over, in the forest of Delamere. Not long before the abdication of King James the wall spoken of fell down and fell upwards and in removing the rubbish were found the bones of a man of more than ordinary size. A pond at the same time ran with water that had a reddish tincture and was never known to have done so before or since. Headless cross in the forest, which in the memory of man was several feet high, is now only half a foot from the ground. In the parish of Budworth a boy was born about eighteen years ago with three thumbs; the youth is still living there and the miller Peter lives in Noginshire mill in expectation of fulfilling this prophecy on the person of Perkin: he hath also two heels on one foot and I find he intends to make use of them in the interest of King George, for he is a bold Briton and a loyal subject, zealous for the Protestant succession in the illustrious House of Hanover, has a vote for the knights of the shire and never fails to give it on the right side: in a word, Peter will prate or box for the good cause that Nixon had lifted him in and if he does not do the business, this must be said of him, that no man will bid fairer for it; which the Lady Egerton was so apprehensive of, that wishing well to another restoration, she often instigated her husband to turn him out of the mill; but he looked upon it as whimsical and so Peter still continues there, in hopes of being as good a knight as Sir Philip his landlord was. Of this Peter I have been told, that the Lady Narcliff of Chelsea and the Lady St. John of Battersea, together with several other persons of credit and fashion, have often been heard to talk and that they all asserted their knowledge of the truth of our prophecy and its accomplishment, with many particulars that are more extraordinary than any I have yet mentioned.