To each of the above-mentioned works Mrs. Purcell prefixed dedicatory epistles, and in all of them she speaks in most affectionate terms of her deceased husband; nevertheless, the breath of slander in later years attributed to her some measure of responsibility for her husband's untimely death. Mrs. Purcell eventually removed from the house in Westminster to Richmond, in Surrey, where she died in February, 1706, and was buried on the 14th of that month with her deceased husband in Westminster Abbey, having survived him eleven years. On the 7th of February, 1706, she made a nuncupative will as she sat in the parlour of her dwelling house, by which she appointed Mr. Thomas Tovey her executor until her daughter, Frances Purcell, should reach the age of eighteen, when she was to be her executrix. Mrs. Purcell goes on to say that, "According to her husband's desire, she had given her deare son (Edward) a good education, and she alsoe did give him all the Bookes of Musicke in generall, the Organ, the double spinett, the single spinett, a silver tankard, a silver watch, two pair of gold buttons, a hair ring, a mourning ring of Dr. Busby's, a Larum clock, Mr. Edward Purcell's picture, handsome furniture for a room, and he was to be maintained until provided for. All the residue of her property she gave to her said daughter Frances."[51] Sir John Hawkins, in his _History of Music_, would seem to suggest that Purcell left his family in distressed circumstances, but the will of the widow, of which he evidently knew nothing, gives a satisfactory refutation of such a surmise. Hawkins also charges Purcell with associating with tavern company; his words are:-- "Mirth and good humour seemed to have been habitual to him; and this is perhaps the best excuse that can be made for those connections and intimacies with Brown and others, which show him not to have been very nice in the choice of his company. Brown spent his life in taverns and ale-houses; the Hole in the Wall in Baldwin's Gardens was the citadel in which he baffled the assaults of creditors and bailiffs, at the same time that he attracted thither such as thought his wit atoned for his profligacy. Purcell seems to have been of that number, and to merit censure for having prostituted his invention, by adapting music to some of the most wretched ribaldry that was ever obtruded on the world for humour." Hawkins goes on to say:--