Another small fact of interest in connection with the elder Purcell is furnished me by my brother of Chester. He finds in the Chirk Castle accounts, by the steward of Sir Thomas Myddelton, an allusion to Mr Purcell, who is, no doubt, our elder Purcell. Dr. Bridge writes as follows: "In 1661 the family had gone up to London and we find the Steward there and recording Dec. 24, Paid for a quart of Purle with Mr. Purcell .... 2d. {122} As a rule only the names of important personages are put in the accounts. As the Steward did not _live_ in London, it looks as if Mr. Purcell was a former acquaintance from somewhere near Chirk. This place is on the borders of three Counties of which Shropshire is one, and as the Purcells probably came from Salop, their birth-place or place of residence, may have been at the Chirk end of the County. Possibly Mr. Purcell was an old friend of the Steward's." There is no doubt the elder Purcell lived in the place called the Almonry, where the "Singing Men" had houses. These stood where the well-known Westminster Palace Hotel now stands. And here his distinguished son was born.[1] It is generally stated that he was born in 1658. It seems, however, just as likely--or even more likely--the date should be 1659. Unfortunately it has been impossible to find the record of his baptism. The Register at St Margaret's Church, Westminster, for this period (which was then very carefully kept) does not show Henry Purcell's name. The approximate date is fixed fairly well for us by the fact that in June, 1683, Purcell published some Sonatas to which his portrait was prefixed. On this portrait he is {123} said to be "_aetat: suae_ 24," i.e. in the twenty-fourth year of his age. Again on his monument in the Abbey we find "_Anno Aetatis suae 37_," i.e., in the thirty-seventh year of his age. Therefore, if he was in his thirty-seventh year on November 21, 1695 (the date of his death), he must have been born between November 21st, 1658, and November 20th, 1659. Not only is his baptism during these years not recorded at St Margaret's, but the _Rate Books_ of St Margaret's for 1658 and 1659 _do not contain the name of Purcell_, as they certainly would have had his father had a house in the parish. A friend has made most careful enquiries for me on this point. I expect the Almonry was in the precincts of Westminster Abbey, and so would not be "in the parish," and it is quite reasonable to suppose the child born in the Almonry was christened in the Abbey: but I have never yet found any record of this. Purcell's own son, Edward, was christened in the Abbey in 1689.