[John Evelyn, diarist and author.] Manuscript transcription [by his descendant W. F. Evelyn?], of the unpublished manuscript 'Testamentum in Procinctu', addressed to his son as he was about to go to Ireland.

85pp., foolscap 8vo, on the rectos of 85 leaves. On laid paper with Stowford Mills watermark dated 1874. In a notebook with contemporary brown calf half-binding, with marbled boards and endpapers. Pencil notes regarding provenance precede the text: 'Evelyn MSS. Unpublished (?) | Copy by W. J. Evelyn (?) | Ex Joanna Booth | Ex Christies Evelyn Sale. | pencil MS Note verso p.32 in W. J. E.'s ordinary hand | See note | Transcript of unpublished Evelyn mss. c 1880.' Internally in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, in worn binding. The greater part of the transcript is written out in a neat hand; but it is begun in a rather more untidy hand, with features again on occasion throughout. Ten lines of pencil notes in the untidy hand facing p.33. Evelyn's text (in English with occasional Latin interpolations) begins 'Son | Tho God Almighty should yet protract my life some longer time, yet considering my greate Age [...]', and ends with the date '10th. Aug. 1692'. A page with the beginning of a pencil transcription follows a few pages later. Evelyn's 'Testamentum in Procinctu' would appear to be unpublished. The original is in British Library Add MS 78453, and is described as 'Advice by John Evelyn the diarist to his son as he was about to set out for Ireland'.