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130 HELEN FARQUHAR.to, as Well for the reasons above, As for what they hadheard their father say With Eegard to his Brothers Sellinghis puncheons of Medals &c. to the King of France (WhoseEngraver General he Was 5 ) Condemning that action asa veiy foolish one, & Declaring that Nothing but Imminenthazard of Downright Starving Should have made him haveparted With any of his Work & let it go out of the family.The impression that these considerations made uponthem kept them from closing with any overtures, till thelate Mr. Roettier bought them at his Death, M rs . Roettierhis Widow not having any doubt but that they wereAllowed them to beEntirely the Property of her husband ;put into the Inventary as part of her husbands personalEstate to be Divided between her Children and herself;at the same time she omitted to insert there the Puncheons& Dies for Coin, Which (as by the Law of England theCrown has the sole right of Coming Money, so that it ishigh treason for anybody else to pretend to it)She deemedto belong to the King.She had various presumptions to make her think thesePuncheons & Dies for Medals to be her late Husbandspersonal property he had; always thought them so himself,and tis plain his Father thought them his own, because hedisposed of them by his will, and was too loyal to the Kingto offer to defraud him of the least of his right ;TheGovernment of England which seized everything else belongingto K. James (as they did what his late daughter left)Condescended to treat for the purchase of these Puncheons ;other people treated for them too ;The General opinion ofEnglish Gentlemen of good sense and knowledge & theparticular ones of Lawyers that had all the zeal imaginablefor the Kings Right, as Mr. W. Taylor and Mr. WalterPryse who would have been the last men on Earth to haveLessened his Prerogative in any Respect With some particularcircumstances of the late Mr. Roettiers fatherspossession of them, for though he did not take the Oaths tothe Government he lived in his house in the Tower 6 forabove Eight Years after the Revolution, where L d . Lucasthe Governour did everything in his power to plague anddistress him, and searched the House frequently for Arms8 This refers to Joseph Roettiers.6John Roettiers remained in his official residence at the Toweruntil 1697, and did not leave London before his death in 1703,fourteen years after the Revolution.