ABSTRACT
It may suffice the Reader, without being very inquisitive after my Name, that I was born in the County of SALOP, 15 in the Year 1608; under the Government of what Star I was never Astrologer enough to examine; but the Consequences of my Life may allow me to suppose some extraordinary Influence affected my Birth. If there be any thing in Dreams also, my Mother, who was mighty observant that Way, took Minutes, which I have since seen in the first Leaf of her Prayer Book, of several strange Dreams she had while she was with Child of her second Son, which was my self. Once she noted that she dreamed she was carried away by a Regiment of Horse, and delivered in the Fields of a Son, that as soon as it was born had two Wings came out of its Back, and in half an Hour’s Time flew away from her: And the very Evening before I was born, she dreamed she was brought to Bed of a Son, and that all the while she was in Labour a Man stood under her Window beating on a Kettle-Drum, which very much discomposed her.
