In 1645 William Backhouse was a beneficiary of the will of his sister Mary Standen of Arborfield, widow, who left him £30.
In 1649 William Backhouse was a beneficiary of the will of his brother Sir John Backhouse, Knight, receiving an annuity of £100.
In 1659 William Backhouse was a beneficiary of the will of his sister-in-law Dame Flower Backhouse, widow, who left him a ewer, basin and two silver flagons that her late husband, Sir John Backhouse, had received from his mother.
-------------------------
Abstract of the Will of William Backhouse of Swallowfield in the County of Berks, Esquire, written 9 Feb 1661/2, proved 5 Nov 1662. 3
Gives an annuity of £250 to his wife Anne Backhouse, to be paid out of his Berkshire manor. He gives her an additional annuity of £150 out of eight shares in the New River water brought from the Springs of Chadwell and Amwell to the City of London. And in case his wife chooses not to live with his daughter Flower Bishop, he gives to her six beds, an assortment of household furniture and goods, and all the plate that had belonged to his son John deceased.
Gives to Mr. William Lloyd, clerk, the land and tenements in the parish of Swallowfield which he recently purchased from Hugh Gates, along with the books that had belonged to his said son John.
Gives to his servant Thomas Harrison lands and tenements in the parish of St. James Clerkenwell in co. Middlesex, commonly called Waterhouse Field, currently occupied by Sir Sanders Dunscombe. And if after two years Thomas is evicted, he gives him his tenement in Cheapside London, commonly called Boarshead.
Gives £10 to the poor of the parish of Swallowfield.
Gives £10 toward the reparations of the church of Swallowfield.
Gives £5 to the poor of the parish of Kingly in the county of Southampton.
Gives to his servants the following: £15 to his servant Ellen Lloyd, £10 to Bridget Saxby, £10 to Joseph Brincklett, £10 to George Buckeridge, £5 to John Hill, £5 to Richard Webbe, £8 to Henry Round, £10 to John Phillips, £4 to Mary Edwards, £4 to Anne Edwards, £4 to Margarett Fulker, £40 to Anne Backhouse, £10 to Lindsay? Searle, £10 to William Plate, £2 to Richard Alexander, £2 to Barnard Alexander, £3 to John Misingham of Kingly, £2 to John Fisher, and £5 to Jone Harrison.
Gives £5 to . . . . . . . Grove, his daughter Flower Bishop's servant.
Gives £2 to his blacksmith John Tomes.
All the rest of his goods & chattels he gives to his daughter Flower Bishop, appointing here sole executrix of his last will and testament.
(Signed)
Witnesses: Anthony Barker and others
-------------------------
BACKHOUSE, WILLIAM (1593–1662), Rosicrucian philosopher, a younger son Samuel Backhouse, Esq., of Swallowfield, Berkshire, was born in that county 17 Jan. 1593, and entered Christ Church, Oxford, a commoner, in 1610, but left the university without taking a degree. At length, settling on his patrimony, he devoted his time to the study of the occult sciences, became a renowned alchemist, Rosicrucian, and astrologer, and gave great encouragement to the who were addicted to similar pursuits, especially Elias Ashmole, whom he adopted as his son, and to whom he freely imparted the arcana of his mysterious lore. The subjoined laconic entries in Ashmole's diary show the intimacy of the friendship subsisting between them:— 26 April 1651: 'Mr. William Backhouse, of Swallowfield, in com. Berks, caused me to call him father thenceforward.' 10 June 1651: 'Mr. Backhouse told me I must now needs be his son, because he had communicated so many secrets to me.' 10 March 1652: 'This morning my father Backhouse opened himself very freely, touching the great secret.' And finally, under date 13 May 1653, Ashmole writes: 'My father Backhouse lying sick in Fleet Street, over against St. Dunstan's church, and not knowing whether he should live or die, about eleven of the clock told me, in syllables, the true matter of the Philosopher's Stone, which he bequeathed to me as a legacy.' It is almost superfluous to add that no hint is given as to the nature of this wonderful secret. Backhouse died at Swallowfield 30 May 1662. He married Ann, daughter of Bryan Richards of Hartley Westfield, Hampshire, by whom he had two sons (who predeceased him), and a daughter. Flower, who married, first, William Bishop, of South Warnborough, Hampshire, and secondly, her father's kinsman, Sir William Backhouse, Bart., who died 22 Aug. 1669.
Backhouse left in manuscript:
1. 'The pleasant Founteine of Knowledge: first written in French anno 1413, by John de la Founteine of Valencia in Henault;' translated into English verse in 1644. MS. Ashmol. 58.
2. A translation of 'Planctus Naturæ: The Complaint of Nature against the Erroneous Alchymist, by John de Mehung.' MS. Ashmol. 58, art. 2.
3. 'The Golden Fleece, or the Flower of Treasures; in which is succinctly and methodically handled the stone of the philosophers, his excellent effectes and admirable vertues; and, the better to attaine to the originall and true meanes of perfection, inriched with Figures representing the proper colours to lyfe as they successively appere in the pratise of this blessed worke. By that great philosopher, Solomon Trismosin, Master to Paracelsus; 'a translation from the French. M S. Ashmol. 1395. Wood adds that 'he was also the inventor of the "Way wiser" in the time of George Villiers, the first duke of Bucks.' 2
Research Notes: