However there is so much written material inserted before and after the actual sermon that the doct. is treated as a MS. There are two outstanding points of interest : the preacher was the Dr. Richard Davies who acted as coadjuctor to William Salesbury in translating the New Testament into Welsh (pub. 1567); on the title-page is written R. Essex, almost certainly the signature of the famous Earl of Essex who was beheaded in 1601. Introductory to the sermon we find:-
Adjuration to the second Earl by E.W. iii-vi
Epitaphium Genealogicum by R.B..... vii-xxi
Elegiac verses in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Welsh.....xxii-xxiv
Cywydd by Huw Llyn.....xxv-xxvii
The MS. material is concerned with the intermarriages of the Ferrers of Chartley, the Earls of Essex, and the Shirleys of Shirley (eg., Sir Henry Shirley married Dorothy, one of the daughters of the second Earl of Essex, in 1615). This book was in the possession of Catherine Shirley in 1731, and in that of Earl Ferrers in 1787; it was given him by John Cotes (M.P. for Wigan 1782-1802; for Shropshire 1806-1821), grandson of Lady Dorothea Cotes, she being the daughter of Robert, first Earl Ferrers.