GWYN, Eleanor [Nell] (1651?-1687). Document signed (with initials, 'E.G.'), a receipt for £250 paid to her as part of her pension, together with the related payment order, 23 August 1682, for £1,250 as the quarterly allowance to 'Mrs Elianor Gwyn ... towards the Support of her selfe, and Charles Earle of Burford [the King's illegitimate son, later 1st Duke of St Alban's]', countersigned by Laurence Hyde [later 1st Earl of Rochester], Sir John Ernle, Sir Sidney Godolphin [later 1st Earl of Godolphin] and Sir Stephen Fox; the order is endorsed with four instructions by Sir Robert Howard (auditor of the exchequer) to the tellers of the receipt of the exchequer John Loving, George Downing [the younger] and Sir Thomas Vernon, for payments of £250 'out of Excise', together 2½ pages, folio, on two bifolia (minor general soiling, more marked at upper and lower margins of the payment order), window-mounted. Provenance: from the collection of the Norfolk historian Charles John Palmer (1805-1888).

GWYN, Eleanor [Nell] (1651?-1687). Document signed (with initials, 'E.G.'), a receipt for £250 paid to her as part of her pension, together with the related payment order, 23 August 1682, for £1,250 as the quarterly allowance to 'Mrs Elianor Gwyn ... towards the Support of her selfe, and Charles Earle of Burford [the King's illegitimate son, later 1st Duke of St Alban's]', countersigned by Laurence Hyde [later 1st Earl of Rochester], Sir John Ernle, Sir Sidney Godolphin [later 1st Earl of Godolphin] and Sir Stephen Fox; the order is endorsed with four instructions by Sir Robert Howard (auditor of the exchequer) to the tellers of the receipt of the exchequer John Loving, George Downing [the younger] and Sir Thomas Vernon, for payments of £250 'out of Excise', together 2½ pages, folio, on two bifolia (minor general soiling, more marked at upper and lower margins of the payment order), window-mounted. Provenance: from the collection of the Norfolk historian Charles John Palmer (1805-1888).

A rare signature: according to the ODNB, 'The few letters by Nell in existence, though signed by herself E.G., were all written by others and undoubtedly she could barely write'.