In 1665, he was indicted at Hicks's Hall for giving judgment upon stolen goods, but was acquitted. In 1659, he received from the King of Sweden a pre sent of a gold chain and medal, worth about fifty pounds, on account of his having mentioned that monarch with great respect in his almanacks of 1657 and 1658.
After the Restoration in 1660, being taken into custody, and examined by a committee of the House of Commons, touching the execution of Charles I., lie declared that Robert Spavin, then secre tary to Cromwell, dining with him soon after the fact, assured him it was done by Cornet Joyce. The same year he sued out his pardon, under the broad seal of England, and afterwards continued in London till 1665, when, upon the raging of the plague there, he retired to his es tate at Hersham. Here he applied him self to the study of physic, having, by means of his friend Elias Ashmole, pro cured from Archbishop Sheldon a licence to practise it, which he did, as well as astrology, from thence till the time of his death. In October, 1666, he was examin ed before a committee of the House of Commons, concerning the fire of London, which happened in September that year. A little before his death be adopted for hiS son, by the name of Merlin Junior, one Henry Coley, a tailor by trade ; and at the same time gave him the impres sion of his almanack, which had been printed for thirty-six years successively. This Coley became afterwards a cele brated astrologer, publishing in his own name almanacks and books of astrology, particularly one entitled " A Key to As trology." Lilly died of the palsy in 1681, at se venty-nine years of age; and his friend Mr. Ashmole placed a monument over
his grave in the church of Walton upon Thames.
Lilly was the author of many works. His" Observations on the Life and Death of Charles, late King of England," if we overlook the astrological nonsense, may be read with as much satisfaction as more celebrated histories, Lilly being not only very well informed, but strictly impar tial. This work, with the lives of Lilly and Ashmole, written by themselves, were published in one volume 8vo. in 1774, by Mr. Burman. His other works were prin cipally as follow : 1. Merlinus Anglicus, junior. 2. Super natural Sight. 3. The White King's Pro phecy. 4. England's prophetical Merlin : all printed in 1644. 5. The starry Mes senger, 1645. 6. Collection of Prophe cies, 1646. 7. A Comment on the King's Prophecy, 1646. 8. The Nativi ties of Archbishop Laud and Thomas Earl of Staffiard, 1646. 9. Christian As trology, 1647: upon this piece he read his lectures in 1648, mentioned above.
10. The third Book of Nativities, 1647.
11. The World's Catastrophe, 1647. 12. The Prophecies of Ambrose Merlin, with a Key, 1647. 13. Trithemius, or the Go vernment of the World by presiding An gels, 1647. 14. A Treatise of the Three Suns seen in the Winter of 1647, printed in 1648. 15. Monarchy or no Monarchy, 1651. 16. Observations on the Life and Death of Charles, late King of England, 1651; and again in 1657, with the title of Mr. William Lilly's true History of King James and King Charles I., &c. 17. Anuus Tenebrosus, or the Black Year. This drew him into the dispute with Gataker, which Lilly carried on in his Almanack in 1654.