Senior and the unexplained signature

Meaning

The First Response of 1661 closes with a wish that God sustain the recipients, followed by the exact initials E. D. F. O. C. R. and Senior. The English retains both rather than supplying a personal name. The edition explains Senior as 'elder', but the closing alone does not identify its bearer or securely expand the initials. Their importance is documentary and rhetorical: they mark the response's signed ending and fraternal address. They should not be reassigned to the separate first-person speaker of the Second Response or treated as a solved cipher.