Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/210

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io> s. i. FEB. 27, 1904.

NELSON'S SISTER ANNE. (9 th S. xii. 428.)

ANNE NELSON was named after her grand- mother (who was also her godmother) Anne, daughter of Sir Charles Turner, Bart, of Lynn, whose wife was Mary, the daughter of Mr. Robert Walpole, of Houghton, and sister of the famous Prime Minister. She eloped, when a schoolgirl, with a Mr. William Robinson (born 1737, died 1811), who raised and organized the Tower Hamlets Volun- teers, in which corps he held the commission of Captain-Commandant until the establish- ment of the Tower Hamlets Militia. No marriage appears to have taken place, but there was one child, a son, who was born on 18 January, 1777. Anne Nelson, who sub- sequently returned to her family, died some six years afterwards, and was buried at Bathford, in Somersetshire. Her tomb bears the following inscription :

"Underneath are interred the remains of Miss Anne Nelson, daughter of the Reverend Edmund Nelson and sister of Viscount Nelson, who died Npvember 15, 1783, aged 23 years."

The son was baptized on 10 November, 1789, at the church of St. Luke, Old Street, in the City of London. He received the baptismal name of William, after his father, who left to him the whole of his considerable estate.

William Robinson the younger was edu- cated at St. Paul's School; he received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Aberdeen in 1822, was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the county of Middlesex in 1825, and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1827. He was well known in the legal world as the author of 'The Magistrate's Pocket-Book,' a treatise on the laws relating to the poor, and a work on quarter sessions : and he has left historical accounts of Totten- ham, Edmonton, Hackney, and the adjacent districts.

h X M^ N T n S:r (?th S " ix / 73 > there is a note K f v JoTV the L effecfc that in his library of MSS. he has a thick volume in the handwriting of this topographical writer ? ntlfc te d ir Slfc of the Glastonbury Thorn.' ? n ^ b l n80 \ the younger died in 48. One of his daughters married the late Dr. Thomas Fitz-Patrick, in whose memory the Lectureship on the History of Medicine has lately been founded at the Royal College Physicians in London; and this lady possesses a portrait, painted by Opie of her grandmother Anne Nelson. J W B

CURIOUS CHRISTIAN NAMES (10 th S. i. 26). So far as regards Oriana, I can say with confidence that it has been "established" as a Christian name in England for more than twenty years. It was borne by a grand- daughter of Sir Mitford Crowe, Governor of Barbadoes. Her mother married a Bulfinch, and she herself the artist Ramsay Richard Reinagle (1775-1862). From their daughter, called after her mother, it was that Tennyson took the name for his ballad ' Oriana,' being

E leased by its musical sound, as well as struck y the appearance of its owner. Oriana has been a family name for four generations at least.

It may be of interest to mention that Mitford Crowe was appointed Governor by William III., but that Queen Anne refused at first to ratify the appointment. She did so after a while, and he accommodated her with a loan of 10,000^., never repaid! The two large seals, like plates, hanging from the bond, were found on one occasion to be in the way for packing, and were ruthlessly cutoff and burnt by two young girls ignorant of their importance, and subsequently the bond itself vanished, stolen, it was supposed, for the sake of the autograph. Such is the family tradition.

Mitford Crowe lived at Burlington House when in town, his country house being at Islewprth. Returning to the latter on one occasion, he was attacked by highwaymen, who so ill-used him that he died of his injuries two years later, 1727, at Isleworth, as is supposed, though no entry of his death is to be found. S. G.

In Lancashire a fondness for Scriptural Christian names, even for those which are not of frequent use in the Bible, was prevalent until lately. The parochial clergy and the local newspapers could supply long lists. At the church which I served 1877-9, Keren- happuch came to be married, Levi was a sidesman, and Aaron a Sunday-school teacher. In Worcestershire, 1894-1902, I prepared for confirmation three boys bearing the names Elam, iShadrach, and Jubal. None of these persons had the slightest Jewish connexion.

W. C. B.

May I add the following curious Christian names selected from my large collections 1 They are mostly names of persons of my acquaintance, nearly all of whom are Americans, but many are of foreign ancestry. Adelma, origin uncertain; Arad, Hungarian; Bohumil, Bohemian; Centennial, Centennial Exhibition of 1876; Euphemia, Greek; Evahn, origin uncertain; Fagundes, Brazilian :