Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/249

 10* S. I. MARCH 12, 1904. J NOTES AND QUERIES.

201

LONJON, SATURDAY. MARCH 12,

CONTENTS.-No. 11.

NOTES : The Wreck of the Wager. 201 Clement Smyth Tasso and Mi Itou, 202 Burton's 'AiiHtomy,' 203 Shake- speare's Sonnet cxlvi." As the crow flies "Lincolnshire Riddle Spenser Jacobite Wineglasses "Morale," 204 I Catherine Hajes Aid wych Cobweb Pills Thorwald- ; sen's Bust of Byron Misprints in Stow, 205 Spanish Proverb on the Orange Negroes and Law Ghosts' Markets, 206.

QUERIES : Irish Historical and Artistic Relics Manitoba, I 206 Riddle Thackeray Temple College, Philadelphia ' Leche Eli/a Scudder's Poems Cots French Cloister in England A.E.I. Plato and Sidney Sir Hugh Platt, 207 Browning's Text "Sorpeui": "Haggovele" Sundial Historical Geography of London Yeoman of the Crown London Rubbish at Moscow Gervaise Holies Travers, 208 Duchess of Gloucester Pope and German Literature Hanged and Drawn Salisbury Cade Soulac Abbey, 209.

REPLIES : Tea, 209 Nelson's Sister Anne Hydrophobic Patients, 210 " Chaperon " "An Austrian army" | French Miniature Painter Knight Templar, 211 Melan- | choly Mangosteen Comber, 212 Quotations White- bait Dinner Clavering, 213 Crimson Robes Curious Christian Names" Crown and Three Sugar Loaves," 214 Oldest Public School, 215 Thackeray Quotation Glow- worm St. Dunstan W. Stephens, President of Georgia Herondas, 216 Authors of Quotations Western Rebel- lionTurner: Canaletto " Meynes " and "Rhlnes" Capt. Cuttle Epitaphs Immurement Alive, 217 Robin a Bobbin Right Hon. E. Southwell Miss Lewen Genealogy, 218.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' English Dialect Dictionary' ' English Literature 'The ' Burlington 'Magazines and Reviews.

Death of Mr. Thompson Cooper.

THE WRECK OF THE WAGER.

IN this month's number of the Cornhill Magazine is a paper on the 'Wreck of the Wager.' Byron's 'Narrative' has passed through many editions, and it is still one of the most popular of naval stories. The first edition was published in 1768. Probably Hamilton was then the only other surviving officer. Several editions give a memoir of Byron, but as no edition, so far as I am aware, gives a memoir of Cheap or Hamilton the following notes, which I made a few years ago, may be of interest to some readers of X. &Q.'

Although news from Patagonia travelled slowly in those days, it was not very long before the fate of the Wager was known in England. I found in the Gentleman's Maga- zine, under date September, 1742, mention of a letter from the lieutenant of the Wager, and, under date June, 1744, the following notice:

" Admiralty Office, June 12. His Majesty's Con- the 14th Feb., 1743, from Captain David Cheap, late Commander of his Majesty's ship the Wager, cast away in the South Seas in May, 1741, advising of his being in good health at Santiago in Chili,
 * ul-Ueneral at Lisbon has received a letter, dated

together with Lieut. Thomas Hamilton of Colonel Lowther's regiment of marines, and two midship- men, one of whom is Mr. Biron, brother to Lord Biron : and that they met with very honourable treatment from the President of Chili."

In the same periodical, under date April, 1745, a letter from Don Manuel, Spanish officer in Pizarro's squadron, is given, in which he names Cheap, Hamilton, Byron, and Campbell, and tells of his offer of a gift of a large sum of money to them, and that they would only take 600 dollars, giving him a cheque for that amount. He had not wished any of it repaid. Under date March, 1746, I found the following announcement :

"Monday, 24th. Arrived at London Capt. Cheap, Commander of the Wager storeship lost in the South Sea. The captain with the Hon. Mr. Biron, and Mr. Hamilton, Lieutenant of Marines, were brought in a cartel ship from Brest," &c.

In the Scots Magazine is the following entry, under date 14 September, 1748 :

"At York, Capt. David Cheap, late Commander of the Wager storeship, which was lost in the South seas in the year 1741, to Mrs. Ann Clark, daughter to Mr. Hugh Clark, of Edinburgh, merchant, and widow_ of Major Robert Brown, of Fleming's foot, who died in January, 1746."

Cheap belonged to a Fifeshire family, the Cheaps of Rossie, and a brother of his was collector of customs at Prestonpans.

Lieut. Thomas Hamilton was eon of James Hamilton, Esq., of Olivestob, an estate in Haddingtonshire. It was bought in 1733 by the celebrated Col. Gardiner, who changed its name to Bankton. Doddridge, in his 'Life of Gardiner,' writes of having received from him, before the end of 1743, " many letters dated from Bankton." The lands adjoined the field which became the battle- field of Prestonpans, where Gardiner was slain. Immediately on Hamilton's return to England he was promoted to the rank of captain in the army (8 May, 1746), and on 31 August, 1747, he was appointed to the 8th Dragoons. I have an 'Army List' of 1756, in which he is shown a.<? senior captain in the regiment, and stationed at Gort in Ireland. He was promoted to major in the same regiment in 1760, and he retired in 1762. An old miniature of him, in his regimental uniform, is in the possession of J. G. Hamilton-Starke, Esq., of Troqueer Holm, N.B. The uniform of the 8th Dragoons was altered from scarlet to blue in 1777, when the regiment received the title of "The King's Royal Irish Regiment of Light Dragoons." Hamilton married his cousin Elizabeth, daughter of Col. Urquhart, of Newhall. After his retirement he built a house near Musselburgh, which he called