Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/225

 10 s. x. SEPT. 5, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

181

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1908.

CONTENTS.-No. 245.

NOTES : Capt. Archibald Douglas, 181' Englands Par- nassus,' 182 'D.N.B. Epitome,' 183 Nutting Time: "Cobberer," 185 Flying Machines: "Aviation" Typo- graphical Puzzle "As thick as inkle-makers" William Collins, the Poet, 186 "Slavey" Coinloquoy Surname,

QUERIES : Hampstead in Song Arabic Numerals on a Brass at Winchester Smallpox Hospital in 1804 : Alex- andra Institution for the Blind Wesley in Germany and Holland, 187 Anatole France : ' The Garden of Epicurus ' " Plus je connais les hommes " Taine : " Tenir une queue de vache k la main" "Fit as a fiddle" Sir Isaac Newton and the Cat Silesian Tooth Authors of Quotations Wanted Tollgate Houses Dowry Square, Clifton" Officer of the Pipe," 188" St. Francis's Moon " Ranger of Greenwich Park Rattlesnake Colonel : Catgut Ruffles John Tetherington James Preston- Matthew Stevenson and William Preston Barbary Pirates off Devonshire Alexander Pennecuik and the Louvre, 189 Waterloo : its Pronunciation " Maden Case" Wharton Autobiography Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte William Francis, 190.

REPLIES : Accession and Coronation Medals, 190 Bennett of Baldock " Mulatto " " Tanner "^Sixpence, 191 George Henley of Bradley " Stymie " at Golf "Swank," 192 Roman Inscription at Baveno Siege of Danzig Zoff any The National Flag, 193 Tyrone Power Michaelmas Day Pronunciation of Tintagel, 194 Death after Lying Dolls in Magic, 195 Waterloo : Letter by Vivian Toothache "Hame-Rein" Gray of Denne Hill, Kent, 196 Heraldic Queries: Arms of Married Women Henry Ellison Z : Name of the Letter, 197 Hovelling The Double - Headed Eagle " Cadey " Matthew Arnold on Pigeons "Whipping the cat," 198.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-'The Cambridge History of English Literature ' ' Johnson on Shakespeare ' Reviews and Magazines.

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

CAPT. ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS, 1667.

THE brief notice of this officer in the devoted to him record how he conducted the defence of the Royal Oak, when De Ruyter's fleet sailed up the Medway to Chatham, on 12 June, 1667 ; and when this ship was set on fire refused to retire, though advised to do so, saying: "It shall never be told that a Douglas quitted his post without orders." David Hume, Lediard, Campbell, and other historians narrate the event, and tell how the heroic Douglas perished in the flames of the ship he so nobly defended ; but no writer in the past has, apparently, discovered to what branch of the service Douglas belonged, or given any particulars relating to this hero's family. It is noted in the ' D.N.B.' that Charnock, in his ' Biographia Navalis,' suggests that Douglas was " a land officer sent from the shore to defend this ship [The Royal Oak] with a detachment of soldiers."
 * D.N.B.' is disappointing. The few lines

Charnock was correct in his surmise. The present writer is certain that the hero of

the Chatham incident was Capt. Archibald Douglas of Lord George Douglas's Regiment of Scots Foot (the present Royal Scots). This fine old corps had been recalled from France in the spring of 1666, and new com- missions issued to the officers 5 July following ('Cal. S. P. Dom., 1666'). One company was at Sheerness when this place was captured by the Dutch on 10 June, 1667 (' Knight's Historical Records of the Buffs,' p. 132). Detachments of the same regiment were at Thanet, and repulsed 100 Dutch soldiers who landed (J. Carlisle to William- son, 10 June, 1667, ' Cal. S. P. Dom.').

It so happened that Charles II. had, from ill-advised economy, dismissed a large number of sailors from his fleet just before De Ruyter's well-planned descent on the English coast. This explains why Capt. Douglas was sent on board the Royal Oak, with part of his company, on the fatal 12 June, when the aforesaid ship and two others were attacked and set on fire by the Dutch.

It is recorded in the ' D.N.B.' that 100?. was granted by the King, 18 Oct., 1667, to Douglas, relict of Capt. A. Douglas, lately slain by the Dutch at Chatham." Mrs. Douglas's maiden name has not been heretofore stated. She was daughter, by a third marriage, of Andrew, 7th Baron Gray in the peerage of Scotland, who had suffered much in the Royal cause, and was for some years commander of the Scots gens-d'armes in France. Among the * S. P. Domestic ' for (August ?) 1667 is a petition from

" Frances, widow of Capt. Douglas, and daughter of the late Lord Gray, to the King for a gift or the prize ship Golden Hand, now employed in weighing the ships sunk at Chatham when her husband lost his life in defence of the ships against the Dutch."

Frances Gray's marriage to Archibald Douglas is not given in any of the Scottish Peerages ; but her second marriage to Capt. Mackenzie, son of the Bishop of Moray, is duly recorded therein.

As regards Capt. Archibald Douglas's parentage nothing has yet been ascertained. He was undoubtedly identical with the Capt. Archibald Douglas to whom the Protector and the English Council granted a pass for himself and his brother William to go to France, 21 Aug., 1655 (' Cal. S. P. Dom.'). This William Douglas was many years an officer in Lord Dumbarton's Regiment, and was knighted after the return of this corps to England in 1678. On 16 July, 1689, he was given the lieutenant- colonelcy of the Scots Dragoons, in place of Wm. Livingston of Kilsyth. Sir William