Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/419

 10 s. x. OCT. 31, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

343

DR. JOHNSON'S ANCESTORS AND CONNEXIONS.

(10 S. viii. 281, 382, 462; ix. 43, 144, 302, 423; x. 44. 203.)

"Parson" Ford and Joseph Withers. The last paragraph in my book (p. 283) related to Joseph Withers, of Worcester, tobacconist, who died 11 Oct., 1741, aged fifty-one, father of Sir Charles Trubshaw Withers. The Rev. Cornelius Ford, about 1729, contracted to sell the Great House in Moseley, which he had inherited from his father, Dr. Joseph Ford, to Joseph Withers, who filed two bills in Chancery to compel a specific performance of the agreement, one before and one after the " Parson's " death. I have now an abstract of the will of Joseph Withers, dated 29 Sept., 1741, in which he is described as Esquire and Mayor of the City of Worcester. In this he leaves his farm in the village of Moseley, co. Wore., now in the tenure of Joseph Bryan, and bought of Cornelius Ford, clerk, deceased, to his son, Charles Trup- shaw (sic) Withers. When Dr. Ford, in 1721, devised the Great House in Moseley to his son Cornelius, it was in the tenure of William Bryan. To his son Joseph Withers also leaves his own dwelling- house in St. S within' s, Worcester, as well as other property in Worcester and at Claines. To his eldest daughter, Mary Withers, he leaves his farm at Moseley, occupied by Joseph Richards and his wife, and purchased of his brother Samuel Withers; as well as a sum of 400Z. To his two younger daughters, Jane and Katherine Withers, he leaves 800?. each at twenty-one. His wife Mary is to have a life interest in some of the property. To his aunt Trupshaw (sic) he leaves a mourning ring. The will was proved 27 Nov., 1741, in P.C.C. (326 Spurway), by Mary, the widow, and Charles Trubshaw Withers, the son, the executors.

Andrew Johnson's Marriage. Since my additional notes on Andrew Johnson were printed (10 S. viii. 382-4, 462), Mr. A. T. Marston has made a discovery of interest. While searching the transcript of the parish register of Harborne, near Birmingham, in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield, he happened upon the following entry : " Andrew Johnson and Sarah Fisher were married November 13, 1696."

I wrote to Harborne for a copy of the original entry, but Canon Price, the Vicar, informs me that the page of the register for 1696 is torn in half, and that nothing

remains of the entry but "... .arah Fisher," and, on the line below, " .... married."

As explained in my book (p. 217), Sarah Fisher was Andrew's second wife. I do not know why the marjiage was celebrated at Harborne, which is nine miles from Elmdon, in Warwickshire, where her father Thomas Fisher had lived until his death in the pre- ceding year.

Dr. Johnson and Sir Wolstan Dixie. On 21 Aug., 1710, Pope wrote as follows to Henry Cromwell (' Pope's Works,' ed. Whit- well Elwin, vol. vi. pp. 102-3) :

" I fancy you have not many Sir Woolaston Dixeys in Lincolnshire, than whom 1 have not met with a better-bred or better-natured gentleman, and to whom I beg you will give my most humble service."

The accomplished editor has the following foot-note on the subject :

" Sir Wolstan Dixie was the person in whose house Dr. Johnson resided in 1732 while usher of the school at Market Bosworth. His account of the baronet's temper was very different from that of Pope, for he alleged that he was treated with intolerable harshness, and he left in consequence."

As this would seem to convey a kind of reproach, and suggest that Johnson was a surly misanthrope who could not get on even with a gentleman whom Pope declared to be both kindly and cultivated, I think it right to point out that the Rev. Whitwell Elwin has gone astray here. The Sir Wolstan Dixie who won Pope's good opinion was the third baronet. It was his son, the fourth baronet, who was the Sir Wolstan Dixie so much disliked by Johnson, and who, as pointed out in my book (p. 173), was a bachelor of about thirty at the time of their disagreement. On looking into the question of the date of the third baronet's death, I found that, while Nichols's pedigree (' Leicestershire,' vol. iv. p. 507) stated that he was buried at Bosworth on 10 Dec., 1713, Burke' s ' Peerage ' says that he died on 10 Dec., 1731. In order that the point might be settled beyond dispute, I wrote to the Rev. P. H. Bowers, Rector of Market Bosworth, who has kindly sent me a copy of the burial entry : " Sr Wolstan Dixie, Barnit, was buried the 10 day of December, 1713."

Nichols gives the date of his baptism as 25 March, 1667, but Mr. Bowers sends m a copy of the entry of baptism of " Wolstan Dixie, the sunn of Mr. Beaumont Dixie, Squire," on 25 March, 1657.

Dr. Birkbeck Hill, alluding to Sir Wolstan Dixie's harsh treatment of Johnson, say& (' Boswell,' vol. i. p. 84, foot-note) that " the patron's manners were those of the neigh-