Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/563

 10 s. x. DEC. 12,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

465

DR. JOHNSON'S ANCESTORS AND

CONNEXIONS.

(See 10 S. viii. 281, 382, 462 ; ix. 43, 144, 302, 423; x. 44, 203, 343.)

A Centenarian Kinswoman of Dr. Johnson. The Standard for 14 Jan., 1908, contained an announcement of the death, at St. Ives, Hunts, on 11 Jan., of Ann Brunskill Rowland- son, in her 101st year. This old lady (as stated in my book, p. 183) was the only child of Samuel Rowlandson, of London, merchant, by Penelope (1776-1808) his first wife, daughter of Cornelius Harrison (1743-1806), of Stubb House, co. Durham, who was the only son of the Rev. Cornelius Harrison (1699 ?-1748), Perpetual Curate of Darlington that worthy cleric whom the Doctor, his first cousin, described as " the only one of my relations who ever rose in fortune above penury, or in character above neglect " ; though for his father, John Harrison, Johnson had nothing but dislike and contempt.

Miss Rowlandson's nephew, Mr. Reginald M. Osborne, of St. Ives, tells me that

"up to within a few days of her death she retained all her faculties, arid in fact, only two days before, she drew a cheque in payment of some tradesman's account. She was always very proud of her con- nexion with Dr. Johnson, and was a great admirer of him."

Mr. Osborne has also kindly sent me a copy of The Huntingdonshire Post. for 18 Jan., containing some account of his aunt :

" Up to a very short time before her decease she retained all her faculties, and took a great interest in everything that was going on around her. She was a great reader, and her recollections of bygone events were always interesting. Her loss will be deeply felt by her nephews and nieces, her sweet disposition arid kind heart having endeared her to them all. She will also be missed by the numerous charities which she subscribed to, and by her poorer neighbours, to whose appeals she was ever ready to respond. We understand that she has left a sum of 500/. to augment the living of All Saints' Church, St. Ives, and 50/. for the Hunts County Hospital."*

From this same account I learn that Miss Rowlandson, who was buried at Fenstanton, M*as born on 16 Jan., 1807, and was thus within five days of her 101st birthday ; and that her father, Samuel Rowlandson, second son of Richard Rowlandson, of Dulton Hall, Kirby Ravensworth, was born in April, 1773, and married Penelope Harrison in 1806. Samuel Rowlandson married again after Penelope's early death, and had another daughter, Susannah, who married Martin

6,767, also left 450?. to the Salisbury Church Union Society, and 400?. to the Poor Clergy Relief Cor- poration.
 * Miss Rowlandson, whose will was proved for

Allpress Osborne, of St. Ives, and had issue, including Mr. Reginald M. Osborne. Martin Allpress Osborne died on 5 Nov., 1899, aged 89, and his wife on 24 Sept., 1899, aged 75 ; both are buried in the family vault at Fen- stanton. The Martin Osborne of St. Ives who, as I stated, married Penelope (nee Whytell), widow of Miss Rowlandson's uncle Thomas Harrison (1779-1842), of Stubb House "notorious for swearing and overbearing conduct " was, Mr. R. M. Osborne tells me, his own grandfather, the father of Martin Allpress Osborne. Mrs. Harrison must have been an old lady when she married Martin Osborne, for at her death on 23 Dec., 1869, she was aged " nearly 100." Miss Rowland- son's first cousin, the late General Plantagenet- Harrison (1817-90), that most eccentric of antiquaries, has recorded for all time in his ambitious, but uncompleted ' History of Yorkshire,' that his uncle Thomas Harrison was " a vagabond over head and ears in debt," who " died like a dog in June, 1842 " ; while Mrs. Harrison, in addition to having had insufficient sense of shame to prevent her being " born in a cart by the wayside, and never baptized," was " the finest speci- men of a hypocrite I ever saw."

Dr. Johnson's Early Visit to Trysull. In my book I was able to show (pp. 141-4} that Mrs. Harriotts, the elderly lady of means whom Michael Johnson "willingly disgusted " by his failure to observe the Sabbath as strictly as she desired, was Elizabeth (1661- 1728), wife of Robert Harriotts, only daughter of William Barnesley (1618-85), of Trysull, Staffs. described by Plot as "a good old Gentleman "by Elizabeth (1622-97) his wife, daughter of Henry Ford, and sister of Dr. Johnson's grandfather, Cornelius Ford (1632-1709). Mrs. Harriotts, whom Johnson described as " my mother's relation," was thus first cousin to Mrs. Johnson. As late as 1770 the Doctor noted that he " never yet saw a regular family unless it were that of Mrs. Harriots." In his ' Annals ' he tells us :

"In the second year I knew not what happened to me. I believe' it was then that my mother carried me to Trysul, to consult Dr. Atwood, an, oculist of Worcester."

I am now in a position to produce virtually conclusive evidence as to the very hous& in which Mrs. Harriotts lived at Trysull. This was the Manor House, the old home of the Barnesleys, which, save for some later additions, stands now much as it did two hundred years ago. It is of considerable interest to identify what is probably the first house at which Samuel Johnson stayed after his birth at Lichfield, and provide the-