Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/131

 10 s. XL FEB. 6,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

103

Bagnigge Wells, bearing the following in- scription :

S. + T

This is Bagnigge

Hovse neare

The Finder a

Wakefeilde

1680.

Has this stone been preserved ?

JOHN T. PAGE. Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

DR. JOHNSON'S ANCESTORS AND

CONNEXIONS.

(See 10 S. viii. 281, 382, 462 ; ix. 43, 144, 302, 423 ; x. 44, 203, 343, 465.)

Dr. Johnson's Early Visit to Trysull (continued). I think the foregoing account of the descent of the Barnesley estate at Trysull will convince any one that it was at the Manor House that Mrs. Harriotts lived, and that to it the infant Johnson was brought by his mother. There can, moreover, be little doubt that Johnson visited Mrs. Har- riotts when he was older, else he could scarcely have claimed that nowhere else had he seen a " regular family." The Johnsons evidently saw a good deal of Mrs. Harriotts, and we know that she left Mrs. Johnson 40Z. and some useful domestic articles. The Doctor remembered of his father that, " mentioning her legacy in the humility of distress, he called her our good Cowsm Harriots." Try- sull is not very far from Lichfield scarcely twenty miles as the crow flies and from Stourbridge, where Johnson was sent to school in 1725, it is distant but seven miles.

Apart from this evidence, Mrs. Morris tells me that she does not think that Trysull contains any other house in which a lady of some consequence, like Mrs. Harriotts, would be likely to live. But by way of completing the proof Mrs. Morris informs me that the various rooms alluded to in the will of William Barnesley in 1684, in the inventory of his widow's goods in 1697, and in the will of their daughter Mrs. Har- riotts in 1726, as given in my book (pp. 189, 190, 194), accord perfectly with the Manor House, of the ground floor and first floor of which she sends me sketch-plans with all the rooms identified.

The Manor House, Mrs. Morris tells me, is only a short distance frorn Trysull Church, on the road which runs in a westerly direction towards Seisdon. Standing only a stone's throw from the road, it is built partly oi brick and partly of stone, but is now com- pletely covered with stucco. On the beam over the porch is incised the date 1663,

which must have been placed there by- William Barnesley, who six years earlier lad married Dr. Johnson's great-aunt.

Desiring to settle the identity of " Dr. Atwood, an oculist of Worcester," whom Vtrs. Harriotts brought to Trysull to examine Johnson's eyes, I wrote to Mr. T. A. Carless Attwood, M.A., F.S.A., of Sion Hill, Wolver- .ey, near Kidderminster, who has devoted much care to the Attwood pedigree. He tells me that he knows of but one medical Attwood connected with Worcester at that period. This was Dr. Thomas Attwood, of Bevere, in the parish of dairies, and of Powick, both quite close to Worcester, who died an old man in 1765. I find an obituary notice of him in The Gentleman's Magazine for that year (p. 491): "[Sept.] 30. Dr. Atwood, a physician at Worcester, aged 83."

Mr. Attwood tells me that he was a promi- nent Roman Catholic in his neighbourhood,, and is frequently mentioned in papers of the period relating to that body. His age is understated rather than overstated in the obituary, for Mr. Attwood says that his next younger brother, Peter Attwood, was born in 1682. In 1711, when he examined John- son's eyes, Thomas must have been close on thirty years of age.

Dr. Thomas Attwood was a man of good family, eldest son of George Attwood, of Bevere, Esq. (died 17 Feb., 1732, aged 80), by Winifred his wife (died 14 Dec., 1714, aged 77), daughter and heir of the Hon. Thomas Petre, fifth son of William, second Lord Petre. There is a mural monument in Claines Church to George and Winifred Attwood (Nash's ' Worcestershire,' voL ii. Supplement, p. 19) ; on which is also re- corded the death (on 17 Feb., 1707, aged 76) of Mrs. Attwood's sister, Ann Petre, who, Mr. Attwood tells me, in her will of 1706/7, mentions her nephew Dr. Thomas Attwood.

The will of Thomas Attwood, of Powick, co. Worcester, gent., dated 18 Jan., 1763, was, I find, proved on 3 Jan., 1766, in P.C.C. (1 Tyndall), by Thomas Hornyold, of Black- more Park, Esq., one of the executors, power being reserved to the others, who were the testator's wife Frances, and Robert Berkeley, Esq., of Spetchley, co. Worcester. In it he leaves 501. apiece to his nieces Ursula and Mary Attwood : and 100Z. to John Hunter " prentice to Asene the Carpenter in Wor- cester." To his dear wife Frances he leaves 300/., as well as the contents of his house in Powick ; and makes her residuary legatee. To Mr. Thomas Hornyold, of London, packer, and to Mr. John Hornyold, of Longbirch, Staffs, he leaves 500Z. each ; and t* like sum.