Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/419

 10 s. XIL OCT. so, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

343

These refused to hand over the Court Rolls, surveys, terriers, and evidences, though often required. He prays for a subpoena against them (Chanc. Proc. Series II. Bundle 291, No. 8, 30 Jan., 1594).

So Giles Alleyn, armiger, had a good many experiences in the law courts to sharpen his wits in his dealings with the Burbages. He was evidently just the sort of man to be full of suggestions for the dramatic poet who observed all things, pompous, jealous of his own rights and dignity, sharp in practice with others, choleric in temper, and hasty in action. His indignation at being outwitted by the Burbages, whom he had tried to outwit, knew no bounds. The story of his illegal actions, calumnious charges, and frantic impatience I have elaborated elsewhere. He had several other suits when he was done with the Burbages.

The Baconians often ask, " Where did Shakespeare learn his law ? " I have attempted to answer in three chapters : 1st, ' Shakespeare's Aunts and Snitterfield,' Athenceum, 24 July and 14 Aug, 1909 ; 2nd, * The Burbages and the Transportation of the Theatre,' Athenceum of the 16th inst. The third, ' Shakespeare's Lawsuits,' I am preparing.

Giles Alleyn died at Haseley 27 March, 1608. His Inq. P.M. taken at Brentwood, 16 July, 6 James I., 1608, is entered as Inq. P.M. 7 James I., Part I. No. 163. He left two sons and three daughters Samuel, Isaac, "Rebecka," Mary, Anne. His wife Sara survived him and could claim Holywell. His eldest son and heir Samuel was forty- two years of age. C. C. STOPES.

SAMUEL RICHARDSON AND CHRIST'S HOSPITAL.

(Concluded from p. 303. )

IT is now time to come to grips with Nichols and try to dicover what justifica- tion he had for the statement in his ' Literary Anecdotes.' The ' Anecdotes,' as is well known, were an expansion of Nichols's own ' Anecdotes of William Bowyer,' issued in one volume in 1782. The account of Richardson in that work opens thus (p. 156) :

" Mr. Samuel Richardson, who was born in 1689, had no acquaintance with the learned languages but what a common school-education afforded ; his mind, like that of Shakspeare, being much more enriched bv nature and observa- tion."

It will be immediately noticed that this sentence is almost identical with that already quoted from the ' Anecdotes,'

with the exception that in the later work the words " a common school-education ' r have been replaced by " an education in the grammar school of Christ's Hospital." It is, therefore, clear that in 1782 Nichols had no suspicion of Richardson's being an " Old Blue," and that the idea must^have taken root in his brain at some later date. The question, therefore, arises, From what source did Nichols derive his information ?

A satisfactory answer is not far to seek. In The Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1783 (part ii. pp. 924-5), appeared a short article on Samuel Richardson, in which, we read :

" Mr. Richardson having not had the advantage- of a complete education (as the situation and circumstances of his father [foot-note. A farmer in Derbyshire] would not allow him to bestow it [foot-note. He was educated at Christ's Hospital], Dr. Young, to whom he was recounting the various difficulties he had passed through, asking; him, ' How he came to be an author ? ' He- answered," &c.

There can be little doubt that the foot- note to this article is the source from which Nichols derived his information. So that now we must inquire, Is the evidence of this foot-note of any value ?

Here, again, fortune favours us, and sup- plies us with the weightiest refutation of the statement that could have been obtained at that date. In The Gentleman's Magazine for the following year, 1784, was inserted the following short, but conclusive letter (part ii. p. 488) :

July 13.

MR. URBAN,

The family of the late Mr. Samuel Richardson observing in your Magazine for November last, p. 924, that you have, by mis- information, been led into an error respecting that gentleman's birth and education, think it necessary (for the present) only to say, that though he was born in Derbyshire, his family were not originally of that county ; that his father was not a farmer ; and that Mr. Richardson had a private grammar-school education in the neigh- bourhood of the place of his birth, and was originally intended for the church.

Your early insertion of this will much oblige Yours, &c.,

M. B.

That this letter was written by Richard- son's daughter Martha, wife of Edward Bridgen, can scarcely be disputed. Thus the whole evidence for Richardson's having been educated at Christ's Hospital dwindles down to a mere foot-note which his own daughter emphatically contradicted. The other foot-note immediately adjoining it, which describes the novelist's father as a value, for Samuel Richardson the elder is
 * ' farmer," is a sufficient commentary on its