Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/396

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. v. APRIL 28, igoe.

it could not have occurred earlier than 11 January, 1736/7, for the parish registers show that his infant daughter Sophia, bap- tized at the end of November, was buried on that day at Hemingford. Since he had inherited the freehold estates on the decease of his brother George in 1731, the death of a relative, as is sometimes surmised, could not have called him over to succeed to the pro- perty. With the help of the documents preserved in the Dublin Record Office the time of his hegira may be fixed approxi- mately. In a lease dated 1 February, 1741, lie is described as John Gunning, of the Middle Temple (for it should be remembered that he was admitted a member on 3 Novem- ber, 1725) ; while on 10 March of the same ?ear he is particularized in another lease as ohn Gunning, of Abbeytown^ co. Roscommon. There seems to have been a special reason why he should have gone to reside on or near his Connaught properties about this period. In the deed of settlement of August, 1751, necessitated by the demise of the spend- thrift George, his brother Barnaby iiad agreed for certain considerations to discharge all the debts affecting the fee-simple estate within the space of ten years. Such a surmise may seem of no value in view of the character of the man, but certainly it is a coincidence that he should have returned to Roscommon during the very year that his property was freed from its encumbrances.

It is also a curious fact, bearing in mind the old-established belief that he came over to Ireland to live in the home of his fathers at Castle Coote, that he should be described as John Gunning, of Abbeytown, a portion of the town of Roscommon situated near the old abbey. The two deeds quoted above are not isolated instances. In no fewer than three other legal documents during the years 1742-3 the same place is given as his residence. Every other lease and conveyance concerning the family is scrupulousy accurate in its de- scriptions, and the various properties par- ticularized as the homes of the brothers at different periods Castle Strange, Clooniburn, Holy well were all included in the Gunning estates. Thus it would appear a reasonable conjecture that John Gunning took up his abode with his beautiful daughters in " the house and garden called the New Inn at Abbeytown," which is named in the instruc- tive deed of settlement. Never once is he identified with Castle Coote, although his different residences in Dublin, Westminster, and Somerset House can be traced in many documents ; and as late as August, 1765 {vol. ccxli. fol. 214, No. 158,228), he is de-

scribed, by reason of his home when a bachelor, as John Gunning, of Castle Strange.

In the absence of further evidence I cannot believe that his beautiful daughters ever resided at Castle Coote.

HORACE BLEACKLEY.

Fox Oak.

ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE, SIR WALTER

SCOTT'S PUBLISHER. THE following facts concerning Archibald Constable are all founded upon documentary evidence, and I deem it expedient to record them in permanent form for ready reference by all interested in accurate literary history. It is the more necessary to do so in con- sequence of incorrect statements in an article in a weekly publication issued in London on 20 January last.

Reference was there made to " the print- ing business of T. & A. Constable, the Edinburgh University Press, founded by his [Archibald Constable's] son Thomas ; a grandson, Archibald Constable, is a partner in this firm."

My dearly beloved uncle Thomas Con- stablemy second father, in truth did not found the business in question. It is the continuation of the business founded by, and carried on at that classical printing press in Craig's Close, Edinburgh, by my paternal great-grandfather, David Willison. Thomas Constable served his apprenticeship in Mr. Richards's press, 100, St. Martin's Lane, London, and, by the advice of the late Thomas Thompson, James Gibson Craig, and another, took over, in the late thirties, what then remained of the connexion, staff, plant, and so forth of the Craig's Close concern, from " the heirs of David Willison," who then were my great-aunt Jean Willison and my uncle David Constable, an Edin- burgh advocate, to both of whom Thomas

onstable regularly paid annuities, the amounts of which had been settled by Messrs. Thompson and James Gibson Craig. David Willison was the first printer nay, great deal more than that, as recorded by Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, Cockburn, and others of The Edinburgh Review, that great work which owed so much to my grandfather in every detail of its conception and birth. I "lave some curious documents relating to David Willison, whose only son also named David was given a commission in the Honourable East India Company's military service, Madras establishment, by that ' universal provider " for his political friends, Lord Dundas, and was massacred at Vellore. 3apts. David Willison and George Constable