Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/154

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vn. FEB. re, 1907.

Charles Lamb has told us, " In the cause of the oppressed he never considered inequalities or calculated the number of his opponents." Furthermore, to judge from Lamb's portrait in the Guildhall and from De Quincey's not unfavourable criticism, it would appear that the founders of the family were originally Spanish Jews " Marranos " or crypto-Hebrews furtively practising the religion of their ancestors (after passing through the waters of baptism and swearing fealty to the Apostolic Church) until they were betrayed by the cupidity of spies, and compelled to fly for safety to Holland, whence, later in the seventeenth century, branches of the family migrated to Lincoln, where they settled down and intermarried with local non- Jewish elements.

Within the limits at my disposal, I can only say briefly that there is nothing in Elia's writings, biographical and epistolary, which is a priori incompatible with my hypothesis. The tragedy of his life is the story of Israel retold. His letters in par- ticular are an inexhaustible mine where students of heredity will find ample subject- matter. Such unadulterated humour could only be beaten out on the anvil of profound human agony. Israel is the living embodiment of this. Despite its countless vicissitudes, Israel still retains the heart of its boyhood and the freshness of its youth.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.

THOMAS SEWARD.

A FEW details relating to Thomas Seward (see ante, p. 83) may be added to the notices in the ' D.N.B.' and in the volume of ' Ad- missions to the College of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge,' Part III., ed. by R. F. Scott, 1903.

He was a brother of the William Seward, gent., " companion in travel with the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield," who published in 1740 a journal of a voyage from Savannah to Philadelphia, and from Phila- delphia to England. It is stated in this journal (p. 82) that after Lord Charles Fitzroy's death Thomas Seward was chaplain to a man-of-war commanded by Lord Augustus Fitzroy, and that a benefice worth 400Z. a year was given him by Lord Bur- lington. This was no doubt the rectory of Eyam, which is still in the gift of the Caven- dish family.

It would appear from Dr. Johnson's letter to Taylor and from Gray's letter to

Mason that in 1742, and again in 1755, he- desired to exchange this living for a chap- laincy on the establishment of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, then a Cavendish. (Johnson's ' Letters,' ed. Hill, i. 10 ; Gray's; ' Letters,' ed. Tovey, i. 282). The centenary sermon which he preached in 1766 upon, the- plague at Eyam is referred to in William Seward's ' Anecdotes ' (1798 ed.), ii. 113 %.

A stanza by Dr. Darwin, one line of which sets out that " by Seward's arm the mangled Beaumont bled," is quoted in Ernst Krause's 'Life of Erasmus Darwin' (1887), p, 41. John Byrom on 13 April, 1737, " drank green tea " with him, and talked " about his correction upon ' Timon ' " ('Remains,' ii. pt. i. 104). A long letter from him to Sir William Bunbury, pointing out in the- name of Sir Thomas Hanmer some mistakes in Warburton's edition of Shakespeare, is; in Hanmer's ' Correspondence,' pp. 352-70.

Seward's wife died on 31 July, 1780, aged 66. His second daughter died June' 1764, aged 19, "on the eve of her nuptials." Mother and daughter were buried in the " lady-choir " of Lichfield Cathedral. Several: other daughters and one brother died in infancy (Gent. Mag., 1781, p. 624 ; 1809,. pt. i. 378). Seward wrote the poetical inscription on the temporary monument to Gilbert Walmesley (ib., 1785, pt. i. 166).

When Green was made Bishop of Lincoln the claims of Seward, their common friend, to a prebendal stall in that cathedral were urged upon him by Bishop Newton. Green promised to keep them in mind, but said that he was " then engaged eleven deep." When fifteen years had passed the bishop offered Seward a stall, but he asked that he might waive his claim in favour of Hunter, his wife's nephew (Newton, ' Autobiog ' 1782 ed., pp. 113-14).

Anna Seward left to Sir Walter Scott a manuscript collection of her father's poems,. some of which were unpublished (' Poems : of Anna Seward,' i. p. iv, &c.).

W. P. COURTNEY.

WESTMINSTER CHANGES, 1906. (See ante, p. 81.)

THE Millbank end of Horseferry Road remains as in the previous year, and the changes likely to take place at the other end have not begun, though a portion of Broad- wood's pianoforte factory is now being utilized by the garage of the London Electro- bus Company. Nos. 69, 71, 73, and 75 in.