Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/425

 10 s. vii. MAY 4, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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him in his unhapy situation was to take upon me at his urgent request, to introduce him to you notice & regard; and for y e freedom I shd hop ther needs no apology, all circumstances considered

I most heartily wish y' he may reap al y e advan tag he promises to himself from y 9 recom'endation And in ordr to y s permit me to asure U, y* if U can serv him, U wil do a favour to a man of real merit wch he wil be very thankful for, besides conferinj a singular obligation on me, w ch I shal alway as gratefuly acknowledge as if it hd been don t< myslf. I am w th perfect regard & esteem

Y r obedi't Serv't

J. SWAN.

Was this answered ? If so, is the answer in existence ? Who was Dr. Watts ?

R. SIMMS.

Bibliotheca Staff ordiensis, Newcastle, Staff.

NAPOLEON'S CHESSMEN. We possess a splendid set of chessmen, given by Napoleon at St. Helena in 1816 to my father, William Warden, surgeon R.N., and the author o the ' Letters from St. Helena.' He went out with Napoleon in the Northumberland under Sir George Cockburn, and was at St. Helena for several months.

I have wished for some time to ascertain the history of these chessmen. I find in Mrs. Abell's * Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena ' (she was Elizabeth Balcombe, daughter of Mr. Balcombe, the owner oi the Briars, where Napoleon lived for some months after his arrival) that she was one day summoned by Napoleon to see " some pretty toys " (which may very well have been these chessmen : " Such beautiful workmanship had. never before left China "] " which had been presented to him by Mr. Elphinstone " (apparently on his way home from the East), " as a token of gratitude to the Emperor for having so humanely attended to his brother when severely wounded on the field of Waterloo." I shall be glad to know what Mr. Elphinstone this was. Perhaps some of your readers can help me. GEO. COCKBURN WARDEN.

Morden College, Blackheath.

' LINCOLNSHIRE FAMILY'S CHEQUERED HIS- TORY ' : WALSH FAMILY. The subjoined clipping from The Somerset County Gazette for 2 March seems worthy of preservation in the columns of ' N. & Q.' As, however, the male line of the Walshes still happily flourishes, there must be some more material reason, one would imagine in this instance, than mere superstition to prevent the Grimblethorpe estate continuing in the proper line. What is the mystery ?

" Lincolnshire Family's Chequered History : Somerset connections involved. The following appears in a Sheffield con tern porary : A singular

illustration of a superstition at one time not un- common to English families has occurred in the history of the Lincolnshire family of the Walshes, the last of that name residing in that county having died recently. The family's charter chest takes them back to the Crusader days, and the founder of the family at Grimblethorpe, their Lincolnshire seat, was Sir William le Angevyn, who came over from Normandy in the train of the Angevin kings of England. When Rome quarrelled with John, that king retaliated by seizing such Church lands as he dared, and bestowing them on his Angevin kinsfolk and knights. Among the lands thus seized were the Grimblethorpe estates, and the super- stition referred to is that lands taken from the Church are iinder a ban which prevents them travelling long in the male line. The history of the Grimblethorpe estates has at least shown some sub- stantiation for this superstition. From Sir William le Angevyn the estates descended through a long line of knights until 1452, when the first break in the male line occurred, for the estates devolved on an only heiress, who married Christopher Maddy- sonne, who appear[s] to have been [of J a powerful family in the North, owing knightly service to the then militant bishops of Durham. But after a century of Maddisons, the curse of the Church again manifests its ban, and the estates again devolve on an heiress, who married Ralph Lomax, of Habrough Manor. Yet another hundred years, and again in 1693 the house of Lomax is represented only by an heiress, who married Henry, son of Gen. Walsh, of Lincoln. But after two hundred years of Walshes, again the old superstition is raised, for with the death of Mrs. Walsh, which occurred recently, the estates devolve upon an heiress, who married Capt. M. R. C. Kavanagh some dozen years ago. The head of the Walsh family is Col. Henry Alfred Walsh, C.B., D.A.A.G., lately Commanding the 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry, who is well known in West Somerset, and who is now Chief of the London Recruiting District."

CURIOUS.

' THE PERI ; OR, THE ENCHANTED FOUNTAIN.' I should be very grateful if any of your readers could trace for me the name and family of the author of an opera, brought out, I understand, in the United States, with the above title.

N. DE LA LYNDE. 70, Lord Street, Liverpool.

LIEUT. J. H. DAVIS. Is anything known of the further history, or of the descendants, of John Henry Davis ? He was Lieu- tenant of the Yeomen of the Guard during America in 1820.
 * he later years of George III., and went to

RICHARD H. THORNTON.

POLL-BOOKS. When did these lists come nto existence ? and by whom were they ssued the county or the candidates ? /Vhen did they cease to be printed ? I )ossess a list of Hertfordshire Poll-Books, the dates of which are 1727, 1754, 1761, 1775, 784, 1790, 1802, 1805, and 1833 ; but there