Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/426

 350

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vn. MAY 4, 1907.

were probably others. Any references to books or articles dealing with poll-books will be valued. W. B. GERISH.

Bishop's Stortt'ord.

WHITLAS OF GOBRANA, Co. ANTRIM. This family settled in Crumlin about 1650, and sold the property in 1863. Are they descendants of Whitelaw, Baron Bothwell ? Why did the e and w drop out of the spelling ? Were the arms of Bothwell and Whitlas the same ? if so, when granted ? The name Whitlaw is on the map near the old Bothwell property. A. C. H.

HOUSE OF BENTHAM AND JAMES MILL. In Alexander Bain's ' Life of James Mill ' I observe it stated (p. 73) that at the house " No. 1, Queen Square, now 40, Queen Anne's Gate," resided Jeremy Bentham and James Mill.

The actual house is, I believe, still existing, but a careful examination recently of its exterior failed to discover any plaque or memorial of the residence of those great men. Is there not a society that looks after these things, and puts up memorial tablets where necessary ? M. H. T.

[The L.C.C. has now taken in hand this work, formerly looked after by the Society of Arts. Several tablets recently erected have been recorded in ' N. & Q.' under ' Houses of Historical Interest.']

HANNAH LIGHTFOOT : A PORTRAIT

(10 S. vii. 289.)

IN J. Bridgman's ' Sketch of Knole (1817), p. 45, there is the following descrip tion of the picture to which MR. ARTHUR REYNOLDS has referred :

"Portrait of Miss Axford. This is the fai. Quaker noticed by his Majesty when Prince o Wales."

This description is not satisfactory Hannah Lightfoot married one Isaac Axford of St. Martin's, Ludgate, at Keith's Chape on 11 Dec., 1753 ; v. ' Register of Baptism and Marriages at St. George's Chapel Mayfair,' Harleian Soc. (1889), p. 266. I has been suggested previously in ' N. & Q that the picture at Knole does not represen Hannah Lightfoot, but depicts one of th numerous mistresses of John Frederick third Duke of Dorset (1745-99); an hitherto no light has been thrown upon th history of the portrait.

The mystery of Hannah Lightfoot ha

een discussed exhaustively in these pages, the following references testify :

1 S. vii. 595; viii. 87, 281 ; ix. 233 ; x. 28, 328, 4 20, 532 ; xi. 454.

2 S. i. 121, 322.

3 S. iii. 88 ; xi. 11, 62, 89, 110, 131, 156, 96, 218, 245, 342, 362, 446, 484, 503 ; xii. 7, 260, 369.

4 S. ii. 403 ; vi. 28.

5 S. iii. 6 ; iv. 162 ; v. 62. 6S.ii. 221; iv. 164.

8 S. ii. 264, 334, 453, 531 ; iii. 76.

9 S. iv. 54.

The debate in the Third Series is memor- ble on account of the passage of arms etween MR. J. HENEAGE JESSE and MR. V. J. THOMS, in which, it must be confessed, lie latter had the worst of it.

Some time since I devoted a couple of months to the study of the subject, and as a ew interest has been awakened I propose n due course to tell the story once more.

Knole or Knowle Park is near Sevenoaks, n Kent, and was the seat of the Dukes of Dorset. HORACE BLEACKLEY;

Fox Oak, Hersham, Surrey.

The hall referred to is Knole (sometimes spelt Knowle), Sevenoaks.

In a commonplace book of mine is an extract from (?) a newspaper, which would ill about two and a half columns of ' N. &. Q.,* ntitled ' A Royal Amour ; or, the History of the Fair Quakeress.' The following is the first paragraph :

" The only authentic portrait known of this ad- mired fair one, the early favourite of George the Third, when Prince of Wales, is at Knowle Park,
 * he seat of Lady Plymouth. It is described as the

' Portrait of Hannah Lightfoot,' that being her married name. How it came into the possession of that noble family, none of the present race are able to explain, 'it is, however, suspected to have been sent there by Edward Duke of York, the brother of George the Third, before his marriage to the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, as a deposit for safe preservation until it could be disposed of elsewhere. The picture has been attributed to Gainsborough ; but if so, it must have been an early production of that clever artist. The late Duke, Frederick of York, had a beautiful enamel from this portrait mounted in the lid of a snuff-box, which, after his death, was in the posses- sion of George the Fourth, and might now, perhaps, be found at Bifrons, the seat of the Dowager Marchioness of Conyngham."

As usual in old commonplace books, the extract is not dated. The neighbouring extracts point to about 1837-45. Later in the extract it is recorded that Hannah Light- foot (nee Wheeler) " returned to Kew, where she assumed the name of Axford."

In Murray's ' Handbook for Travellers