Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/496

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vn MAY 25, 1907.

to his daughter ; another named Beyer a linendraper of London, who died in 1791 and a third, named Jonathan Gilpin, who deceased in Bath, 1790. The last was mentioned in 1878 by the London papers at the time of the rebuilding of " The Bell ' at Edmonton. It was then stated that he was the original of a " train-band captain." It will be noticed that there is a similarity between this Gilpin, as regards the date o: his death, and the one who left the 20,000? Now it appears to me that the dates of the death of these so-called originals of Cowper's Gilpin put the whole of them " out of court.' Lady Austin told Cowper a story which she had treasured in her memory from her childhood. This lady, at the period, was at least fifty years of age, and it is improbable that she would have heard the story in her childhood as told of persons who were con- temporaneous or nearly so.

The ballad was written in 1782, but was not generally made public till two or three years after. On the authority of Southey's life and works of Cowper, we learn that Mr. Unwin, to whom Cowper sent ' John Gilpin,' wrote that it " made him laugh tears." Cowper replied " that a laugh that hurts nobody has at least the grace of novelty to recommend it."

Clearly the gentle and timid youth ; the modest and shy young man ; the constitu- tionally melancholy elderly man, whose public exhibition of himself was as "mortal poison " ; the man who loved the poor : the man with whom Mr. Newton lived in close communion for twelve years, confessing that for the first half he daily admired and endeavoured to imitate Cowper, and saying, " The last six I walked pensively with him in the valley of the shadow of death," was not the man likely to bring a living person into such world-wide ridicule as he did " John Gilpin.'.' Mrs. Unwin, Cowper's amiable friend, was the sister of John Unwin, at whose residence she said she met the Rev. Wm. Gilpin. There are several Unwins who lie in St. John's Churchyard, Croydon.

The house in which John Gilpin lived at Thornton Heath, in the county borough of Croydon, was standing about eight years ago. An inscription on it recorded that it was " Gilpin' s," and the picture of the old house has been reproduced on post cards.

In the register of Croydon Parish Church we find that a " Luke Gylpin " was christened in 1621. There is also in Croydon Parish Church a chalice, which I saw a few days ago, with an inscription on the bottom,

to the effect that it was the gift of "Mr. John Gilpin, of Croydon." It was, I believe,, this John Gilpin, or one of his family, who figured in Cowper's lines, and who bought or owned the estate of " Collier's Water."

In another record I find the entry,. " Payde for the Lorde quit rent to Mr, Gilpin." This was in 1636.

With these facts before us, is it not most probable that John Gilpin of Croydon was the hero of Lady Austin's story, which had been handed down from one generation ta another, and which she remembered " from her childhood," and related to Cowper, who- founded his ballad upon it ?

It is perhaps remarkable that for the world generally ' John Gilpin ' won, if it does not retain, affection over any other of the same author's poems. In 1785 ' A Second Holiday for John Gilpin ' was published, certainly inferior to Cowper's original. It was repro- duced at 5 S. xii. 161, 202, above the signa- ture J. W. EBSWORTH.

ALFRED CHAS. JONAS. Thornton Heath.

MRS. ANNE WRIGHT AND VOTES FOR WOMEN. Who was she ? In the ' Cata- logue of Printed Broadsides ' in the posses- sion of the Society of Antiquaries are two issued, as it seems, by this lady, advocating the parliamentary franchise for women. They were printed in 1850. Are these her only contributions to the literature of the subject ? N. M. & A.

ORDINARIES OF NEWGATE. As far as I am aware, there is no complete list of these interesting functionaries. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the post was held by the Rev. Paul Lorrain, the author of so many dying speeches and confessions, who reigned from September, 1698, till October, 1719. He was succeeded as ordi- nary by one Purney or Pureny, who lives

fame as the clergyman that accompanied Jack Sheppard to Tyburn, and whose portrait has been preserved both by Ains- worth and Cruikshank. From' this date,. 16 Nov., 1724, I can recollect no name until
 * he time of the Rev. Stephen Roe, who

officiated at the execution of John Ayhffe, he unjust steward, hanged on 7 Nov., 1759. After Roe, who died in October, 1764, came
 * he Rev. John Moore. Upon the death of

Moore in June, 1769, the Rev. John W T ood vas appointed Ordinary ; but his tenure of )ffice must have been brief. He was lucceeded by the Rev. John Villette the greatest name perhaps in the calendar who leld the position for almost thirty years.