Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/17

 10 s. VIIL JULY 6, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the bare statement that he was " born in the City of London on February 21, 1801." Many others simply reiterate this bald fact. The only exceptions, so far as I know, are The Daily Telegraph, which states that he " was born in a house in Bloomsbury Square, the residence of his father," and The Daily News and Morning Post, both of which declare that he was born in Old Broad Street, London.

It may not be out of place to record that a copy of the entry of the baptism of John Henry Newman on 9 April, 1801, from the register of St. Benet Fink in the City of London, was given at 7 S. x. 185.

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

The question asked by Mr. HIBGAME is one that ought (if possible) to be settled, as being of much interest alike to Anglicans and Roman Catholics. Most of the refer- ences available to searchers after truth give no more particulars than those supplied by Dr. Barry in his ' Newman ' ; in fact, it would almost appear as if all who have touched upon this subject had come to the conclusion that no further particulars were forthcoming. Merry England a magazine started somewhere about May, 1883 in its " Newman Number," No. 30, published in October, 1885, followed in the same way, for ' The Landmarks of a Lifetime,' by John Oldcastle, states that John Henry Newman was born in the City of London, 21. Feb., 1801, son of Mr. John Newman (of the banking firm of Ramsbottom, Newman & Co.) and of Jemima Fourdrinier, his wife, and baptized a few yards from the Bank of England. Another " Newman Number," published five years later, in October, 1890, after the Cardinal's death, ' states that the bank was in Lombard Street.

Something more tangible is now to be spoken of. " Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman, during his Life in the English Church, with a Brief Auto- biography, Edited, at Cardinal Newman's request, by Anne Mozley," cannot but be taken as a trustworthy record of this portion of the revered Cardinal's life. In chap, i., devoted to the autobiographical memoir, we are told that

"John Henry Newman was born in Old Broad Street, in the City of London, on February 21, 1801, and was baptized in the church of (St. Benet Fink on April 9, of the same year. His father was a London banker, whose family came from Cam- bridgeshire. His mother was of a French Pro- testant family who left France for this country on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He was the eldest of six children, three boys and three girls."

Some considerable portion of this book had the great benefit of receiving the super- vision of the late Dr. Church, Dean of St. Paul's, to whom Newman had been tutor in their Oxford days, and who knew as much as many men perhaps more than most concerning him and his early days ; so that it may be, I think, taken for granted that this sentence would not have been allowed to pass if it were at all doubtful. Old Broad Street is, beyond all question, entirely changed since that event took place there a hundred and six years ago, so that it may be difficult I hope not im- possible to get at the exact site of the house where the birth took place. The church of St. Benet Fink was in Thread- needle Street ; it was demolished in 1844, " on the re-erection of the Royal Exchange," its parish being " united with that of St. Peter-le-Poer." An illustration of this church appears in ' Old and New London,' vol. i. p. 468. W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.

GEORGE ROMNEY'S HOUSE IN CAVENDISH SQUARE (10 S. vii. 487). The 'Diet. Nat. Biog.' and Mr. Wheatley, in his ' London Past and Present,' state that Romney's house was No. 32 ; but the following extract from Mr. E. B. Chancellor's delightful ' His- tory of the Squares of London,' p. 56, will explain matters :

" Walford, in ' Old and New London,' says No. 24, while Harrison, in his 'Memorable London Houses,' gives it as No. 32. This discrepancy is accounted for by the fact that the old 24, on the renumbering of the houses in 1826, became 32. Thus in the Rate Books for 1769, I find Cotes at No. 24 ; in 1786, Romney at the same house (paying, by-the-bye, 16/. on 120^. rental value) ; and in 1821, Martin Shee at No. 24, whereas in 1828, Martin Shee is given at No. 32."

Romney left the house in Cavendish Square (which should be more accurately de- scribed as No. 24, afterwards No. 32) in 1797, and the lease of the house was purchased by Mr. (afterwards Sir) Martin Archer Shee, the future President of the Royal Academy, who died in the square, according to Mr. Chancellor, in 1850. It was afterwards occupied by Dr. Jones Quain, the great ana- tomist ; but in 1904 the building was demo- lished, and replaced by another on a grander scale, on which a memorial tablet would per- haps be out of place. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

With reference to the subject of my note I have received a communication from Mr. G. L. Gomme, informing me that, although I am correct in stating that the house in Cavendish Square occupied by Romney was numbered 24 during the period