Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/128

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 . xn. AUG. u, 1915.

SYLVESTER DOUGLAS WILSON. Sylvester Douglas Wilson of the Ceylon Civil Service, Assistant Resident and Magistrate of Badulla, was killed by a party of Kandyans, who received him with a volley of arrows as he was advancing to have a conference with them at their own request. This was on 16 Sept., 1817, and it was the be- ginning of the Uva Rebellion, which took two years to suppress. His wife Sophia, of Stratford-on-Avon," had died, at the age of 24, on 24 May of the same year at Badulla, where her tombstone is still to be seen. This, a " table tomb," with tablet at the end, is completely encircled by a bo tree (Ficus religiosa), which holds the memorial tablet " firmly clasped in a perfectly upright position," while some of the bricks of the tomb have been lifted up into the tree to a height that can hardly be reached with a walking-stick. The inscription is quite legible, the tree having served to protect it. They were married at the parish church of Stratford-on-Avon on 2 March, 1811, and the register describes the bridegroom as of the parish of Fulham, Middlesex. There are portraits of Edmund Battersbee and of his wife, whose Christian names were Marie Sebastienne Sophie, and also two sketches of their house, " Avonbank," at Stratford, exhibited on the walls of the Museum at New Place, Stratford. One of them was made before 1840. Mr. F. C. Wellstood of Strat- ford gives me the following information :
 * ' daughter of Edmund Battersbee, Esq.,

"Edmund Battersbee in partnership with

William George Morris, kept the first banking establishment in Stratford. The bank was situated in the building now known as New Place Museum, adjoining the vacant site of Shakespeare's last home, and the Battersbees lived for some time in the next house on the other side Julius Shaw's house. The Battersbees do not seem to have been

natives of Stratford Edmund Battersbee died

on Nov. 10th, 1812. A decayed mural tablet on the outside of the church under the east window gives his age as 69 years."

His only other child was a son, Thomas- who became a lieutenant 'in the Roj-al Engineers. In 1824, and probably earlier, Lieut. Battersbee was residing " near Ayr in Scotland," and there were no Battersbees at Stratford after this date.

" Edmund Battersbee first obtained a lease of the premises which he occupied in Chapel Street in the year 1800, and after his death a new lease was granted by the Mayor and Corporation to his widow, executors, and partner, Morris, for a term of seventeen years .... Edmund Battersbee was possessed of a great deal of property in and near Stratford. In the eighties or nineties of the eighteenth century he had purchased the old college of Stratford (which stood near the church)

of John, Earl of WaP.vick, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, but, to the great regret of the inhabitants of Stratford, he caused this historic building to be entirelv demolished in the years 1799 and 1800."

The " Avonbank " depicted in the sketches in the Museum

" stood north of the churchyard, and was anciently known as ' the house of St. Mary in Old Town.' It was taken down in 1866, and the present ' Avonbank ' built some thirty yards or so away from the old site."

I have given all these details about the Battersbees in the hope that they may elicit particulars from your correspondents as to the- pedigree and antecedents of S. D. Wilson ; with a view too, if possible, of obtaining a portrait of him for the Colombo Museum or the Badulla Kachcheri, where it should be of as much interest as those of his wife's- parents in the Museum at Stratford.

PENRY LEWIS.

POBTUGUESE BIBLIOGRAPHERS. 1 should

be obliged for the dates of birth and death of the following Portuguese bibliographers : 1. F. de P. Ferreirada Costa. What were his. Christian names ? 2. Innocencio Francisco da Silva. 3. Ribeiro dos Sanctos. What was his Christian name ?

ISRAEL SOLOMONS. "

QUEEN MARIA SOPHIA ISABELLA, SECOND WIFE OF DOM PEDRO II. OF PORTUGAL. I should be obliged for the date of her birth and death, and particulars of parentage. ISRAEL SOLOMONS.

LILLIPUT IN DORSETSHIRE. As readers of ' N. & Q.' doubtless know, there is a small district, with a post office of its own, near Parkstone, Dorset, called Lilliput. In the adjacent town of Poole, and in other neigh- bouring towns, such as Christchurch, there live families of Gullivers, a family name which has existed for centuries in those parts. I have often wondered if Swift had seen or heard of these two names, and used them for his immortal work. Or is Lilliput merely a name of modern invention for the district, as fitting to go harmoniously with the long-descended Gulliver ? A. R.

JOHN WHITFIELD, GENT. Is anything known of this personage ? His will, proved in the Commissary Court of Canterbury, 1692, vol. Ivi. f. 35, mentions that he built his chambers in Brick Court, Middle Temple, which were entered to the society in the name of his nephew Francis Lovelace. He be- queathed to Canterbury, his native city, several fire engines he had invented. He