Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/135

 n s. xn. A W. u, IBIS.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

12?

He belonged to the Madras Civil Service, and accompanied the expedition against Ceylon in 1795 as Paymaster. He afterwards held various civil appointments in Ceylon from 1799 to 1805 or thereabouts, but re- turned to Madras, and died there on 5 Aug. 1814. He was Collector of Mannar in 1799, but got into trouble with the Governor (Xorth), who suspended him, and wanted to dismiss him. Major-General Macdowall inter- ceded for him, and eventually he was rein- stated, and in 1805 was acting as Paymaster- General. When exactly did he return to the Madras Civil Service, and was he related to the General ?

Referring to MR. PENNY'S remarks at 11 S. vii. 496, I am glad to hear that some military opinions are more favourable to General Hay Macdowall than those I had seen, but it can hardly be predicated of myself that I had formed any estimate of his capacity, good or bad, even if such estimate were worth anything. I merely quoted 'Certain opinions of him, both favourable and unfavourable, and stated what seemed to be a fact, that he had "made a hash of the first Kandyan War," but I qualified this by adding " though perhaps it was hardly his fault."

Appropriately enough, Peter Bonnevaux, who preceded him in the command of troops at Trincomalee in 1782, also preceded him in the command of the troops " on the Island of Ceylon." Lieut.-Col. Bonnevaux, late of the 10th Madras Native Infantry, was in command at Colombo for a few weeks in June- July, 1797,. after the death of Major-General Welbore Ellis Doyle. He was killed by " the upsetting of his curricle" on 12 July, 1797. PENBY LEWIS.

WILL WATCH (US. ii. 269, 353 ; iii. 492; iv. 35). At the firsfc reference MR. R. M. HOGG asked for " information about this bold smuggler, the hero of many nautical ballads." At the second the EDITOR OF ' THE IRISH BOOK LOVER ' writes of an Irish " Will Watch " who, it appears to me, can have nothing to do with the Cornishman. At iii. 492 I enumerated all the Will Watches I could find. MR. HOGG and I have now, we think, got somewhat further, and possibly solved the question.

Curiously enough, not long after his note I happened to come across a copy of a pamphlet of which the following is the full title :

"The UoU Smuggler; or the history of Will Watch; together with th.- Advi-niuivs of Capt. Mallinson, commonly known as the Black Spectre !, on his ivtuni to his native nmutry after

nearly twenty years' absence, was the means of detecting the Villany and Hardihood of a Band of daring Smugglers, and providentially arriving at the moment when the Villain, to whom he had entrusted his daughter Mary, was about to swear her life away ; also the villain's artifice, in causing the unfortunate Girl to take a secret oath, the fulfilment of which had destroyed her, but for the exertions of Levi Lyons, a travelling Jew Pedlar. London : printed by and for Wil- liam Cole, Xo. 10, Newgate Street. Sixpence." 12mo, pp. 24.

This title is so artfully laid out with several varieties of capital letters that one unconsciously emphasizes the paragraphs w r hich inspire a shudder of horror.

MR. HOGG is now the happy possessor of this (from the bookseller's point of view) valuable chap-book, originally priced at 6d. ; it consists of twenty-four closely printed duodecimo pages. MR. HOGG writes me that,

" notwithstanding the price, he is very well satisfied, as the pamphlet definitely settles the origin of the Will Watch myth, and ? that there never w r as any such person in real life."

He has also

" lately acquired Peter Buchan's ' Peterhead Smugglers,' in which Will Watch figures; as also the Jew, though he is not of the benevolent type. Buchan's is evidently modelled on that of Will Watch, with local colour and dress."

I do not find ' The Peterhead Smugglers ' in the National Library Catalogue, but in a " Catalogue of the private library of

Peter Buchan. . . .sold by auction 1837,"

a copy occurs in lot 910 with this title : ' The Peterhead Smugglers of the Last Century,' a melodrama, in three acts, with poems and songs, 1834.

I have read the first -named pamphlet and consider Will Watch to be of the " blood-and- thunder " type, all the incidents hopelessly improbable and beyond criticism. Will Watch is represented as a Cornish smuggler of 18 years of age, who, nevertheless, " was generally known in every seaport in Cornwall by the name of the Bold Smuggler." "He is said to be of an amiable disposition, and " by no means vulgar or offensive in the company of women." A prominent character is a Jew pedlar, who purchases smuggled goods, and befriends the smugglers in so benevolent a manner that he is called " honest Levi Lvons, the just- Jew."

When. we remember that " the Minories " (London) Mas at the time this was written, and si ill is, inhabited by persons of the Hebrew faith, who would be the principal purchasers of the pamphlet, we can see the usefulness of this high praise of a Jew.