Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/293

 ii s. xii. OCT. 9, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

286-

for debt, when she published an account of her career entitled " An Appeal to the Public on the Conduct of Mrs. C4ooch, Wife of William Gooch, Esqre. Written by Herself," 4to (George Kearsley, March, 1788).

his sister Sarah being baptized Elizabeth- Abraham had only one child, who married William Thomas, the second son of Sir Thomas Gooch, and was divorced by him for misconduct in 1781. She had two sons,.

In November or December, 1792, she pub- j William and Henry Robert. There are no lished "The Life of Mrs. Gooch. Written j descendants living of these two sons. I by Herself. Dedicated to the Public,"

crown 8vo (George Kearsley). The British Museum Catalogue contains a list of three more of her works, i.e., ' Poems on Various Subjects,' by Mrs. Gooch (J. Bell, 1793); ' Wanderings of the Imagination,' by Mrs. Gooch, 2 vols. (B. Crosby, 1796) ; and a Preface to Thomas Bellamy's' Beggar Boy' in 1800, when she was living in Michael's Place, Brompton. Her portrait is given in The Bon Ton Magazine, ii. 105, and there is a long account of her tempestuous life in the same periodical, ii. 105, 137, 163, 212, 244, 299, 327, 370, 433, 456 ; iii. 72, 125, 180, 229, 243, 296. The last reference to her that I have seen occurs in The Morning Post on 5^ April, 1803, where it is stated that she was " bringing out a new edition of her life." For the divorce proceedings against her see ' Journals of the House of Lords,' xxxvi. 218, 219, 221-3, 224.

HORACE BLEACKLEY.

Elizabeth Sarah was the daughter of Abraham, a son of Jose da Costa Villa Real, who in 1726 escaped from Lisbon to avoid falling into the clutches of the Inquisition, and on arriving in London made public profession of Judaism. As a thanksgiving for his delivery he founded and endowed a school for twenty Jewish girls, which exists to the present day, and is known as the Villa Real School. He married Catherine, a daughter of Joseph da Costa of Totteridge, a nephew and son-in-law of Dr. Fernando Mendez, who was Physician in Ordinary to Charles II., and signed the death certificate on his demise. On the death of Jose da Costa Villa Real his widow agreed to become the wife of Jacob, a brother of Emanuel Mendez da Costa, the naturalist, son of her paternal aunt Esther Johanna ; but, declining to keep her word, wa$ sued for breach of promise in the Arches Court of Canterbury. The report of the proceedings, containing her portrait, was issued in book-form, and is to be seen in the British Museum Library. She ultimately married William Mellish of Blythe, Nottingham, by whom she had two sons, named Charles and Joseph. This line is, I believe, extinct. On her marriage she entered the Church, and her son, the aforesaid Abraham, was baptized William,

have her engraved portrait and her armorial

stencil book-plate, Real," with motto

Elizabeth Sarah Villa- Fide sed Vide," and

also that of her son, " Wm. Gooch, Esqr.," an armorial plate with the arms of " Villa Real" on an escutcheon. Her paternal aunt Sarah was the mother of the fourth Viscount Galway, the great-grandfather of the present holder of the dignity. The fourth Viscount was also the maternal grand- father of Lord Houghton, the poet, the- father of the Marquess of Crewe. Mrs. William Mellish's maternal uncle James was the father of Moses Mendez, the poet,, whose grandson in the male line, Sir Francis Bond Head (Head was the maiden name of the poet's wife), was at one time Governor- General of Canada. His grandson Sir Robert Garnet Head is the present holder of

the title.

ISRAEL SOLOMONS.

The following works are attributed to " Elizabeth Sarah Villa Real, a native of Nottinghamshire, and widow of William G. Esq." : ' An Appeal to the Public ont the Conduct of Mrs. Gooch,' 1788 ; her own 'Life,' 3 vols., 1792; 'The Contrast/ a novel, 2 vols., 1795 ; ' The Wanderings of the Imagination/ a novel, 2 vols., 1796 ; ' Truth and Fiction,' a novel, 4 vols., 1801 ; ' The Beggar Boy,' by the late Mr. Thomas Bellamy, with particulars of his life, 3 vols., 1801 ; ' Sherwood Forest, 1 a novel, 3 vols., 1804 ; ' Can We Doubt It ? ' from the French,

a novel, 3 vols., 1804.

W. B. H.

This lady, Elizabeth Sara, was the daughter and heiress of William Villa Real of Edwinstow, Notts. She refers to herself (' Life of Mrs. Gooch,' p. 9) as " the last Villa Real." Her father died when she was " scarcely three years old" ; and her mother, " after four years' 'widowhood," married Capt. Hutchinson of the Durham Militia. (List of Marriages in the Year 1763, Gentle- man's Magazine, xxxiii. 565: William Hut- chinson of Egglestone, Durham, Esq., to Mrs. Villa Real of Edwinstone [sic].) Miss Villa Real married 13 May, 1775, William Gooch, Esq., second son of Sir Thomas Gooch, Bart., of Benacre Park, co. Suffolk (Gentleman's Magazine, Iviii. 237). Her own account of her " misfortunes and errors,'*