Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/449

 us. vin. DEC. 6, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

443

usual fee ; being (as I afterwards found) admitted

like a poor at a Play, or an Author at a

Nobleman's Table, in Forma Pauperis ; while Numbers of bedridden Ladies and Gentlemen were. continually sending hither their Servants for Intelligence, each leaving the full value of every paper, as a Hostage for the safe return of it'."

The reference to " the Labours of the Learned Authors. .. .were retail' d here" may be aimed at some review or com- pendium issued in parts, or even that clever skit 011 the Royal Society, ' Useful Transac- tions in Philosophy,' &c., which, commencing January, 1709, were "to be continued monthly, as they sell," and survived for five issues. This long description at least identi- fies a system of lending these parts or the newspapers, but that hardly constitutes a Lending Library. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

ADMIRAL SIR THOMAS HOPSON (1643-1717).

THE particulars of the family of this dis- tinguished officer given in the ' D.N.B.' being so scanty, it may be of general interest to publish the following details, and at the same time to inquire if anything further is known, particularly as regards his parentage and marriage, and whether at the present day he has any living descendants.

According to Hopson's monument at Wey- bridge, Surrey, he was born at Lingewood (Xingwood) in the parish of Shalfleet, Isle of Wight, where the following baptism is recorded : ' : 1643, April 6. Thomas son of C'apt. Anthony Hopsonne." We know from Berry's ' Hants Genealogies ' that Anthony Hopson was a younger son of Thomas Hopson of Xingwood by Mary, daughter of Anthony Jenkinson, the celebrated tra- veller. It is not clear whom Hopson married. Berry's volume, at p. 157, gives Anne, daughter of Col. Skelton ; but the wife who survived him. and who appears by her will to have been the mother of his children, v.;is named Elizabeth. The arms on the monument at Weybridge are Hopson im- paling Quarterly, arg. and gules, in the first quarter an escallop. This suggests Timperley of Suffolk, though the Shelton family of Dublin bore arms somewhat similar ; certainly there is no resemblance to the arms of Skelton.

Sir Thomas Hopson had eight children :

1. Mary, born 20 Dec., 1682 ; married

before 1705 Capt. John Watkins of H.M.S.

Devonshire, who was killed in an engagement

with the French 10 Oct., 1707 ; she died 1 Aug., 1715, aged 32, was buried at Wey- bridge, and left a son George Watkins, who- died at Fareham in 1775.

2. Elizabeth, born 15 July, 1686 ; married by licence (Faculty Office) at Weybridge, 22 Feb., 1710/11, Capt. John Goodall of H.M.S. Milford (son of David and Lydia of Shalfleet, I. Wight, where he was born in 1679); his will was proved in 1729 (P.C.C.); she died at Gosport in 1758, having had issue four daughters and two sons ; her only grandchild known to have survived infancy was Thomas Hugh Dowdeswell.

3. Charles, born 21 April, 1688.

4. Ann, born 24 Feb., 1692 ; married first in 1714 Capt. Edward Story, R.X., of Biggleswade, who d. s.p. 1727 (will proved P.C.C.); she remarried at Great Queen's Chapel in Oxenden Street, London, 22 Dec., 1730, William Benett of Fareham, who died 5 June, 1736 ; she died in 1763, leaving an only child, Sir William Benett, whose issue is extinct.

5. Grace, born 22 Aug., 1693; died un- married at Fareham in 1768 (will proved P.C.C.).

6. Peregrine Thomas, born 5 June, 1696 ; named Peregrine after his two godfathers,, the Dukes of Leeds and Ancaster; was successively colonel of 29th Regiment and 40th Regiment of Foot ; became Major- General ; was Governor of Nova Scotia 1752-5; died in command of troops at Guadaloupe, West Indies, 27 Feb., 1759, and was buried in the chancel of St. Michael's Church, Barbadoes, on Monday, 19 March, 1759 (will proved P.C.C.).

7. James, born 27 Nov., 1700 ; was living in 1717.

8. Martha, born 6 Jan., 1701/2; was living in 1740.

Sir Thomas Hopson spent the latter part of his life at Weybridge, where he is said to have built Vigo House, near the church, the ground plan of which formed his own initial H, and the little square windows were made to remind him of his ship the Torbay, which broke the boom at Vigo Harbour 12 October, 1702. He died there 12 Oct., 1717, aged 74, and was buried 17 Oct., with other members of his family, in a vault which he had built some time before. A monument was erected in the chancel of the old church to his memory by his widow Elizabeth, who died 30 March, 1740, aged 79, and was buried with her husband 4 April following. The wills of