Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/363

 ii s. iv. OCT. 28, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

JONATHAN WILD'S " GHOST " (11 S. iv. 308). One appears to detect in the passage quoted by MB. ROBBINS a certain ribald note, but it is natural that with the super- stitious there should arise a belief in the ghosts of those who have not been safely put under the ground. MB. BOBBINS is probably aware that Jonathan Wild's body wai handed over to surgeons for dissection immediately after the execution at Tyburn, and not buried in the ordinary way.

" London, May 26. Yesterday Jonathan Wild, Robert Sperry, William Sandford, and Robert Harpham, were executed at Tyburn. The Mob discover' d a most surprizing Satisfaction When they were assured Wild was to suffer ; for, at his coming into the Cart at Newgate, they set up the loudest Shouts and Huzzas that ever Was heard, which were continued all the Way to the Place of Execution. A Temper very uncommon, and, indeed, very unbecoming, on so melancholy an Occasion. In Holborn he had his Head broke by a Stone thrown from a Window, so that the Blood ran down him ; and other Insults of a barbarous Nature were offered to him. Having, the Night before, taken a great Quantity of Liquid Laudanum to dispatch himself ; he died stupifled and insensible. His Body was carried off by the Surgeons." Daily Journal, No. 1359, May, 1725.

" Last Sunday Morning there was found upon the White-hall Shore, in St. Margaret's Parish, the Skin, Flesh and Entrails (without any Bones) of a human Body ; the Coroner and Jury that sat upon it, ordered it to be bury'd, Which was done on Tuesday last, in the Burying Ground for the Poor, and the Surgeon who attended them, gave it as his Opinion, that it could be no other than the Remains of a dissected Body. It was observed that the Skin of the Breast was hairy, from whence People Conjecture it to be part of the renowned Jonathan Wild." Daily Journal, No. 1369, Saturday, 5 June, 1725.

Alexander Smith, whose ' Life ' of Wild was issued the year after Wild was hanged, appears uncertain as to what ultimately became of Wild's body:

" Never did any Malefactor die so much un- pitied as this Fellow ; his untimely End was unlamented by all ; every Body rejoyced to see him dancing between Heaven and Earth, as un- worthy of either ; and when his detestable Carcass was cut down, so outragious were the Rabble, that they had certainly De-Witted it, or torn him to peices, but that it was by a Strata- gem of his Widow brought away by two Surgeons, who pretended they had an Order to fetch his Body to their Hall to Anatomize it ; which upon this Account was deliever'd to them, and they again deliever'd it to them that Were to Inter it." Capt. Alex. Smith's ' Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Famous Jonathan Wild,' &c., London, 1726, 8vo, p. 22.

" Where he was Buried we cannot learn, for the Funeral Obsequies were privately perform'd, least the Mob knowing where he lies, they should go and pull him Head and Shoulders out of his Grave "Ibid., p. 23.

Wild was himself a constant advertiser in the newspapers during the early years of the eighteenth century. I have seen collec- tions of his advertisements, and the an- nouncement quoted by MB. ROBBINS reads almost like a parody of one of Wild's own advertisements, and may have been inserted by some enemy jubilant at Wild's being now put out of the way. The bitterness against Wild can hardly now be realized, but can be partly understood by such a paragraph as the following :

" I shall here take Notice, that every Execution- Day, Jonathan being mounted on Horse-Back, he would in great Triumph ride a little before the Criminals that were going to die, and at some Taverns in the Way call for half a Pint of Wine, telling the People about him, with the greatest Exultation, and Joy imaginable, that some of his Children were coming, they were just behind : So when he went deservedly to be hang'd, several Thieves went a little before the Cart, telling People, their Father was coming, he 's just behind." Smith's ' Life,' p. 24.

If the Bury Street referred to is Bury Street, St. James's, it seems a curious coincidence that a more famous Jonathan Jonathan Swift had in this same month and year (February, 1726) arrived from Ireland on a visit, and was then living in Bury Street. Was the announcement quoted by MB. ROBBINS a joke ? A. L. HUMPHBEYS.

187, Piccadilly, W.

PTJBVIS SUBNAME (11 S. iv. 290). The O.F. pour- and pro- are identical ; so I suppose that Purvis is another form of Provis. Bardsley equates Provis with Provost, .but I doubt the connexion.

I suggest that Purvis and Provis both represent a Lat. adj. prouisus. The adv. proulso, prudently, occurs in Tacitus ; so that prouisus meant "prudent," and could easily be an epithet or surname, like our Wise. Godefroy's ' Old French Dictionary ' has : " Provis, part, passe, prevoyant." That is to say, the form is that of a past participle, but the sense is " provident " or " prudent." He cites the following example from a MS. of the ' Catholicon ' : " Cir- cumspectus, sages, provis."

This seems to give all that we want.

WALTEB W. SKEAT.

One of the name tells me that Purvis, Purviss, Purves, are various spellings used during the past by the same family. My informant's family is Scottish, the last few generations living as seafaring folk on the east coast, in the neighbourhood of Arbroath.