Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/10

 NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. V. JAN. 6, 1912.

(John's son ?) and Joseph Calkin, book- sellers to the King, to build the house 118 (which has always been so numbered). It is therefore not without its irony that the house of Bvidd, imprisoned in 1810 in the name of the Army, should fall into the hands of an Army club a century later. I may note that the firm, on moving to 118, Pall Mall, became Calkin & Budd names that seem to come straight out of Dickens.

These booksellers were followed during the fifties by the St. George Life and Title Assur- ance Company, which in turn was succeeded in 1863 by the old firm of wine merchants, Christopher & Co. It started in Mile End and was long established in Great Coram Street: it has now moved to 43, Pall Mall.

It would not be of sufficient interest to detail all the tenants of No. 118, but, as a wide generalization, I may note the dominance of War, in the shape of old officers like General G. Tito Brice, C.B., and General Sir George Young, K.C.B. (d. 1911); and Peace, in the shape of the India Association, with which Mr. William Irving Hare (b. 1821), who had offices in the house for forty-four years, was connected, and the Waldensian Missions, for which Col. Martin Frobisher held offices here for thirty-four years. Messrs. Henry & Sons, of Martini-Henry fame, also had offices for fifteen years ; and Lieut. -Col. William Henry Lockett Hime, R.A., the many-sided his- torian of the Royal Artillery, previously occupied the same chambers as the present writer, who, though a mere civilian, has spent many years on planning a biographical dictionary of all Gordons who have borne commissions under the title of ' The Gordons under Arms,' to be issued by the New Spalding Club, Aberdeen. Messrs. Watson, Lyall & Co., the Scots estates agents, had offices here for many years, and have now moved up the street. The house was form- ally evacuated on 31 Dec., 1911.

J. M. BULLOCH.

123, Pall Mall, S.W.

JAMES TOWNSEND, M.P.

JAMES TOWNSEND (1737-87), another City alderman and Whig politician, was, like Trecothick (see 11 S. iii. 330), a Wilkite, but no friend of Wilkes. He represented in City life the views of Lord Shelburne, afterwards the Marquess of Lansdowne, with whom he was connected in sentiment from about 1760 (Fitzmaurice, ' Shelburne,' ii. 287-92 ; 'Bentham's Works,' x. 101).

His father Chauncy Townsend was a " considerable merchant in Austin Friars," and a member of the Mercers' Company, having been admitted to the freedom in 1730, after apprenticeship to Richard Chauncy. He was put on the Livery on 14 July, 1738, and was called to the Court of Assistants on 15 March, 1754. From 1747 to 1768 he was member of Parliament for Westbury in Wiltshire ; and from Decem- ber, 1768, to his death he represented the Wigtown Burghs. George Augustus Selwyn had been returned for the latter at the general election, but he preferred to repre- sent the city of Gloucester, and Townsend is said to have been the first Englishman who sat in Parliament for a constituency in Scotland. Unlike his son, he supported the Court. His wife was Bridget, daughter of James Phipps, Governor of Cape Coast Castle. She died on 17 January, 1762; he survived until 28 March, 1770 (Horace Wai- pole, 'Memoirs of George III.,' ed. 1894, iii. 112).

James Townsend was baptized at St. Christopher le Stocks, London, on 8 February* 1736/7. On 22 March, 1756, when his age was given as eighteen, he matriculated from Hertford College, Oxford, but did not pro- ceed to a degree. He entered upon public life as member for the Cornish borough of West Looe in July, 1767, and represented that constituency until 1774. It was then under the control of the Trelawny family.

Townsend lost no time in taking a con- spicuous position in the strife over the representation of Middlesex. He was much excited about the riot at the election for that county in December, 1768, and he joined with John Sawbridge, another City politi- cian of marked characteristics and advanced politics, in nominating Wilkes when he was re-elected for Middlesex on 16 February, 1769. In 1769 he was admitted by patri- mony to the freedom of the Mercers' Com- pany. On 23 June in that year he was elected Alderman of Bishopsgate Ward, was sworn in office on 4 July, and continued in that position until his death. He and his friend Sawbridge became Sheriffs of London and Middlesex on 24 June. An account by Burke of the meeting at which they were elected is given in Lord Albe- marle's ' Life of Lord Rockingham,' ii. 95- 101. The two Sheriffs united in resisting for a time the royal warrant for the execu- tion of two rioters at the " most convenient place near Bethnal-green church," instead of the usual place, Tyburn (Gent. Mag. r xxxix. 611 ; xl. 23).