Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/156

 122 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2ax.ito.i8.nM. stone house on the road to Epsom, called Stone Cot Hill, Button. The Umneys had an only daughter, who married George Nelson, a solicitor of Buckingham, whose son, George Alfred Nelson, in 1916 left his estate at Sherington, Co. Bucks, to Col. Owen Williams, of whom presently. We now come to the subject of these notes. John Charles Williams, eldest son of John Williams, was born April 16, 1789, and also became a solicitor. He does not seem to have cared for ordinary practice, for in 1814 he was Judge's Associate on the Oxford circuit. I have a charming little diary of those days in his copper-plate handwriting giving a detailed account of a circuit journey on horseback from London via Windsor, Oxford, Worcester, Stafford, Shrewsbury, to Leominster and home again. He married Catherine Swales at St. Clement Danes in the Strand on Aug. 15, 1812, at the age of 23. The Swales came from Suffolk. His father-in-law was Christopher William Swales, who married Charlotte Spencer, daughter of JEEugh Spencer. She was born in 1761 and baptized at St. James's, Bury St. Edmunds. She died at the town house of her other son-in-law, my grandfather, Henry William Bull, at 12, Wilton Crescent, Belgrave Square, in June, 1845, at the age of 84. C. W. Swales had died in January, 1831, at Lay ham in Suffolk, and was buried at Polstead. Catherine Swales, afterwards Mrs. J. C. Williams, the elder daughter of this couple, was born on Sept. 29, 1789, and was baptized at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on Oct. 27, 1789. Mrs. Swales was in the entourage of the Duchess of York (1767-1820; 'D.N.B.'). Catherine's godmother was that Mrs. Bun- bury, the devoted friend of the Duchess, who requested that she (Mrs. Bunbury) might be buried beside her in Weybridge church- yard, which was done. They also knew Lady Charlotte Bury (1775-1861 ; 'D.N.B.'), the novelist. Both the Misses Swales although petite were very beautiful. They were known as the " Brace of Partridges " when they used to attend the garden parties at Chiswick. It was through the influence of the Duke of York (1763-1827; 'D.N.B.'), who was patron of the institution, that John Charles Williams obtained his next ap- pointment, viz., that of secretary of the Lying-in Hospital in York Road, Lambeth, which he held from Nov. 18, 1815, until he resigned on Jan. 17, 1820. He then re- turned to his practice as a solicitor, which he eventually sold soon after to Messrs. Hi! Hard and Hastings, for he " felt a call to the minis- try," and, although married, went up to Cam- bridge and graduated at St. Catherine's Hall. He gathered round him a circle of friends, many of whom became famous. These in- cluded Charles Simeon (1759- 1836; 'D.N.B.'); Fairish (whom I cannot identify) ; Thomas Turton (1780-1864; 'D.N.B.'), afterwards Bishop of Ely ; and Oliphant, afterwards Bishop of Llandaff. He knew both the Corries, Daniel, LL.D. (1777-1837 ; 'D.N.B.'), and George Elwes (1793-1885; 'D.N.B.'), the Master of Jesus; Pro- fessor John Lee (1783-1866; 'D.N.B.') of Hartwell in Bucks ; and James Schole- field (1789-1853; 'D.N.B.'), Regius Pro- fessor of Greek. He corresponded with all these men during the whole of his life. In due course he was ordained by letters dimissory by Sparkes, Bishop of Ely. I cannot find where he fitted it in, but he also sold about this time the practice, which he inherited, of his maternal uncle, Charles Ball, solicitor. Henry Bathurst (1744-1837 ; ' D.N.B.'), Bishop of Norwich, " the only Liberal Bishop in the Lords," next appointed him successively to the curacies of Stapleford and Pampisford in Cambridgeshire. In 1823 he held the curacy of Wooburn Green, Bucks, for six months and then was ap- pointed curate -in -charge of High Wy combe, where he resided for nearly twenty years, viz., from 1824 to 1843. Here the last seven of his fifteen children were born, most of them being brought into the world by Dr. William Rose (1876-1864), his life- long friend, and the father of Disraeli's solicitor, Sir Philip Rose, Bt. (1816-1883), of Rayners, Perm, Bucks. During the later years of Williams's resi- dence at High Wycombe, he was presented to the living of Farthingstone in Northamp- tonshire, by his friend John Kaye (1783- 1853 ; ' D.N.B.'), Bishop of Lincoln who, by the way, was born on Dec. 27, 1783, in Angel Row, in my own Borough of Hammer- smith. The son of a little draper, he lived to direct the education of Queen Victoria (1819-1901; 'D.N.B.' supp.). After one year's occupation of Farthing- stone, Williams was appointed by Kaye to the rectory of Sherington, near Newport Pagnell, which he held until his death on Nov. 30, 1848. John Charles Williams, as I have said must have been a very industrious man