Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/184

146 NOTES AND QUERIES.. [i- 2 a x. FEB. 25, 1022, towards mee, that you may be sure that it shall be only want of power if I do not gratify you to your heart's desire. And I will not only give you your Garter but somewhat else likewise that will make you wear it with more delight. I do rely upon your dexterity and credit to improve my interest in all places, and what shall be undertaken by you or your friends in my behalf, with those who can eminently merit from mee I will performe. Let mee understand how any treaty advances between those in present power and Spayn or France or any other neighbours. And I know you will do what you can to obstruct all things of that kind and do me and my friends all the good offices you can. And in all things you may depend upon mee as Your very affectionate friend CHARLES R. Copie of another from Bruxels. Dated 10 Aug. 1659. I have yours by H. and cannot but bee abun- dantly satisf yed with the great services you have done me, how melancholy soever the knowledge of one truth hath made mee, and if your dexterity do not prevent it, there is mo mischief may not befall me and my friends. I would finish my intentions towards yourself but there is some- what of form that cannot consist with ye secrecy that is necessary for you, and which I have observed inviolably and you may be most con- fidant I will perform and punctually more then I have promised so soon as you can own ye receiving of it. I must again conjure you to be careful of my friends and believe me to bee very heartily Your affectionate friend CHARLES R. J. G. M. JOHN CHARLES WILLIAMS: A BUCKINGHAMSHIRE PARSON AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS. (See ante, p. 121.) WE may now see how some of the de- scendants of our parson fared. His eldest very pretty daughter, Char- lotte Spencer Williams (1813-1889), married (through the influence of her aunt and my grandmother, Charlotte Susannah Bull, nee Swales, of 25, Ely Place, Holborn) Charles Meeking of Richings Park, Coin- brook, near Slough, whose great-grand- daughter, Finola Meeking, has recently married Lord Somers. Like the Swales, Meeking came of Suffolk stock. When I used to stay at Richings as a boy, I was fond of browsing over the library, and among the records there is a detailed family paper showing that the origin of the name was De Meschines, a well-known Norman family. R. H. Barham (1788-1845 ; ' D.N.B.') mentions its founder in the ' Lay of St- Cuthbert ' in the ' Ingoldsby Legends ' : In short the whole country declared through his bounty The Abbey of Bolton exhibited fresh scenes From any displayed since Sir William De- Meschines And Cecily Roumeli came to this nation With William the Norman, and laid its founda- tion. There is a detailed legend in the family that Disraeli, as a youth, at Bradenham,. proposed to Charlotte and. was refused.. It is clear that he remained a faithful friend to the end of his life. Williams' s eldest son was articled to my grandfather and became a solicitor ; his- eldest grandson, John Charles Williams,. No. 3 of the I.C.S., was a Deputy Com- missioner of Barabanki in Oudh in 1873,. and Assistant Magistrate and Collector of Sharanpur in the North -West Provinces in 1875. The second son, William White Williams; (1815-1863), became a doctor, and accom- panied Rajah Brook (1803-1868 : 'D.N.B.') of Sarawak to Borneo as surgeon to the expedition. He was a great authority on Shakespeare and wrote many articles for The Athenceum. The eldest son of W. W_ Williams was named Robert (1842-1886). He was B.A., Fellow of Merton 1864, and lecturer- student of Christ Church, and translated the 'Nicomachean Ethics' of Aristotle. Barrister, novelist, journalist r and playwright, he became a brilliant leader-writer on The Times, Daily Tele- graph, Standard and Observer. He suc- ceeded Mr. Justice Wright (1839-1904 ; ' D.N.B.') as coach for " Greats," and amongst his pupils were the present Lords Rosebery and Lansdowne. He was probably the- most successful " Greats " tutor ever known at Oxford. My friend Sir Courtenay Ilbert, the late Clerk of the House of Commons, who was a contemporary of his, was telling me only the other day several stories illustrating the brilliant scholarship of " Student Williams." He was also in- terested in the lighter side of life, and on the staff of The Sporting Times wrote under the name of " Bobos." One of Robert Williams's grandchildren is Pamela Bianco, the wonderful child artist whose pictures have recently attracted so much attention. His sister Frances married the Baron de Parravicini, another classical scholar, who- died on June 29, 1920, in his 77th year.