Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/219

 12 8. II. SEPT. 9, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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converting soldiers and others to the Chris- tian faith, in comforting the persecuted, and in assisting those who were in want and suffering ; and so conspicuous did he make himself in these pursuits that he was arrested and brought before the Emperor Diocletian, who, incensed at his attitude of firmness in the Christian faith, ordered him to be tied to a tree and shot to death, which sentence was carried out but imperfectly, as the victim, not being quite killed, was restored to health by his friends ; but, being afterwards again carried before the Emperor Diocletian, he was by his orders beaten to death by clubs.

St. Sebastian is generally represented a.s tied almost naked to a tree, pierced with arrows, or with arrows at his feet; some- times he is depicted with a helmet on his head. F. DE H. L.

In ' The South English Legendary,' which is published by the Early English Text Society, the death of St. Sebastian is stated to have taken place during the reign of Diocletian, and to have been caused by beat- ing with staves. The textual summary, com- piled by me, has these sentences regarding the manner of the saint's death :

" He was ordered to be led to the stake, where he was shot at by arrows till he was left for dead. His unburied body was found at night without a wound. He was seized and taken to the palace, and beaten to death secretly."

W. B.

In art this saint is generally represented almost nude, tied to a stake, and pierced all over with arrows. According to his bio- graphies, however, he recovered from his wounds under the care of St. Irene, a widow, and was finally put to death by blows with a club. L. L. K.

St. Sebastian was beaten to death by clubs by order of the Emperor Diocletian. His body was thrown into the Cloaca Maxima, whence it was rescued by a lady named Lucina, and buried in the catacombs near St. Peter and St. Paul.

WIIXOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

Information regarding the death of St. Sebastian might be obtained from the following works : ' Encyclopaedia Britannica.' vol. xxiv. ; ' Acta Sanctorum,' Jan. ii. 257- 296 ; ' Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina ' (Brussels, 1899), n. 7543-9 ; A. Bell, ' Lives and Legends of the Evangelists, Apostles, and Other Early Saints' (London, 1901), pp. 238-40. E. E. BARKER.

RICHARD WILSON, M.P. (12 S. i. 90, 158 T 213, 277, 437, 516; ii. 34, 55, 74, 156). Though I have already had two turns at this topic, perhaps I may be allowed a third, mainly in order to reply to W. R. W.'s communication at the last reference.

1. The M.P. for Ipswich 1806-7 cannot have been the Richard Wilson (son of Dr.. Christopher Wilson) who was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1771, and who seems to have- been called to the bar in 1779, for that Richard Wilson died on June 14, 1787 (Gentleman's Magazine, Ivii. i. 549). His father had become Bishop of Bristol in 1783 ; his mother was a daughter of Dr. Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London (' D.N.B.,' xxi. 274) ; and his wife, who had died on Jan. 10, 1786 (Gentleman's Magazine,. Ivi. i. 84), was a daughter of Dr. John Fountayne, Dean of York (' D.N.B.,' xx. 78). For further information see Burke's ' landed Gentry,' i. 436 (edition of ^1847), under ' Fountayne-Wilson of Melton.'

2. The M.P. for Ipswich is described in the 'Royal Calendar' for 1807 as " principal 1 secretary to the lord chancellor and a commissioner of bankrupts " (p. 50), and also as being of Lincoln's Inn Fields (p. 88)~ The reasonable inference, therefore, is that he was Richard Wilson, the attornej' who- died on June 7, 1834, and who is described in the ' Annual Register ' for 1834 as " many years an eminent solicitor in Lincolns- inn- fields, and formerly secretary to lord Eldon."

3. W. R. W. is correct in saying that the- attorney was of No. 47 Lincoln's Inn Fields. But so, too, was I in saying (at the ninth reference) that he was of No. 35. The- change from No. 47 to No. 35 seems to have occurred during 1832. See the ' Law Lists.'

4. W. R. W. says that it is clear to him that the M.P. for Barnstaple 1796-1802 was the attorney. Thnt, with deference, seems a strange conclusion to reach as ^the- result of a correspondence which has elicited the following facts :

(i.) The M.P. for Barnstaple had for his country address " Datchworth Lodge, Herts.' r See the ' Royal Calendars,' 1799 to 1802.

(ii.) Datchworth Lodge belonged from 1792 to 1802 to the Irishman Richard Wilson of Tyrone, who married the Hon.. Anne Townshend, and was capsized in a sea of matrimonial troubles. See Clutterbuck's ' Hertfordshire,' ii. 314-5. It was the locus of his wife's alleged infidelity. See ' House of Lords' Journals,' xli. 550.

(iii.) Deeming it a hardship that he could not obtain an Act of Parliament freeing him.