Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/232

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. SEPT. ie, wie.

to his other nephews, Charles Chaldecott and Richard Taunt on Chaldecott.

It is clear from the above will that Thomas "Watts, senior, has no Watts descendants.

7. Sarah Brackstone, Sister of Dr. Isaac Watts.

Sarah Watts was born on Oct. 31, 1681, .and baptized at the Above Bar Chapel, Southampton, about December of that year.

She was living a widow on Jan. 27, 1755, tut died before Jan. 27, 1771.

In February, 1707/8, she married Joseph Brackstone of Southampton. He was living on Sept. 16, 1735, but died before Jan. 27 1755.

Their children were :

1. Joseph Brackstone, of York Street, Tovent Garden, who died between Nov. 16, 1770, and Feb. 27, 1772. He had issue.

2. Mary, living unmarried r Jan. 2,7, 1755.

3. .Sarah, of Southampton. She died funmarried. Her will, dated Jan. 27, 1771, was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (48 Trevor), Feb. 23, 1771.

4. Martha, of Southampton. Living un- married Jan. 27, 1755, and Jan. 27, 1771.

From the above notes it is clear that nobody now living of the surname Watts can trace descent from the father of Dr. Isaac Watts. Any one descended from him must prove his ancestry through the Brackstones or Chaldecotts. WILLIAM BULL.

(To be continued.)

SAMUEL WESLEY THE ELDER : HIS POETIC ACTIVITIES. At 8 S. ix. 21 ; xi. 506, I gave, about twenty years ago, an account, under his own hand, of the political trials of the Rev. Samuel Wesley the elder, iather of the founder of Methodism. It may prove interesting to try to add some in- formation from contemporary sources about his poetical activities, thus alluded to in an incidental mention at the latter reference, to be found in Dyer's News Letter, under date

" 1705, July 17, London. Mr. Wesley, a bene- ficed minister in Lincolnshire, who formerly wrote the Life of Christ, which he dedicated to Queen Mary, but lately unhappily writing against the Dissenters."

The date of this poem's publication thus is placed before December, 1694, when Queen Mary II. died, but the work was one of \vhich its author was obviously very proud, imd not long before King William III. passed away, just over seven years later, it was being " boomed " [freely. It was

advertised in The Post Man of Aug. 14-16, 1701, that

" This day is published The Post Angel ; Or, "Universal Entertainment for July. The Contents arc these. 1st, A brief Account' of the Life and Writings of Mr. Samuel Wesley. Author of the Heroick Poem on the Life of Christ."

There were nineteen other items in the table of contents of a singularly varied character, and two of them of a type dealing with subjects not usually referred to openly in these more delicate days.

Later in the same year we have the poem advertised again, but now in connexion with a fresh effort in verse, thus :

"The History of the new Testament, Represent- ing the Actions and Miracles of our blessed Saviour and his Apostles, attempted in Verse, and adorn'd with 52 Sculptures. Written by Samuel Westly, A.M. Chaplain to the most Honourable the Lord Marquess of Normanby, and Author of the Life of Christ, an Heroic Poem. The Cuts done by J. Sturt. Printed for Cha. Harper at the Flower de Luce over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street. Where is also Printed and sold the Life of Christ, an Heroick Poem, with 60 Copper Plates in Fol. the 2d. Impression price 20-s. and a Treatise on the Sacrament, in 12o. price 2s. both writ by Samuel Westly, A.M."

This advertisement appeared in The Post Man of Dec. 9-11, 1701 ; and, a little more than thirteen years later, the following, carrying on the succession, was to be found in The Post Boy of Feb. 1-3, 1715, when George I. had come to the throne :

" Just publish'd, The History of the Old and . New Testament, attempted in Verse, and adorn'd with 332 Sculptures, in 3 Vols. By Sam. Wesley, A.M. Chaplain to his Grace John Duke of Bucking- ham, and Author of the Life of Christ; an Heroic Poem. The Cutts by J. Sturt. Printed for Ben Cowse, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard ; and John Hooke, at the Flower-de- Luce against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street. Pr. 10*."

Are there extant any contemporary criticisms of these poetic efforts, and have they in recent times been reprinted ?

ALFKED F. ROBBINS.

VOLTAIRE ON POLAND AND TUBKEY. The dissolution of the Turkish Empire and the reconstruction of the Kingdom of Poland will probably be two of the results of the present war. Voltaire predicted the great political mistake of the eighteenth century :

" Certainement [he wrote on Nov. 2, 1772, concerning the Empress Catherine of Russia and the Empress Marie Th^rese of Austria], puisque ces deux braves dames se sont si bien entendues pour changer la face'de la Pologne, elles s'enten- dront encore mieux pour changer celle de la Turquie."