Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/325

 12 S. III.

E, 1917. J

NOTES AND QUERIES.

319

LOS DON, JUSE, 1917.

C N T E N T S. No. 69. .

NOTES : William Hetherington, Benefactor of the Blind, 319 Correspondence of Richard Edwards, 323 Gray's Books and MSS.. 326 Letters from H.M.S. Bacchante in 1812-1S13, 328 Sir James Graham: Eaily Electioneering Experience. 329 "Oaky" "Among the blind the out- eyed man is king" " Kadaver" Australian Memorial Inscriptions : II. The Scots Church. Sydney, 330 SValter or Walters Family of Pembrokeshire, 331.

QUERIES : The " House " of Travellers' Journals Wanted Lambe Family Finlay and Stanhope Families 74th Regiment of Foot Seacock Family Benedictine Picture : Interpretation Desired, 331 Crimean War Medal The King's Private Roads- Picture of our Lord "Red Wi^s" Arms Wanted : Lancaster: FitzReinfre-d Tower of London moved by the Tid* " Losing Loadum," a Game Woodward of Rocks Place, Ross, Herefordshire, 332 English Travellers in the Nether- landsTravels in Spain George Harvey Linn;eus and the Blossoming Gorse Authors Wanted Biographical Information Wanted : Wake : Lieut. -General Thomas : Henry Ash by : W. Harp or Harper : W. Blagrave : Griffith Jones: Dr. Ralph Griffiths, 333.

REPLIES : The Invention of the Achromatic Lens, 334 Bibliography of Irish Counties and Towns. 336 - Early Nonconformity in Devon and Cornwall, 337 William Bullock The Capital City of the U.S.A., 338 -"Small Books on Great Subjects" Alexander Srnilh on Poe Ruisshe Hassell, 339 Edmund Fielding -'Terebus y Tereodin "James I. and Sir Henry Mildmiy's Marriage Village Pounds The Alphabet in the Christian Church, 340 Legends on Love Tokens Verdun Barony St. Barbara, 341 Marat : Henry Kingsley, 343 -Portraits in Stained Glass Author of Quotation Wanted Arch- deacons of Cleveland Heraldry Isabella S. Stephen- son, 344.

NOTES ON BOOKS:-' A Handbook to County Biblio- graphy ' Burke's ' Peerage and Baronetage ' ' Bench-ends in English Churches ' ' Church Ornaments and their Civil Antecedents' Hazlitt's 'Characters of Shake- speare's Plays 'Reviews and Magazines.

WILLIAM HETHERINGTON, BENEFACTOR OF THE BLIND.

" HETHERINGTON' s CHARITY " is a house- hold word with the needier class of blind people. The funds are administered by Christ's Hospital, of which Hetherington was a Governor. The Charity was founded in 1774, when by a deed dated March 29 the Rev. William Hetherington transferred 20,OOOZ. in South Sea Annuities to eight Governors, among them his kinsman Thomas Coventry (vide infra, p. 321, col. 2), for them to administer for the benefit of needy blind persons. Hetherington's hope that other benefactions would be added to his was

fulfilled, and at the present day more than eight hundred poor blind folk are in receipt of annual grants of 10Z. The Charity appears to have been one of the earliest, as it is one of the largest, of its kind.

Singularly little has been kept on record as to William Hetherington. He is not mentioned in the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' ; and the information in the possession of the authorities at Christ's Hospital is limited to the particulars given on the Hetherington tombstone in North Cray Churchyard, Kent, and to the fact that the Hetheringtons were an old Border family.

An allusion to Hetherington's Charity met with in studying another eighteenth-century charity* suggested inquiry, and this paper represents the result of such research as I have so far been able to devote to the somewhat neglected memory of a truly philanthropic man. The much criticized perhaps maligned eighteenth century was prolific in founders and benefactors ; and Hetherington, whose benevolence was as profuse as his personality was amiable, surely deserves a place amongst the good men whose memory is cherished to-day.

I.

The Hetheringtons were an old Cumber- land family connected for a long period with Hethersgill, a village in the parish of Kirk- Jinton, Carlisle, f When they came to London is not clear, but William Hether- ington's parents, Humphrey and Judith Hetherington, were residing, in the last decade of the seventeenth century, in Essex Street, Strand 4 Essex Street is close to St. Clement Danes, and at that church William was baptized on Dec. 12, 1698. He had at least two brothers, Jeffrey and John, and a sister, Elizabeth. The three

Great Charity,' 1917 (S.P.C.K.). The reference to Hetherington occurs in the ' Account. .. .of the Magdalen Charity,' 1770, where, in the Prefaee, Dr. Dodd warmly commends the new charity.
 * ' The Magdalen Hospital : the Story of a

t W. Hutchinson, ' History of Cumberland,' 1794, vol. ii. p. 505 ; W. Whellan, ' History and Topography of Cumberland and Westmoreland,' 180ft, p. 085. A Joseph Hetherington was curate of Workington in 1842 (Jefferson, ' History and Antiquities of Cumberland,' ii. 201).

J T. Harwood, ' Alumni Etonenses,' p. 293 (giving particulars as to John Hetherington).

Parish Register : " William Hetherington of Humphrey Hetherington, Esq. & Judith uxforijs." The first e. in Hetherington is very like i at each occurrence, but e must be the correct spelling.