Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/113

 12 S. V. APRIL, 1919. ]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

107

Board of General Officers on May 11, 1726, he stated that his age was 41 years, with 16 years' service, and that he had seen service in Portugal. Two other Kents were in the army. James Kent, ensign in 37th Foot, June 25, 1704, lieutenant June 29, 1708, was wounded at Blenheim, 1704, for which he received 22Z. bounty, and was also wounded at Schellenberg, and served at Malplaquet. Richard Kent was made ensign in the 12th Foot, April 17, 1716.

Then, again, there was Samuel Kent, M.P. Ipswich, 1734, till he died Oct. 8, 1759, aged 76. He was distiller to the Court in 1739 (Gent. Mag.) ; Purveyor of Chelsea Hospital (500Z. a year), September, 1740, till death ; a Commissioner of Lieu- tenancy for London, June 21, 1740. He was of Lambeth, and Fornham St. Gene- vieve, Suffolk, and son of Thomas Kent, a Norway merchant (who was son of Griffith Kent, also a Norway merchant)/ This Samuel had a son of the same name, and a daughter Sarah (heiress to her brother), who was married Jan. 29, 1743, " with 15,OOOZ.," to Sir Charles Eagleton, Knt., a London merchant, Sheriff 1743, who died April 25, 1769. Their only son Sir Charles Kent (M.P. Thetford, 1784-^0, created a baronet, Aug. 16, 1782, of Wadworth, Yorks, and Fornham), born about 1744, married, in or before 1783, Mary, eldest daughter and coheiress of Josiah Words- worth of Wadworth, Yorks, and Sevenscore, Kent. He took the surname of Kent under his maternal grandfather's will, on succeed- ing to his estates at the death of his uncle Thomas Kent of Camberwell (who died unm. May 15, 1766, aged 59), and d. at Grantham, March 14, 1811, aged 67. He was buried at Wadworth, and his will proved 1811.

W. R. W.

LONDON-PARIS AIRSHIP (12 S. v. 58). Possibly this extract from Peter Parley's ' Tales about Great Britain and Ireland,' published by Tegg, London, 1839, and written after the author's visit for the coronation of Queen Victoria, may help :

" Since my return to America I have heard o: an aerial ship, that has been shown in England This ship, no less than one hundred and sixty feel long, fifty high, and forty wide, is said to be intended to establish direct communications between the capitals of Europe, by sailing through the air. Its crew is to consist of seventeen men besides which it is to carry many passengers The balloon part of the ship, to be filled with gas is very large, and to the body of the car part below, there are attached large flappers, or wings which have a very curious appearance. In a common balloon, ballast is thrown out, if tb

balloon is wanted to go higher, and gas lej; out r when it is required to descend ; but the contrivance in the aerial ship is quite different. There is a method planned, to render the car part of the ship heavier and lighter, by expelling and drawing in the air just in the same way that a fish does when it wants to sink or swim in the water. I have'not yet heard of this aerial ship having made a voyage across the British Channel : when I hear of it, I will tell you all about it."

The above account supplies some amount f detail, and is accompanied (p. 337) by a ^ell-executed wood engraving differing in some respects from the handbill reproduced n ' N. & Q.' The " Peter Parley " illus- tration appears to indicate light wings attached to the body of the ship (assuming wings equally fixed on both its sides),, whilst only one of the ends of the car has its wing attached. Presumably, the account now quoted applies to " The Eagle " of the handbill ; but it may have had a successor between 1835 and 1839 with some alterations in construction. W. B. H.

BYRONIC STATUE IN FLEET STREET (12 S. v. 40, 82). At the latter reference it is sug- gested that Sir John Sinclair may have aused the statue of Kaled to be erected.

So far as my memory serves, the existing building at the corner of Chancery Lane was erected in the early eighties, The Builder and other journals discussing its appearance and the Byronic statue.

In 1906 Sir John Sinclair wrote me on the- subject of his commemorative buildings in Fleet Street ; but no. 193 was not included, and I am confident it predates his earliest enterprise by ten years or more.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

BISHOPS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY (12 S. iv. 330). According to Gams,' Series Episcoporum,' George Bran, Bishop of Dromore, was translated to Elphin on April 15, 1499. He is followed in the li&t by a nebulous William in 1500 ; he in turn, by a Galeatiiis in " 15 ? " ; and on June 12, 1504, by a Joannes Baptista. References are given.

As regards the mysterious William. Bishop of Pharos (Lesina), a Beiivenutus occupied the see from 1385 to about 1410, and a Georgius in 1412. Between the two names there is a note " sedes vacat." But Eubel in his ' Hierarchia Catholica Medii Mvi ' has a note that Georgius succeeded Ben-^ venutus in the see on this prelate's death.

Neither Gams nor Eubel seems to know anything about John, Bishop of Philip- popolis circa 1453. He probably belonged to the Greek Church. L. L. K.