Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/264

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. v. OCT., 1919.

rendered him for ever unfit to benefit by the powe and disposition of his Admiral. He died soon after but was always a little queer here in the head ; anc no wonder, for the blow would have split the skul of a negro, or a cocoa-nut, and Sykes was beyom the help of the noble hero he had saved. This was no brush. It is very rarely that men are opposec hand to hand, and sword 'to sword ; and you may guess how fierce was the fight, when Spaniards resisted until not a man remained untouchec amongst them."

From one of the last letters which Nelson ever wrote with his right hand, and which i.< now preserved in the Museum of the Public

Record Office, taken :

the following extract is

" Theseus, July 4, 1797.

I feel particularly indebted for the successful termination of this contest to the gallantry of Capts. Eraser and Miller, the former of whom accompanied me in my barge, and to my coxswain John Sykes who, in defending My Person, is most severely wounded, as was Capt. Freeman tie slightly

"

in the attack

HORATIO NELSON.

John Sykes was discharged from the Theseus on Oct. 24 1797, to the Andro- mache on promotion to a gunner, and died abroad on May 1 1798, of wounds received by the bursting of a gnn.

'Letters of administration were granted to his mother Hannah Huddlestone, (sworn under 300Z.).

John Sykes had a brother, Robinson Sykes, who is said to have been coxswain to some captain or admiral at the battle of St. Vincent. I should be glad if any of your readers could kindly tell me the name of any ship upon which he served.

E. H. FAIRBROTHER.

COWPER'S 'SEPHUS.'

MANY years ago (1 S. xi. 343) there appeared a query, so far unanswered, on the following points : " Who was Joseph Hill's father ? Who was his wife ? Did they leave children? What became of them ? When did he die and where was he interred ? " As a result of recent researches which I have been making I am able not only to answer these questions, but also to supply much other interesting information about this stanch and unassuming friend who is so scantily treated by Cowper's biographers.

Joseph Hill was born on Dec. 27, 1733 (O.S.), at Took's Court, Cursitor Street, Chancery Lane, the son of Francis and Theodosia Hill, and was baptized on Jan. 18 following at St. Andrew's, Holborn. Francis Hill, an attorney by profession, was a gentleman of good family and estate, related

Hill to Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master of the- Rolls, whose secretary he became. Try- phena Hill was the daughter of Thomas Sanders of Ireton, co. Derby, a colonel in_ Cromwell's army. She married first Richard, Hill (d. 1650), and in 1653 became the second wife of John Jekyll (1611-90), and bore him several children, the youngest of whom rose to be Master of the Rolls. Francis Hill, who was thus a half-nephew of the judge, married Theodosia Sedgwick f sister of Robert Sedgwick (d. 1744), purveyor to the royal stables at Charing Cross. He; died in 1741, leaving his wife (d. 1784) and three infant children, Joseph, Frances, and Theodosia, whose friendship with Cowper has preserved them from oblivion. Cowper's Uncle Ashley was appointed one of the* trustees of his will, and it was through Ashley and probably at his house that Cowper and Joseph became acquainted. Despite the fact that Cowper in one of his letters addresses Hill as an old member of the Nonsense Club it is clear from a letter written by Hill to Hayley in 1802 a copy of which is in my possession and from the absence of his name in the school admission* ists between the years 1740 and 1752 that le was not at Westminster. The place of nis education I have not been able to> discover.

Hill was bred early to the law. While- /owper was giggling and making giggle with lis cousins of Southampton Row. Hill was erving under articles of clerkship to Mr. Robert Chester of the Six Clerks' Office in Chancery Lane. In due course he qualified as a solicitor and attorney, and also became one of the Sixty or Sworn Clerks in Chancery. Cowper's prediction that his friend would have a crowded office was soon realized. He rapidly acquired a flourishing and aristocratic practice, which numbered in its clientele several members of the nobility. Numerous tokens reached him of the esteem felt for his services one of his clients, the- Hon. Mary Leigh, leaving him the princely legacy of 10,OOOZ. as a mark of her gratitude. In 1778, upon Thurlow's elevation to the "Woolsack, Hill was created Secretary of Lunatics, a class of unfortunates over whom the Crown, through the Lord Chancellor, exercizes a paternal jurisdiction. Indirectly he owed the appointment to Cowper, for it was the latter who had introduced him to the future Chancellor in the Southampton Row days.

Hill, cockney though

he was, shared'

'owper' s love for rural sights and sounds, through his paternal grandmother ^ryphena j In middle life he purchased an estate at