Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/593

 12 s. ra. DC. 18,1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

489

esting life, and which was in Manuscript ready for the press, but suppressed by the interposition of your Father. He also on the part of my Grand- father Lowe (his Uncle) tried for the recovery of some estates in Westminster to which he was entitled by his marriage to an heiress, and to whose ancestors those estates were secured for a loan of money to James the 2nd. on his abdicating the throne, but this was lost, it was supposed, by the infidelity of the solicitor employed

Very little is known of Mrs. Richard Smith (Mary Durance ?) except what is stated in the letter. She left London, with her husband and son, not long after her son's birth (1728) and her husband set up in business as a clockmaker in Newport, Isle of Wight. Several clocks of his are in existence. Peter Nichols, the father of the writer of the letter, was also a clock-maker at Newport. One of his clocks is at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in the town.

The church register at Newport records the death of a Richard Smith, Dec. 27, 1758 ; but Smith is unfortunately a common name.

The pedigree is as follows :

King Charles the Second | A Lady Russell (?)

1630-1685 L ,

(1) Durance=f= daughter=f(2) Richard


 * Lowe

Riehard=f=*Mary Richard=pheiress

Smith

Durance (?) Lowe d.Feb.l, 1785

Elizabeth=rPeter Lowe I Nichols

James Smith=pDeborah

. 1728-1803 I Newton,

I 1728-1802

John James Smith, James Nichols

1761-1821 (who wrote

(to whom the letter was addressed) the letter)

Who was the " Lady Russell " in question ? The children of Francis, fourth Earl of Bedford (died 1641) were :

William, fifth Earl, created Duke, 1694, died 1700 ;

Catharine, born 1614, married, 1628, Robert Greville, Lord Brooke, date of death unknown ;

Anne, born 1615, married George Digby, Earl of Bristol ;

Margaret, born 1618, married (1) James Hay, Earl of Carlisle ; (2) Edward Montague, Earl of Manchester; (3) Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick ; died 1676.

Diana, born 1622, married 1642 Francis, Lord Newport ; made a Viscountess 1675 ; Countess of Bradford, 1694 ; died Jan. 30, 1696-7 ; buried at Chenies.

years after 1761, the date of her grandson's birth.
 * Mr?. Richard Smith must have lived for some

There seems to be no record existing in print of a connexion of either of these ladies with Charles II. The youngest was eight years his senior.

A correspondent to ' N. & Q.' in December, 1919, mentioned an Amos Russel, of Lincoln, married a second time in 1729, who was in the habit of using the arms of the Bedford family. He was, however, unable to give much information about him.

I have looked through the fifteen entries in 'N. & Q.,' mostly in Series 3 and 4, and can find no mention of a Russell who was mistress to Charles II. ; nor do any of the children, by other mistresses, seem to fit in to the story as told by Nichols.

6. KING SMITH.

Platt Farm, Borough Green, Kent.

PIERRE FRANCOIS GAILLARD. Can any reader oblige with the date of execution of Pierre Fra^ois Gaillard whose nom de plume was "Lacenaire," that infamous French ruffian and murderer, who boasted that " to kill without remorse is the highest of pleasures." FREDK. CHAS. WHITE.

14 Esplanade, South Lowestof t.

JOHN LLOYD OF STOCKPORT. I am in- terested in Mr. John Lloyd of Stockport mentioned passim in J. L. and B. Hammond's recent book, 'The Skilled Labourer,' 1760- 1832. Can any one furnish me with par- ticulars as to his parentage and descent ? I have heard he had some connexion with the Lords Allen of Stillorgan, co. Dublin.

O. HOLLAND. 31 Chatsworth Road, Bournemouth.

THE POSSE COMITATUS OF 1798. The Stowe MSS., Nos. 805 and 806, in the British Museum, are a Register of names, and occupations, of all persons, between the ages of 15 and 60 years, in the co. of Bucks. It was made in accordance with the Precept of Feb. 16, 1798, by John Penn, Esq., the High Sheriff of the county, in the above year.

It gives, under the headings of the various towns and villages, lists of names of males between the ages mentioned, noting the deformed, maimed, and Quakers.

The object of the list was to show the total effective men, supposed to be fit for service. It gives, also, the number of wind, water, and corn-mills, and the number of horses, waggons, and carts, owned by various persons, whose names are given.

I shall be glad if readers will^inform me whether similar lists are in existence for the