Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/275

 12 s. vm. MARCH 19, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 221 LONDON, MARCH 19, 1521. CONTENTS. No. 153. -Robert Whatley, 221-Among the Shakespeare Au-hives : The Hathaways of Shottery, 223-Aldeburgh : Extracts from Chamberlains' Account- Book, 1625-1649. 224 Shirley Hibberd as Poet " Popkins's Plan," 226 Lancashire Settlers in America Spit-racks End of Private Bank Notes, 227. ^QUERIES : " Nothing but their eyes to weep with" Old Inns "The Haven under the Hill" Fountains running with Wine London Etchings by Jane Smith, 228 Abnepob Monte Cristo Dr. Johnson: Portrait in Hill's Edition of Boswell-Hellier Alexander Stokoe Gervase . ^de Cornhill, 229-Robert Dickson Shelley and Keats : Bibliographies Wanted Richd. Gamwel (Camwel), Clockmaker Kingston House, Knightsbridge, 230 ^'Comlies" and "Cony Bags" The Place-Name Tot- land- Hunting Songs: Musters " Mark Rutherford " Marten Author of Quotation Wanted, 231. ^REPLIES Churches of St. Michael, 231 Hundredth Psalm : Gaelic Versions" Auster " Land Tenure, 233- " Death as Friend" Royal British Bank, 234-52nd Regiment of Foot Paul Marny Oulben Sands Army Badges, 235 Hoe Cake Benjamin Choyce Swdon Tavern Signs Irish Family Histories- Heraldic Arms Wanted, 236 Curtis: Lathrop-. Willoughby (Robert) Gascoigne and Walthamstow Cowper : Pronunciation of Name Bottle-sliders : Coasters Sir Robert Bell of Beaupi-e Phaestos DiskGeorge Frank of Frankenau, 237-T=A Proverb about Eating Cherries Foundlings in the Eighteenth Century " Colly my Cow" Edward Snape Turner Family, 238 A Coachman's Epitaph- Yew-trees in Churchyards Authors Wanted, 239. ON P.O"KS: 'The Life, Correspondence and Collections of Thomas Howard ' ' The Teaching of English '-'Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic Henry VIII.' Notices to Correspondents. ROBERT WHATLEY. THE following account of the Rev. Robert Whatley, though in itself inevitably some- what disjointed, may at least serve to con- struct a skeleton-history which can be filled in by any further information that may come to light. His life was insignifi- cant but not of his own design and his published works dull, yet his career is not of itself uninteresting if merely for the perti- nacity and insuccess with which he pursued his aims. Whatley was born in the year 1691 or at the very end of 1690 the limit dates of Dec. 25, 1690, and Dec. 23, 1691, would appear to be given by a chance remark in his letter to Birch of Dec. 24, 1765 (B.M., .Add. MSS. 4321, fol. 235) and was the son of Thomas Whatley, gentleman,* of Wells in Somerset. His father was dead by 1711 (Inner Temple, Admissions 1670 to 1750, p. 1308)t and probably had died long before this time for, as his son says elsewhere, "I have laid out a handsome younger Brother's Provision, on giving my self the best of Educations at home and abroad " ( ' Friendly Admonition,' p. 79),$ a phrase that hints at lack of parental control. His school is not known, but he did not go to any of the universities, and later refers to the fact with the pardonable pride of one who au fond regrets his lost opportunity. In August, 1710, came fate in the person of Sir Peter King, later Lord Chancellor and at that time a bencher of the Inner Temple, Recorder of London, and M.P. ('Short History,' p. 1, cf. 'A Letter to the L. and C.,' p. 29). King took the young man under his protection,) j and on Feb. 11 he was admitted a student of the Irner Temple (Inner Temple, torn, et pag. cit., ' Short History, ' p. 1 ). Whatley frankly relates that he had no liking for the law and that he was not studying for a livelihood ('Friendly Admonition,' p. vi, 'Short His- tory,' p. 2), but a client by instinct he followed the path smoothed for him by his~ rising patron and friend. In October, 1713, he wrote, but did not publish, 'A Letter to a Bencher. . . . '*: on the nature and end of being ('Judgment Signed,' p. 39), which was only to see the light in pamphlet form in 1729.** This may be the clue to one reason for their relation- ship : King was interested in theological and cognate speculation and had made a name by his ' History of the Apostles Creed ' and his 'Enquiry into the Constitution. . . . t The writer is indebted to the Treasurer of the Inner Temple for permission to view this entry. t For tbe full titles of Whatley's various pub- lished works cf. the course of this narrative. They will be cited throughout by such short descriptions as the above. " I have seen something else besides my Father's House, a Grammar -School, and a College, and have employ 'd my time in other Matters, than in merely conning over a System of Philo- sophy, or Divinity." (' Impartial Review,' p. 44.) II Whatley much later describes himself as " an old and highly favoured Friend, a known Dependant and Expectant of the Lord Chancellor" (' A letter to the L. & C.,' pp. 17-13). II I.e. King. Library, Manchester. The writer does not know of one in the Bodleian or the British Museum.
 * Robert Whatley sealed with an intaglio.
 * Of this there is a copy in the John Rylands