Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/300

 242 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vm. MABCH 26, 1921. I had been quite carried away by the fairies, they know not whither, and some elf or ' changeling ' as they call it, laid in my room." Standing at the font (which still exists) and following the rubric that "the priest shall take the child in his hands and ask the name, and naming the child shall dip it in the water, so it be discreetly and warily done," Bret engirdle said, "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." At the end he uttered the exhortation to the godparents to call upon the child "to hear sermons," and to provide that it " may learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Command- ments in the English tongue, and all other things which a Christian man ought to know and believe to his soul's health," and dis- missed them, telling them to bring him when "further instructed in the Catechism set forth for that purpose," to the Bishop of Worcester to be confirmed. After whom was the child named William ? We need not look, I think, far for the sponsor. He was probably John Shake- speare's neighbour in Henley Street, William Smith the haberdasher. The two men had much in common, besides being of about the same age and living within a few yards of each other for half a century. They began business about the same time, were engaged in occupations which at more than one point met ; were colleagues on the Borough Council, had been Constables together and were now fellow-Chamberlains ; were men of enterprise and ambition and independence of judgment, and not in- frequently opposed to the powers in being, and had sons who became well-to-do and gentlemen. In support cf the identification it may be noted that whereas John Shake- speare's eldest son was named William, William Smith's eldest son was named John. EDGAB I. (To be continued.) ROBERT WHATLEY. (See ante, p. 221.) THUS by 1728 matters were coming to a head. Nearly forty years of age and still without employ, Whatley had expended his own fortune ('Friendly Admonition,' p. 79) and was living on the charity of his friends (op. cit.. p. 78, cf. p. 103, 'Three Letters,' p. 57), and to the load of debt was perhaps added the financial burden of a- wife ('Friendly Admonition,' p. 3, cf. pp. 123, 126). With King his relations were cooling ('Three Letters,' p. 23), for reasons- unknown,* and the Chancellor's decline in mental vigour and political prestige (Lord. Hervey, 'Memoirs,' ed. 1848, vol. i. pp. 280- 282, 'Three Letters,' p. 13, 'Letters and Applications,' p. vi) boded ill for the stranded suitor. These circumstances may have contributed to bring Whatley to the great decision of taking Holy Orders and finding in the Church some compensation for the loss that he had sustained in seeking the service of the state, f That this step would not be attributed by gossip to purely disinterested motives is evident from the trouble that he takes to refute such in- nuendoes in his 'Friendly Admonition' (cf. infra), perhaps also by the publication at the critical moment ('Friendly Ad- monition,' pp. 141-142) of his 'Letter to a Bencher, 'J and eleven years afterwards by the third of his 'Three Letters.' He was, moreover, not ignorant of the fact that King had declared his intention of presenting him- in this event to a living worth 300?. per annum ('Judgment Signed,' pp. 19-20). In fine, he was ordained some time between Oct. 31, 1728, and Feb. 15, 1729 ('Friendly Admonition,' pp. 121, 122, 139, 'Impartial Review,' p. 12) probably at his Advent Ordination by Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London, to whom Whatley appears to have been indebted for a rapprochement with the- Lord Chancellor ('Letters and Applica- tions,' p. vii, cf. B.M., Add. MSS. 4321, folio 235). To Whatley 's honour, however,, be it remembered that his interest in matters theological was not developed ad hoc, for the recently published letters of July 22 and Oct. 27, 1720, already cited (at 12 S. purse-strings. To King's fondness for money Whatley discreetly alludes in the second of Ms ' Three Letters' (pp. 43-44). Cf. Lord Percival's story of King and his daughter-in-law's fortune (' Diary of Viscount Percival,' vol. i., p. 121). f Cf. the parallel drawn by him between Jiis case and that of Dr. Donne (' Friendly Admoni- tion,' p. 163): cf. also 'Three Letters,' p. 50,. where he states that he delayed declaring his resolution until convinced of the truth of the Christian religion. ' A Letter to a Bencher of the Inner Temple from a Student of the same House. Writ in the Year 1713.' This reached at least a third edition. The full title, as well as that of * A Speech ' (infra), has kindly been supplied by the Librarian of the John Rylands Library, Manchester.
 * The cause may have been the closing of the