Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/301

 12 S. VIII. MARCH 26, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 243 viii. 44-45 and 63-65), prove that apart from the special pleading of these various pamphlets he was by no means indifferent to this science at a time when he entertained no such ambitions (cf. 'Friendly Admoni- tion,' p. 135). At this period he was lodging in James Street, Westminster* ('Impartial Review,' p. 54), and at the beginning of November was the victim of a curious quarrel with the Westminster magistrates on attempting to bail a former maid-servant arrested on a false charge of theft. The details of the episode may be ignored but one should not exclude the possibility that spite or enmity was working behind the scenes, f However, the woe of the maidservant was the seed of a new pamphlet, and at the end of January or early in February, 1729, appeared ' A Friendly Admonition to Gentlemen in the Commission of the Peace. Or, An Account of some late extraordinary Proceedings of a couple of Westminster Justices .... In a Humble Repre- sentation to a Noble Lord.'J which, closely following the 'Letter to a Bencher,' of October, 1713, not only states his case with regard to the magistrates' procedure but also acted as a manifesto and justification of his change of life (cf. ' Friend- ly Admonition,' pp. 121-122). This again was closely followed the text is dated at the end Feb. 15 by ' An Impartial Review of a Miscellaneous Treatise (Lately publish'd) Entitled, A Friendly Admonition to Gentlemen in the Commission of the Peace ; wherein What is Amiss is Rectify 'd, and what is Right is further Enforc'd. In Answer to a letter sent to the Author from a Reverend Divine on Occasion of it,' the title of which is self-explanatory. On June 24, 1729, Whatley was instituted to the prebend of Bilton in York Minster, in the gift of the Archbishop (Public Kecord Office, Exchequer, First Fruits and found in 1737 and 1738, or else either James Street, Haymarket, or James Street, Co vent Garden. t It is worthy of remark that the Sessions Books for this very month are missing (' Calendar of Sessions Books Nos. 850-877, and Orders of Court (Middlesex and Westminster) April 1727 to December 1729,' p. 85, note). Whatley's animadversions on the extortions of the keeper of the Gate-House and on Sir John Gonson's weak- ness for printing his charges at the county|s expense are born out by an inspection of this volume, e.g. on pp. 28, 55, 72, 113, 119, 128 and elsewhere. I.e. King (op. cit., p. 1). It reached a second edition. At that time Lancelot Blackburne. Tenths Office, Bishops' Certificates of In- stitution, York 32, cf. Le Neve, 'Fasti,' ed. T. D. Hardy, 1854, vol. iii. p. 173),* and on the 23rd of the following month to the rectory of Toft in Lincolnshire, a Crown living (Public Record Office, loc. cit., Lincoln 23). What negotiations lay Behind the conferment of the prebendal stall the writer has not so far traced and it is possible that King had participated in them, for the living which he bestowed on Whatley was worth but a third of the Circean three hundred pounds, and was, besides, solitary,, uncongenial and all but a sinecure. How- ever, this and the prebend formed a pro- visionj" and rector of Toft Whatley re- mained until his death. In this parish,, "consisting of 6 Far^is & 7 Cottages" (B.M., Add. MSS. 4*321, folio 235), the Chancellor's ugly duckling settled down for the next few years, by no means relin- quishing his claim on the Prime Minister,, which was unaffected by the Chancellor's act of grace what more pleasant than a Westminster Canonry or a Deanery ? but, as he afterwards alleged, waiting "until it might be seen in what manner his Character would turn out in that state " ( ' Short History,' p. 25), during which period nebulous promises and between Dec. 19^ 1728, and 1731 the sum of 350Z. were handed out to x him (op. cit., p. 23). Of the fruit of his solitude we have : ' A Discourse Made to a Person in A Country Parish Church, October 1,1732. Doing Penance for the Sin of Fornication. Most humbly recom- mended to the Consideration of the late Committee, of the honourable House of Commons, of Enquiry into the Abuses of the Ecclesiastical Courts.' Dedicated to Dr. Gibson, this was published not earlier than May 1, 1733, and, owing to its appositeness, its learning like all Whatley's works it is insignificant in matter and style or, more likely, the one word on its title-page, reached in the same year a second edition. In any case, Whatley seems to have been determined to show the political world that his light would not be extin- guished among the swamps of Toft. But King, long a frail reed, now resigned the seals and the next year died.J On Whatley's efforts, therefore, alone would the successful prosecution of his suit depend, t Though insufficient, it would seem, to dis- charge the debts that he had contracted (* Letter* and Applications,' p. 19). t Nov. 19, 1733. July 22, 1734.
 * Possibly St. James' Street, where he will be
 * Le Neve's entry is defective.