Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/119

12 s. ix. JULY 30. i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 93 1618 (12 S. ix. 12).—The county to which Williams belonged is mentioned in the notice of his case given on pp. 88-90 of 'Un Continuation des Reports de Henry Rolle Serjeant del' Ley, De Divers Cases En le Court del' Banke le Roy. En le Temps del' Reign de Roy Jaques,' London, 1676. The defendant is described as "Williams de Essex" and said to be "a Papist, and a Barrester del' Middle-Temple, mes expelled 7 ans passed pur Religion." Is not the date of his death 1619? A letter of May 4, 1619, from Mr. Lorkin to Sir Thomas Puckering, Bart., printed in 'The Court and Times of James the First,' London, 1848, has these words: "Yesterday being Monday, Williams the Author of Balaam's Ass, was arraigned at Westminster, and there condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered." On May 5, the same correspondent writes. "I thought fit to add this word more, to let you understand, how that this day Williams was executed at Charing Cross, according to the sentence in my last specified." James Howell in a letter dated Aug. 9,1648 ('Familiar Letters' iii. 22) has a reference to Williams and his 'Vision of Balaam's Ass,' and quotes some "prophetic verses of Whitehall" upon this book, "which were made above twenty years ago to my knowledge."

VERSES WANTED : CONJUGAL SQUABBLES ( 12 S. ix. 53). These verses appeared in No. 2 of The Toiler, April 14, 1709, with the title " The Medecin : A Tale for the Ladies." The author was William Harrison (1685- 1713), remembered chiefly as* the friend of Swift, who mentions him frequently and with affection in the ' Journal to Stella.' His life is in the ' D.X.B.' Steele in his editorial introduction to the poem asserts that '' the Foundation is from a real Accident which happen'd among my Acquaintance." But the story is told in Burton's ' Anatom^ of Melancholy,' 3, 3, 4, 2. Harrison's poem - reprinted in ' A Select Collection of Poems,' printed and published by John Xichols, 1780-82, vol. vii., p. 234. EDWARD BENSLY. Your correspondent will find the verses in Humourist's Miscellany,' 2nd edn, 1804 (anon.), under title, at p. 17, of "A -M' deciiie for the Ladies." Recently I came he same verses in a weekly publica- i 'ii< >}>;iper) of the first half of the 18th tury, and the contribution was signed by (I think) Daniel Turner, the medical writer. GEORGE C. PEAC, ; EY. Ridge. Bariiet, Hert-. SIR BENJAMIN HAMMETT (12 S. ix. .12, 58). He was a banker, partner in the firm of Sir James Esdaile and Co. Esdailes made a speciality of acting as agents for country bankers. When one of these, Wm. Clarke and Sons of Liverpool, got into difficulties, in 1799, Sir Benjamin came to Liverpool to investigate. The attorney for the bankers was a William Roscoe, just about to retire from the practice of the law on a comfortable competency. Hammett perceived his ability and made it a condi- tion of not throwing the estate into bank- ruptcy that Wm. Roscoe should join the firm. Roscoe repeatedly refused, but out of friendship for the Clarkes reluctantly consented. Sixteen years later this com- bination again came to grief, and the latter days of Wm. Roscoe were embittered. Esdailes themselves were wound up under a deed of inspection in 1837. They were then agents for 72 country banks, and their profit on agency account was estimated at 25,000 yearly. I have the following note, taken from some philatelic paper whose name I have failed to record : "In the bad old days of franking, many mercantile houses paid members of Parliament for sending their letters under the member's autograph. Sir B. Hammett was accused of having made over 2,400 a year in this way." The author of the article ! was H. I. Maguire. J. H. K. JAMES MACBUKNEY (12 S. viii. 431, 474, 516). I see that Madame D'Arblay says he was steward to the Earl of Ashburnham. Tn 1716 and 1717 he was one of the trustees of the marriage settlement of Lord (not then Earl) Ashburnham, who married in 1714 Lady Anglesey, one of the daughters and coteries of the ninth Earl of Derby. I There were two sets of trustees, one for each party, and as " James Mackbumie " he joined in several deeds by which -some of his wife's properties in Lancashire were sold to defray her husband's debts. Con- siderable sums were raised in this way. The Earl seems to have been extravagant, and in 1730 sold Ashburnham House, in Westminster, to the Crown. This had been built by Inigo Jones and was where some of the Cotton MSS. were destroyed by fire in 1731. R. S. B.