Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/51

 2 d S. NO 3., JAN. 19. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

It will be seen that the accompanying docu- ment is a report which the Surveyor-general makes to the Lords of the Treasury, respecting the petition of Mr. Anderson for a lease, which he recommends to be granted ; and by a warrant, dated August 12, 1729, signed by three of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, which ap- proves of the Surveyor-general's report", a new lease was ordered to be made in conformity there- with ; but, in consideration that the chapel was much out of repair, and the congregation poor, the fine of 40Z. was remitted. I shall doubtless meet with the original petition of Mr. Anderson shortly ; and if it contain any facts unnoticed by this report, I will communicate them.

WILLIAM HENRY HART.

Albert Terrace, New Cross.

" May it please your Lordships,

" By the annexed petition, Mr. James Anderson, pastor of the Scotch Congregation in Swallow Street, represents, that they many years since purchased of the French Protestants a chapel there, which they have been at great expenses in repairing, in order to keep it up during the remainder of their term, and that, as his Majesty and .your lordships have been ready to encourage all congre- gations for religious worship, and he (the petitioner) in her late Majesty's reign showed his zeal for the Hanover succession, he prays your lordships to grant him in trust for his said congregation a reversionary lease of the pre- mises to make up their term in being fifty years under a small rent, without fine.

" I have perused an indenture, dated 5 th April, 1694, in which 'tis recited that Mr. John Lawson, having a lease from Henry, Lord Dover, and others, dated the 10 th of January, 1693, of a messuage in Piccadilly, with a court before, and a yard behind it, for the residue of the several terms of twenty-three and twenty years therein men- tioned, had mortgaged the same to Mr. Benjamin Skinner, by which indenture the said Lawson and Skinner leased to Mr. George Boyd part of the said premises, viz. a piece of ground abutting eastward on Swallow Street, containing from north to south 68 feet, and from east to west 35 feet, together with the gateways, into the said street for thirty-five years from Lady Day, 1G94.

" I have also perused an indenture, dated the 15 th February, 1709, reciting that the said George Boyd (who was a member of the French Church) had by a, writing acknowledged the lease of the said ground was taken in his name in trust for Mr. John Graverol, and other French ministers, by which indenture they sold the said ground, with the chapel and messuage thereon erected to Mr. An- derson (the petitioner), and to Charles Lowther and Gilbert Gordon, both since deceased, for the remainder of the before-mentioned term of thirty-five years, which expired at Lady Day last ; and the petitioner has produced to me a writing under the hand of Mrs. Hannah Edwards, dated the 27 th of November last, whereby she agreed that he shall have the premises at the yearly rent he now pavs her for the remainder of the term granted by the crown, which will expire at Lady Day, 1734.

" Having caused the premises to be surveyed, I find there is now only a chapel thereon, with a yard at the north- west corner (part of the before -mentioned messuage having been converted into a vestry-room, and a gallery over it, and the rest laid into the chapel); at the south- east end of the premises there is a gateway of 7 feet 10 inches in breadth, leading from Swallow Street through the adjoining building. The said building abuts east on

he house of Henry Bone and on the said street ; west on he grounds of Kilborne and others, being the backsides of houses in Sackville Street ; north on the stable-yard

of Oakes, and south on the houses of John Blany

and the petitioner ; and contains in breadth, from east to west, 35 feet, and in length from north to south 68 feet and 10 inches, or thereabouts-. The said building is a slight one, much out of repair; and considering the bad situation of it, almost surrounded wllh buildings, may be valued at 20Z. per annum.

request, a reversionary lease of the premises may be passed to him in trust for the benefit of the said congre- atiou for forty-five years, to commence from Lad} 1 Day, 1734, when the term in being of five years will expire, for a fine of 40?., to be now paid (unless your lordships shall think fit to remit it according to the prayer of the petitioner, who alleges that his congregation is very poor); reserving a rent of 21. 10?. per annum, being 2s. 6d. in the pound on the said yearly value, which will be agreeable to the Civil List Act.
 * If your lordships shall please to grant the petitioners

" And the better to ascertain the tenancy of the pre- mises, a rent of 12d. per annum to be made payable to the crown during the term in being ; but to cease when the rent reserved for the said reversionary term shall commence.

All which is humbly submitted to " Your Lordships' wisdom,

" PHILL. GYBBON, Surveyor General, " 25 th April, 1729."

CONFESSION OF THE AUTHORSHIP OF " JUNIUs's LETTERS."

From the first volume of " N". & Q." to the present, I have frequently observed its pages spangled with new and " bright " lights bearing on the Junius mystery, together with some links, which at a future day, may be of considerable as- sistance in completing the long-sought chain of evidence.

The following remarkable letter from the pen of M. Bonnecarrere, French Minister Plenipoten- tiary, which that gentleman addressed to the editor of the Moniteur, in Aug., 1816, affords what many would consider conclusive evidence in support of the not uncommon assumption that Mr. Hugh Boyd was the personator of Junius. The following is a translation of M. Bonnecarrere's letter. I do not remember having met with it in any work on the authorship of Junius ; and I cer- tainly think it deserves to be rescued from the perishable columns of "a forty year old" French newspaper. From what I have heard of M. Bonnecarrere's character, I believe him to have been a man of the highest integrity, and, of course, incapable of uttering an untruth.

WILLIAM JOHN FITZ-PATRICK.

Booterstoun, Dublin.

To the Editor of the Monitcur.

" Sir, The Journal des Dcbats of the 7th of August, 181G, contains the following article:

"There is a pamphlet published in London, with this title Facts and Arguments which demonstrate, incontcs- ta 1 )!!/ that tfie Letters of Junius are by J. 11. de Lolme, An-