Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/262

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NOTES ANt> QUERIES. [9* s. i. MAE. 26, te

Allies in the Netherlands, and the army in Yorkshire during the Rebellion. In March, 1745, he was promoted to the rank of Com- mander - in - Chief. General Wade died in 1748, aged eighty years, leaving a fortune of above 100,000^.

It may perhaps be interesting to A SCOT to know that the General's younger brother William was born at Tangier in 1672. He was admitted at St. Peter's, Westminster, in 1686, and elected a Westminster Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, 28 June, 1690. He became a Fellow of the College in 1696, and a Canon of Windsor in 1720. Canon Wade died at Bath on 1 Feb., 1732, and was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, where a monument was erected to his memory in the north aisle by General George Wade.

HORACE WHITE. 80, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge.

Would MR. ADAMS kindly inform your readers what corps (regiment ?) corresponded to " the Engineers " in 1690 1 I am under the impression that in the reign of William and Mary there was no corps entitled "Engineers" in the British army. I believe, also, that this specific branch of the service was first incorporated in the middle of the reign of George III., under the title of the Royal Corps of Sappers and Miners, and that it was not until aoout the period of the Peninsular War, in the early part of this century, that this designation was officially changed to that of Royal Engineers. If I am in error (and, of course, a revival and re-incor- poration may be the explanation) the cor- rection would be gratefully received by me, and would probably not be unacceptable to many of your readers.

For three score years I have been in the habit of hearing the couplet cited by MR. ADAMS quoted in the words of the version given by R. R., which I think it will be ad- mitted scans more correctly, and it is probable that the rhyming benison was composed before the distinguished officer attained the rank of field marshal. However, I have occasionally heard the doggerel given thus : If you 'd seen these roads before they were made You would bless the memory of Field Marshal Wade.

NEMO. Temple.

The couplet on General Wade's roads is quoted by Scott in the ' Legend of Montrose ' (chap, xviii.), and is there attributed to an " Irish Engineer officer." According to Noble (' Biographical Hist, of England,' iii. 129) Wade died 14 March, 1748, aged seventy-five.

REV. JOHN HICKS (8 th S. xii. 509; 9 th S. i. 35), The names of the Rev. J. Hicks's children and grandchildren, as given in the very interesting article by MR. A. T. EVERITT, are taken from "A Bill" (1706) t9 enable the sale of houses in Portsmouth (devised by his widow, Elizabeth Hicks) under an Act of Parliament "by reason of the nonage" of the said grandchildren, of whom the eldest was " not above 9 years of age." The following extracts from the parish registers of Portsmouth (kindly supplied by the said MR. A. T. EVERITT) further illustrate these parties, the first entry, which is written lengthways on the margin of the page con- taining the baptisms from January, 1677/8, to June, 1678, being as under : " It was desired, October 18 th, 1679, that it might be recorded in this Booke that Elizabeth, daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Hickes, was borne y e 24 th day of March, 1679 " (sic, but doubtless an error for 1678 [N.S.], i.e., the last day of the year 1677/8). The second entry, which is similarly inserted on the third page following, viz., that con- taining the baptisms from April to November. 1679, runs thus : " Decem. 17, I was desired by Mrs. Elizabeth Hickes to set downe this, That her son James was borne November the 10, 1679" (sic, the date "1679" being, in this case, doubtless correct). The burial of the mother of these children (the widow of the Rev. John Hicks) is recorded on 26 January, 1704/5, as "Mrs. Elizabeth Hicks"; the mar- riage of the said "James Hicks and Mary Seager" on 10 June, 1701 ; the burial of " Mary, wife of Mr. James Hicks," on 3 July, 1702 ; the burial of "Mr. James Hicks" him- self on 15 June, 1704; and the posthumous baptism of " Anne, dau. of Mr. James Hicks and Susanna his wife," on 13 Sept., 1704. The marriage of the above-named Elizabeth Hicks (daughter of the Rev. John Hicks and Elizabeth) with Luke Spicer is not recorded in these registers, but it must have occurred as early as 1696 (when she apparently would have been nineteen) or even earlier. Of the seven elder children (grandchildren to the Rev. John Hicks) of that marriage, being those who are mentioned in the said " Bill " of 1706, only the first two were baptized at Portsmouth, viz., Elizabeth, on 6 July, 1697, and Susanna on 17 January, 1698/9. The date and place of the baptisms of Mary, Hannah, and Keturah are unknown. The birth of the sixth child, Sarah, 3 Aug., 1704, is entered among the baptisms at St. Peter's, Chichester, as also are the birth, 30 Aug., and the baptism, 10 Sept., 1705, of the seventh child (the first son), Ralph de Lalo, these last bwo being described as children of " Captain Luke Spicer and Elizabeth." Six other