Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/71

 9 th S. I. JAN. 22, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

63

.770, and appears to have been succeeded by ,he son of his sister Margaret, who had married John Oliphant of Carpow. This brings us X) what may be termed the third family of Bachilton. John Oliphant of Carpow and Bachilton is stated to be great-grandson of William Oliphant, first of Carpow, third son of Ninian Millar, calling himself Oliphant, a natural son of the fourth Lord Oliphant, or of his son the Master of Oliphant (Condie chart). William Oliphant of Carpow was guardian to Hay of Balhousie, and died about 1666. His son John Oliphant, second of Carpow, married Margaret B... (name undecipherable), and died 1690. His son, John Oliphant of Carpow, married Margaret, sister of David Oliphant of Bachilton, and died 1727 (Condie chart). John, fourth of Carpow, who suc- ceeded to Bachilton, was twice married (Condie chart and ' N. & Q.,' 4 th S. ix. 322, 393). It is reasonable to remark that the Condie chart is, in all probability, nearly, if not quite, correct in the descent of the Bac- hilton property from this John. By his first marriage this 'so-called Lord Oliphant had a son John and a daughter Margaret. John the son is asserted to have died in 1777, during the lifetime of his father, and to have left issue a son John Harrison Oliphant, who succeeded his grandfather and died in 1791.

First Marriage.

=pJohn Oliphant of Carpow and Bachilton, " called Lord Oliphant," d. March, 1781.

John Oliphant,=p d. 1777.

Margaret, mar. 1, Gumming; 2, Mackenzie ; s. her half- brother John* : d, about 1800.

John Harrison Oliphant, d. 1791, s. by his half-uncle John.

Union Club, S.W.

John Harrison Oliphant's successor was his half -uncle John Oliphant, who, with his sister Janet (afterwards of Bachilton and Lady Elibank), was of the second marriage of John Oliphant of Carpow and Bachilton with Janet Morton (see ' N. & Q.,' 4 th S. ix. 322, 393). This John, who inherited the property from his half-nephew in 1791, died in 1797, and was succeeded by his half-sister (of the first marriage) Margaret, who married, first, Gumming, and, secondly, Mackenzie. She was served heir in that year to her father John Oliphant of Bachilton, "called Lord Oliphant" as heir of tailzie and provision special in Bachilton (see 'Chancery Records'). On her death, apparently witnout issue, Bachilton passed to her half-sister (of the second marriage with Janet Morton) Janet, who married, in 1803, Alexander, Master of Elibank, afterwards eighth lord, with whose descendants the property of Bachilton to- gether with the name of Oliphant now remains. Janet, Lady Elibank, was born posthumously, in 1781, her father having died in the March of that year after his marriage on 3 Jan. in the same year to Janet Morton. A sketch pedigree of the descend- ants of John, called Lord Oliphant, will serve to elucidate this somewhat complicated suc- cession to the Bachilton property :

Second Marriage. =p Janet Morton, mar. 3 Jan,, 1781,

John Harrison, and, 1797, was s. by his half -sister Margaret.
 * John, s. his half-nephew,

Janet=p Alexander, 8th Lord Elibank.

Oliphant- Murrays, Lords Elibank.

JOHN PARKES BUCHANAN.

W. CLARKE AND HIS PROJECTED WORK ON NATURAL HISTORY. W. Clarke, the author of ' The Boys' Own Book,' is the subject of a short memoir in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' wherein it is stated that " for the last three or four years of his life he devoted himself to an elaborate work on natural his- tory. This does not appear to have been published." There are grave doubts whether he ever wrote any such work, or pos- sessed sufficient knowledge of the subject to qualify him for the task. This conclusion is forced upon the reader of the explanation recorded in ' Glances Back througn Seventy Years,' by H. Vizetelly (2 vols., 1893). He states that " a comprehensive ' Natural His-

tory'" was projected, "the text of which, after being prepared by a scientific naturalist of repute, was to be popularized " by Clarke. On the withdrawal of the former, it was "settled that Clarke, assisted by certain scientific confreres, should write the work himself," ana he "continued to be paid his customary salary for several [five] years, on the presumption that he was steadily pro- gressing with the text Some hundreds of

Harvey's drawings were engraved, and several thousand pounds had been expended upon the work." Clarke died suddenly, "and, on search being made among his papers for the ' Natural History ' manuscript, for which he had received about 1,200., there was grea,t