Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/98

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NOTES AND QUERIES.


 * 9 tl ' S. 1. JAN. -29, '98.

from among the men of the artillery com- panies then serving in Germany. F. A. W.

PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON, AND HIS TOMB AT POBLET (8 th S. xii. 488). This nobleman, who was born in December, 1698, succeeded his father in 1715 as Marquis of Wharton, Malmesbury, and Catherlough, Viscount Win- chendon, Earl of Rathfarnham, and Baron Trim. In 1716 he went to Geneva, Paris, and Avignon, visiting at the last-named place the Old Pretender, whose cause he subse- quently espoused. Returning to Ireland in tne following year, he took his seat in the Irish House of Peers, although only eighteen years of age. On 20 January, 1718, he was created Duke of Wharton, but did not take his seat in the English House of Lords till his majority in 1720. Early in 1725 he proceeded to Vienna, and thence to Madrid, where he declared himself a Roman Catholic. He subsequently visited the Pretender in Rome, from whom he accepted the Order of the Garter, and openly assumed the title of the Duke of Northumberland, previously bestowed upon him by that personage. In 1727 he served as a volunteer in the Spanish army operating against Gibraltar, becoming later colonel of an Irish regiment in the Spanish service. He was consequently con- victed of high treason, and lost both his peerage and all that he possessed in his native country. The rest of his life was given up to luxury and dissipation, for, although endowed with splendid talents, he plunged into the wildest excesses, and professed the most godless doctrines. He died at a Ber- nardine convent near Tarragona on 31 May, 1731, and was buried the next day by the monks in the same manner in which one of themselves would have been interred.

For further details of the life of this eccentric nobleman consult ' Memoirs of the Life of His Grace the late Duke of Wharton, by an Impartial Hand/ London, 1731.

J. T. THORP.

Leicester.

The epitaph should read thus : " Hie jacet Excellentissimus Dominus Philippus de Wharton Anglus, Dux Marchio et Comes de Wharton, Marchio de Malmesbury et Catherlough, Comes de Rathfarnham, Vicecomes de Winchendon, Baro de Trim, Eques de Sto. Georgio, alias de la Gerratierra [the Garter] : Obiit," &c.

This first and last Duke of Wharton was a profligate, eccentric, witty, and gifted man. After receiving promotion from George I., he bandoned his cause, and adopted that of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, by whom he was created Duke of Northumberland. He

was attainted in 1728. He then served as a volunteer in the Spanish army, and died at last in the monastery of Poblet, aged only thirty - two. He married, first, Martha, daughter of Major-General Richard Holmes, by whom he had Thomas, who died in infancy, 1 March, 1720 ; and, secondly, Maria Theresa, maid of honour to the Queen of Spain, daughter of Henry O'Beirne, colonel in the Spanish service, by whom he had no issue. She married, secondly, Count Monti jo, and died 13 February, 1777.

C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. Longford, Coventry.

This nobleman was sixth Baron Wharton, second Viscount Winchenden, second Earl Wharton, second Marquess of Malmesbury, second Marquess of Wharton, and first Duke of Wharton. He was also second Baron Trim, second Earl of Rathfarnham, and second Marquess of Catherlough in the peerage of Ireland. A short account of this " profligate, eccentric, witty, and gifted " peer will be found in Burke's ' Extinct Peerages.'

G. F. R, B.

TOM MATTHEWS, THE CLOWN (9 th S. i. 28). I have a collection of about a thousand " theatrical portraits," of the " penny plain, twopence coloured " series, published between 1820 and 1850, but I have no print of this performer, though I have a spirited original a rawing of him as clown, evidently intended to be engraved for one of the series. I also have one of " Miss Mathews " (?), and another of "Mr. Mathews as Golotz London pubd by A Park sold by M & M Skelt No 54," no date, but about 1840. I presume this was Charles James Mathews. He and John Thomas (or Tom) Mathews will be found in F. Boase's 'Modern English Biography,' vol. ii., 1897, where the salient facts of their lives are shortly stated. RALPH THOMAS.

A ' Memoir of Tom Matthews, the very last of Acting Clowns,' by "A Playgoer" (Mr. H. C. Porter), appeared in the Brighton Guardian during October, November, and December, 1882. It was completed in seven papers, and presented full details of the clown's career, gained at first hand. In case POLYOLBION has any difficulty in referring to this memoir, I shall be happy to give him any information desirable if he will communicate with me direct. W. J. LAWRENCE.

Comber, Belfast.

MADAM BLAIZE (9 th S. i. 47). This pic- ture, referred to by MR. PICKFORD, is by Abraham Solomon, the well - known subject painter, who died in 1862. Mr. Solomon is