Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/50

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

x. JULY 19, im.

heed to politics, but devoted himself to point- ing out " the several mistakes, errors, or blunders committed " by the pamphlet's anonymous author. This he does with the authority of a connoisseur, exhibiting an extraordinary acquaintance, for the place and time, with the history and literature of the game, no little familiarity with the classics, and some knowledge of Spanish and Hebrew. His style not infrequently betrays the hand of the foreigner, but is, nevertheless, clear, precise, and trenchant. This slight but in- teresting contribution to American colonial letters was never printed. Rou's original manuscript existed at New York as late as 1858, in which year it was borrowed by the present writer from Dr. George Henry Moore, at that time librarian of the New York His- torical Society, and afterwards of the Lenox Library as well to whom it had been tem- porarily lent by its (now unknown) owner. After a small part of it had been copied, and some notes made on other portions, the manu- script was duly returned to Dr. Moore, since which event nobody seems to have seen it or heard of it. Several years after Dr. Moore's death search was made for it in the two public libraries which had been under his control, but without avail. Dr. Moore's pri- vate collections were scattered by auction ; singularly enough they included a brief auto- graphic manuscript by Rou, but of an earlier date and on a different theme. Is it not possible that some one of the numerous Transatlantic readers of ' N. & Q.' may have something to say concerning the later his- tory or final fate of Rou's missing book ?

4. The sought -for manuscript is a thin quarto of twenty-four closely written pages, and is divided in to seventeen short, numbered chapters or sections. It opens with the title, as already given, which is directly followed by a dedicatory epistle " To his Excellency, William Cosby, Esq., Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Pro- vinces of New York and New Jersey, and the Territories thereon depending, in America, Vice-Admiral of the same, and Colonel in his Majesty's Army," occupying nearly or quite a page, signed "Lewis Rou," and dated "New York, y e 13th, of Decemb. 1734." At the end of the essay is a second date, "Y e Xlth Decemb. 1734." The ninth section (pp. 22-3) commences thus (the citation from the author he is criticizing italicized) : " I had almost pass'd by what the author says here about the Check-mate given in two or three moves at the beginning of a Game, when the King seems in full prosperity, <c." After further quotation Rou says : ' k I suppose he

means here the Schollars-mate, or what we call among the French the Shepherds-mate, VEschec et mat du Berger," which he proceeds to explain correctly, snowing the inaccuracies of the London pamphleteer.

5. The manuscript, as it is remembered, had all the appearance of a completed work, which had received its final emendations and was ready for the printer ; but its author must have felt the impossibility of issuing such a treatise, at that period, in New York or elsewhere in America. As he evidently took no little pride in his production, it is not unlikely that, while retaining one copy for himself (the one described, which, it is believed, continued for a long time in the possession of his descendants), the reverend writer may have made another for presenta- tion to the dedicatee, who was, of course, politically and socially, the foremost per- sonage of the colony. Governor Cosby, who was of the Irish family of Cosby of Strad- bally, died at New York, 10 March, 1736, less than fifteen months after the date of Rou's dedication. What became of his books, papers, and correspondence 1 The object of this query is to ascertain whether Rou's work his own copy having disappeared may not be restored to American literature through an examination of the Cosby or other family archives. William Cosby left a widow (Grace, sister of George Montagu, Earl of Halifax), two sons, and two daugh- ters. The widow, soon after her husband's death, returned to England, surviving until 1767 ; it was said at the time that she joined her elder daughter Elizabeth, who had recently (about the beginning of 1733) espoused at New York Lord Augustus Fitzroy (died 1741), second son of the second Duke of Grafton, by whom she had two sons, one of whom became the third Duke of Grafton. Lady Elizabeth Fitzroy married secondly James Jeffries. Of the two sons of Governor Cosby, the elder was an officer in the army, the younger a captain in the navy (died 1753), both apparently unmarried. His younger daughter Grace became the wife of a Mr. Murray of New York, in which city she doubtless remained. What is known of this Mr. Murray; and are any of his de- scendants living? One of his name, who stood in intimate relations to Governor Cosby, is described in a contemporary account as " the senior counsel at the bar " of New York. It is noteworthy that Alex- ander,^- an elder brother of William Cosby, was Lieutenant- Governor of Nova Scotia 'under his brother-in-law Governor Richard Phillips) ; that this brother likewise had two