Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/357

 9* s. n. OCT. 29, '98.1 NOTES AND QUERIES.

349

SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE.

(9 th S. i. 467 ; ii. 190.)

HAVING only this day seen the state- ment in reference to my great-grandfather, tho Right Hon. Sir Hercules Langrishe, Bart., to the effect that he received 15,000. for voting for the Union, I beg to send you herewith a copy of 'A Refutation* of that and other calumnies which it has pleased writers of past and present times to circulate, in face of the patent facts to the contrary, and shall feel much obliged if you will insert

Earagraph 5, which deals with the alleged ribe of 15,000. The publishers of the work referred to in the enclosed have acted most handsomely by inserting the leaflet in every copy in their possession, and the proprietors of W. H. Smith & Son's and Mudie's libraries have done the same :

" 5. It is altogether untrue that Sir Hercules Langrishe received 15,0001. for voting for the Union. That calumny chiefly became current through Sir Jonah Barrington's 'Memoirs.' It has been ably refuted by Mr. George Dames Burtchaell, M.A., in his admirable work entitled ' The Members of Parliament for the County and City of Kilkenny, from A.D. 1295 to 1888,' as follows: 'Compensation was awarded to the patrons of boroughs, quite irrespective of the side on which they voted, though there appears to be a pretty general belief, due to Sir Jonah Barringtou, that it was given only to those who supported the Union. The Right Hon. W. B. Ponsonby, M.P. for the county of Kilkenny, one of the leaders of the Opposition, got 15,000/. for his borough of Banagher; the Rignt Hon. Sir John Parnell, Bart., another leader of the Opposition, who had been M.P. for Knocktopher, 1777-85, was awarded 7,500/. for one seat at Maryborough ; and William Tighe, also an opponent, M.P. for Inistioge, got 15,0001. for that borough, and 15,0001. more for the borough of Wicklow, of which he was also patron. But the most remarkable instance of all is that of the Marquess of Downshire, whose signature is appended to the requisition to the High Sheriff of the county Kilkenny to convene the freeholders of the county to petition against the Union. Thi?.. nobleman was patron of -three boroughs and a half Hillsborough, Fore, Blessing- ton, and Carlingford and was in consequence awarded the enormous sum of 52,500(. Bariington makes no reference to these facts, while he parades the sums awarded to the Unionists for the loss of their boroughs. Lord Callan got 15,000/. for Callan; Lord Clifden 15,000. each for Gowran and Thomas- town; Sir George Shea, Bart., 1,137/. 10-s\ for his seat at Knocktopher ; and Sir Hercules Langrishe, Bart., 13,862/. 10*. for his patronage in that borough.' There never could have been any grounds for the allegations that the sums paid to the patrons of the disfranchised boroughs, after the passing of the Act of Union, were paid for voting for the Union before it was passed, and there is no reference to the subject in ' Secret Service under Pitt/ by Fitz- patrick, for the very good reason that they were

not paid out of Secret Service money, but under the Union Compensation Act. See ' Proceedings of the Commissioners under the Union Compensation Act of Ireland Cities, Towns, and Borougns.' ' Ordered to be printed 7th July, 1804.' "

R. LANGRISHE.

MRS. WILSON (9 th fS. ii. 247). As Mrs. Weston, she played at Glasgow, in May, 1774, Miss Stirling (' Clandestine Marriage '), Miss Linnett (' Maid of Bath '), Miss Grantham (' Liar '), Dolly Snip (' Harlequin's Invasion ').

When Mrs. Wilson she played at Liverpool, in 1776, Miranda ('Busybody'), Miss Hard- castle, Nell, Lady Kackett, Jacintha ('Sus- 6'cious Husband'), Mrs. Sullen, Estifania, rs. Bundle, Harriet (' Reprisal '). There is a quarto print of her in the part last named by Gardiner, after Harding.

The following season she was again at Liverpool, where the stock company comprised Kemble, Lewis, Lee Lewes, Wilson, Wewitzer, Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Hartley, and Miss Younge, and played Sylvia ('Recruiting Officer'), Violante, Margery (' Country Wife '), Ophelia Lewis playing Hamlet, Mrs. Siddons Queen, and Mr. Siddons Player King Lydia Lan- guish, Millarnont, Belinda ('All in the Wrong') to the Lady Restless of Mrs. Siddons, Lady Anne, Mrs. Sneak, &c.

In the summer of 1778 her name appears in the bills of the Canterbury Theatre, then under the management of Hurst, as Sir Harry Wildair, Capt. Macheath, Lady Teazle, Cordelia. At the same place, in 1779, she acted Miss Prue, Miss Walsingham (' School for Wives '), and some of her former- parts.

Mrs. Wilson died at Edinburgh in 1786. There was another Mrs. Wilson, afterwards Williames, at Drury Lane from about 1783 to 1790. WILLIAM DOUGLAS.

125, Helix Road, Brixton Hill.

CHELTENHAM : CHISWICK : CHISEL (9 th S. i. 200, 245, 396, 509; ii. 90, 210). That Chesil or Chisel is a common field-name may be in- ferred from the fact that on this estate only there are two fields so called. The soil is clay, but a pebbly or gravelly clay, and varying in places, some having more, some less gravel, and some none at all. One of the fields was called Further Cheshills, and its neighbour Great Cheshills, in 1570 ; the former being called Chissells in 1622 and 1840, Cheshills in 1640, and Cheshill 1673 and 1730.

Another field, half a mile away, was called Chesylls in 1589, Chessills in 1664, 1699, 1709, and 1729, and Chesills in 1730.

But that "Further Cheshills" (comprised in 613 Ordn.) is nearly a flat, and no "hill," one