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Lord Campbell says he knows nothing of his early career; however, it appears from his "Will" that he was educated at Bunbury and Middleton Schools, and "in thankfull acknowledgment of the same," bequeathed an annuity to the masters and ushers thereof. For many years he was an inhabitant of Congleton, practised as a barrister there, was made mayor in 1637 and afterwards high steward, and counsel for the borough, for which he received a quarterly salary. See Lysons' 'Magna Britannia.”

He married Mary the daughter of Thomas Marbury, of Marbury, and died without issue, 1659. By a codicil to his "Will" he left Milton ten pounds.

"Bradshaw," says Granger, "had the peculiar infamy of being the only man that ever sat in judgment upon his sovereign." He was well fee'd for his services on the occasion, the Parliament made him a present of Summer Hill, a pretty seat of the Earl of St. Albans (worth £1000 a-year, says Walker in his "History of Independency.") He had also Lord Cottington's estate in Wiltshire, the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the office of President of the Council. Clarendon says he had also the Dean's House at West

advised by a gentleman to examine himself about the matter of the King's death, he answered that if it were to do again he would be the first man that should do it."

The hat, a thick big-crowned beaver lined with plated steel, which Bradshaw wore at the trial, is still preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, with a curious inscription.

In the British Museum are several pamphlets penned with bitter feelings of exultation at his death in 1659; they do not possess any particular merit, and are only curious as an illustration of the execration in which his memory was held by the Royalists.

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HENRY OF OATLANDS.-Of Henry of Oatlands, the youngest son of King Charles 1st, a curious story is related by Dr. South, in a marginal note to one of his Discourses on Covetousness. "A certain Lawyer, a great confident of the rebels in the time of their reign, upon a consult, held amongst them, how to dispose of the Duke of Gloucester, then in their hands, with great gravity declared it for his opinion, That they should bind him out to some good trade; that so he might eat his bread honestly.' South adds, that this extraordinary advice did not hinder him from being made a judge in the reign of King Charles the second." A practice not unusual in the courts of some princes to encourage and prefer their mortal enemies before their honest friends." Who is the lawyer alluded to? H. B.

New Square, Lincoln's-Inn.

says

RICHARD SMITH THE BIBLIOMANIAC.-Rusticus, (Current Notes, Dec. p. 103), requests information relative to Richard Smith, the famous Bookworm of Little Moorfields. He was one of the best patrons of the booksellers in the time of Charles II. Anthony à Wood "He was a person infinitely curious and inquisitive after books, and suffered nothing considerable to escape him that fell within the compass of his learning; desiring to be master of no more than he knew how to use. He was constantly known every day to walk his rounds among the booksellers' shops, (especially in Little Britain), and by his great skill and experience, he made choice of such books as were not obvious to every man's eye. He lived in times which ministered peculiar opportunities of meeting with books that were not every day brought into light, and few eminent libraries were bought where he had not the liberty to pick and choose."

Smith had a fine collection of historical works, and was also "a great collector of MSS. and delighted much to be poring over them. He collected abundance of pamphlets published at and before the Reformation, relating to ecclesiastical affairs-the copies of some of them supposed to be then not extant, and therefore esteemed as choice as MSS. Nor was he the owner of this choice treasure of books as an idle possessor or did he barely turn over the leaves, but was a constant peruser of, and did generally collate them, observed the defects of impressions, the ill arts used by many and compared the difference of editions. Concerning which, he with great diligence and industry entered many memorable and very useful remarks upon his books with his own hand."

This

He had ample means to gratify his passion for books. He was for many years Secondary of the Poultry Compter, a situation worth about £700 a year. venerable old bibliomaniac died in 1675, at the advanced age of 85, and was buried in Cripplegate Church. He wrote a curious obituary, (published by the Camden Society,) in which he carefully recorded the progress made by death in thinning the list of his friends, the booksellers-the Thorpes, the Rodds, and Paynes of their day.

1634. February 22, died, Richard Wase, bookseller in Little Britain.

1648. Died, Richard Clutterbuck, Stationer.

1653. May 19, died, Christopher Meredith, Bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard.

1656. Dec. 11, Robert Bostock, Bookseller, suddenly in the street at Banbury.

1658. Nov. 4, died, Legat, in Little Wood St. once Printer at Cambridge, since distempered in his senses. Nov. 25, died, Roger Norton, Printer, very poor. of Romances and Pamphlets, &c. 1659. May 5, died, Barnard Pollard, Bookseller, chiefly

1663. April 22, d.. Thomas Robinson, Bookseller at

Oxford, with a good report of an honest man.

1665. John Jones, ex peste.

Dec. 4, Peter Cole, Bookseller and Printer, hanged himself in his warehouse in Leadenhall, reported to be distracted. March 20, d. Captain Luke Fawne, Bookseller, at "The Parrot" in St. Paul's Churchyard.

1668. Died, Samuel Thompson, Bookseller in Duck Lane, a good husband and industrious man in his profession. 1670. Nov. 3, obiit, Jacobus Allestry, Bibliopola. 1671. Jany. 2, d. Cornelius Bee, Bookseller in Little wine or wafers, only gloves and rosemary. Britain, buried Thursday at St. Bartholomew's, without

After the decease of the worthy old bibliomaniac himself, it was proposed to buy his library by public subscription, but eventually it fell into the hands of Chiswell, a bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, who printed a catalogue of the books and sold them by auction, "to the great reluctance of public-spirited men," 1682. The prices the Caxtons fetched would have made Dibdin heave a groan.

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SACRILEGE. In former numbers of the "Current Notes" you have alluded to the spoliation and sacrilege committed in our churches. In Gregson's Fragments of Lancashire, printed 1817, is a sketch of an ancient Baptismal Font, at Walton Church, From whence, (we are told), upon the erection of the present Font in 1754, it was removed and degraded as a seat before the door of a Public House, where it now lies reversed, and considerably sunk into the earth. The diameter is about three feet. It is of a circular plan, with six projecting panels, upon which, and the intervening compartments, some figures are rudely carved." Can any of your Archæological friends in Lancashire inform me what has become of this interesting relic? ANTIQUARY.

NUMISMATIC ENQUIRIES ANSWERED. PERMIT me to reply to the queries of your four Numismatic Correspondents, seriatim but briefly.

"A Collector of Coins and Medals" is informed that the average price at auctions of the shilling of Oliver is about one guinea, if in fine preservation; but if rubbed or worn, its value becomes seriously diminished. His copper piece must be a forgery, as no coin of the Protector is known having his head on one side and his name on the other, as "A Collector, &c." describes it. His two copper Papal medals have very common reverses, and are not worth more than one shilling each. The piece described by "S. J. T." is a St. Patrick's Farthing, struck in Ireland in 1642. St. Patrick is represented in the act of performing his famous exploit of banishing all the venomous reptiles out of" Happy Erin," for as the humourous Irish song has it,

"He gave the snakes and the toads a twist,
And banished all the varmint."

Halfpence were also struck, composed, like the farthing, of mixed brass and copper; but on them the Saint is represented preaching to a crowd of people, and behind him, instead of a church, is a shield charged with the arms of Dublin.

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last June, p. 53. We doubt much whether "Baby" was a word even known to the Scotch in 1550. To this day it is never used by the lower classes who speak the Lowland Scotch dialect. R. B. wishes to know what may be the reverse of this coin? It consists of a foliated cross, having a crown and a cinquefoil in alternate angles; Legend "Oppidum Edinburgi." Miss Strickland is somewhat renowned for her Medallic inventions. In her Life of Mary of Esté, the Queen of James II., she describes two Medals, one representing the King and Queen face to face, and the other of the Queen alone with her double name of " Maria Beatrix."As the writer had been a Medal collector for 18 years, and had never seen or heard of such Medals, and knew that none such were engraved in any Medallic History, he was somewhat startled; but inasmuch as the lively authoress boldly added, "These Medals are preserved in the British Museum," and he could not suspect a lady of a fib, he went directly to the British Museum to see these rarities, and need scarcely add that his errand proved a fruitless one. B. N.

One would scarcely have thought that "An Old Coin-hunter" would have been misled by Granger's odd mistake as to the Crown-piece of the Protector, and have occasion to ask, "Is not this erroneous?" Certainly it is: West's Catalogue (Upcott's copy) is now before me, and I observe that on the third day's sale the set of Oliver's Silver Coins (the Dutch Ninepenny-piece being substituted for the Sixpence) sold for £5. 7s 6d, the lot being numbered 66. Lot 67 was a Shilling, which sold for 16s 6d. Lot 68, another Shilling, produced 14s 6d. Lot 51, a Sixpence (a MS. note in my Catalogue says "also Dutch") £1. 12s. And in the third day's sale was a Half Crown, lot 32, which sold for £1. 12s. This comprised all the Silver Coins of Oliver that Mr. West possessed.

4th February, 1853.

IRISH COPPER TOKENS.-I have been a constant reader of your "Price Current," and feeling that it has done much service to literature, I regret to see any part of it occupied with useless matter.

You have been led to incur the cost of engraving a Copper Token, (Price Current, Jan. 1853, p. 3), which is very abundant in Ireland, and which has been long published in the well-known work of "Simon on Irish Coins," plate 7, fig. 142. The forthcoming part of the Transactions of the Kilkenny Archæological Association contains a paper by Dr. Cane, of Kilkenny, which will furnish an answer to your correspondent S. J. T. The questions proposed in the article "Coins of Cromwell," (P. C. Jan. 1853, p. 3) prove your correspondent to be merely a collector, and utterly ignorant of Numismatics. I would readily inform him of the value of his possessions, but I do not consider that the "Price Current" should be used for such purpose. I take the liberty of suggesting, that before you put in type any queries respecting coins or medals, you should refer them to some competent authority to determine if they are worth printing. As to Irish Coins and Medals, I will be happy to assist you in the way I have suggested. AQUILLA SMITH, M.D.

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The story of the "Baby Coin of Mary Queen of Scots," the fanciful invention of Miss Strickland, may be answered very briefly. The coin is a penny, and the head of the Queen youthful, but not that of an infant. It is by no means rare, and is engraved in Lindsay's and Cardonnel's works, and indeed in all other books relating to the Coinage of Scotland. The origin of the word buwbee may be found in the "Current Notes" for

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himself that he never had stricken or wounded any man, never taken anything from their bodies, as rings, &c., never cut their girdles or saddles, or done them who he robbed any corporeal violence. He was with his companion reprieved, and sent these following verses to the King for mercy, and hath obtained it :-"

"I that hath robb'd so oft, am now bid stand-
Death and the law assault me, and demand
My life and means. I never used men so,
But, having ta'en their money, let them go.
Yet must I die? And is there no relief?
The King of Kings had mercy on a thief—
So may our gracious King, too, if he please,
Without his council, grant me a release;
God is his precedent, and men shall see
His mercy go beyond severity.'

FLOGGING IN THE ARMY.-I remember on the road leading to Charnwood, in Leicestershire, stood one of the old oaks of the forest. It was during the war time, when troops were stationed at Loughborough. Under its time-honoured branches the triangles were fixed, and the soldier's back bared so often to receive the lash, that the people at last in detestation cut it down. I wish some of your antiquarian friends could point out the earliest instances on record in English history of flogging in the army. A SEXAGENARIAN.

Leicester, January 29.

THOMAS GENT. In the last number of the "Notes" there is an interesting article on Thomas Gent, a wellknown Yorkshire typographer and topographer, taken from his Autobiography, published by Thomas Thorpe in 1832. At the close of the Life, the publisher states that Gent translated into English verse the "Reliquiæ Eboracenses," by Dr. Heneage Dering, Dean of Ripon; and that an inferior printed copy was in his possession, intended probably as a proof. I should be glad if your correspondent could inform me whether it was published or not, as I never saw a copy, though I have for some years collected every work connected with Yorkshire topography; if not published, what has become of the proof? If Gent's translation is even a moderate one, it would form a curious and interesting addition to Yorkshire literature. The original work being in Latin verse, few people are acquainted with it; from its want of success on that account, the work was never completed. I should be glad if any one would print Gent's translation, if it can be found; it might be done at a small cost. Whilst on the subject of Gent's works, I would warn the curious collector to beware of the generally imperfect state of his books; their circulation lay principally amongst the poorer classes, and from the rough usage they have experienced, they are generally in a bad state. For example, take his "History of Ripon," this frequently wants the map; more frequently the three Churches at page 2 of the Excursions, the second part of the work, and where the paging is recommenced; whilst the view of St. Mary's Abbey, York, at page 4, is not found in one copy out of ten. WM. BOYNE. Headingley, Feb. 1853.

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trait Painter.

FILLANS, James.

Engraver and Por

Sculptor.

Christian Atone

Law.

Sept. 27, 1852. GILBERT, Rev. Joseph, author of the ment,' &c. Dec. 12, 1852. HAWKINS, George, Lithographic Artist. Nov. 6, 1852. HALCOMB, Mr. Sergeant. Nov. 3, 1852. Sermons. HASTED, Rev. Henry, F.R.S. Nov. 26, 1852. HUVE, Monsieur, Member of the Académie des Beaux Arts. Architecture. Lately. JOHNSON, Captain, R.N. author of Necessity for considering the deviations of the Compass.' MERRIMAN, Samuel, M.D. Medical Essays. Nov. 22, MANGIN, Rev. Edward, editor of Richardson's Works, Piozziana, &c. October 17, 1852. PEREIRA, Dr. Medical Works. 20 January. PROTHEROE, Edward Davis. Public Records. August 18,

1852.

1852.

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No. XXVII.]

FOR THE MONTH.

"I will make a prief of it in my Note-Book."-SHAKSPERE.

JOHN DUNTON.

[MARCH, 1853.

Thomas Parkhurst, the Nesbit of his day. Young Dunton made himself conspicuous in a political contest THE Life and Errors of John Dunton form a singular between the Tory and Whig apprentices. He joined episode in the literary history of the eighteenth century. the latter, was installed Treasurer, and attended their Combining the somewhat anomalous avocations of Book- meetings in Ironmonger Lane; and having got up an seller and Author, he published six hundred works, and address with some thirty thousand signatures, presented wrote upwards of sixty: trade speculations, new pro- it to the Lord Mayor, who promised he would acquaint jects and paradoxes, scraps of poetry, political and sati- the King with its contents, and then bad the deputation rical essays, love adventures and devout reflections, mark "return home and mind the business of their respective the versatality of this erratic genius; we are entertained masters." His apprenticeship shortly after expired, and in one page with a tender letter to Iris' or 'Valeria;' a hundred of his companions were invited to attend the in the next, with outpourings of repentance, and a ser- 'funeral.' He soon commenced business as a bookseller mon upon sin. His mind was not inaptly compared to on his own account, but to avoid too large a rent, "took "a table where the victuals were ill sorted and worse only half a shop, a warehouse, and a fashionable dressed." He seems to have been possessed with an chamber." "Printing, he relates, was now the upperunaccountable mania of making the world the confessor most in my thoughts; and hackney authors began to ply of his foibles, and after narrating the irregularities of me with specimens' as earnestly, and with as much passion his life with somewhat too racy gusto for a veritable and concern as the watermen do passengers with oars and penitent, proceeds to moralize upon his own enormity, scullers. The first copy I would venture to print was the and sketch "an Idea of a New Life, wherein is shewn Sufferings of Christ,' written by the Rev. Thomas Doolittle. how he would think, speak, and act, might he live over This book fully answered my end; for exchanging it his days again." Into this extraordinary performance through the whole trade, it furnished my shop with all sorts he has introduced the characters of all his friends and of books saleable at that time. The second adventure I contemporaries, amongst whom will be found bishops, made in printing was a copy written by Mr. Jay, Rector of and churchmen, eminent nonconformist divines, hack Chinner, intituled, Daniel in the Den, or the Lord Presiwriters, printers, bookbinders, and auctioneers. How-dent's Imprisonment and Miraculous Deliverance.' It was dedicated to Lord Shaftesbury, and published upon the ever, it is no slight evidence of his humble and charitable occasion of his being acquitted by an ignoramus jury. disposition that the portraits he has drawn of cthers This piece was well furnished with wit, and being published are generally favorable ones, and the chief faults he had at the critical time sold well. This extraordinary success to find were with himself. in my first attempts gave me an ungovernable itch to be always intriguing that way."

He relates that he was born at Graffham, in Huntingdonshire, on the 14th May, 1659. His father was a clergyman. At an early age he was sent to an academy in the neighbourhoo 1, where he passed through the usual ordeal of school adventure," robbing an orchard, falling in the river, swallowing a bullet, being nearly choked with ears of corn, improving in everything but the art of learning, and only scrupling to lie when it did not procure him any advantage.' He describes his childish notions of heaven, hell, and the final day of judgment; and pictured to himself "Death like a walking skeleton with a dart in his right hand, and an hour glass in his left." He was designed for the ministry. His family had been connected with the Church for three generations, and Dunton felt prouder of" his descent from the House of Levi, than of being a Duke's son." However, he was of too volatile and roving a disposition to follow in their footsteps; his religious impressions soon wore off like letters inscribed upon the surface of water,' and at the age of fifteen, having made some progress in Latin, none in Greek, he was apprenticed to a London bookseller. This was

VOL. III.

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Another production of Dunton's press was, The House of Weeping,' written by his father; to which he prefixed "The Holy Life and Triumphal Death of that faithful and eminent servant of Christ, Mr. John Dunton, late Minister of Aston Clinton, near Aylesbury." was now a rising' tradesman. Prosperity was naturally followed by marriage; and the cautious bachelor entered into a debate with his friends as to the future partner of his affections. There was Sarah Day, "extremely pretty, well bred, and the best natured creature in the world;" upon her name he perpetrated an anagram; but Sarah Doolittle would "make a better wife by ten degrees, he would have her father's copies for nothing, and his book on The Sacrament' has sold to the twentieth edition, which would be an estate for a bookseller;" again, Sarah Briscow of Uxbridge was handsome, rich, and religious, and there were more topics about her to argue from than even Scheibler could invent." At last, "one Lord's day, (and I am very sensible of the sin) I was strolling about just as my fancy led me, and stepping into Dr. Annesley's meeting place, where

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