Eighteenth Century Waifs

19

‘MDCLV. May vi, died my (now) only and eldest son, John Smith (Proh Dolor, beloved of all men!) at Mitcham in Surrey. Buried May ix in St. Giles, Cripplegate.’

20

Edward Philips or Phillips, in his life of Milton, attached to ‘Letters of State, written by Mr. John Milton,’ &c., London, 1694, (p. 43), says: ‘He is said to have dyed worth £1,500 in Money (a considerable Estate, all things considered), besides Household Goods; for he sustained such losses as might well have broke any person less frugal and temperate than himself; no less than £2,000 which he had put for Security and Improvement into the Excise Office, but, neglecting to recal it in time, could never after get it out, with all the Power and Interest he had in the Great ones of those Times; besides another great Sum by mismanagement and for want of good advice.’

21

Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol, thus writes in his life of Milton, prefixed to his edition of ‘Paradise Lost,’ London, 1749: ‘His body was decently interred near that of his father (who had died very aged about the year 1647) in the chancel of the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate; and all his great and learned friends in London, not without a friendly concourse of the common people, paid their last respects in attending it to the grave. Mr. Fenton, in his short but elegant account of the life of Milton, speaking of our author’s having no monument, says that “he desired a friend to inquire at St. Giles’s Church, where the sexton showed him a small monument, which he said was supposed to be Milton’s; but the inscription had never been legible since he was employed in that office, which he has possessed about forty years. This sure could never have happened in so short a space of time, unless the epitaph had been industriously erased; and that supposition, says Mr. Fenton, carries with it so much inhumanity that I think we ought to believe it was not erected to his memory.” It is evident that it was not erected to his memory, and that the sexton was mistaken. For Mr. Toland, in his account of the life of Milton, says that he was buried in the chancel of St. Giles’s Church, “where the piety of his admirers will shortly erect a monument becoming his worth, and the encouragement of letters in King William’s reign.” This plainly implies that no monument was erected to him at that time, and this was written in 1698, and Mr. Fenton’s account was first published, I think, in 1725; so that not above twenty-seven years intervened from the one account to the other; and consequently the sexton, who it is said was possessed of his office about forty years, must have been mistaken, and the monument must have been designed for some other person, and not for Milton.’

22

Between the creditable trades of pawnbroker and dram-seller there is a strict alliance. As Hogarth observes, the money lent by Mr. Gripe is immediately conveyed to the shop of Mr. Killman, who, in return for the produce of rags, distributes poison under the specious name of cordials. See Hogarth’s celebrated print called Gin Lane.

23

Probably in the month of September, as the entry of his baptism in the registry of the chapelry of Middlesmoor, in Netherdale, says ‘Eugenius Aram, son of Peter Aram, baptized the 2nd of October.’

24

Though no warrants were issued against them, Aram was arrested for debt, in order to keep him; yet he immediately discharged this debt – not only so, he paid off a mortgage on his property at Bondgate. Suspicious facts, considering he was, notably, a poor man.

25

Finding.

26

The esne was a man of the servile class, a poor mercenary, serving for hire, or for his land, but was not of so low a rank as the other classes.

27

An Act relative to German and Swiss redemptioners.

28

Bedlam was then in Moorfields.

29

A large wickerwork receptacle behind the mail-coach.

30

Palmer invented the mail-coach, and supplied horses to the Post-Office.

31

Lunardi made the first balloon ascent in England, Sept. 21, 1784.

32

Birmingham halfpence, struck by Boulton and Watts at their works at Soho, Birmingham.

33

Kew Bridge was opened to the public, September, 1789.

34

Some idea of the duelling that went on in Ireland in the latter part of last century may be gathered from the following extract from Sir Jonah’s book (vol. ii, p. 3): ‘I think I may challenge any country in Europe to show such an assemblage of gallant judicial and official antagonists at fire and sword as is exhibited even in the following list:

The Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Earl Clare, fought the Master of the Rolls, Curran.

The Chief Justice, K.B. Lord Clonmell, fought Lord Tyrawley (a privy counsellor), Lord Llandaff, and two others.

The judge of the county of Dublin, Egan, fought the Master of the Rolls, Roger Barrett, and three others.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Right Hon. Isaac Corry, fought the Right Hon. Henry Grattan (a privy counsellor), and another.

A Baron of the Exchequer, Baron Medge, fought his brother-in-law and two others.

The Chief Justice, C. P. Lord Norbury, fought Fire-eater Fitzgerald and two other gentlemen, and frightened Napper Tandy, and several besides: one hit only.

The judge of the Prerogative Court, Dr. Dingenan, fought one barrister and frightened another on the ground. N.B. – The latter case a curious one.

The Chief Counsel to the Revenue, Henry Deane Grady, fought Counsellor O’Mahon, Counsellor Campbell, and others: all hits.

The Master of the Rolls fought Lord Buckinghamshire, the Chief Secretary, &c.

The provost of the University of Dublin, the Right Hon. Hely Hutchinson, fought Mr. Doyle, Master in Chancery, and some others.

The Chief Justice C. P. Patterson, fought three country gentlemen, one of them with swords, another with guns, and wounded all of them.

The Right Hon. George Ogle (a privy counsellor) fought Barney Coyle, a distiller, because he was a Papist. They fired eight shots, and no hit; but the second broke his own arm.

Thomas Wallace, K.C., fought Mr. O’Gorman, the Catholic Secretary.

Counsellor O’Connell fought the Orange chieftain; fatal to the champion of Protestant ascendency.

The collector of the customs of Dublin, the Hon. Francis Hutchinson, fought the Right Hon. Lord Mountmorris.

Two hundred and twenty-seven memorable and official duels have actually been fought during my grand climacteric.

35

‘The Female Soldier; or, The Surprising Life and Adventures of Hannah Snell,’ &c. London, 1750.

36

A farmer of repute.

37

For a pension.

38

The action off Cape St. Vincent, when Sir John Jervis, with fifteen sail of the line, attacked and defeated the Spanish fleet, consisting of twenty-seven sail of the line.

39

‘The case of Mr. John Walter, of London, Merchant.’ London, 1781.

40

Then in Lombard Street.

41

Lord North resigned, and Lord Rockingham succeeded as Premier, 1782.

42

Logotypes – or printing types in which words, etc., were cast, instead of single letters.

43

The centenary of the Times was improperly celebrated in that paper on the 1st of January, 1885.

44

i. e., in the liberty or Rules of the Fleet.

45

A foot-lock or hobble.

46

From the link-boy’s natural hatred of ‘the Parish Lantern,’ which would deprive him of his livelihood.

47

In throwing dice a corruption of the French numerals is used, as ace (one), deuce (two), tray (three), &c.

48

I.e., That sentence of death, owing to his pleading benefit of clergy, or ability to read, was commuted to imprisonment, and branding on the face with a red-hot iron. By degrees, however, the iron got colder, until, at last, it was barely warm.

49

Mews, or horse-pond.

50

‘The Humours of the Fleet.’ A Poem, by W. Paget, Comedian, &c. Birmingham.

51

Where the Fleet Market is now, there was, a few Years since, a Ditch, with a muddy Channel of Water. The Market was built at the Expense of the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, who receive the Rent for it.

52

The Door-keeper, or he who opens and shuts the Jigg, is call’d the Jigger.

53

Billiards is a very common game here.

54

Fine Ale drank in the Coffee-room, call’d the ‘Alderman,’ because brew’d by Alderman Parsons.

55

A Runner is a Fellow that goes abroad of Errands for the Prisoners.

56

Begs.

57

Persons who give any Considerable offence are often try’d, and undergo the Discipline of the Pump. The Author was one of these in a drunken Frolick, for which he condemns himself.

58

A Spacious place, where there are all sorts of Exercises, but especially Fives.

59

A Publick Place, free for all Prisoners.

60

Where those lie who can’t pay their Master’s Fee.

61

There are several of these Jiggers, or Door-keepers, who relieve one another, and, when a Prisoner comes first in, they take a nice Observation of him, for fear of his escaping.

62

A cant Word for giving some Money in order to show a Lodging.

63

Which is One Pound, Six, and Eightpence, and then you are entitled to a bed on the Master’s-side, for which you pay so much per Week.

64

Mount-scoundrel, so-call’d from its being highly situated, and belonging, once, to the Common-side, tho’ lately added to the Master’s; if there be room in the House, this Place is first empty, and the Chamberlain commonly shows this to raise his Price upon you for a better.

65

Half-a-guinea.

66

A Bed-fellow so call’d.

67

When you have a Chum, you pay but fifteen Pence per Week each, and, indeed, that is the Rent of a whole Room, if you find Furniture.

68

The Upper Floors are accounted best here, for the same Reason as they are at Edinburgh, which, I suppose, every Body knows.

69

It is common to mention the Fleet by the name of the Place, and I suppose it is call’d the Place by way of Eminence, because there is not such another.

70

A Cant Word for a Dram of Geneva.

71

A Chew of Tobacco – supposed to be given him.

72

When there are Holes above Heel, or the Feet are so bad in a Stocking that you are forced to pull them to hide the Holes, or cover the Toes, it is call’d Coaxing.

73

As the Prison is often called the College, so it is common to call a Prisoner a Collegian; and this Character is taken from a Man who had been many Years in the Place, and like to continue his Life.

74

The Name of the Cook of the Kitchen.

75

A place in the Cellar call’d Bartholomew Fair.

76

Who goes out? is repeated by Watchmen Prisoners from half-an-hour after nine till St. Paul’s Clock strikes Ten, to give Visitors Notice to depart.

77

While St. Paul’s is striking Ten, the Watchman don’t call Who goes out? but when the last stroke is given they cry All told! at which time the Gates are lock’d and nobody suffer’d to go out upon any Account.

78

A werst is one thousand and sixty-seven metres.

79

Then valued at four shillings each, or eight pounds in all.

80

Gay, in his ‘Trivia,’ book i, says, ‘Let Persian Dames th’Umbrella’s Ribs display, To guard their Beauties from the Sunny Ray.’

81

‘A Review of the proposed Naturalization of the Jews.’

82

Among other Bills which then received the Royal Assent was one for purchasing Sloane Museum and the Harleian MSS., and for providing a general repository for the same – by means of a lottery – the commencement of the British Museum.

83

‘Parliamentary History,’ Hansard, vol. xv, p. 154.

84

‘Eight Letters to his Grace – Duke of Newcastle – on the custom of Vails-giving in England, &c.,’ 1760, p. 20.

85

‘The East Neuk of Fife,’ by Rev. Walter Wood. Edinburgh, 1862, p. 208.

86

Tickled the palms of their hands.

87

‘The English Treasury of Wit and Language,’ etc., ed. 1655, pp. 223, 224.

88

Or surfel – to wash the cheeks with mercurial or sulphur water.

89

Face-washes and ointments.

90

Edition 1699, p. 19. The poem had reference to the College of Physicians, establishing a dispensary of their own, owing to the excessive charges of the apothecaries. The institution did not last very long.

91

Gold.

92

‘The Female Physician, &c.,’ by John Ball, M.D. – London, 1770, pp. 76, 77.

93

This water, as its name implies, was supposed to be a sovereign remedy for gunshot wounds. It was also called aqua vulneraria, aqua sclopetaria, and aqua catapultarum.

94

Now called an entire horse, or stallion.

95

‘The London Spy,’ ed. 1703, p. 124.

96

An allusion to the dispensary which the College of Physicians set up in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and which was the subject of Sir S. Garth’s satirical poem, called ‘The Dispensary.’

97

A seventh son of a seventh son is supposed to be endowed with extraordinary faculties of healing, and many of these quacks pretended to such a descent.

98

‘The London Spy,’ ed. 1703, p. 64.

99

A covering, or gaiter, to protect the legs from dirt or wet.

100

‘The Liturgy and other Divine Offices of the Church.’ London, Bosworth, 1880, p. 638.

101

‘The Liturgy and other Divine Offices of the Church,’ p. 584.

102

General Advertiser, March 26, 1782.

103

General Advertiser, May 1, 1783.

104

General Advertiser, February 13, 1784.

105

Gentleman’s Magazine, 1736, pp. 617-618.

106

By Dr. Zachary Pearce, Bishop of Rochester.

107

A pickle herring was a Merry-Andrew or clown, and this means that the quack was too poor to afford either horse or attendant.

108

A false witness – one who would swear to anything for a trifle.

109

I have before me now twelve lives of him, and that is by no means an exhaustive list.

110

‘Memoire pour le Comte de Cagliostro, accusé: contre Monsieur le Procureur-General, accusateur; en presence de Monsieur le Cardinal de Rohan, de la Comtesse de la Motte, et autres co-accusés.’ Paris, 1786, 4to.

111

Of this work there was a French translation published in 1791 at Paris and Strasbourg, under the title of ‘Vie de Joseph Balsamo, connu sous le nom de Comte Cagliostro,’ &c. 2nd edition.

112

Editor of the Morning Chronicle, 1772-89.

113

Locusta, or, more correctly, Lucusta, was a celebrated poisoner. She was employed by Aggripina to poison the Emperor Claudius, and by Nero to kill Britannicus. For this she was most handsomely rewarded by Nero; but was executed for her crimes by Galba.

114

i. e., to serve on the convict hulks there, to dredge the Thames. The treatment on board was based on good principles; those convicts who were well-behaved had remission of sentence, those who were recalcitrant had unmerciful punishment.