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66

Notes.

ROBERT WHATLEY.

(See ante, pp. 221, 242.)

THE Case appeared under the title, 'A Short History of a Ten Years Negociation, between a Prime Minister and a Private Gentleman,'* and reached a second edition (Three Letters,' pp. [v], 14 note, Judgment Signed, p. 36; Letters and Applications,' p. [46]), but no thrones fell. Walpole retaliated in The Daily Gazetteer of Apr. 13 with some scurrilous verses, the author

of which so the victim alleged, not without reason-was "a noble Lord then [in 1738] V-ce Chn of the Court,

The title-page is dated 1737 but that of 'Letters and Applications (cf. infra) proves that the issue to the public took place in March,

1738.

and now [in 1742] L-d Pr-y S-1 of the Kingdom (A Letter to the L. and C.,' p. [54], i.e., Lord Hervey. * To this Whatley appears to have replied in the form of a "Criticism on the Right Honourable Verses addressed to the Rev. Mr. Wh. in The Daily Gazetteer, April 13, 1738 (Judgment Signed,' p. 3 note, 'A Letter to the L. and C.,' p. 39).† Just after the 'Short History had appeared, he published a selection of pièces justificatives :—

'Letters and Applications Relating to The Short History....That Passed from the Time of its being printed, (and in the Minister's Hands), in March 1737, to the publishing of it in March 1738,'

and at some date after Mar. 26, 1739‡:—

Three Letters. The First, to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, in December 1727. Six Months after the late King's Decease. With his Answer. The Second, to the Lord Chancellor King of his Lordship's Character, as it stood in January 1727-8. The Third, to his Lordship, on the Author's Design of taking Orders, in September 1728.'

But, notwithstanding the three blasts of the trumpet, Jericho still stood, and Whatley went home.

Not, however, to wring his hands but to prepare a third assault. The year 1740 saw the matter again brought before the public notice by Judgment Signed in the Cause Between the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, and Mr. Whatley.....' This pamphlet, couched in the form of a letter to the Prime Minister§ dated Apr. 8 of this year, marks a stage forward in the dispute-if one may describe as a dispute the action of an angry tide beating on an impassive breakwater. Reciting his grievances, Walpole's reasons for evasion and the objects for which he was contending,¶ the writer brings

* Whatley gives references elsewhere to The Daily Gazetteer of Nov. 23, 1739, and July 15, Hyp-Doctor," No. 383 1741, and also to the " (Letters and Applications,' p. viii, Judgment Signed,' p. 20, note.)

It was out of print by the date of the publication (1739) of Three Letters' (op. cit., p. ii).

The date of the dedication.

§ Whose position the writer stigmatizes as "this unknown Office " (op. cit., p. 33).

The incapacity of the recipient (op. cit., P. 12) and King's cancellation of the obligation (op. cit., pp. 6, 11).

Not preferment but the balance of £300 per annum less the sums paid on account from Christmas 1725, and, in addition, compensation for "the inconceivable Damages I have sustained of your not making, at that time, the like Provision [i.e., the equivalent of Spicer's] for me.... (op. cit., p. 21).

forth the threat that he will exercise his right of petitioning the Crown (op. cit., pp. 27-28: cf. A Letter to the L. and C.,' p. 3.)

By March, 1741, he was lodging in Berry Street, St. James (A Letter,' p. 5). His Petition to the King he printed, forwarded under a covering letter to Lord Wilmington, the President, and the other members of the Privy Council,* and circulated among the members of Parliament. His attitude may be epitomised in the following quotation

"I thought it a Duty I owed to God, as well as to Myself to assert my Right to an Original Fortune (the Purchase of no inconsiderable private Inheritance laid out in the best of Educations under the greatest Patronage) ('A Letter to the L. & C.,' p. 51)."

The petition does not, however, appear to be preserved among the Privy Council papers now housed in the Public Record Office, and we may perhaps conclude that Whatley's action was designed merely in terrorem, reliance being placed on the minister's waning power and the moral effect of publicity, while it is possible that he may have thought it advisable to renew his attack and agree to a withdrawal on terms. Whatever the reason, publicity was made more public by the issue-early in 1742† of his

'A Letter to the Lords and Commons.

Containing, A State of the Cause between the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole and Mr Whatley, As It now lies at Issue in the Hands of the ...Privy Council, by Mr Whatley's most humble Appeal to his Majesty, in the Cause between Them."

This admirably timed reminder of the zealous parochus, like to be lost in the draggled frequenter of antechambers, formed a neat pamphlet of four pages, just the size, the unkind critic might remark, to slip into a letter to a profitable recipient-to which circumstance (the British Museum copy forms an enclosure with Whatley's letter to Hardwicke of Nov. 8, 1741, Add. MSS. 35,586, folio 410), we appear to owe its preservation.

Henceforward, for lack of a connected account, we are constrained to rely on letters by the claimant which have been preserved among the manuscripts of the British Museum. It was in 1742 that he first approached Lord Hardwicke to take UD his Hardwicke, case* (Whatley to

May 1, 1743, B.M., Add. MSS. 35,587, folio 123), and a year later he was still in town, "humbly waiting the Decision of my Cause " (ibidem), but his suggestion that the bestowal on him of a vacant canonry of Westminster would "make me easy had not been taken up.

Of the rest of the year 1743 we know naught save that he wrotebut did not then publish-Self-Entertainment; Or, Day-Thoughts. Being a Collection Of Six Months Occasional Reflections, Set Down As they occurr'd to the Writer's Mind,' the title of which was obviously inspired by the recent triumph of his friend Young (op. cit., n. ii). He also attended the festival of the Sons of the Clergy (op. cit., p. 5). C. S. B. BUCKLAND. (To be concluded.)

AMONG THE SHAKESPEARE

66

ARCHIVES.

223, 241.)

THE PLAGUE IN STRATFORD.

The text of both is printed on pp. 7-25 of A Letter to the L. & C.' Neither is there dated. It is dated from Berry Street, the 9th of January, 1742.

+ "Lincoln: Printed for William Wood Printer and Bookseller, 1741."

was probably brought by the Earl of Warwick's soldiers into the Midlands. It broke out in Leicester in June, 1564, where it was promptly isolated. An act of the Council there on June 30 forbade those 66 'visited " to go abroad within a space of two months after a death in their house

* Perhaps on Walpole's fall, which must have made the contest a little unreal.

miller of Henley Street, perilously near the Shakespeares; four in the household of Robert Billington, four in that of John Gorman, five in that of Richard Cotterell (of Shottery probably), five in that of Hamlet Hassall of Tiddington (his wife and all his children); six in that of Richard Yate, three in that of William Braithway, three in that of William Wilson (who lost a son also in March previous), two in that of Thomas Mountford, the friend of the late Master Edward Alcock (including the girl Elizabeth to whom Alcock left household goods and a cow); three in the household of Richard Wagstaffe, fuller, and two in that of his tenant, William Rogers, in Church Street; five in that of Richard Wood (the entire family), and no less than eleven in the connected households of Humfrey, Edward and Thomas Holmes. The Swan Inn was attacked in Middle Row (where ministers lodged who were called in to assist the Vicar). Thomas Dickson alias Waterman buried two of his step-daughters-Alice Burbage on Nov. 9 and Joyce Burbage cn Dec. 8.

John Bretchgirdle had a terrible time, and John Shakespeare's hands as actingChamberlain were very full. The Vicar buried a sister, Cicely Bretchgirdle, on Mar. 14, 1564, shortly before the Plague appeared. Rafe Hilton his curate lost three children in October and November. Bretchgirdle was over-worked, probably himself ill, and without a curate. John Shakespeare again and again paid for clerical assistance. His Account, presented late (probably because of the pestilence) on Mar. 21, 1565, shows the following items :Paid to Master Vicar £1. 7. 0, paid for a priest's board and his drinkings at the Swan,' 118 6d., paid to the preacher £2. 10. 0, paid to the same preacher £1, paid to Master Vicar 6s. 8d., paid to Thomas Waterman (alias Dickson, of the Swan] £2. 13. 4.'

Mistress Elizabeth Watson, sister to John Watson, the future Bishop of Winchester, now Master of the Holy Cross. Her decease, apparently, was not due to the pestilence, for the Smith household was a large one and no other member died.

At election time in September, when the Plague was at its height there was difficulty, as we may understand, in getting a Bailiff. Nominations were made on the 6th-John Wheeler for Bailiff, Lewis ap Williams for Head Alderman, William Smith, haberdasher, and William Tyler for Chamberlains. John Shakespeare, to his great credit, again undertook the duties, which were strenuous and perilous, of the Chamberlainship. John Wheeler felt unequal to the position of chief officer and magistrate of the borough at that time and declined to serve. His name, nevertheless, was sent to the Earl of Warwick and was by him approved. Wednesday, Sept. 27, a resolution passed by the Chamber that :

:

On

was

'forsomuch as John Wheeler, one of the Aldermen of the Borough, is orderly elected, and by the Right Honourable the Earl of Warwick in the Common Hall upon Friday next ensuing pricked to be Bailiff, he shall personally appear being the 29th of this present September by 9 of the clock the same morning there to confer and consider with the rest of the Masters and Brethren of the said Borough upon such matters as be meet for the service of the Queen's Majesty and the commonwealth of the said Borough under the pain of £20; and further shall personally appear at the same place upon Wednesday the 4th day of October by 9 of the clock in the Evangelist under the pain of £10." morning for the taking of his oath upon the Holy

Six

A most interesting list of signatures and marks was appended to the resolution in the minutes (not in Symons' handwriting). wrote their names: Aldermen William Smith, Humfrey Plymley, William Bott, Richard Hill and Principal Burgesses William Smith, haberdasher (William Shakespeare's godfather, as we have supposed), and William Brace. The rest made their marks, George Whatcley (retiring Bailiff) an alpha A; Roger Sadler (retiring High Alderman) a cross; Adrian Quyny (though he could write), a sigma reversed (?); Rafe Cawdrey a standard (?),; Lewis ap Williams, his churchgable; John Shakespeare his compasses (the simple pair); Thomas Dickson alias Waterman an omega (?); John Lewis a small circle; William Tyler a nautilus or creature with tenticles (?); John Tayler (a what?); and John Bell, John Sadler and Thomas Dyer (Gilbert) a cross. John Wheeler duly