Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/181

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10* s. i. FEB. 20, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


145


correct. Stephens (whose father was Sir William Stephens, Kt., Lieu tenant-Governor of the Isle of Wight) was a commoner at Winchester College, and his name appears on the school rolls of 1684-8 (Holgate's ' Winchester Long Rolls, 1653-1721 '). I am indebted to the Provost of King's College, Cambridge, for the information, derived from the records of that college, that Stephens matriculated as a fellow-commoner there on 14 December, 1689, and was in residence in 1690 and 1691, but never proceeded to any degree. He was admitted to the Middle Temple on 25 November, 1691 (Hutchinson's ' Notable Middle Templars ') According to ' The Castle- Builders ; or, the History of William Stephens, of the Isle of Wight, Esq.' (second edition, 1759), a copy of which is in the British Museum, he was sent to Cam- bridge,

"not from any Dislike to Oxford, but that he might not be too near William, the Son of Dr. Pittis, his Cousin and School-fellow, who was of New College, and of more Wit and Learning than Discretion."

Accounts of this Dr. Thomas Pittis and his son William, who was elected a Winchester scholar in 1687 (Kirby), will be found in the 'D.N.B.,'xlv. 386.

William Stephens had a younger brother, Richard, a commoner at Winchester 1694-7 (Holgate), who went to Queen's College, Oxford, in 1698, and became Fellow of All Souls], M.A. 1705, M.D. 1714 (Foster). He practised as a physician at Winchester, "grew unwieldy, being so corpulent as to load the chariot he rode in," and died in or about 1735, while staying in Ireland with his friend Dr. Charles Cobb, then Bishop of Kildare ('D.N.B.,' xi. 142 ; 'The Castle- Builders ') He left two daughters, Susannah and Ann Stephens, who lived at Milton, Hants.

If 'The Castle-Builders' may be trusted, its author, Thomas Stephens, was not the eldest of the seven sons of the President of Georgia, as stated in the ' Dictionary.' The eldest son was William Stephens, who was also a commoner at Winchester (Long Rolls, 1712, 1714). He too went to Queen's College, Oxford, matriculating in March, 1715/16, and was afterwards Fellow of All Souls', D.C.L. 1728 (Foster). He practised at the Bar, to which he was called by the Middle Temple in 1723 ; but becoming a clergyman in 1736, he was curate successively at Cleve, Somerset; Locking, Berks ; and Hasely, Oxfordshire. On 7 Nov., 1746, he was instituted vicar of Barking, Essex, and held the living until his death, in his father's lifetime, on 27 Jan.,


1750/1 (' The Castle-Builders,' and the Gentle- man's Magazine, xxi. 91). In his will, dated 24 Aug., 1748, he mentions four of hia brothers, viz., Thomas, Newdigate, Edward, and Richard (who was perhaps then dead), and his two sisters, Mary Stephens and Mrs. Ball, the widow of Benedict Ball. The will was proved on 21 June, 1751 (P.C.C., 190 Busby), by his brother Thomas, who was, I suppose, the author of ' The Castle-Builders.' This family of Stephens was for several generations connected with Winchester by tenancy of college property at Barton, in the Isle of Wight. Thomas Stephens, elected scholar in 1667, and Edward Stephens, elected in 1672, were sons of William Stephens, D.C.L., judge of the Court of Admiralty in Commonwealth times, who was grandfather of the President of Georgia. Thomas, the elder of these two scholars, became Fellow of New College, Oxford, and died there on 17 March, 1681/2 (Wood's 'Colleges and Halls,' by Gutch, 217, 233). I should be grateful for further information about his younger brother Edward, who matriculated at Hart Hall, Oxford, on 23 November, 1677 (Foster's' Alumni Oxon.'). H. C.

CHAPLAIN TO THE EDINBURGH GARRISON. This ancient office has been revived by the King, who has appointed thereto the Rev. Theodore Marshall, D.D. The Daily Tele- graph of the 13th inst. contains the following interesting particulars :

" The first chaplain to the Castle was one Turgot, the biographer of Margaret, Queen of Malcolm Canmore, who died in 1092. The office seems to have been maintained till the Revolution in 1688-9, after which there does not appear to be any men- tion made of it. Since the Revolution the minister of the High Kirk has been regarded as hon. chaplain to the Castle, and hence it is that the military service continues to be held in St. Giles's Cathe- dral."

N. S. S.

POE : A SUPPOSED POEM. In a review on p. 118 you refer to the publication of "a poem hitherto unpublished of Poe" in this month's Fortnightly. My letter in the Daily Chronicle of the 4th inst. proves it is not an unknown or new poem, and that it is not by E. A. Poe. JOHN H. INGRAM.

[Mr. Ingram is a first-rate authority on Poe'a works, and his repudiation may be taken as final and decisive. ]

' CHAMBERS'S CYCLOPAEDIA OP ENGLISH LITERATURE.' In connexion with occasional notes on the ' Canadian Boat Song ' which have appeared in ' N. & Q.' during the last eighteen months, the following extract from the article on John Gait in the third volume