66

Speaking of the co. Wicklow, the author

they officiated; they attended at funerals, towards the end of the seventeenth century, and proceeded on foot before the corpse, and their descendants may still be traced, I singing, until they reached the church; believe, in the sister isle. they had also (probably at The traditional The Angel") origin of the name is related in The Metal public feasts, with music and song. Mines of Ireland,' a paper read before the Lamb Alley, formerly between Nos. 144 Royal Dublin Society by Mr. G. H. Kinehan and 145, derived its name from a sign of on 24 March, 1886. "The Lamb Tavern "; and Sun Street, part of which still exists at the back of No. 144, though formerly it had a continuation through the opposite side of the street, also had its name from a sign of "The Sun." A token of 66 The Sun in Bishopsgate Street, issued by W. I. A., probably relates to Bishopsgate Within, where there was & tavern of which Sun Yard marked the site : 66 To be Sold

A Strong season'd Hunter; also a gentle Gelding,
Master of about fourteen or fifteen Stone, fit for
a Lady. Enquire of Major Tames in Sun Yard,
Bishopsgate Street."-Daily Advertiser, 1 Oct.,

1741.

"Lost the 31st of March last, from behind the Stoke Newington Coach, between Stoke Newington and Bishopsgate, a Deal Box, with some Shifts, and Wearing Apparel. Whoever will bring the same to Mr. Hawkins at the King's Arms Ale-house in Bishopsgate Street, shall have a Guinea Reward, and no Questions ask'd."Daily Advertiser, 8 April, 1742.

The tavern stands at the corner of Acorn
Street, and was perhaps originally
66 The
Acorn." There certainly was, according
to Dodsley, an "Acorn sign here which
gave its name to Acorn Street.

SO

Sweetapple Court, at No. 157, was named, not after such a sign, but after Sir John Sweetapple, the owner (Dodsley's 'London'); but who he was, whether knight or baronet, or whether he had held the office of Alderman (he was not apparently a Mayor), I cannot say.

J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.
(To be continued.)

says:

works at Shillelagh. Before his time most of Bacon, an Englishman, came over and built the charcoal was sent to Wales to be there used in the final working of iron. He, however, conthe pig iron than export the charcoal. sidered it would be more economical to import adventure was most successful, and at the time This of the Commission for examination into the state of timber in Ireland, he had amassed a sum child, a daughter, the bait was too seductive to of over one million pounds. Having only one noble house of Cholmondeley, who became Bacon's one of the Commissioners, a scion of the twice son-in-law and successor, relinquishing his herit age, and changing his name to Chamney. Although he changed his name during his life, and his descendants adopted the change, yet on his tomb in Carnew churchyard his real name and lineage are given. The Chamneys greatly increased the trade, having works not only at Shillelagh, where Bacon established the industry, but also in the Vale of Clara; at Bally-na-Clash or 'Clash in Glenmalure; at Woodenbridge and Aughrim, in the Vale of the Darragh Water, and elsewhere; besides innumerable bloomeries; his works popularly being said to have filled the county.' The Clash and Shillelagh iron was of very superior quality. Elsewhere in Ireland the iron trade gradually ceased, as the woods were exhausted, but here it seems to have come to a sudden and untimely end prior to 1761, on account of a fracas between Chamney and the English agent of the lord of the soil. Written information about the old ironworks is very hard to procure, as nearly all the Chamney papers appear to have been destroyed when the family were disof the Chamney hammer was a weather guide.' persed. Old people will tell you that the noise Also they know that the iron and ore was carried in baskets on horseback from Wicklow port, and from the different mines; and the old horsenaces can still be shown." tracks from the mines and Wicklow to the fur

6

Nearly twenty years ago I entered into correspondence with the late Rev. Joseph Chamney, D.D., Rector of Dromiskin, Armagh, with reference to the Chamney family, and we were able to piece together the following fragmentary genealogy.

John Cholmondeley or Ballard, co. Wicklow, and Ballynellot, co. Chamney of Wexford, born 1650, married circa 1686 Jane, daughter of Shillelagh, and had issue a son Thomas and Bacon, ironmaster of two daughters: Elizabeth, b. 1688, married Percival Hunt of Lara, co. Kildare; Anne, married Archer. He died 1733, and was buried at Carnew.

(1) Elizabeth, born 4 March, 1717; married, 1746, Edward Archer of Mount John, co. Wicklow.

(2) Jane, born 1718, married William Aickin.

(3) Esther, born 1719, married Henry Cusack.

(4) Frances, born 1720, married Thomas Jones, patentee of the Theatre Royal,

Dublin.

(5) Catherine, born 1726, married Joseph Swan of Tombrean, co. Wicklow.

(6) Susannah, born 1727, married John Blacker.

"Sacred to the Memory of Joseph Chamney, Esq., of Ballyrahin, late Captain of the Coolattin Corps of Yeomany Infantry in the County of Wicklow. On the 2nd day of July, 1798, and the 52nd year of his age, He was killed with his nephew a most amiable youth both fighting | the battles of their God and of their King in defence of their religion and their country. In testimony

of the high sense entertained of his many graven on the hearts of his numerous and sorrowpublic and private virtues | which are indelibly ing friends they have erected this monument | A.D. 1806.”

The nephew was Capt. Nickson of the Coolkenna Corps. The engagement was the last of three reverses, or "melancholy affairs," as the Protestant historians term them, which the King's troops suffered in this neighbourhood within a few days. It took place half-way between Tinnahely and Carnew. The Yeomanry after their repulse took refuge in Capt. Chamney's house at the foot of the hill, where under Capt. Morton and Lieut. Chamney, a son of the deceased, they sustained during fourteen hours the

Edward and Elizabeth Archer had with other issue a daughter Jane, who married in 1781 Dr. John Haughton, a Dublin physician. Dr. Haughton's second son was Sir Graves Chamney Haughton (1788-1849), Orientalist. In the 'D.N.B.' the latter's second Christian name is erroneously given as Champney. But Champney, of course, has nothing to do with Chamney, being derived from the French Champagnois," a native of Cham-attacks of the rebels, who attempted

pagne.

66

repeatedly to fire the house. Some (particularly a large man from Gorey, named John advanced under a covering of feather-beds Redmond, nicknamed Shaun Plunder) to the hall-door, with the design of applying a torch to it; but they were shot down in This incident is illustrated by Cruikshank in the attempt, despite this thick tegument. Maxwell's History of the Rebellion.'

The Ballyrahin Chamneys were probably descended from another son of John Chamney, not included in the above pedigree. In Vicars's Prerogative Wills of Ireland' there Joseph Chamney, The Forge, CO. Wicklow, 1742."

The Rev. Joseph Chamney first drew my attention to the tradition that his family were a branch of the Cholmondeleys, and the romantic circumstances that had prompted the corruption of the surname. He, however, had not been able to verify the statement as to John Chamney's real name and lineage being inscribed on his tomb. It was only the other day that I myself was able to visit Carnew with this object in view. Unfortunately, I could not find this grave in the churchyard, nor was any official connected with the church forthcoming who might have assisted me. I have since discovered, however, that the Carnew inscripColour is lent to the assertion that the tions have been dealt with by the Associa-original name of the family was Cholmondetion for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland, and that the inscription I was in search of is given as follows:'Here lyeth the body of Jn° Chamney, Esq., who departed this life the 11th day of April, 1733, in the 84th year of his age."-Vol. vii. p. 205.

is

66

ley by the fact that they bore the same arms. Chamney silver-Irish silver of the early part of the eighteenth century-has passed through my hands, and it bears the Cholmondeley coat of arms and crest, which are also attached to the memorial to Capt. Chamney.

What was the date of the "Commission for examination into the state of timber in Ireland," and where could the names of the Commissioners be seen ? H. G. ARCHER.

ANGLO-AMERICAN MAIL SERVICE: ITS

BICENTENARY.—So many centenary, and bicentenary celebrations of various kinds take place in these days that it is somewhat strange that none appears to be contemplated of one which would make a particularly wide and human appeal, that being the bicentenary of the establishment of a regular Anglo-American mail service. The beginnings of such a service can be traced, of course, to the seventeenth century; but it was not until the closing months of the first decade of the eighteenth that these seem to have settled into the periodic. In The Daily Courant for 8 January, 1711, appeared the following:

Bristol, Jan. 6. This Day arriv'd here the Royal Anne Packet Boat, Captain Shorter, from New York, with a Mail of Letters from Her Majesty's Dominions on the Continent of America, which made her Passage from Bristol to New York in 50 Days, and her Passage home in 28 Days. This is the first Mail in return from the Continent since the erecting the Correspondence to and from this Kingdom and the said Continent."

The information here given was supplemented by the subjoined advertisement, published in the same newspaper on the following 15 June, showing that this regular mail service had taken a firm hold upon the public:

"For New York.

late Packets have not duely kept their Cours, hath been occasioned by the Death of Sampson Mears, late Proprietor of the said Packets."

More about this earliest Anglo-American periodic service is doubtless to be found, and would be welcome. ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

6

SOUTH AFRICAN BIBLIOGRAPHY.-As so many readers of N. & Q.' are devoted to the study of bibliography, a note should be made of that valuable contribution, South African Bibliography,' by Mr. Sidney Mendelssohn, published by Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trübner & Co., the first volume of which contains an Introduction by Mr. I. D. Colvin. Mr. Mendelssohn has devoted the best part of eleven years to the compilation of his two noble volumes, the last five years having been almost entirely given to the work. The Bibliography was at first confined to the author's library of works relating to South Africa, but has been extended to other sources. His own collection he has left by his will to the Union Parliament of South Africa. He states in the preface, It is not presented now, as I have by no means finished collecting"; and he is afraid that he could not work A. N. Q. without his collection at hand.

con

SAMUEL RICHARDSON AND THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS.-Richardson's novels tain numerous and characteristic references to the English philosophers. It is worth while to collect them, as they have not been noticed by his biographers.

Lovelace, who has the greatest philosophical knowledge of any of Richardson's characters, refers once to the contents of Shaftesbury's Essay on the Freedom of Wit and Humour' ('Characteristicks,' vol. i, Treatise II.):

"I always called another cause, when any of my libertine companions, in pursuance of Lord Shaftesbury's test (which is part of the rake's creed, and what I may call the whetstone of infidelity), endeavoured to turn the sacred subject into ridicule.”—' Clarissa', iii. 147, ed. 1902. Lovelace also mentions Shaftesbury's' Letter concerning Enthusiasm,' which contains an account of the French prophets ( Characteristicks,' i. 26-8):—

"The Harley Packet-Boat from Bristol, Joseph Palmer, Commander, will be ready to Sail the last of this Instant June, (Wind and Weather permitting) with the Mail of Letters for the Continent of America, which will be taken in at the General Post-Office in London, or at any of the Post-Offices in Great-Britain, at any time between this and the last Day of this Instant June, 1711. And other Packets will be successively provided to depart monthly, with such Letters which shall be in the General Post-Office in London or Post-Office in Bristol, by the last Thursday in every Month. All Merchants and others, who have Occasion to send Goods or small Parcels, and are desirous to go as Passengers to New-York, New-England, Long-Island, Rhode-Island, East or West-Jersey, Pensilvania, Maryland, Virginia or Carolina, applying themselves to William Warren, or Jonathan Scarth Merchants, at the 3 Crowns in Gracious-Street, London; or to Richard Champion, or Charles Hartford, Merchants, in Bristol, may be Accommodated on reasonable Terms. P. S. also cp. Shaftesbury, edited by Hatch, i. 373–81. Note, That there are already Posts, and other In Sir Charles Grandison,' iii. 75-6, Conveyances, from New-York to the several abovementioned Places, And that the Reason why the is an allusion to the title of Shaftesbury's

66

What we have been told of the agitations and workings, and sighings and sobbings of the French prophets among us formerly, was nothing at all to the scene exhibited by these maudlin souls, at ' Clarissa,' vii. 301; the reading of these letters."

vol. ii. and viijd of lawfull money of Englande unto the above-named John Granger, his executors, administrators, or assignes, in maner and forme hereafter following, That is to say at the castyng of such a bell as the foresaide Andrewe and John Kent shall deliver unto the said John Granger 53s. 4d., and within one twelvemonth and one day next after the castyng of the said bell other 53s. 4d., in full paiment of the foresaid some of £5 6s. 8d.-then this obligation to be void and of none effect; and if default of payment be made of and in either of the foresaid payments at either of the dayes above limited, in part or in all, contrary to the true intent and meanyng hereof, Then this obligation to stande in full strength and vertue.'