364 NOTES AND QUERIES. [10 S. XI. May 8, 1909
copies. These are valuable as revealing something of Lea's personality, and as throwing light upon the condition of the school which declined to receive Samuel Johnson, and upon the difficulties against which the new head master had to contend. The earlier letter is dated from Newport, 23 Nov., 1730, and is addressed to Jerome Knapp, Esq., at Haberdashers' Hall, London:—
Honour'd & dear Sʳ
You was pleas'd to mention in one of your Letters that you doubted not but by the Assistance of our Country Visitors Newport School wou'd easily be continu'd in its present flourishing Condition, I assure you (Sʳ) most if not all of yᵉ Visitors I found here were ready to do me ill Offices, the malevolent Spirit, I found amongst 'em, is abated, but I still meet with Difficulties wᶜʰ I wish my best care and conduct will be able to surmount.
Since my Worshipfull Patrons did us the Honour to visit our School, their as well as my Enemies have industriously publish'd thro' 3 Counties many things to sink the Reputation of our School, I never heard indeed that their Rancourse [here a blot] reach'd so far to call my Qualifications for my Business into Question, the frequent Testimonies of my late Diocesan (the present Bishop of Durham) had put that out of Dispute who had ordain'd very many of my Scholars,[1] and (pardon me for saying so) my Industry is too well known to be call'd in Question; In some Places they have publish'd my Death, in others that one of my Gentlemen for want of care had broke his thigh, (who is one of an Honourable Family), another was drown'd and another had lost his Eyes by a gun, & poor Mrs. Lea[2] is charg'd wᵗʰ want of due care of the Boarders in the House, tho' every article I have mention'd is false, yet thousands believe most of 'em to be true, my Comfort is I have a just Cause, and Honourable Patrons who will not take every story they hear upon Trust, nor shou'd I have mention'd what I have done but for fear they should be impos'd upon as well as many others are, but my dear friend 'tis time for me to leave Complaints, and talk of Business. According to my Worshipfull Patrons' Order I have sent a Paper sign'd by Mr. Dickenson[3] as well as myself, I wish the Form agreeable, if it be not I shall be ready to sign any other they shall appoint, for I'm sure their favour is my fortune, & their approbation of what I do, all I wish, all I desire. I am sorry you was out of Town when I wrote my last, Mr. Withers tells me he has carry'd his Point, to wᶜʰ (I fancy) the Recommendation of my Worshipfull Patrons did not a little contribute.
Dear Master Jery[4] is very well, much at your Service, & so is Mrs. Lea as well as
P.S.—Christmas draws near, pray let me know your Commands how to proceed about yᵉ Apprentice Boys, the Charity money, &c.
The other letter, dated from Newport, 9 Jan., 1747/8, is addressed to Mr. Baker,[5] at Haberdashers' Hall, London:–
Good Sʳ
The Receipt of your last prevented my writing to you sooner, my little usual Present was upon yᵉ Road as you told me you were furnish'd from another Hand I had time to write to a friend in London to receive it. Pray Sʳ Has not somebody made Complaint to my Worshipful Patrons of yᵉ Decay of Newport School as well as that at Monmᵗʰ? Most certain it is that we are not so full as formerly. I waited upon you Sʳ some years since in a most languishing Condition, being advis'd to go to Town to consult Dʳ Mead.[6] That worthy Gentleman told me, That a too great Hurry of Business, and Application to it had brought my Life into Danger, & that I must contract it if I expected Relief, but added that it was quite necessary I shou'd still have some Boys about me, otherwise the runing out of one Extreme into yᵉ other would be fatal to me. This Talk Sʳ alarm'd my Wife, my 7 children, & my Friends. I had at that time near forty Boarders in my House, most or all them were loth to part from me, & I as unwilling to turn
- ↑ Edward Chandler (1668?-1750), Bishop of Lichfield from 1717, had only two days before the date of this letter been confirmed as Bishop of Durham.
- ↑ Whether this was the first of his four wives I cannot say.
- ↑ Mr. Dickenson, the usher, probably John son of Samuel Dickenson, of Newport, Salop, pleb., who matriculated 7 April, 1720, aged 18, from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and took his B.A, in 1723, as Dickinson (Foster's 'Alumni Oxonienses'). From R. F. Scott's 'Admissions to St. John's College, Cambridge,' part iii., p. 128, I learn that Samuel, son of John Dickenson, clerk, Salop, born at Newport and bred there under Mr. Lea, was admitted a pensioner of St. John's, 18 May, 1749, aged past 16. He graduated LL.B., as Dickenson, 1755, became Rector of Blymhill 1777, and died May 22, 1823, aged 90 (ibid., Appendix, p. 589). From Anna Seward's 'Memoirs of the Life of Erasmus Darwin,' 1804, p. 63, I learn that Charles Darwin (1758-78), the eldest uncle of Charles Robert Darwin, was about his twelfth year "committed to the care of the scientific, the learned, the modest, and worthy Mr. Dickinson, now rector of Blimel, in Shropshire."
- ↑ "Master Jery" was no doubt the Clerk's son, and a pupil of Mr. Lea's. Jerome Knapp (1687-1740) was clerk of the Haberdashers' Company from 1728 to 1739. His only surviving son, Jerome Knapp (1722-92), was entered a member of the Middle Temple in 1737, called to the Bar in 1749, elected Clerk of the Haberdashers' Company in 1754, and appointed Clerk of Assize of the Home Circuit in the same year; he was elected a Bencher of the Middle Temple in 1778, and Treasurer in 1789. "Master Jery's" daughter, Mary Ann Knapp, married William Draper Best, first Lord Wynford. See account of Knapp family by Stacey Grimaldi, F.S.A., in Gent. Mag., 1843, pt. i. pp. 210-11.
- ↑ "Fotherby Baker, Esq., clerk of the haberdashers' company," died 10 May, 1754 (Gent. Mag., p. 243).
- ↑ Richard Mead (1673-1754), the distinguished physician.
