Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/463

This page needs to be proofread.

ii s. xi. JUNE 12, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


453


spells it Welch, and the officers seem to favour that spelling. In a recent number of ' N. & Q.,' referring to the forming of the Welsh Guard, there are two communications, in each of which the word is spelt differently Are we to infer that both are correct, or if there authority for the alteration ? I may add that in a number of The Tatler the mas- cot of the 17th Battalion of the "Welsh Reg fc " was portrayed, and the covering of the goat was embroidered " The Welch Regiment." RAVEN.

HUGH PRICE HUGHES AND BARON PLUN- KET, PRIMATE OF IRELAND. In ' The Life Story of Hugh Price Hughes ' (The Temple Magazine, vol. i. p. 87, November, 1896) Mrs. Sarah A. Tooley, who had long conversa- tions with Price Hughes and gathered from him much fresh and interesting information, tells the reader that he was of Jewish descent.

"A Jew named Levi came long ago and settled at Haverfordwest, and to disguise his nationality adopted the name of Phillips. From one of his daughters Mr. Hughes' mother is descended ; and it is an interesting coincidence that from another comes the Irish family of Plunkets, so that there is a species of cousinship between the present Archbishop of Dublin [William Conyngham, fourth Baron Plunket, 1828-97] and the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes."

In 'The Life of Hugh Price Hughes,' by his daughter (Dorothea), London, 1904, referring to the Jewish origin of her father, the writer states that his maternal grand- father was the son of a rich Jew banker of Haverfordwest named Levi, who on his conversion to Christianity changed his name to Phillips. The discrepancies to be noted in the two biographies are that in one he is descended from a daughter, and in the other from a son, of the Jew of Haverfordwest. Mrs. Tooley states that the Jew discarded the name of Levi for that of Phillips to hide his nationality, but his descendant, Dorothea Price Hughes, tells us he did so on his con- version to Christianity.

I have just purchased " The Universal Hebrew Grammar, For the Use

of Schools and Private Gentlemen London :

Printed for the Author, by T. Brewman, at No. 2 Peterborough - Court, Fleet - Street. And sold at the Academy, and by Mr. Levi Phillips, Jeweller, in Haverfordwest." 8vo, 1 1. +H + 17+20 pp.

It is an anonymous publication and undated* but probably issued circa 1770. I am unable to trace a copy in the British Museum- The family tradition of the substitution of the name of Phillips for that of Levi, what- ever was the reason, is not corroborated by


this title-page, as both names are used here. The " rich Jew banker " is also apparently apocryphal, or rather looks as if it were an easy substitute for " broker."

Whether Mr. Levi Phillips was baptized is an open question. Hugh Price Hughes told Mrs. Tooley that his Jewish forbear changed his name to conceal his origin, without any reference to change of faith. Tentatively I put forward the suggestion that " Levi Phillips " was the author of this Grammar, and that may explain the reason of the " Jeweller " turning bookseller.

I have consulted the usual books of reference with regard to the Hebrew descent of the Plunkets, but have failed to trace it. Perhaps one of the readers of * N. & Q.' expert in Irish genealogy may be able to do so. ISRAEL SOLOMONS.

SIR JAMES PAGET : BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES. 1. In St. Bartholomew's Hospital Report, 1873, there is a notice by Sir James Paget of the brothers Edward and William Ormerod. I have no note of any biography, and shall be grateful if any reader of ' N. & Q.' can give dates and facts of their lives.

2. Who was the " wise old man " to whom Paget ascribes the saying " Let the youngest among us remember that he is not infallible " (British Medical Journal, 1883, vol. i.)?

3. "A distinguished French surgeon used to say that there were two words that a surgeon should never use, namely, jamais and toujours " (' Scientific Study,' 1888). To whom does this refer ? J. PARSON.

[2. The reference is to Thompson, Master of Trinity, Cambridge, who used the words at a College meeting.]

JOHN PARSELLE, AN ALUMNUS OF ABER- DEEN. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' explain the connexion between John Parselle, actor, and Aberdeen ? I append the notice of him in Mr. Boase's most useful and too little known ' Modern English Biography ' (1897), vol. ii. col. 1368 ; but I fail to trace his name in the Registers of Marischal College :

" PARSELLE, John. b. 1820 ; educ. Marischall coll. Aberdeen ; attended Mr. Rowhill's Latin class Glasgow gram. sch. 1834-9 : acted the Chevalier de Bellevue in the Pride of the Market, Lyceum 18 Oct. 1847; at the Adelphi under Madame Celeste's management 1853 &c. ; acting manager Strand theatre, where he also played Mr. Bingley in Craven's The Post boy 31 Oct. 1860, Max Altman in Wooller's Silver wedding 24 Jany. 1861, Lieut. Billiard in Troughton's Unlimited confidence 1 Feb. 1864, Edward Hartwright in his own come- dietta Cross purposes 27 March 1865; wrote My