Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/134

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. XIL AUG. u, 1915.


HERALDIC QUERY (11 S. xii. 86). The arms quartered with Sandford are those of the family of Springhose or Sprencheaux. The name occurs under various spellings in the Visitations of Shropshire. William Sand- ford of the Isle of Up Rossall, in the parish of St. Chad, married Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Sir Foulke Springseour (or Sprencheaux), Knt., of Plash, who was Sheriff of Shropshire in 1477. The family of Sandford of Up Rossall registered their arms as Sandford and Sprencheaux quarterly fit the Visitation of Shropshire in 1623.

H. J. B. CLEMENTS. Killadoon, Celbridge.

[MR. WILFRED DRAKE thanked for reply.]

CAPTURE OF TRINCOMALEE (US. xii. 28, 76). I am obliged to T.F.D. and the REV. FRANK PENNY. It is clear that the Black Watch was not present at the taking of Trincomalee, but this took place on 5 Jan., 1782, not 1781, so that if the 2nd Battalion embarked for India on 21 Jan., 1781, as stated, it was not impossible for it to be there.

The statement about the 98th Regiment was based on the copy of a document found among the Dutch records at Colombo, and published in the Ceylon Literary Register of 3 Dec., 1889. This is a " Monthly Return of the Troops in the Garrisons of Trin- comalie and its Dependencies commanded by Captain P. D. Bonnevaux for March, 1782," which gives, under " His Majesty's 58th Regiment," as " Present for Duty 1 lieutenant, 1 ensign, 1 adjutant, 4 sergeants, 4 corporals, 1 drummer, 41 privates total 52 " (it should be 53, but, as I will show, the lieutenant appears twice once as " lieu- tenant " and once as " adjutant "). There were also " Sick, 3 privates," making a grand total of 55. But I have no doubt now, in view of what is stated by MR. PENNY, that " 98th " is a mistake of the printer for " 78th" one that might easily be made in reading an old and faded document.

In the printed " List of Officers Corre- sponding " the same mistake is repeated. The two officers of the " 98th " really the 78th are stated to be Lieut. William Armstrong and Ensign William Ludlam. This leaves the adjutant unaccounted for, but a foot-note to the first return adds, "" Lieut. Wm. Armstrong appointed Adjutant 4th March, '82." In the second return Lieut. Armstrong appears as adjutant of the

    • 98th," and no other adjutant of the detach-

ment of that regiment is mentioned, but " Ensign R. Mealy " is named as adjutant of


the Volunteer Battalion to which he belonged. It is clear, therefore, that the return relating to the 78th shows one officer too many, the " Lieutenant " appearing under that style as well as under that of " Adjutant."

I have since discovered whence I had got the impression that the Black Watch were at Trincomalee in 1782. It is stated by Capt. Deschamps, in his book ' Scenery and Reminiscences of Ceylon,' that " 200 men of the 42nd Regiment were sent frcm Madras to reinforce the garrison at Trin- comalie in 1782." But there is no doubt that he was wrong as to the regiment.

PENRY LEWIS.

The 73rd Regiment was the 2nd Battalion of the Black Watch, which would account, perhaps, for the mistake, for they were in the Madras Presidencj^ at that time.

C. J. DURAND.

MAJOR-GENERAL HAY MACDOWALL (US. vii. 447, 496 ; xii. 76). It is interesting to learn that Major - General Hay Macdowall, when he went to Ceylon in 1799 to take up the command of the troops in the island,, had already had some experi- ence of it, for I presume that he was the " Capt. Hay Macdowall " who, in July, 1782, brought over the second detachment of the 78th Regiment to Trincomalee. But for some years between 1782 and 1799 Mac- do wall's service must have been out of India. For in a letter to the Marquis of Wellesley, written in 1800 apparently (reproduced in Ceylon Literary Register vol. ii. p. 301, from the Wellesley MSS. in British Museum), the General says that he had served his King " twenty-seven years, fifteen years in India." If, then, this service was consecutive, he cannot have arrived in India until 1785. But Capt. Hay Macdowall arrived at Trinco- malee from Madras in 1782, and must, there- fore, have already had some service in India.

The General's son, Capt. Macdowall, was his A.D.C. during his embassy to Kandy in 1800. A son, John, was in the Ceylon Civil Service, entering it as a writer on 22 March, 1802, and dying at Calcutta on 14 Jan., 1806, probably while on a visit to his father, who in March, 1804, had received an appointment on the staff of the Army in India. (I assume that there were two sons, and that Capt. Macdowall did not abandon the Army for the civil service.) There was another contemporary " John Macdowall " (so his name is spelt in the Ceylon documents I have seen, but m his tombstone at Madras it is " Macdouall ").