282
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. OCT. 7, 1911.
splendour from about 1712 till his death in
1744. At the sale (see ante, p. 261) Hallett
purchased the principal lot, and erected on
the site of the famous mansion a " villa "
with the materials that composed his " lot."
The two porters' lodges alone were allowed
to remain, and these Hallett raised a story
higher " that he might fit them up for
gentlemen." Walpole mentions the sale of
this place to a cabinet-maker as a mockery
of sublunary grandeur. William Hallett
married the daughter of James Hallett
probably a relative of Dunmow, Essex.
She died at Edgware 28 June, 1810, at the
age of 95, having survived her husband
29 years. By a curious coincidence, on the
day of her death Canons was put up for sale
by auction by the then owner, Mr. O'Kelly.
2. William Hallett the second, who died vita patris, 12 May, 1767, was known as William Hallett, jun., of Little Canons, and was married twice. The Gentleman's Magazine of 1753 (p. 590) records the mar- riage of William Hallett, jun., to " Miss [Hannah] Hopkins, 30,000/." She was the daughter and heiress of John Hopkins of Bretons, Essex, a collateral descendant of a City merchant known as "Vulture Hop- kins," who died in 1732 worth 300,000/. There was at least one child of this Hallett- Hopkins marriage, for The Gentleman's Magazine of 1779 (p. 566) records the mar- riage, 26 October, at Whitchurch of John E. Dolben, only son of Sir William Dolben, Bt., to Miss Hallett, granddaughter of James (i.e. William) Hallett of Canons and of the late J. Hopkins of Bretons, " with a fortune of 70,OOOZ." Mrs. Dolben died at Penton- ville 12 January, 1807.
William Hallett married secondly, in September, 1761, Eliza, daughter of Abra- ham Chambers, banker of New Bond Street, and by her had three children : ( 1 ) Lettice, born June, 1763, married 1 December, 1787, the Rev. J. Mulso, jun., Vicar of South Stoneham, Hants ; (2) William, the third of that name, see below ; and (3) Frances, born posthumous in August, 1767. She married first, in 1786, Mr. Saunders, a surgeon* in the Middlesex Militia ; and secondly Capt. Armstrong, paymaster of the 1st Battalion of the 67th Regiment.
William Hallett' s widow married secondly, as his third wife, in December, 1791, the Rev. Rd. Harington, and died in 1817 at the age of 75. This lady's portrait was painted by John Russell, and a small oval
- Also described as "an apothecary at Farning-
ham, Kent."
of it was anonymously engraved : it may
be identified by a beaded cross suspended
from the neck.
3. William Hallett the third was born in June, 1764, and inherited his grandfather's estate at Canons, of which an engraving was published in 1782, and is reproduced in W^alford's 'Greater London' (i. 294). He married 30 August, 1785, at Whitchurch, Elizabeth, daughter of the late Mr. Stephen, a surgeon of Breakspeare, Middlesex, with " a handsome fortune." It was soon after this marriage that Gainsborough painted his famous picture, which remained in the family for nearly a century. Hallett sold Canons in 1786 to Capt. Dennis O'Kelly, " a successful adventurer on the turf " (but more famous as the owner of the celebrated racehorse Eclipse), who left it to his nephew, who, as we have seen, again sold it in 1810.
Mrs. Hallett died 16 April, 1833, "after a married life of 48 years," being described in The Gentleman's Magazine as " the wife of William Hallett, Esq., of Candys, near Southampton." Mr. Hallett himself sur- vived his wife nine years, dying at Candy& 21 November, 1842, in his 79th year, and was described as " formerly of Denford House, near Hunger ford, Berks." He seems to have been somewhat of a roving disposition in the matter of country residences, for after selling Canons, he purchased the Dunch estate at Wittenham, Berks, and also Farringdon (the latter estate had been in the Pye family for 200 years) in the same county. He for a time resided at Denford, and finally died at Candys.
The births of only two children of Gains- borough's Mr. and Mrs. Hallett are recorded in The Gentleman's Magazine : (1) a son 8 August, 1786, probably identical with the William Hallett, jun., of Philliols, Dorset, who married in August, 1827, Mary, eldest daughter of Robert Radclyffe of Foxdenton Hall, Lanes ; (2) at Brighton, 15 August, 1791, " the lady of William Hallett, Esq., of Farringdon House, Berks, a daughter." This daughter may have been Charlotte, his second daughter, who married in 1812 George Kerr (afterwards Kerr-Nelson) of Chaddleworth, Berks. There was another son, for The Gentleman's Magazine records the death (6 August, 1812, from the effects of an ague caught at Ciudad Rodrigo), aged 18, of R. S. Halletts (sic), second son of William Hallett of Denford, Berks, a lieu- tenant in the 58th Foot.
Further search in The Gentleman's Maga- zine and elsewhere would doubtless reveal
