516
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 S.I.JO*K 24,1916.
I cut the above somewhat similar lines from
some paper forty years ago, but I do not
know who wrote them. At the Birmingham
Assizes, in December, 1908, I heard the late
Lord Alverstone inquire : " What is a
mother's help ? " and counsel replied : "It
is a name for what used to be known as a
lady help, my lord." A. C. C.
RICHARD WILSON, M.P. (12 S. i. 90, 158,213, 277, 437). Were there two Richard Wilsons who were members of Parliament, or only one ? I think two, but both were more or less or professed to be friends of Lord Eldon, and both appear to have been of Whig politics, and connected with the legal profession.
1. " Richard Wilson, Esq." (no place of residence or other means of identification given in the ' Official Return of Members of Parliament '), was M.P. for Barnstaple, 1796- 1802, and contested the borough in 1790 and in 1802. He is described in the 'Royal Kalen- dar ' for 1797 as of " Datchet, Berks " ; in the subsequent issues to 1802 inclusive as of " Datchworth Lodge, Herts." His town residence is given in 1798 and 1799 as " St. James Street," in the later issues as " Queen Square, Westminster." In 1797 and 1798 (but not in the other editions) he has " LL.D." appended to his name. In the ' Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors ' (published 1816 by H. Colburn), from which W. B. H. quotes, it is definitely stated that he was a magistrate for Tyrone and author of two pamphlets: one (in 1798) a letter to Lord Chancellor Loughborough on the sub- ject of his Bill of Divorce, the other (in 1807) ' Correspondence with the Right Hon. W. Eliot and the Right Hon. G. Ponsonby (re- spectively Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant and Lord Chancellor of Ireland) relative to the Persecution of the Roman Catholics.' The 1808 pamphlet, from which the EDITOR OF THE ' IRISH BOOK LOVER ' quotes, seems to have escaped the notice of the compiler of the Dictionary. John Taylor, as quoted by MR. BLEACKLEY, says that he was " an early friend of the great Lord Eldon," and he himself in the pamphlet last referred to claims the Chancellor as " an old friend." The Dictionary tells us that he " was bred to the bar, and practised some time in the Court of Chancery."
2. " Richard Wilson, Esq.," was elected M.P. for Ipswich in 1806, and was defeated in 1 807. In the ' Royal Kalendar ' for 1 807 he is described as Principal Secretary to the Lord Chancellor (who then was Erskine) and a Commissioner of Bankrupts, his town re- sidence being Lincoln's Inn Fields. He
appears to have been Secretary to Eldon.-
from 1801 to 1806, and to have been re-
tained in office by Erskine, but not to have
resumed his connexion with Eldon on the
latter's return to the Chancellorship in 1807.
Joshua Wilson, in his ' Biographical Index of
the House of Commons, March, 1807,' states
that he was related to Lord Eldon, under
whom " he enjoyed an honourable situation,
and was also with Lord Erskine for a few
months :> ; also that he " inherited a con-
siderable fortune from the late Lord Ched-
worth." His name appears in the lists of the
Commissioners of Bankrupts annually from
1803 to 1831, the commission ceasing on the
establishment of the new Bankruptcy Court
in January, 1832. I think there can be no
doubt that he was the Richard Wilson, "many
years an eminent solicitor in Lincoln's Inn-
Fields, and formerly Secretary to Lord
Eldon," who died June 7, 1834, in his 75th
year ('Annual Register,' 1834, p. 229). If
so, he can hardty have been " identical with
the ' Dick Wilson ' who eloped with " Lord
Rodney's daughter in 1789, and is stated
then to have been 45 years old. It is,,
however, a curious coincidence that both
should have been more or less closely con-
nected with Eldon, and that the M.P. for
Ipswich should have first appeared as a can-
didate for Parliament at the general election-
following his namesake's last appearance
as a candidate at Barnstaple. MR. DURHAM
suggests that the M.P. for Barnstaple was
the son of Charles Townshend's daughter,.,
but Prof. Pollard, in the ' D.N.B.,' says that
the M.P. was the husband of this lady, who
was divorced from him in 1798, the year of
the Divorce Bill which was the subject of
Wilson's letter to Loughborough.
By the way, MR. BLEACKLEY, in his original communication (ante, p. 90), says that the Wilson about whom he inquires flourished " at the beginning of the eighteenth century " ; if so, he must have been a very old rake at the date of his elopement (1789). We are still wanting the date of death of this Richard Wilson. Can any reader supply it ? ALFRED B. BEAVEN.
" BEVERE" (12 S. i. 389, 458). The origin . of the name of " Bevere " on a London and North- Western Railway engine is very simply explained.
Bevere is the name of a small district about three miles from Worcester, and in the sixties of last century Richard (afterwards Sir Richard) Moon lived at Bevere Manor- Later on, I believe, he was chairman of the- Board of Directors of the London and North- Western Railway.
