Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/40

28 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vm. JAN. 8, 1921. Pharmacopoeia and retained until 1788 had from 45 to 48, none of the four named above being amongst them. The most active ingredient was opium, and to this the medi- oine doubtless owed its popularity. It owes (so far as is known) nothing to Mithridates but its name. C. C. B. ( items. WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct. A NATURAL DAUGHTER OF GEORGE III. An old diary lately discovered contains this entry: "My mother was a very beautiful woman, and was of very high birth." The allusion is to Frances Hay wood or Hay word, who was m. (1) to Read, Reed, or Reid, and (2) on Dec. 22, 1800, at Liverpool to James Waller Hewitt, who was bapt. James only on Nov. 2, 1777, at Wickham Market, Suffolk, being son of William Hewitt and Sarah Waller. Tradition relates that Frances Haywood was a natural daughter of George III., that she was some years older than J. W. Hewitt, that she was " great friends " with George III. 's daughters Sophia, born 1777, and Amelia, born 1783, and that Mrs. Hewitt's daughter Frances used to go to the Duke of Kent's house and was given a scarf by the Princess Victoria. Further, that the beautiful Frances Hay- wood-Reed-Hewitt had her portrait painted by Allen Ramsay (1713-1784), or Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92), or Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823). I cannot find any record of the above marriage at Liverpool in 1800. On Dec. 11, 1801, their daughter Frances was bapt. at New Windsor, Berks. In April, 1803, their daughter Mary Catherine was born, and in November, 1807, their daughter Clarissa was born. From October, 1808, to May, 1811, J. W. Hewitt was ensign and lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Militia. From May, 1811, to November, 1817, he was ensign and lieutenant in the 1st Regt. of Foot, of which the Duke of Kent was colonel. In November, 1817, he retired on half-pay. About that date he and his wife "separated," and she settled with her three daughters at Belfast, where in 1827-28 the two elder were married. Mrs. Hewitt diec and was buried at Belfast, as was also hee unmarried daughter Clarissa about 1888-96 'Capt." Hewitt died at Reading on July 9, 1867, aged 89. Tradition states that he and lis wife and their daughter Clarissa received until the day of their deaths " a secret grant ~rom a high source." Can any student of the secret history of .he period 1750-1850 throw any further ight on this mysterious beauty ? C. PARTRIDGE, F.S.A. Stowmarket, Suffolk. CORNELIUS DREBBEL. I shall be much' obliged to any reader of <N. & Q.' who can give me further information concerning the person and the works of the Dutch naturalist, nventor and engineer Cornelius Drebbel, who lived about 1604-1625 in England at the court of James I, or concerning his son - in - law, Dr. Abr. Kufler, dyer, at Stratford, Bow. I am especially in search of such data as may be found in unpublished/ records or in the manuscripts of private' libraries, in judicial acts, bills, &c., the- printed records being already taken into account by me. PROFESSOR DR. F. M, JAEGER. The University, Groningen, Holland. MATTHEW PARIS. The following inveo tive against the Preaching or Mendicant Friars (presumably a modern translation from the Latin) is said to have been written, by Matthew Paris, who was a Benedictine monk at St. Albans, and naturally looked upon them as rivals : 'The friars who have been founded hardly forty years have built residences as the palaces of Kings.. These are they who enlarging day by day their sumptuous edifices encircling them with lofty walls, lay up in them their incalculable treasures*. imprudently transgressing the bounds of poverty and violating the very fundamental rules of their profession." If some one will tell me where this passage occurs among the writings of Matthew Paris I shall be very much obliged. PHILIP NORMAN. 45 Evelyn Gardens, S.W.7. FAMILY ' OF DICKSON. I am collecting data for a biographical and genealogical history of the family of Dickson of Scotland,. and I should be glad to hear from any of that name with genealogical details of their ancestry and any items of interesting family history. JAMES SETON-ANDERSON. SAMUEL DICKSON, M.D., born 1802, the author of ' Chromo-Thermal System of Medicine.' He studied medicine at Edin- burgh, L.R.C.S. Edin., 1825, obtained a