1828.] [ 323 ] 



BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 



HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS. 

 Miss Helen Maria Williams, pre-emi- 

 nent amongst the violent female partisans 

 of the French Revolution, is said to have 

 been born about the year 1762; though, 

 according to our apprehension, her life must 

 have been of earlier date. She was, we be- 

 lieve, a native of the North of England ; 

 resided some years at Berwick, came to 

 London at the age of eighteen, and was 

 introduced to the world, as a writer, by the 

 late Dr. Kippis. 



An accurate, copious, and impartially- 

 written memoir of this lady, could not fail 

 of exhibiting much curious literary and 

 political information. She was the avowed 

 author of many works. Her first poem was 

 " Edwin and Elfrida," a legendary tale, in 

 verse, published in 1782. She next pro- 

 duced, in 1783, "An Ode on Peace;" in 

 1784, "Peru," a poem ; in 1786', in two 

 volumes, " A Collection of Miscellaneous 

 Poems;" and, in 1788, "Poems on the 

 Slave Trade." About the last mentioned 

 year, she visited France, where she formed 

 many literary and political connexions. In 

 1790, in which year, the Constitutionnel in- 

 forms us, she settled in Paris, she published 

 " Julia, a Novel," in two volumes; also, 

 " Letters Written in France, in the Sum- 

 mer of 1790;" and, in 1792, a second part 

 of that work, in two volumes, having pre- 

 viously, in 1791, written " A Farewell for 

 Two Years to England." The effects of 

 these works were, to render the French Re- 

 volution popular amongst certain parties in 

 England, and to recommend their author to 

 the Brissotins at Paris, In the succeeding 

 clash of factions, she was in great danger, 

 and was actually confined in the Temple ; 

 but, on the fall of Robespierre, she was re- 

 leased. After her liberation, she resumed 

 her literary labours, the first fruits of which 

 were, " Letters, containing a Sketch of the 

 Politics of France," in four volumes, in 1796. 

 Her next publication was a " Translation of 

 Paul and Virginia;" the exquisite sim- 

 plicity of which she destroyed, by interlard- 

 ing the narrative with some of her own Son- 

 nets. In 1798, she produced " a Tour in 

 Switzerland, with Comparative Sketches of 

 the Present State of Paris:" in 1800, 

 ** Sketches of the State of Manners and 

 Opinions in the French Republic :" and, in 

 1803, a Translation of the " Political and 

 Confidential Correspondence of Louis XVI., 

 with observations," in three volumes, 8vo. 



During the " hollow armed truce of 

 Amiens," Miss Williams is understood to 

 have had some intercourse with the English 

 Government ; and, during the subsequent 

 'war, she became an object of suspicion to 

 the French police, by whom her papers were 

 seized and examined. In 1814, she trans- 

 lated the first volume of " The Personal 

 Travels of M. de Humboldt," which she 

 completed in 1 821. Her latest performances 



are "A Narrative of Events in France," in 

 1815 ; On the late Persecution of the 

 Protestants in the South of France," in 

 1816 ; " Letters on the Events which have 

 passed in France since the Restoration of 

 1815," in 1819; and, subsequently, a slight 

 sketch, entitled " The Leper of the City of 

 Aoste, from the French." 



It should have been mentioned, that, for 

 some years, Miss Williams wrote that portion 

 of the New Annual Register, which related 

 to the affairs of France. Lately, she has ap- 

 peared only as the enemy of the revolution, 

 and a friend of the Bourbons. Her circle 

 of friends and acquaintances was extensive. 

 She lived, for many years, and until the death 

 of that gentleman, "under the protection," 

 as the phrase is, of the quondam Reverend 

 F, Stone, Rector of Norton, in the county 

 of Essex.* Miss Williams died lately in 



Paris. 



THE EARL OF NEWBURGH. 



Francis Eyre, fifth Earl of Newburgh, 

 Viscount Kinnaird, and Baron Livingston, 

 of Flacrais, was born on the 10th of Febru- 

 ary, 1762. He succeeded his cousin, An- 

 thony James Radcliffe, the fourth earl, on 

 the 29th of November, 1814. His mother 

 was the only daughter and heiress of An- 

 thony Kemp, of Slindon, in the county of 

 Sussex, Esq. by Ann Brown, daughter of 

 Henry, fifth Viscount Montagu. His Lord- 

 ship married, in 1788, Dorothy, daughter 

 and co-heir of John Gladwin, Esq., by whom 

 he has had issue two sons and six daugh- 

 ters : of these, both the sons and three 

 daughters are living. The Earl of New- 

 burgh died at his Hotel, Rue de Monsieur, 

 at Paris, on the 23d of October. Thomas, 

 his eldest son and successor, the present 

 earl, was born on the 21st of October, 

 1790; and he married, in 1817, the Lady 

 Margaret Kennedy, third daughter of Ar- 

 chibald, Earl of Cassilis. 



LIEUT. COLONEL DE MONTMORENCY. 



Lieutenant Colonel de Montmorency, 

 H. P. Royal York Hussars, formerly of the 

 13th Light Dragoons, and afterwards Lieu- 

 tenant Colonel of the 9th Lancers, was a 

 nephew of the late Right Honourable Lord 

 Viscount Frankfort de Montmorency, of 



* In consequence of the Rev. F. Stone's having 

 preached a visitation sermon in the church of 

 Danbury, before the Archdeacon of the Diocese 

 and the Clergy, in which he denied the Doctrines 

 of the Church concerning the Holy Trinity, the 

 Divinity of, and Atonement by Christ, proceeding* 

 were instituted against him in the ConsistoryCourt, 

 Doctors' Commons. The sermon was preached 

 in July 1806 ; and, on the 20th of May, 1808, after 

 repeated hearings, Mr. Stone having refused to 

 renoilnce his heterodox opinions, and to declare 

 his belief of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church 

 of England, the Bishop of London pronounced 

 sentence of deprivation against him, according to 

 the forms prescribed by law, depriving him of the 

 benefice of Cold Norton, in Essex a living saH 

 to be worth 5001. per annum. Mr. Stone die* 

 tome years since. 



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