April 24. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



3^& 



and what may be considered a curious coinci- 

 dence was, that he bore the same name as Wolfe's 

 mother, viz. Thompson. Mr. Thompson was a 

 very respectable and much-respected old man; 

 and, I believe, was occasionally a guest at the 

 Governor's table. He had a son in the Commis- 

 sariat department, who is no doubt in possession 

 of all his father knew concerning Wolfe. 



According to Mr. Thompson, Wolfe always ad- 

 dressed his men "brother soldiers;" and their 

 pet-name for him was, " The little red-haired 

 corporal." Thompson was not the only remnant 

 of Wolfe's army in 1828, as appears by the fol- 

 lowing : — 



" General Orders, Head Quarters, 

 Quebec, 7th Aug. 1828. 

 " 1 . The Commander of the Forces is pleased to 

 authorise the payment of a pension, at the rate of Is. 

 per diem from 25th May last, to Robert Simpson, a 

 veteran, now ninety-six years of age, who fought on the 

 plains of Abraham under Gen. Wolfe," &c. &c. 



On the 12th Jan. 1829, died at Kingston, U. C, 

 John Gray of Argyleshire, N. B., aged ninety-six. 

 He had served at Louisbur^, Quebec, &c. &c. under 

 Sir Jeffery Amherst and General Wolfe. A. C. M. 



Exeter. 



I send the following extracts from the news- 

 papers respecting Wolfe, scarcely knowing whether 

 it may be worth while. Such as they are, they 

 are at your service : — 



" Hoc ultimum opus virtutis edens in victoria coesus." 



" To the highest military merit undoubtedly be- 

 longs the highest applause, but setting aside the froth 

 of panegyrick — 



" Who formed the 20th regt. of foot, exemplary in 

 the field of Minden, only by practising what was 

 familiar to them ? 



" Who at Rochefort offered to make a good landing, 

 not asking how many were the French, but where are 

 they? 



" Who, second tlien in command, was second to "none 

 in those lai)orious dangers which reduced Louisburgh? 



" Wlio wrote like Cscsar from before Quebec ? 



" Who, like Epaminondas, died in victory ? 



" Who never gave his country cause of complaint 

 expept by his death ? 



" Who bequeathed Canada as a triumphant legacy ? 



" Proclaim, 'twas Wolfe ! " — Newcastle Courant, 

 Oct. 27, 1759. 



" The late brave General Wolfe was to have been 

 married on his return to England to a sister of Sir 

 James Lowther, a young lady whose immense fortune 

 i^ her least recommendation. She had shown so much 

 uneasiness at the thoughts of his making bis campaign 

 m America, that nothing but the call of honour could 

 have prevailed with him to accept of that command in 



the discharge of which he fell so gloriously." N. C. 



Journal, 1759. 



" His mother is, we hear, so much afflicted for the 

 loss of her son that 'tis feared she will never get the 

 better of her disorders. The inhabitants in her neigh- 

 bourhood sympathised with her so much that they did 

 not make any public rejoicings, lest it should add to 

 her gtief. Even the mob of London discovered by 

 their behaviour the night of the illuminations for the 

 victory, what they felt for so brave a man. 



" Thei/ mourn Quebec ; for Wolfe our sorrows flow; 



Victors and vanquish'd felt the twofold blow. j 



To both perpetual let each loss remain ; , . 



If Quebec be restored, Wolfe fell in vain." ^^ 



Newcastle paper, 1759. 



E. H. A. 



You have lately published some inquiries re- 

 lative to Wolfe's early career. Is the following 

 fact worth stating ? Tradition points to an old 

 house, once an inn, at the back of the Town-hall 

 at Devizes, where the young officer resided while 

 enlisting soldiers into his regiment. 



WiLTONIENSIS, 



JAMES WILSON, M.D. 



(Vol. v., pp. 276. 329.) 



This writer will be one instance of the use of 

 such an organ of inquiry as " N. & Q." Mb. 

 Cornet's reply to my Query reminds me of 

 Wilson's History of Naoigation, with which I have 

 long been acquainted : but I had quite forgotten, 

 or perhaps never remarked, that this Wilson was 

 James, and M.D. Baron Maseres reprinted the 

 History of Navigation in the fourth volume of the 

 Scriptores Logarithmici : it is an elaborate sum- 

 mary, of wide research, and puts the author's 

 learning and judgment beyond a doubt. Maseres, 

 in his Preface, gives a mention of Wilson, and, in 

 addition to the facts now brought out, states, in 

 his own curiously explicit style, that Dr. Pember- 

 ton's Epistola ad Amicum J. W. de Cotesii inventis, 

 " was addressed to this Dr. James Wilson, who 

 was the person meant by the word Amicum, with 

 the two letters J. W., which were the initial 

 letters of his name." I happen to possess Brook 

 Taylor's copy of this Epistula (4to. 1722), and its 

 Supplement (4to. 1723), in which Taylor has 

 written, " E libris Br. Taylor, ex dono exiniii 

 paris amicorum, autoris D. H. Pemberton atque 

 editoris D. J. Wilson." Thus it is established that 

 the author of the dissertation on the fluxional 

 controversy appended to Robins's tracts, lived in 

 friendship with some of the most distinguished 

 parties to that quarrel. It is also established that 

 he was fully conversant with the mathematics of 

 the day ; for Pemberton's letter, called out by 

 Wilson's own queries, could have been read by 

 none but a previous reader of Cotes and the highest 

 fluxionists. As to Wilson's age, he says (Robins's 

 Math. Tr., vol. ii. p. 299.) he was a fellow-student 

 of Pemberton at Paris ; the latter was born in 



