90 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



l;2°d S. X. Aug. 4. 



sanne on the dreadful night of the 24th, ignorant of tlie 

 tragedy then enacting in Paris. Not till he reached 

 Strasburg did he learn the horrid news," &c. 



Will you tell me in your answers to Queries 

 which is the correct account ? R. H. 



Taafe and Gokdon Families. — Can your cor- 

 respondent, Mr. D'AiiTON, or any reader of " N. 

 & Q.," inform me whether any of the following 

 families are to be found in D' Alton's Illustrations 

 or elsewhere ? Was Christopher Taafe the Colonel 

 whose name is found in the pedigrees of the noble 

 family of Taafe ? and was Gordon, of Enniskillen 

 and Louth, who married the daughter of Christo- 

 pher Taafe, of a Scotch family? And if so, 

 whence ? 



(1.) Christopher Taafe and his wife Mary, whose 

 sons were-: 



1. Arthur Taafe died about 1750-2 (in Ja- 



maica). 



2. Henry Taafe (Rev.); sons: 1. Arthur 



Rodger Taafe. 2. John Armistead T. 

 3. Richard Brownrig T. 4. Thomas 

 Wheeler T. A daughter, Elizabeth T. 



3. Anne Taafe, m. to Gordon* of (En- 



niskillen ?). 

 (2.) Taafe and his wife Anne, of the pa- 

 rish Drumsiska (co. Louth, Ireland), their chil- 

 dren (some in the West Indies) : 



1. Michael Taafe, died about 1761-2. 



2. Catherine, m. to Peter Clinton of the same 



place. 



(3.) Susanna, wife of Theobald Taafe, of Hano- 

 ver Square, St. George's par. Middlesex, and of 

 Jamaica ; youngest daughter of Henry Lowe. 



The breaking up of the Taafe family towards 

 the close of the seventeenth century gives an in- 

 terest to these inquiries. Taafe. 



Wilkes and Junius. — Where now are the 

 autobiographical MSS. of John Wilkes ? At the 

 commencement of the present century they were 

 in possession, I believe, of his sister. 



C. Ferkand Carew. 



Crown Diamonds of France. — Lamartine, in 

 his History of the Girondists, mentions in several 

 places that Dan ton and Roland were accused of 

 having done away with the greater portion of the 

 diamonds belonging to the royal crown and ward- 

 robe. According to him they have never been 

 traced. Would you kindly inform me whether 

 these diamonds have ever been recovered, or what 

 you know of their fate ? 



Perhaps you will at the same time have the 

 goodness to name a faithful and extensive bio- 

 graphy of Marie Antoinette, no matter whether 

 French, English, or German. An Alien. 



* His son, Harry Gordon (in His Majesty's service ?). 



Was his father, Gordon, ever married to a Mary 



Jones of the Ranelagh family ? 



American Rivers. — Which of the two rivers 

 of America, the St. Lawrence or the Mississippi, 

 is supposed to discharge the largest volume of 

 water into the ocean ? X. Y. Z. 



Robert Robinson. — Can any of your corre- 

 spondents inform me respecting Robert Robin- 

 son, of London, about 1659? Was he a minister 

 in Lond'on, and are any works of his published ? 



J. Taylor, Jun. 

 " Burthen'd Pilgrim." — Can any reader of 

 " N. & Q." recollect ever seeing the following al- 

 legory in print ? The Burthen'd Pilgrim Released, 

 Sfc, of about the date 1750, commencing with 

 these words, "There liv'd a man in y^ City of 

 .Destruction named Graceless." The introduction 

 is a poem of 79 lines, and a poem of 58 lines con- 

 cludes the work. D. Sedgwick. 

 Sun Street, City. 



Freshfield of Norwich. — A John Freshfield, 

 merchant, was living in St. Saviour's parish in 

 this city in 1768, and either he or, which is more 

 probable, a son or other near relative of his, mar- 

 ried, in 1785, a lady of the name of Maude. I 

 should be very glad to be supplied with a descrip- 

 tion of the armorial bearings of this gentleman, 

 and with any information concerning his family. 

 He was, I believe, a member of the Society of 

 Friends. Wm. Matthews. 



Cowgill. 



Witty Sayings of Charles II. — 



"I have made a collection," says Walpole, "of the 

 witty sayings of Charles II., and a collection of hon-mots 

 by people who only said one witty thing in the whole 

 course of their lives." — Walpoliana, vol. i. p. 68. 



According to Mr. Cunningham, in his Story of 

 Nell Givyn, p. 94., " both these collections are, it 

 is believed, unfortunately lost;" but is there any 

 hope of discovering, with- the aid of " N. & Q.," 

 that they are extant ? Abhba. 



" Pressing to Death." — Where may I find 

 particulars of the case of Matthew Ryan, who, 

 when on his trial at the Kilkenny assizes, in the 

 year 1740, " affected lunacy, and, refusing to 

 plead, was pressed to death two days subse- 

 quently in the market-place ? " And in what 

 year was the punishment of pressing to death for 

 refusing to plead abolished in England? Abhba. 



" Origin or Governaients." — Can any of your 

 readers tell me who was the original French author 

 of the book translated into Spanish under the fol- 

 lowing title, or give me any other information con- 

 cerning it ? I have searched in vain at the British 

 Museum : — 



" La Voz de la Naturaleza sobre el Origen de los Go- 

 biernos : traducida del Frances al Castellano de la segunda 

 edicion qui se publicb en Londres en 1809. Santiago ; Off 

 de D. Man Maria de Vila, 1813. 3 torn. 8vo." 



R. E. H. 



