Nov. 24. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



399 



REMARKABLE MEN BORN DURING THE SAME YEAR. 



One of your correspondents has, some time 

 since, observed that Wellington, Soult, Castle- 

 reagh, Napoleon, Chateaubriand, Cuvier, and 



remarkable births exceed nine each year. Some 

 of the years are, as you may perceive, unusually 

 prolific, such as 1756, 1762, 1769, 1770, 1775, 

 1780, &c. The table whicli I enclose is, I think, 



Scott were all born in 1769, and concluded the i curious, and, if too voluminous for your limits, 

 enumeration by challenging the writers of "N, & ' ^^^y^ without detriment, be divided into two or 

 Q." to adduce the name's of seven other celebrities ' ^^^^^ portions. The names of the men still living 



I I have prefixed with an asterisk. Many of them. 



born during the same year. 



To the seven remarkable men born in 1769, 

 your correspondent might have added the brave 

 Marshall Ney, who had five horses killed under 

 him at Waterloo ; Alexander von Humboldt, au- 

 thor of Cosmos (still living) ; Sir M. I. Brunell, 

 constructor of the Thames Tunnel ; William 

 Daniel, R.A., painter and engraver ; Baron Ca- 

 roscosa, who took an active part in the first 

 French Revolution, narrowly escaped the guillo 



at one period well known, have been by the pre- 

 sent generation forgotten ; and for this reason I 

 have appended to each name what will probably 

 revive it in the recollection. To preserve uni- 

 formity I have adopted this course throughout, 

 notwithstanding that most of the names are, and 

 Avill ever be, as " familiar in our mouths as house- 

 hold words." 



If I had leisure to ascertain the precise days of 



tine in 1799, and who, having risen to the rank of I ^^^^ month on which each birth took place, I should 



general under Murat, was finally exiled in 1820 ; 

 the lit. lion. J. Hookem Frere, poet and diplo- 

 matist ; .John Quincy Adams, President of the 

 United States ; Count de Lavalette, the faithful 

 adherent of Buonaparte, whose romantic history 



probably make some curious discoveries of natal 

 coincidence, such as that of Leigh Plunt and our 

 present premier Lord Pahnerston, both of whom 

 (as nearly as I can ascertain) were born on the 

 same day. Charles Lamb and W. Savage Landor 



Mr. G. P, R. James will probably embody some ^^'^''^ ^orn within a few days of each other. Percy 



of these days in a novel ; Tallien, one of the most 

 prominent characters in the French Revolution ; 

 William Smith, styled " the father of English 

 geology;" Fra Diavolo, immortalised by Auber; 

 Dr. Alexander Forsyth, discoverer of the per- 

 cussion principle ; Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt ; 

 Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D., the distinguished 

 traveller and mineralogist, whose works fill ele- 

 ven volumes; Count Stanislaus Potocki, Polish 

 statesman and writer ; Sir Thomas Lawrence, the 

 celebrated painter ; Cardinal Opezzoni, Archbi- 

 shop of Bologna for fifty-two years, who only died 

 last April ; Sir James Scarlett, afterwards Lord 

 Abinger, distinguished at the Bar, on the Bench, 

 and in the Senate ; and, though last not least, the 

 venerable patriot Dupont de I'Eure, who looks as 

 well at present as he did twenty years ago. So 

 that, instead of seven remarkable men born in 

 1769, you now have, since my reinforcement, no 

 less than six and twenty ! 



By some research and inquiry, I have discovered 

 that, from 1750 to 1812, the average number of 



Byshe Shelley and Lord John Russell ditto ; 

 Cuvier and Buonaparte ditto ; and, to cite a cu- 

 rious reverse case, Shakspeare and Cervantes (two 

 of the greatest contemporaries that ever existed) 

 died at the same hour, the former on his own 

 birth -day. I might also add that the Duke of 

 Wellington, and the great architect Pugin, died 

 within a few minutes of each other, and a very few 

 miles distant. 



I hope I may be excused if, in my national 

 pride, I have sprinkled the list too extensively 

 with Irishmen, " of many of whom," as Mr. Charles 

 Phillips observes, in Curran and his Contempo- 

 raries, the English reader "may have never even 

 heard the name, and of many others very little 

 more. Let me hope," to continue the words of 

 Phillips, " let me hope he will rejoice in a more 

 intimate acquaintance with them." 



The following table is, I should hope, tolerably 

 free from inaccuracy. 



William John Fitz-Patrick. 



Southhill Avenue, Booterstown, Dublin. 



Ceo. Huntinsford, D.D., miscel. writer. 



Charles James Fox, statesman. 



Lord Redesdale, P.C, F.R.S., Crown lawyer. 



1749. 



riene, Marquis de la Place, mathematician. 



J. vv. von trotthe, patriarch of German lite- 

 rature. 



Count de Mirabeau, revolutionist. 



Tippoo Sail), Sultan of Mysore. 



John Fitzgibbon. Earl of Clare, lawyer and 

 promoter of the Legistative Union. 



i;m. 



Rdward Whitaker, miscel. writer. 



John Piiilpot Curran, orator. 



Ali Pacha, Albanian chief. 



Sophia Lee, novelist. 



John Henry Johnstone, Irish actor. 



Lord Erskine, lawyer and raised, writer. 



No. 317.] 



Johanna Soutlicott, religious fanatic. 

 A. Werner, German mineralogist. 



1751. 

 Richard Brinsley Slieridan, statesman and 



dramatist. 

 Sir N. W. Wrexall, traveller and hist, writer. 

 Sir C. Wilkins, Sanscrit litterateur. 

 Isaac Milner, D.D., mathematician and nat. 



philosopher. 

 Lord Eldon, lawyer and statesman. 

 A. Hamilton Rowan, " United Irishman," 

 John Ivcdyard, traveller and discoverer. 

 George Shaw, miscel. writer. 



1/52. 



G. Filangieri, writer on polit. economy and 

 legislation. 



Miss Burney (Mad. D'Arblayl, Writer. 



Dr. Milner, Roman Catholic Bishop, ecclesi- 

 astical writer. 



Joseph Jekyl, wit. 



Thomas Chaltcrtou, poet. 



A. M. Lcgendre, French mathematician. 

 Johann Muller, voluminous author. 

 Leonard McNally, lawyer and dramatist. 



I?53. 

 Vinccnzo Monti. Italian poet. 

 Dugald Stewart, writer. 

 Plgault Le Brun, French novelist. 



1754. 

 Prince De Talleyrand, French statesman. 

 George Gregory, D.D., miscel. writer. 

 D. Ciinarosa, Neapolitan composer. 

 Rev. George Crabbe, poet. 

 Louis XVI., King of France. 

 Marquis of .Hastings, mil. commander and 



statesman. 

 General Klebcr. 



Rev. W. Blake Kirwan, Irish pulpit orator. 

 Sir J. B. Warren, British Admiral. 



1755. 

 Louis XVIII. , King of France. 



