172 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2nd g. no 113., fkb. 27. '68. 



facts regarding him. I have also heard it said 

 that his successor, the present Bishop Gobat, 

 never received episcopal ordination, having en- 

 tered into holy orders in the Lutheran Church. 

 Is this a correct statement? A. S. A. 



[Dr. Michael Solomon Alexander was born of Jewish 

 parents in May, 1799, in Schonlanke, a small town in 

 Prussian-Poland. From his sixteenth to his twentieth 

 year he was a teacher of the Talmud and the German 

 language among his brethren in Germ ny. A similar 

 office being proposed to him in England, he came to 

 London in 1820, but was disappointed of the situation on 

 his arrival. Through the influence of Dr. Ilerschel, 

 High Priest in London, he obtained the appointment of 

 tutor in a private family. Perceiving the extraordinary 

 efforts made here to convert those of his persuasion, he 

 read for the first time the New Testament, " in order," as 

 he said, "to be more confirmed in his own religion." 

 From that moment he began to doubt the sufficiency of 

 Judaism. After performing the functions of a Rabbi at 

 various stations in England, he was sent ultimately in 

 the same capacity to Plymouth, where he was introduced 

 to, and became the Hebrew tutor of, the Rev. Mr. Golding 

 of Stonehouse. To that gentleman Dr. Alexander was 

 indebted for the removal of all his scruples in reference to 

 a profession of Christianity. Accordingly he was bap- 

 tized at Plymouth, June 22, 1825, by the Rev. John 

 Hatchard, vicar of St. Andrews. The same clergyman 

 baptized his wife six months subsequently at Exeter. 

 Shortly after his conversion he proceeded to Ireland, and 

 settled" in Dublin, in the hope of gaining a livelihood as a 

 teacher of the Hebrew tongue. There he attracted the 

 attention of the late Archbishop Magee, by whom he was 

 ordained to a small cure in Dublin on Trinity Sunday, 

 1827. At the close of the same year he was engaged by 

 the London Society for Promoting Christianity among 

 the Jews, and departed for the Continent; where he 

 laboured in the vicinity of Dantzic for nearly three years. 

 In 1830 he returned to this country, and was occupied 

 during the eleven following years as a home missionary 

 in connexion with the above society, and as Professor of 

 Hebrew and Rabbinical Literature in King's College, 

 London. On Nov. 7, 1841, he was consecrated first Bishop 

 of the United Church of England and Ireland at Jerusalem, 

 under the joint auspices of the Sovereigns of England and 

 Prussia. H« died suddenly near Balbeis, on his route 

 from Sj'ria to Cairo, Nov. 23, 1845, and was interred, by 

 his own desire, at Jerusalem. Vide Gent. Mag. xxv. N. S. 

 p. 204. ; Christian Observer, xlvi. 187, ; and Appendix to 

 Hatchard's Sermon preached on the occasion of the Bishop's 

 Baptism, 



His successor. Dr. Samuel Gobat, although educated 

 and originally ordained in the Lutheran Church, was re- 

 ordained as Deacon of the Anglican Church by the 

 Bishop of London at Fulham Church, August 10, 1846, 

 in order to qualify him for the office of Superintendent 

 of the Maltese Seminary for Oriental Students, upon the 

 establishment of that institution in 1845. If Dr. Gobat 

 received priest's orders it must have been between Trinity 

 Sunday, June 7, 1846, and the day he was consecrated 

 Bishop, July 5, 1846, which took place in the chapel of 

 Lambeth Palace. The consecrators were the Archbishop 

 of Canterbury, Bishops of London, Lichfield, and Cal- 

 cutta.] 



The Great Unknown. — There is no biography 

 of "wonderful Robert Walker," born 1709, and 

 during two-thirds of a century curate at Seath- 

 waite, Lancashire. He is great who, not whelmed 

 by the waves of adversity, whilst he beats them 



back, can yet find opportunity to do some noble 

 work elsewhere, and help others out of lesser 

 straits than his own. " They which builded on 

 the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those 

 that laded, every one with one of his hands 

 wrought in the work, and with the other held a 

 weapon." — Nehemiah. Varlov ap Harry. 



[It is to be regretted that no biographer has embalmed 

 the memory of this estimable parish priest, who through 

 a long course of sixty years exhibited a faithful picture 

 of patriarchal simplicity, adorned with the graces of every 

 Christian virtue. When Mr. Walker was presented to the 

 living of Seathwaite it was only 8Z. per annum; but its 

 value was augmented to 13/. by the governors of Queen 

 Anne's bounty. To this sum must be added a few more 

 pounds received for surplice dues, a village school, and 

 the freewill offerings of his affectionate little flock ; so that 

 eventually he became 



" Passing rich at twenty pounds a year." 



With this poor stipend he brought up a family of nine 

 children, and by his industry and frugality succeeded in 

 " keeping the wolf from the door." Writing to a friend 

 in Jan. 1755, Mr. Walker says, "I am situated greatly to 

 my satisfaction with regard to the conduct and behaviour 

 of my auditory, who not only live in a happy ignorance 

 of the follies and vices of the age, but in mutual peace 

 and goodwill one with another, and are seemingly (and I 

 hope really too) sincere Christians and sound members of 

 the Established Church, not one dissenter of any denomi- 

 nation being amongst them all." Mr. Walker died at an 

 advanced age at Seathwaite, in August, 1802, beloved by 

 his family, and respected by all who knew him. For far- 

 ther particulars of this worthy Spriest of the lakes, see 

 Gentleman's Magazine, xxx. 317. ; Ixxii. 878. ; Ixxiii. 17. 

 103.] 



Tax on Chimneys. — In Pepys's Diary, under 

 the date March 3, 1662, there is the following 

 entry : 



" I am told that this day Parliament hath voted two 

 shillings per annum for every chimney in England, as a 

 constant revenue for ever to the Crown." 



Can any of your readers inform me how long this 

 tax continued to be levied ? Libya. 



Rugby. 



[The chimney tax, or hearth money, was so peculiarly 

 odious to the poor during the reigns of Charles II. and 

 James II. that it was abolished soon after the Revolution, 

 upon message from the King, by 1 Will. & Mary, sess. 1. 

 c. 10. It was not only considered as a great oppression 

 to the poorer classes, but a badge of slavery upon the 

 whole people, exposing every man's house to be entered 

 and searched at pleasure b}' persons unknown to him. 

 The tax was farmed ; and a farmer of taxes is, of all cre- 

 ditors, the most rapacious. Macaulay (^Hist. of Engla7id, 

 i. 287., edit. 1856) has quoted some curious doggrel bal- 

 lads on this odious tax.] 



Bishops Richmond and Crigan of Man. — Any 

 information as to the previous ecclesiastical sta- 

 tions of the above bishops, who respectively filled 

 the Sec of Man between the years 1773—1780, 

 and 1784—1813, is requested. Regarding Dr. 

 Richmond, all that is stated respecting him in 

 Butler's Memoirs of Bishop Hildesley ("Enume- 

 ration of the Bishops of Sodor and Man," Ap- 



