544 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No, 214. 



lubited by a short pedigree. Thomas Barton had 

 two sons, Tliomas and llobert. 



Robert (born in 1630, and who died in 1693) 

 married Hannah Smith, Newton's half-sister, by 

 whom he had Hannah (born 1678), Catherine 

 (born 1679, died 1739), Colonel Robert (born 

 1684). 



Thomas (born in 1619, died in 1704) married 

 Alice Palmer, by whom he had Thomas, who 

 married Mary Dale, by whom he had Thomas 

 (d. s.p.). Colonel Matthew (born 1672), Colonel 

 Noel (born 1674, died 1714). Thomas had a 



second son, Geoffrey, who married Elizabeth , 



by whom he had Charles (born 1700), Cutts (born 

 1706), Catherine (born 1709), Montague (born 

 1717), and others. 



In a family paper written by a granddaughter 

 of Colonel Noel Barton, at her mother's dictation, 

 it is stated that Colonel Matthew married a rela- 

 tive of Sir Isaac Newton, and was Comptroller of 

 the Mint ; but this paper is not very correct in its 

 other statements. 



On the other hand, a connexion of the family 

 -who signs himself H. in an old number of the 

 Gentleman s Magazine, says of Newton : 



" He had a half-sister, who had a daughter, to whom 

 he gave the best of educations, the famous witty Miss 

 Barton, who married Mr. Conduit of the Mint." 



Mr. Conduit writes, that his wife lived twenty 

 years before and after her marriage with Sir 

 Isaac. 



I had always thought that Catherine Barton's 

 brother Robert had died too early to attain the 

 rank of Colonel. In the British Museum, in the 

 Register, there is an account of a sermon preached 

 at the funeral of Robert Barton in the year 1703. 

 I could not find the sermon. 



The famous Duchess of Marlborough thus 

 satirises Mouse Montague : 



" He was a frightful figure, and yet pretended to he 

 a lover ; and followed several beauties, who laughed at 

 him for it." 



It is worth mentioning that Colonel Noel Bar- 

 ton died In London in 1714, while in attendance 

 on his patron Lord Gainsborough, soon after he 

 had been appointed Governor of the Leeward 

 Islands. This was the year before Lord Halifax's 

 Life was written, and possibly might have been 

 the cause of the designation " Widow " being ap- 

 plied to Catherine Barton by mistake. Whatever 

 the connexion of this lady with Lord Halifax may 

 have been. It does not seem to have given any 

 offence to her relatives. You will observe that 

 Geoffrey Barton names his sons Charles and Mon- 

 tague, and his daughter Catherine. Charles 

 afterwards received the rectory of St. Andrew's 

 Holborn from the family of Montague ; and Cutts 

 was Dean of Bristol under Bishop Montague. And 

 Montague obtained preferment from Mr. Conduit. 



Neither the family of Montague, nor that of 

 Barton, seem to have thought the connexion dis- 

 creditable. Aloreover, the births of these children 

 of Geoffrey Barton, a clergyman, occurred at the 

 very period when the name of Catherine should 

 have been most distasteful, had the Intimacy been 

 dishonourable. 



Mr. Conduit died In the year 1738, and Mrs. 

 Conduit In the year 1739 ; and Catherine Conduit 

 did not become Lady Lymington till 1740. Pro- 

 bably both Mr. and Mrs. Conduit made wills. 

 Have they been examined at Doctors' Commons ? 



J. W. J. 



MILTON S WIDOW. 



(VoLvili., pp. 12. 134. 200. 375. 452. 471.) 



It is pleasing to find so much interest excited 

 among the readers of " N. & Q." relative to the 

 parentage of this lady ; and we may fairly hope 

 that the spirit of research which has thus been 

 awakened, will not die away until the last spark 

 of error and mystery has been extinguished. 



T. L. P. has favoured us with quotations from a 

 little pamphlet, entitled Historical Facts connected 

 with Nantwich and its Neighbourhood. Now, after 

 giving this work a most careful perusal, I cannot 

 but think that the title of the book is, in this In- 

 stance at least, a misnomer. The authoress, for 

 it was written by a lady long resident in the 

 vicinity, has evidently wrought upon the found- 

 ations of others ; and taking the veteran Ormerod 

 as a suflicient authority, has given full vent to her 

 imagination, and pictured, with " no 'prentice 

 hand," the welcome visits of Milton to Stoke 

 Hall, a place which, in all probability, was never 

 once honoured with the presence of this great 

 man. There Is no evidence whatever adduced to 

 give even the semblance of colour to this unfor- 

 tunate error ; whereas, on the side of the Wistaston 

 family, the proofs of Its identity as the family of 

 Mrs. Milton are numerous and, to my notion, in- 

 controvertible. 



As If, indeed, to give us " confirmation sure " of 

 the truth of this position, our old friend Cranmobe 

 starts up, "like a spirit from the vasty deep," and, 

 after an absence of many months froni our ranks, 

 pays off his ancient score by producing the evi- 

 dence he so long ago promised us. From It we 

 gather that Thomas Paget, the father, named his 

 cousin Minshull, apothecary in Manchester, over- 

 seer of his will ; and that his son, Nathan Paget, 

 eighteen years afterwards, names In his will John 

 Goldsmith and Elizabeth Milton as his cousins, 

 and makes bequests to them accordingly. Now, 

 It so happens that Thomas, son of Richard Min- 

 shull of Wistaston, was an apothecary, and that ho 

 settled in Manchestei-, and thereupon founded the 

 familv of Minshull of Manchester. This gentle- 



