THE JENKINS OF STOWTING 3 



this is an age when genealogy has taken a new lease 

 of life, and become for the first time a hmnan 

 science ; so that we no longer study it in quest of 

 the Guaith Voeths, but to trace out some of the 

 secrets of descent and destiny ; and as we study, 

 we think less of Sir Bernard Burke and more of 

 Mr. Galton. Not only do our character and talents 

 lie upon the anvil and receive their temper during 

 generations ; but the very plot of our hfe's story 

 unfolds itself on a scale of centuries, and the bio- 

 graphy of the man is only an episode in the epic 

 of the family. From this point of view I ask the 

 reader's leave to begin this notice of a remarkable 

 man who was my friend, with the accession of his 

 great-grandfather, John Jenkin. 



This John Jenkin, a grandson of Damaris Kings- 

 ley, of the family of * Westward Ho ! ' was born in 

 1727, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas 

 Frewen, of Church House, Northiam. The Jenkins 

 had now been long enough intermarrying with 

 their Kentish neighbours to be Kentish folk them- 

 selves in all but name ; and with the Frewens in 

 particular their connection is singularly involved. 

 John and his wife were each descended in the third 

 degree from another Thomas Frewen, Vicar of 

 Northiam, and brother to Accepted Frewen, Arch- 

 bishop of York. John's mother had married a 

 Frewen for a second husband. And the last com- 

 plication was to be added by the Bishop of 



