APPENDIX OF NOTES. 549 



Lady Holland, in the pedigree she gives of her father, makes the 

 following statement : " My father's grandfather married a Miss 

 Barton, whose mother was half-sister to Sir Isaac Newton (the 

 only ancestor the Smiths ever had, but one not lightly to be passed 

 over)," p. 8. From the pedigree thus set out, it appears that Sir 

 Isaac Newton's mother, married as her second husband, Mr Bar- 

 naby Smith, and their daughter married Dr Barton, whose daughter 

 Catherine married Mr Oilier, Sydney Smith's maternal grandfather. 

 Now, according to Sir David Brewster, this marriage with Mr 

 Oilier is a mistake ; for the Catherine Barton in question married 

 a Mr Conduitt. Here is what Sir David Brewster says on this 

 subject : 



" BRIDGE OF ALLAN, June IB, 1856. 



" DEAR LORD BROUGHAM, Nothing ever surprised me more 

 than the dream of Sydney Smith, that he was descended from 

 Catherine Barton, Newton's niece. 



" Having accidentally got a sight of the first edition of his Life, 

 I sent to Sir H. Holland two pedigrees of Newton's family, one 

 fuller than the other ; and in consequence of this the pedigree was 

 suppressed in the next edition ; but Lady Holland was still scep- 

 tical, and I put her in communication with Mr Cutts Barton, the 

 descendant of a half-brother of Mrs Conduitt ; but though he gave 

 her a choice of making out her connection with several Catherine 

 Bartons, yet no connection whatever has been traced between the 

 two families. 



"Mrs Catherine Barton's history from 1700 till the time of her 

 death is so well known that Lady Holland will find it impossible 

 to establish any connection with her, or indeed with any other 

 member of Mr Smith's family. 



" I have not felt it a duty to subscribe to Newton's monument at 

 Grantham, on the ground that it should be a national tribute to his 

 memory. I am, dear Lord Brougham, ever most truly yours, 



"D. BREWSTER." 



Miss Barton was a witty and very handsome woman, greatly 

 admired by Lord Halifax, who left her at his death in 1715 a large 

 legacy, and also an annuity of 200 leaving to her uncle, Sir 

 Isaac Newton, 100, "as a mark of the great honour and esteem 

 he had for so great a man." On the 24th of August 1717, Miss 



