The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 



43 



fourth child Mary at 28 ; his fifth Edith in the first year of life ; his 

 sixth Elizabeth at 2 1 and his youngest Hannah at 14! Only his third 

 son Samuel survived to carry on the line'. To anyone who has studied 

 the pedigrees of families in the 17th century this immense mortality 

 will not seem wholly exceptional. Of its great influence on national 

 life and character there can be small doubt. 



The death of his brothers and sisters all previous to that of his 

 father, meant that Samuel Galton the second became, on the death of 

 his father in 1799, a man of large wealth and considerable estates. His 

 portrait (see Plate XXV) seems to indicate a man very similar to the 

 verbal description given by the writer in the Gentlonan's Magazine of his 

 father. In the family he M'as often spoken of as Samuel John or John 

 Samuel, but he was not so registered at birth ; it seems probable that 

 the name was merely adopted to distinguish him from his father. 

 Born in 1753, Samuel Galton the second went in 1759 to school at 

 Bristol — a fact which shows how the Bristol connection of the Gallons 

 was still maintained. In 1760 he was transferred to James Fell's 

 School at Worcester, which he left in the following year. In 1768 he 



their beautiful but sober plumage, and pointed out, when they soared up aloft, how bright 



their iridescent colours appeared in the sun I loved, too, to assist my grandfather 



in arranging old letters and papers from friends of his youth, or of his ancestors 



" One more anecdote respecting my grandfather. He was most kind to us his grand- 

 children, but I believe yet more especially to me, who was three years and a half older 

 than any of the others, and who from delicate health always preferred the quiet society 

 of those older than myself, to children's play. It was his custom to give each of his 

 grandchildren a guinea on the day of their birth, and on every birthday add another, 

 paying us also interest on the former. When we were seven years old, he made us keep 

 the accounts ourselves. This was to go till each attained the age of twenty-one, when 

 he intended the whole sum as a little present ; besides this, he frequently gave uie 

 money, sometimes half-a-crown, sometimes a guinea. He gave me also a little account- 

 book in which he desired I should set down accurately everything I received and 

 expended. This was contrary to my natural taste and habits ; it was also very different 

 from my dear mothei's magnificent manner of spending and acting in all that related 

 to money : but one day ray grandfather called me to him and said : ' My child, thou 

 didst not like when I advised thee, the other day to save thy sixpence, instead of 



spending it in barberry drops and burnt almonds We cannot be self-denying wisely 



till we know the real value of what we give up ; that is why I wish thee to keep 

 exact ace'*.' " 



' Their mother, Mary Galton, died at the Swan Inn, Tewkesbury, on her way fiom 

 Cheltenham to Birmingham in the presence of the two Samuels and her daughter Mary — 

 " ray exemplary and dear mother," as the younger Sanuiel expresses it. 



G— 2 



