2 MY LIFE 



till I was of age — ever speak on the subject. The little I 

 have gleaned was from my sister Fanny and from a recent 

 examination of tombstones and parish registers, and especially 

 from an old Prayer-book (1723) which belonged to my grand- 

 father Wallace, who had registered in it the dates of the births 

 and baptisms of his two sons, while my father had continued 

 the register to include his own family of nine children, of whom 

 I am the only survivor. 



My paternal grandfather was married at Hanworth, Mid- 

 dlesex, in 1765, and the parish register describes him as 

 William Wallace, of Hanworth, bachelor, and his wife as 

 Elizabeth Dilke, of Laleham, widow. Both are buried in 

 Laleham churchyard, where I presume the former Mrs. Dilke 

 had some family burial rights, as my grandfather's brother, 

 George Wallace, is also buried there. The register at Han- 

 worth contains no record of my father's birth, but the church 

 itself shows that quite a small colony of Wallaces lived at 

 Hanworth. On a long stone in the floor of the chancel is the 

 name of James Wallace, Esq., who died February 7, 1778, 

 aged eighty-seven years. He was therefore thirty-five years 

 older than my grandfather, and may have been his uncle. 

 Then follows Admiral Sir James Wallace, who died on March 

 6, 1803, aged sixty-nine years ; and Frances Sleigh, daughter 

 of the above James Wallace, Esq., who died December 12, 

 1820, aged sixty-nine years. 



Also, on a small stone in the floor of the nave, just outside 

 the chancel, we find Mary Wallace, who died December 5, 

 1812, aged thirty-nine years. She may, therefore, not im- 

 probably have been a daughter, or perhaps niece, of the 

 admiral. 



Here, then, we have four Wallaces buried in the same 

 church as that in which my grandfather was married, and of 

 which place he was a resident at the time. As Hanworth is a 

 very small place, the total population of the parish being only 

 750 in 1840, it is hardly probable that my grandfather and 

 the others met there accidentally. I conclude, therefore, that 

 James Wallace was probably an uncle or cousin, and that all 



