494 
Account of the htc Rev, Percival Stockdale. [Dec. 
yobn Randall Peckbamy wholesale 
watch manufacturer, late of Bedford-street, 
Co vent-Garden. His death occurred under 
the followiag melanchory circumstances. 
Recent embarrassments in the commercial 
world having assailed some of his connexions, 
losses on his part were the consequence j and 
fcc, of Course, sought the means of meeting 
them. Amongst ocher Yesources, he recol¬ 
lected some property which could only be re¬ 
covered by the production of an attested re¬ 
gister of the death and burial of an elder bro¬ 
ther, Richard Peckham, the mate of a ship, 
who was drowned in going off to his vessel 
iii a boat, at the same season of the year, by 
the same sort of accident, and at the same 
hour and place, where he himself perished a 
few days ago. His brother was said to have 
been buried somewhere in the Isle of Wight, 
which has since been ascertained by the coro¬ 
ner’s certificate. To this place, therefore, 
Mr. Peckham went, but, having been unsuc¬ 
cessful in his endeavours to obtain a certifi¬ 
cate, he returned to the Fountain Inn, at 
West Cowes, where he found a letter from 
his friends, dated the 24th, requesting him 
to be in London by the Sfith of Oct. 1811. 
On receipt of this let:er, Mr. Peckham made 
up his mind, for the present, t# relinquish 
his object, and return to town. For this pur¬ 
pose he went in search of a boat, and, having 
met Goring and Paul, two watermen, who 
had already carried him from Portsmouth to 
Cowes, he agreed with them for a passage 
hack again to Portsmouth, They set sail 
with a fine breeze, w’hich promised them a 
speedy conveyance to the other side. They 
had reached Stokes Bay, within two miles and 
a half of the shore, and, at that moment, 
Mr. Peckham was relating to the watermen 
the melancholy fate of his brother, who was 
drowned near the spot on which they then 
were, at much about the same hour of tf^e 
night, when a sea suddenly overwhelmed the 
boat, w'hich instantly filled and went down, 
leaving the terrified and unhappy passc.ngers 
to struggle for their lives. It was then about 
ten o’clock at night. The boat had been ob¬ 
served by a sailor who had the night watch 
on board the Kingtson transport, then at 
anchor in Stakes Bay. All at once he Ust 
sight of the boat, and soon after, hearing the. 
noise of a voice in the water, he feared the 
worst, called up all hands; the boat was in- 
Jtahtly lowered and manned, and a painful 
and anxious search commenced, from the 
darkness of the night, and the impetuosity of 
the waves, their efiorts were for a long time 
unsuccessful, anej/ they were on the point of 
returning to their ship, when one of the sailors 
happening to pass his hand along the gun¬ 
nel of the boat, felt a hand clinging to her, 
and Instantly exclaimed, Here’s one «f 
them,” when Goring, the boatman, was 
2 aken on board. In a state of almost total in¬ 
sensibility. They carried hipi on board the 
Jra.-ispurt, where his aeliverers had the satis¬ 
faction to see him recover, but Mr. John Ran* 
dall Peckham, and Paul, the waterman, were 
unfortunately buried in the waves} and thus 
was deprived of their natural and invaluable 
protector, when she had most occasion for his 
accustomed kindness, his forlurn widow, a.nd 
seven helpless children. In the affliction 
which has come upon her, Mrs. Peckham 
considers her own fate, which can scarcely 
admit of consolation, to be sealed } and for 
herself, she would not have obtruded her 
sorrows upon the public ; but for her helpless 
children she has appealed to those who are 
blest with the means, to assist the future 
efforts of a despairing mother to raise her in¬ 
fant offspring. The facts are within the 
knowledge of the editor, but affidavits, made 
by the parties named in the narrative, may be 
seen at Mrs. Peckham’s present asylum, No, 
28, Chancery Lane, to whom we refer the 
attentions of Benevolence. 
[The late Rev. Percival Siockdale, published 
his own Memoirs a short time before his 
death, and the following is an abstract of 
them. He was born on the 26th of October, 
O. S. 1736, in the village of Branxton, two 
miles south of the Tweed. Flodden Field 
lies near the south-east end of Branxton. On 
which, on the 9th of September, 1513, the 
battle of Flodden was fought, so fatal to Scot¬ 
land, In the early part of Percival Stock- 
dale’s life, he often walked over this inter¬ 
esting plain with his father, and, the bold 
images of heroic deeds, worked powerfully in 
his ardent and juvenile fancy. As my deai^ 
est father and I, says W, were one day riding 
within view of Branxton, I said something 
to him which I have forgotten, relative to my 
native place. But I well remember, that he 
turned to me, and said, with a seriousness 
and emphasis which are indelibly iniprinfed 
in my heart, ‘You may make that place 
remarkable for your birch, if you take care 
of yourself.* He saw that his son had na¬ 
tural advantages, above those of common 
men; but he likewise saw in him the dan¬ 
gerous balance, in favour of common men } 
exquisite sensibility, and strong passions! 
His father was the Rev. Thomas Stock- 
dale, and he had the vicarage of Branxton, 
and the perpetual curacy of Cornhill near the 
Tw'eed. His mother, was Miss Dorothy 
Collingwood, of Marten, in Northumber¬ 
land, and of the same family with our late 
brave admiral. Percival was their only child, 
and the child of their old age. They nur¬ 
tured him with a care so excessive, that they 
hardly suffered “the winds to visit his frame 
too roughlybut his mind they exercised 
in all the labours of erudition and taste. In 
1745, young Percival was entered by hia 
parents at the Grammar-school of Alnwick. 
Thence he was removed, six years after¬ 
wards, to the Grammar-school at Berwick, 
At these places he became intimately ac¬ 
quainted with the Greek and Latin classics, 
and paught from the poets aa e.nthusiastic 
lof? 
