On an altar tomb in Hendon church- MARGARETA Dom. AYLOFFE Dotaria,

Amicis deflentibus circumdata,
Mærens pofuit.

At the head of the tomb, in a Gothic
double quatrefoil, Ayloffe, with the
Ulfter hand, impaling Railton.
Quar- 1. On a bend three acorns.
terly, 2. A fpread eagle.

3. Three bugle horns ftringed. 4. In an orle of eight lions paws in faltire, a pair of wings. Creft, a demi lion rampant, with the Saxon motto, libbe pa pu lybba.

1

100

Parochial Notitia at Hendon.-The Fynney Family.

In the fame church yard is an altar tomb infcribed

GEO. GARRICK, Esq.

Ob. Feb. 3,

A. D. 1779
Etatis fuæ 53.

Arms, a tower and fea lion, and in chief three mullets.

He was brother to David Garrick, and treasurer of Drury-lane theatre; and his fon Carrington is the prefent

Vicar of Hendon.

Dr. Fowler, bishop of Gloucefter, who died in the year 1714, has a long epitaph in the North Eaft corner of the church; and on the fame corner of the church yard is an altar tomb and farco phagus with two weeping boys, in

fcribed:

To the memory of Edward Fowler, Efq.
who deceased 29 June, 1710,
leaving two daughters,
Anna-Maria and Elizabeth,

by Mary his wife, daughter of James Chad-
wick, Efq.

and Mary his wife, daughter and fole heir to Abp. Tillotfon.

This tomb is erected

by John Chadwick and Tho. Mansfield,

Efqrs.

his widow's executors,
according to his will.

She died May 9, 1728, near 42 years of age,
and lies here interred with her

dear husband.

At the bottom of the ftreet leading to the South fide of the church is a handfome range of brick alms-houfes, with this infcription on a white ftone over the

centre door.

I

MR. URBAN,

TAKE

Dec. 17.

up my pen to answer that inconfiftent paper under the fignature B. L. in the Gentleman's Magazine for November, 1785, relative to the Fynney family, as I am confident the prefent worthy reprefentative will not trouble himself upon that fubject in a Magazine controverfy; not only because it was fufficiently authenticated fo long ago as in 1781, but also because he is at this time engaged in a capital work on furgery, which he intends to publish next

winter.

To controvert what your correfpondent fays refpecting John de Fiennes not having a feat in Staffordshire, and his being appointed Conftable of Dover Caftle in the first year of King William I. it is afferted in Grofe's Antiquities of England and Wales, in Hafted's Hiftory of Kent, and in the most authentic authors, that the Conqueror, after the Battle of Haftings, feized on Dover Castle, where remaining for about eight days, during which time he directed repairs and additions to be made to the fortifications, he then marched directly for London, leaving behind him a ftrong garrifon, and the fick and wounded of his army, and committing the care of it to his balf-brother the great Odo Bishop of Baieux.

Very ancient records, in the archives of the Fynney family, teftify, that King William the Conqueror gave to his kinfman and follower, John de Fiennes, a manor in the parish of Cheddleton and county of Stafford, which took the name of the owner, but, according to the fashion of the different ages, it hath been Thefe alms-houfes were erected purfuant to the laft will of Robert Daniel, merchant pelt varioufly; for almoft three centuries paft it hath been invariably written of London; endowed with 122 acres of freeFynncy, except of late years it hath been hold land at North Afton, and 10 acres at vulgarly called Fynney-lane, by reafon Stoke Line, in Oxfordthire, fettled on this that a long avenue or lane leads up to it. parith by decree inrolled in Chancery in the Under the direction of five-It is faid, there were found upon the year 1727. truffees, built in this place by the confent of eftate, at the time it was given, a grey mare and a white-faced cow; in memory of which, the family always kept one of each fort amongst their different herds.

the Lord of the Manor, 1729.

The Eaft wing is a fchool, and over the door is this infcription:

This school was erected A. D. 1766, for the training up poor children of this parith in Chriftian knowledge and ufeful industry. Not flothful in bufinefs, ferving the Lord.

The alms-houfe maintains ten poor perfons, fix women and four men, who are allowed three fhillings per week, and nominated by the minifter, &c. D. H.

Erdelwicke fays, "I find in Doomfday-Book, that one William held Celte. tone de Comite Rog. de Montegom. and that it belongs to Werfley in Alfionfield parifb, and reputed now as a member of Alfion field." Survey of Staffordhire, p. 183.

"Alfton field (now one man affecting to feat himfelf in that wild country) was divided into many parts. For al though in 9 Edward II. Hugo le De

fpener

The Antiquity of the Fynney Family vindicated.

Spencer and Nichol. Audley are only faid to be Lords thereof, yet were there divers other Lords, which (their purparty being but fmall) were omitted to be Spoken of in the record. The moft whereof are now come by purchase to Harper of Swareston in Derbyshire.'

"Alfton field is a great large feignorie, bath many hamlets, hath alfo of old time been foreft lands, and hath many privileges belonging to it." Ibid. p.

173

It is probable that John de Fiennes did not refide much at Fynney, on account of his being a principal in command, the troubles of the kingdom requiring his almost conftant perfonal attendance; for I find, on the difgrace of the Bishop, which happened in the year 1083, the King took Dover Caftle from him, and, confidering the importance of the place, at that time accounted the very lock and key of the whole kingdom, he immediately put it into a ftronger ftate of defence, and then deputed the government to his chief favourite John de Fiennes,. making the bigh office of Conftable bereditary in bis family; and in order to defray the expences of a fufficient garrifon for the defence of this important place, he gave them, according to Lambard, 56, Kilburn fays 126, and the Sandwich MS. has it 115, Knight's fees of land.

Your correfpondent has proved himfelf greatly wanting in genealogical knowledge; and before he attempts any thing further upon this fubject, I recommend to him an attentive perufal of the works of Grofe, Hafted, &c. for at prefent his dates are equally erroneous with thofe of Voltaire.

John de Fiennes was buried in the church of Folkftone, and not " in Reculver church, near Dover," as B. L. affirms. Did any perfon ever fay he was buried at Fynney in Staffordshire? What will your correfpondent ftart next? Why, to be fure, he fays, that Fynney is pretended to have been fituated in Cheddleton. I can affure him, that the manor of Fynney was, and ftill remains, within the manor of Cheddleton; but refer him to the place as proof: though both it and many others are omitted by Erdetwick and Sir Simon Degge, as the latter confelles.

Still the affertions of B. L. are annexed to abfurdity. He fays, that Mr. Fynney has himself proved the high im probability that William Fynney was a younger fon of Sir John de Fiennes; but how can you imagine that he hath made this grand difcovery? why, becaule the

[101

good old Knight died in 1483, and his fon in 1584; fo that he muft at least have been 101 years old. Did no person ever arrive to that age before? Nay, my opinion is, that he furpaffed it himself. He further fays, if this confiderable perfonage had ever exifted, he would have been recorded in Plot's Hiftory of Staf fordshire.-I can with juftice fay, that omiffion is not the only one in the Doctor's work. Behold, likewife, this son of Sir John is not mentioned in that remarkable, I cannot fay authentic, pedigree drawn up for Margaret Fiennes, Lady Dacre, by Sir Richard St. George, Norroy, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and approved by Camden, in the poffeffion of Lord Dacre; wherein he mifcalls John de Eynes, the follower and kinfman of King William I, William; therefore, if they made ufe of fo glaring a mifnomer, it is not to be wondered at that they fhould leave out fome of the younger branches, as beings too trifling for their notice.

The ftrongest of all B. L.'s evidences is, that Thomas Lord Dacre, entailing his eftate or his own children, and after, without mentioning either brother or nephew, on his diftant relations, is by no means pofitive proof that he had neither one nor the other, as they might be amply provided for before that time; which I have not the leaft doubt to have been the cafe with William the third fon of Sir John Fynes, who was poffeffed of not lefs than twenty-four hundred pounds a year in the county of Stafford; an immenfe fortune in thofe days. Mr. Fynney hath, this moment, produced me two wills, one belonging to his own, and the other to a relation's family, both which prove fimilar circumstances to that before-mentioned.

What your correfpondent fays refpecting the families of Fynney and Fineux ought to be reverfed, as Mr. Fynney has the cleareft documents to prove that his family bore thofe arms long before the family of Fineux; viz. an ancient large oil painting, and numerous impreffions in wax appendant to very ancient deeds, from fome of which Mr, B. Pingo, Rouge Dragon, painted them very elegantly on vellum, and from which his brother, the ingenious Mr., John Pingo, engraved them on copper, and cut feveral ftamps for books; hefides which, he funk numerous feals for the family.

Many years ago, a man, whofe name was Lomas, went out of the Moorlands

af

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Fynney Family.-Thoughts on Crimes and Criminals.

of Staffordshire, and fettled in London; he had not been there long before he altered it to Lomaux, for fome reafon or other, probably thinking the termination genteeler.-The fame thing was done by another perfon in my time: but whether Fineux was originally of the Fynney's family, and altered his name, I do not pretend to determine; but that he affumed the arms which the Fynneys have long borne, I have feen pofitive proof.

Your correfpondent's affertion refpecting the differencing family arms anciently, is equally falfe with the reft of his difcourfe. The moft ancient difference was the Bordure, but fometimes the different branches of many ancient families have changed the tinctures of both Field and Charge; notorious inftances of which he will find in thofe of Baskerville, Evereus, &c. in Erdefwick's Survey of Staffordshire, a book which your correfpondent feems fond of, has blundered over, and perhaps he may do the fame again. He may find fimilar inftances, befides a total change in fome arms belonging to the thirteen prefent branches of the family of Baffet, in Sir W. Dugdale's" Ancient ufage in bearing arms."

The names too have been more diftorted and varied in many families than in the prefent inftance, as he may fee in the Baronage and Baronetage.-To be plain with your correfpondent, it is immaterial to Mr. Fynney, what he believes, or what he afferts; he never will have any thing to fay to anonymous writers. He will publish a more full pedigree than any heretofore; but whether any part, or the whole, be ever inferted into the English Peerage, is immaterial to him but fhould that be the cafe, he will not find himself raised one hair's breadth. Mr. Fynney is fond of good company; but whether he is placed amongft Peers, or private gentlemen, is juft the fame thing to him; for unlefs they be replete with univerfal benevolence and philanthropy, congenial with himfelf, he will defpife them the more for being titled.

Yours, &c.

:

MR. URBAN,

VERITAS.

tice, without producing that reformation in the manners of the people which is the great object of public punishment. The legal malfacres which are exhibited to a thoughtless multitude when "the prifons of the metropolis are emptied into the grave," may melt the humane into compaffion, but they deter not the wicked from guilt: it is therefore much to be regretted, that fome other mode of punishment is not adopted, which, in chaftifing the criminal, might make fome reparation to the ftate he has injured; and that none of our great lawyers have thought an examination into the manifeft injuftice of our criminal laws worthy their ferious attention. Men who retire from the labours of their profeffion, or the intrigues of politics, to an ample penfion, would prove themselves really worthy their country's gratitude by performing this acceptable fervice.

The penalty of death has been brought forward to meet fuch a variety of offences, to ftop the hand of the murderer, or to prevent the commiffion of an eafy fraud, that crimes very different in degree are held worthy of an equal feverity of punishment. If the hazard of life could prevent the commiffion of offences, fo many miferable wretches would not fall victims to trifling temptations; temptations which bear no proportion to the confequences of detection: but I am convinced that, at the time of committing the offence, the offender reflects not upon the punishment annexed to his crime, for he does not always, nor indeed often, take the most effectual means of concealing his guilt. The highwayman would not leave the perfon he has robbed to remain an evidence against him, if he recollected that, by adding murder to robbery, he would be expofed but to the fame punishment, and might probably escape detection; or if he were not reftrained from committing accumu lated guilt by fome remaining fparks of virtue, which ought to plead in mitigation of the heavieft fentence which the feverity of law pronounces on the most aggravated crime.

But if it be politically impoffible to adjuft the exact proportion of punishment to the magnitude of the offence, I am fure it is not impoffible to make the punishment beneficial to the offender and to the public. When no feverity can reftrain, and no admonition can improve a criminal, he must fall a facrifice to the

general welfare; and "whofo fheddeth man's blood, by man should his blood be

fhed:"

The Punifoments of the Penal Laws infufficient for Example.

fhed:" but the wanton infliction of death can produce no advantage: the mind revolts at the cruelty of the fentence; the anguish of the criminal is fuppofed to exceed his guilt; and pity for his fufferings ufurps the place of refentment against his crimes. We have lately had a melancholy inftance, where malefactors have advanced in troops to death, and where, advancing with the fpirit, and apparently with the piety, of martyrs, they have feemed objects of envy rather than fpectacles of horror. In other punishments little good can be expected. There is no doubt, when America belonged to this country, that many convicts reformed, and became profitable members of another ftate-they might

then have been made good members of this. When criminals are fent to the hulks, they mix together, to teach and to learn iniquity: when their fentence is expired, they prey again upon the public, for they have generally no other means of preferving existence; they can find no employment, if they be really honeft and induftrious. When they are fent to Africa, they go to mutiny, and, as a late instance has exemplified, to provoke to murder: there is no inducement to them to do well. In two other inftances, the political perhaps, rather than the legal establishment, is defective; when the guilty efcapes from the want of evidence against him, or fome error in the proceedings, and when the innocent is acquitted. The former goes again into the world, to fill up the meafure of his iniquities, and to return to the fame tribunal with unquestionable guilt: the latter retires, overwhelmed with fhame, to fink under the weight of fufpected innocence, and is poffibly compelled by the confequences of the fufpicion to become really criminal. The offer of a public employment would be useful to fuch men, that they might be fecure of the advantages of labour, that there might be an afylum in which they could preferve or regain their integrity, and benefit the public as well as themfelves by their induftry. In criminal cafes of an inferior nature, fuch punishments might be inflicted as would tend to reform the convict, and make his labour ferviceable to his country. Public works and public roads would afford a fufficient employment, and fuch an establishment might be made as would induce the criminal to perform his duty for the charms and for the rewards of virtue. By fuch means many might be

103

faved who now fuffer an ignominious and an early death; and many might be fo much purified in the furnace of punifhment and adverfity, as to become the ornaments of that fociety of which they had formerly been the bane. The vices of mankind muft frequently require the feverity of juftice; but a wife state would direct that feverity to the greatest moral and political good. AGRICOLA.

ANECDOTES OF DR. MOYES,

THE BLIND PHILOSOPHER.
BY MR. BEW.

From the Memoirs of the Literary and
Philofophical Society at Manchefter.

DR. HENRY MOYES, who occafi

cal

Chemistry at Manchester, like Dr. onally read Lectures on PhilofophiSaunderfon, the celebrated Profeffor of Cambridge, loft his fight by the smallpox in his early infancy. He never recollected to have feen: "but the firft traces of memory I have," fays he, "are in fome confufed ideas of the folar fyftem." He had the good fortune to be born in a country where learning of every kind is highly cultivated, and to be brought up in a family devoted to learning.

Poffelfed of native genius, and ardent in his application, he made rapid advances in various departments of erudition; and not only acquired the fundamental principles of mechanics, mufic, and the languages, but likewife entered deeply into the investigation of the proand general knowledge of geometry, opfounder fciences: and difplayed an acute tics, algebra; of aftronomy, chemistry; and, in short, of most of the branches of the Newtonian philofophy.

Mechanical exercifes were the favou rite employments of his infant years. At a very early age he made himself acquainted with the ufe of edged tools fo perfectly, that, notwithstanding his intire blindness, he was able to make little wind-mills; and he even conftructed a loom with his own hands, which still fhew the cicatrices of wounds he received in the execution of these juvenile exploits.

By a most agreeable intimacy and frequent intercourfe which I enjoyed with this accomplished blind gentleman whilft he refided at Manchefter, I had an opportunity of repeatedly obferving the peculiar manner in which he arranged his ideas, and acquired his information. Whenever he was introduced into com

pany,