ordered that the sum of ten guineas be paid to each captain. £107 168. was paid.

January 11th, 1716.-General Wade [not to be confounded with Nathaniel Wade, esq., sometime deputy town-clerk], commander of his majestie's forces in the West of England, having reviewed two of the king's regiments of foot yesterday, it was ordered that all expenses of the general's entertainment be paid by the chamber. Paid, £20 38. 8d.

It was then resolved:-"In time of our late danger, with the consent of Earl Berkeley, our lord-lieutenant, to form themselves into two troops of horse, a thing both for the honour and security of the city, it is ordered for their encouragement that two ban

The first drawbridge was thrown over the Frome branch of the Floating harbour in 1714-15. It had two arches of stone, and cost the city £1,066 68. 1d. Until this was built all traffic to Clifton, and the north and western suburbs of Bristol, had to be carried on via Christmas street, Frome bridge, and St. Augustine's back, or Host street and Trenchard street. The only access to the new bridge was by two narrow lanes out of Marsh street, or along the quays. Clare street was not made until 1770. The first newspaper published

A.D. 1718.

171

in Bristol-Farley's Bristol Journal-appeared in January, 1715. At the September assize, in 1715, Mark Goddard sued James Harris and John Cox for damages sustained by rioting at the election in 1713, and recovered £187 168. St. James' barton, which was commenced in 1707, was completed this year.

About the latter end of November began a frost, which continued with small intermissions until about the 8th of February. It was very severe, and during its continuance there were several considerable falls of snow. In all the parishes of the city were collections made for the poor, who were incapable of working by reason of the frost: and the mayor and common council gave £100 out of the chamber for their relief.

The appearance of the Aurora Borealis, probably after a long intermission, is thus noticed in one of the calendars :-"Tuesday, March 6, 1716, in the evening about seven o'clock, it being dark nights, the moon in her last quarter, appeared in the heavens a light, or as some call it, a Meteor, chiefly in the north and northwest parts of the sky. It was like the dawning of the morning, from which many bright streams shot forth several ways with a quick motion. It continued most part of the night."1

This summer the almshouse in Temple street, the gift of Mr. Alderman George Stevens, linen draper (mayor 1706-7), was built; it was to accommodate twelve poor persons. On December 26th, about 3 p.m., a fire broke out in Wine street, at the house of Mr. Plomer, mercer, near the High Cross; it burnt seven hours, and there being a brisk gale, several houses were consumed and the city was greatly endangered. The poor of the city worked so well at the fire that the mayor, Mr. John Day, ordered them gratuities to the amount of £36, with which the chamber was well satisfied.

November 15th.-Bishop Smalridge, of Bristol, was removed from his post of lord almoner for refusing to sign a declaration testifying his abhorrence of rebellion."

3. The office of coroner does not appear, at this time, to have been held in much esteem.

December 13th.-It being taken notice of in this house that by means of the meanness of the persons who of late filled the office of coroner for the city, the said office was become contemptible, Mr. Henry Fane and Mr. Samuel Foss were nominated by Colonel Yate as proper persons to be chosen into the offices of coroners for this city, now vacant by the death of Martin Helm and James Millard, gentlemen. Carried unanimously.

Messrs. Fane and Foss were both of them attorneys; they did not care to become the instruments of raising the office from the "contempt" into which "gentlemen" had brought it, but excused themselves on the ground that their employment as attorneys required frequent and unexpected absences from the city, and that they could not undertake duties which necessitated the presence of one of them at least in the city or within call at all times. Their excuse was allowed in February, 1 Seyer II., 573-4. 2 H. and R. Smith.

1716. The real and personal property assessed for the poor in the parish of St. Stephen amounted to £744 178. 7d.

In 1716 the reversion of the house called the Great Tower, on the Quay, "which was anciently built so far out as to extend very near to the Quay side, and is a hindrance to the landing merchandise in this port," was bought for £253. The lease of the tenant, Mrs. Kay, was bought for £150; the costs of surrender were £1 28. 9d., and of pulling down the tower £39 148. 9d. The tower occupied the spot which is now the opening into Baldwin street; it abutted on the site of the Drawbridge.

In the Bristol Memorialist, 65-8, may be read a long account of the pretended cure of one Christopher Lovell of the "king's evil," by the touch of the Pretender at Avignon, to which place the man was sent by some of the Jacobites of Bristol. The sea voyage did the man good, but the disease broke out with increased virulence after his return to this city.

In 1718 the corporation of the poor gave up the workhouse, Whitehall, to the city. The dome was completed to the church of All Saints, after a wearisome delay through want of means. The fish market in High street was at this time removed to the open triangular piece of ground on the north side of St. Stephen's church, and the conduit which stood there was removed to the site on the Quay which it now occupies. The ground was levelled, raised and railed around, and the market was held here until 1770-1, when St. Stephen street was built on its site. The last bit of the Quay wall, 200 feet in length, up to Gib Taylor, was finished; thence it was carried eastward 280 feet during this year. Slips also were made for the ferry to Redcliff back, at Treen Mills (Bathurst basin), and at Gib Taylor on both sides of the river.

John Day, the mayor, died of apoplexy on the 20th of June, 1718; he was seized with the fit at ten in the evening and died at two next morning. Upon the news spreading, the aldermen met in the Council-house to preserve the peace of the government of the city until a new mayor was appointed. Out of courtesy to the deceased's family, they resolved not to fill the office until after his interment, but adjourned from day to day until Monday, when, having received notice that the funeral was to be that afternoon, they all agreed to attend it. Day was buried in St. Werburgh's church, on the 23rd of June, at three in the afternoon. The funeral was attended by the aldermen, sheriffs and common council, with their officers, two hundred and fifty-eight persons, all men of note, besides bearers, officers, six ministers, and fifty-two coaches. Day had served as sheriff, mas

ter of the Merchant Venturers' Society, and governor of the corporation of the poor. He was a frugal man in private, but when occasion arose he was generous and liberal in his public character. The town clerk, Nathaniel Wade, barrister, in pronouncing his eulogium on the 26th in the Council chamber, reminded the house "that the honour of the city subsists in the person of the mayor, who within the boundaries of the city is superior to and presides over our lord-lieutenant and every other subject, and also the supreme authority which runs through every branch of the government of this city subsists in his person." The sheriffs, Messrs. Nash and Price, were then ordered to proceed to the late mayor's residence in Guinea street (it bears the date, 1718, on the front) to condole with his widow and to fetch the insignia of his office, which they did, returning with "the mayor's sword with the scabbard, presented to him by the present sheriffs, the sword of state, commonly called the pearl sword, the Sunday sword, and the mourning sword, the two charters and boxes, the Red Book of Ordinances, both parts of the seal of the Statute of Merchants, the mayor's pocket seal of office, the keys belonging to the mayor as claviger, and otherwise of the great chest of the Tolzey, wherein the city seal and iron casket are kept." The house then, following precedent, elected Thomas Clement, shipwright, as mayor, to whom Nicholas Hicks, the last mayor then living, administered the oaths in the usual form; the insignia were then delivered to the new mayor, he was attended by the members in black gowns to the Tolzey, and the ceremonial was complete.

CITY OF BRISTOL.

WH

November 3rd, 1719.

HEREAS differences have arisen between some of the Incorporated Companies of this City on account of precedency, and that the allegations of the contending parties have been fully heard. It is this day determined by the mayor and aldermen, that on all Solemnities when the said Companies are to walk in Procession before the Mayor the following order shall be observed, of which all persons shall take notice :

1st. Next before the Mayor the Company of Merchant Taylors. 2nd. Next before the Company of Merchant Taylors the Company of Weavers.

3rd. Next before the Weavers the Company of Chyrurgeons.

In 1719 the court-room at St. Peter's hospital was rented by the proprietors of the Bristol Fire Office and the General Insurance Company, each of whom paid £4 per annum rental.1

4. On the 6th of December, Abraham Elton, sen., merchant, was created a baronet. This gentleman, in conjunction with Joseph Earl, was returned to Parliament for the city in 1722, after a sharply contested election; the successful candidates were both of them Whigs. The Tory candidate, William Hart, sen., petitioned against their return, but in vain. May, 1719, was very wet, and the Frome overflowed its banks, so that Earl's mead was several feet under water on the 17th and 18th of that month. Broadmead and Merchant street were inundated, and the flood reached as high as the wall on which the ducking-stool was placed. This, it will be remembered, was on the edge of the mill-pond in Castle ditch, at the junction of Lower Castle and Ellbroad streets. During the previous year Edward Mountjoy, the mayor, had sentenced a woman to be ducked; but at the expiration of his year of office she, by her husband, brought an action against him, before Sir Peter King, at the Guildhall, and recovered damages. (We have been unable to verify this statement of Evans'; probably the offence was not one for which the above punishment had been legally specified.)

Strange's almshouse, below St. John's steps, and Simon de Burton's almshouse, Long row, were both rebuilt in 1721; the Quay wall was continued upward from the end of King street; Bridewell was re-built at a cost of £1,053 38.; and an Act was obtained to build an Exchange.

5. In 1720 it was ordered that the wives of the members of the common council be invited annually to the dinner on the 10th of November; and, in 1721, John Beecher, the mayor, thought it would be more devout and proper that the yeomen attending the ladies to church should wear black instead of their present cloaks (of scarlet, we presume). Dr. Chauncey was presented by the chamber with a piece of plate, value twenty guineas, for his attendance on and care of the prisoners in Newgate, by which he had prevented, with the blessing of God, the spread of a malignant distemper that had broken out in that prison.

1 H. and R. Smith.

A.D. 1722.

173

Old Houses in Broadmead.

In 1721 the corporation resolved to have a place of worship of their own:

Being duly grateful to Almighty God for the prosperity of the city in general, and of this ancient corporation in particular, they desire to magnify His name by fitting up St. Mark's church for their constant and perpetual use, where God might be worshipped and His praises sung.

In 1722 Robert Eyre, eldest son of Sir Robert Eyre, one of the judges of the court of King's Bench and recorder of Bristol, was presented with the freedom of the city. Stoke's croft school and almshouse, founded by Abraham Hook, merchant (sheriff in 1706), and others of the society of Protestant Dissenters worshipping in Lewin's mead, who gave the ground for the buildings and subscribed £4,200 for its erection and support. gunpowder magazine at Tower Harratz was built this year by the corporation. On June 18th, Mr. Jones, a

writing master, was made free, gratis, he being a diligent, ingenious man, who had invented and published divers treatises for the improvement of persons in arithmetic and merchants' accounts.

1722. Mrs. Elizabeth Blanchard died, who had founded an almshouse at the north-east end of Milk street for five poor women, being Baptists of the society meeting in the Pithay, which in 1815 removed to Old King street. The head of the Back, on the Avon, from the conduit to the first slip (the Henroost slip, from a public-house opposite), was widened. The wharf "under the bank," north side of the Froom, was erected for the landing of timber.

1724. The plan for completing the navigation to Bath began to be put in execution, by dividing the estimated expense into thirtytwo shares, for which subscriptions were obtained. September 7th, died Sir William Daines, alderman of Bristol, and several times its representative in Parliament. He was succeeded by James Dunning, esq.

1725. The conduit on the Back was rebuilt. 1

William Wood, who was, Seyer thought, a Bristol man, and who certainly had an estate at Northwood, Winterbourne, in 1723 obtained a patent to coin half-pence and farthings for Ireland to the amount of £100,000. This money was coined in Bristol to the weight of upwards of 59 tons. A senseless clamour was, however, raised against its circulation in Ireland. The press was led by the satiric pen of Dean Swift, who, bitterly opposed to the Whig government, had no scruples as to the means he employed to bring their measures into disrepute. Writing under the pseudonym of "The Draper," Swift's attack on Wood's coinage became most popular. The excitable Irish people, already

£3,000. It was asserted that Wood's profits would have been over 150 per cent.; that the Irish were not in want of copper coins; that if they had been, the patent had been surreptitiously obtained, and that the coins were light and not of the intrinsic value promised; and finally, that the coinage of money was a royal prerogative that ought not to be entrusted to a subject. These complaints were investigated by the lords of the Privy Council, who found that the coins were of good value, the copper being of the best quality, the pieces heavier than the patent required, and that the attorneygeneral, the solicitor-general and Sir Isaac Newton, the master of the Mint, had been consulted as to the patent and had assisted in drawing it up, and lastly, that Ireland had never had so good a coinage; to which we add, after comparing the English coins of the same year, many of which, as well as those of Wood, are now before us, dredged up from our Floating harbour, that the Bristol money is both heavier and of better quality, as well as of far superior workmanship and finish, in fact they were not equalled until, in 1797 and 1799, the coinage was again entrusted to private hands (at the celebrated Soho mint).

In 1726 Macklin performed at the Theatre, Jacob's wells. Queen square, which was begun in 1708, was completed this year.

The wharf continued on the Back, south of Queen square, for 180 feet forward. The cost was £488 128. 7d. The street opened, and the Market-house (now the Cheese market), between Wine street and St. Maryport street, commenced erecting for the sale of corn; and in the following year the old Market-house, in the centre of Wine street, was taken down.

1727. June 11th, the king died of paralysis, at Osnaburgh, on his progress to Hanover, aged sixty-seven. Succeeded by his eldest son.1

George I. was a man of more virtues than accomplishments. Lord Mahon says we are to consider the era of the Georges as equal to that of the Antonines at Rome. It was a period combining happiness and glory, a period of kind rulers and a prosperous people; but this prosperity, unlike the period of the Antonines, did not depend on the character of a single man. Its foundations were laid on ancient and free institutions, which, good from the first, were gradually improving. Bristol shared in the increased glory and wealth of this reign, but the sovereign never visited the city. Neither was he a favourite with the English people; his heart was in Hanover. With truthful criticism, which under a Tudor would have cost him his head, Lord Chesterfield remarked :—“ England is too big for him. The best way to dispose of the Pretender is to make him Elector of Hanover, for the English would never go thither 1 Evans, 260-61.

again for a king." Sir John Vanbrugh, the great architect, flourished in this reign; he built the mansion at Kingsweston, which is one of the simplest and best of his erections, and is admired by many for the arcade that connects all the chimneys. His general style was massive and ponderous; hence the witticism of the epigram on his death and burial:

"Lay heavy on him earth, for he

Laid many a heavy load on thee."

6. On the 11th June, 1727, George II. succeeded to the throne, at the age of forty-three years and seven months. He was proclaimed in London on Wednesday, the 14th, and in Bristol on Saturday, the 17th June; Peter Day, merchant, being mayor, and Ezekiel Longman, mercer, and Henry Combe, jun., merchant, being sheriffs.

The house met at the Council-house in black, the High Cross being hung with black cloth. The mayor, aldermen, and council, the militia officers and constables, with leading citizens, marched in procession round the Cross, the sword-bearer carrying the arrayed themselves in scarlet, the High Cross being meanwhile mourning sword. They then returned to the council-house and re-draped in scarlet. The procession being re-formed, visited the High cross, St. Peter's pump, Temple, Thomas and the Quay conduits, at each of which places the sheriffs read the proclamation, amidst the braying of trumpets and the acclamations of the citizens. The pearl sword and cap of maintenance were worn by the sword-bearer; the city music and arms of the militia were in attendance, and the several conduits were run with wine for the populace.

1

About the latter end of February, 1726-7, a petition was sent to Parliament complaining of the badness of the roads around the city, and praying relief and provision for keeping them in good repair. In consequence of this an Act of Parliament, 13 George I., 1727, was obtained, and on the 26th of June toll-houses with gates were erected outside the city bounds at Lawford's gate, Totterdown, and Ashton. For a short period the tolls were collected, but the country people and the colliers were violently opposed to the measure; great disturbances ensued, and the gates were soon cut down and demolished, chiefly by the colliers, who would not suffer coal to be brought here, whereupon the mayor had the city supplied from Swansea, which when the colliers perceived they brought their coals as usual. Soldiers assisted at the gates to take the toll; but the next night, after the soldiers were withdrawn, the gates were all cut down a second time by persons disguised in women's apparel and high-crowned hats.

In 1735 the "Roads' commissioners taken out of Somerset and Gloucestershire disagreeing with the commissioners taken out of the city of Bristol, the mutiny and insolence of the peasantry in the neighbourhood prevailed over the force of the statute, and the roads, as bad as most in England, remain unrepaired to this day."

112

On Tuesday, July 18th, 1727, at 4 p.m., there was a great earthquake in Bristol and in the West of England. I was very sensible of it at the Red lodge by the shaking of me as I lay in my bed, being fully awaked some time before. All the house shaked. [Seyer gives the date as the 19th, and describes it at II., 577.] August 19th.-A baker and his wife, living outside Law1 Old MS. 2 Oldmixon, III., 804.