CHAP. in these words: viz. I have instructed this person in the nature, XXVI. the necessity, and blessings of Confirmation. "His Lordship directs further, that afterwards the persons confirmed be well instructed in the nature of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And that none be admitted but such as have been duly qualified by their pastors. "His Lordship acquaints the clergy that there is to be a Parochial Visitation this summer, some time in the month of July; and appoints Mr. Vicar-General Moore, Mr. Official Radcliffe, and in case Mr. Vicar-General Cosnahan shall then be in a condition to travel, that he also shall visit the churches, church-houses, schools, &c., and to represent unto his Lordship the state and condition of the several particulars which are then to be enquired into. In case of Mr. Cosnahan's inability to travel, the Rev. Mr. Philip Moore is appointed by the Lord Bishop to assist on the Visitation." There is another clause, which seems to relax the corresponding one in 1741, in that it summons the village Chapter once a quarter only instead of once a month, to be reminded in church of their official duties. He was present again in Convocation the following Whitsuntide, and appears to have addressed the clergy from notes, Mr. Moore making a report in writing of what he said, which has been preserved, and which contains one clause at least, seldom if ever besides found in Episcopal Charges: "Mr. Moore's memoranda on the back of a letter. May 18, 1749, at the Convocation. "The Right Reverend my Lord Bishop exhorts the parochial clergy to be very serious and earnest in their public and private admonitions of persons under Church censures, having regard not only to the offenders, but also to preserve others from falling into sin; and that the clergy take care not to grant certificates to any but them who have given very full testimony of their repentance. "His Lordship orders also that the presentments of every circuit may be laid before him before the censures are sent out, that adulterers and relapsers may be proceeded against by excommunication, and as the nature of their sins shall demerit. His Lordship exhorts the clergy to close application in their studies, and that the younger clergy be not too forward to dispose of themselves in marriage; shewing the general ill consequences arising from thence. "His Lordship, in regard to his old age and infirmity, proposes that some person may be appointed to manage the affairs of the XXVI. Royal Bounty, and to divide and distribute Lady Elizabeth Has- CHAP. tings her annual charity to the schoolmasters. His Lordship having managed these concerns for several years to the entire satisfaction of the clergy, they with submission pray that his Lordship may be pleased still to continue to negotiate these affairs, and that they will give their best assistance to make it as easy to his Lordship as possible. And that upon notice given, every person in the future to attend upon a certain day, to be appointed by his Lordship, to receive their several proportions." Observe that he was eighty-six years old, and that his clergy were his private acquaintance, almost all of them literally known to him in their boyhood, and their fathers before them. In the following year the Bishop's wish to get rid of those pressing accounts was gratified, and Mr. Edward Moore and others appointed to do so in his room. Thus gradually and reluctantly did they separate: every Convocation was a solemn leave-taking. It was the year of his last excommunication and absolution-that of Margaret Joughin; as the next year, 1751, was that of his last injunction of the clergy "to visit the petty schools;" when also occurs for the last time his usual notice preparatory to ordination :— : "His Lordship also acquaints his clergy that he intends, God willing, to ordain Mr. John Christian of Kirk Marown, and Mr. Cleve Quayle of Castletown, into the office of Deacons, at farthest by Michaelmas Ember season, and desires to know of his clergy whether there be any objection against the said persons." In October following he notes, "Deacons ordained in my chapel, I being indisposed," naming the two above mentioned, and a Mr. Gill. The indisposition accounts for the unusual place as well as for the uncanonical time: his rule evidently having been to ordain in some church before the congregation. The same may be said of the last of all his ordinations: 66 July 5, 1752. Robert Drew, of Kirk Maliew, (sic,) in my own chapel, I being very infirm with gout." The last Convocation minute in his time (two years being omitted) is, "1754. The Bishop being indisposed, (Thursday, June 6,) cannot attend at present." СНАР. XXVII. CHAPTER XXVII. FAMILY EVENTS. DEATH OF LADY E. HASTINGS. "INSTRUC- ALL this while the good Bishop's genial heart and public spirit kept him unusually interested in matters far away, relating either to the Church or to his own kindred; and the closing scene of his life, to be adequately sketched, must include them, connected as they are especially with the most important, perhaps, of his literary undertakings. His son's married life began, as we have seen, in February, 173, and with it began his anxious chase after preferment: and still every year as it went on was marked by some family loss. Within the first twelvemonth of their marriage they were three times in deep mourning. First, "My sister-in-law, Margaret Patten [died], July 16, 1734, [aged] 65." This was the widow of his wife's eldest brother, Thomas Patten, of Patten-lane, Warrington, head of the family when the Bishop married into it. Her maiden name was Blackburne; her father, John Blackburne, Esq. of Orford. She was buried at Warrington, and appears by an entry in the younger Wilson's journal to have left a daughter Bridget:"I wrote Biddy upon the occasion." The next event touched the newly married couple very nearly indeed; the bride's mother was taken from her:-"My brother William Patten's wife died, Dec. 20, 17344." Presently after these two sistersin-law the Bishop has to register the death of his only surviving sister:-" Mary Faulconer, Jan., 1734, aged 69:" born three years after himself, and the youngest of his father's family. By her first marriage with Daniel Littler' she had one son, John, born and baptized at Burton, Jan. 1, 16%, described in the register as a mariner of Parkgate, where he married, lived to be eighty-six, and was buried with his wife in Neston churchyard; not, apparently, leaving any children. This is the "cousin Littler" whom young The pedigree, with an extract from which I have been favoured by Mr. Beamont, says "Dec. 21," and adds that she was buried at St. Lawrence's Church, London-no doubt St. Law- So he spells it. It is Falkener in 1 XXVII. Wilson visited in 1731. His father Daniel had died within CHAP. a few years of his birth, and Mary, his mother, had re-married in 1698. Her second husband was also a mariner, so described in the marriage licence. They had one daughter who lived to grow up, Alice, (the Sherlock name) baptized in 1702; and I understand that through this child, who married a person named Williamson, many now living in various ranks of society are able satisfactorily to prove themselves collaterally descended from Bishop Wilson. When Joseph Wilson made his will in 1729, his sister Mary was a widow, living at Parkgate, and so she is described in the entry of her burial at Neston, Jan. 18, 1734. She is passed over in her father Nathanael's will, and unnoticed in the journals of her nephew, Dr. Wilson. No account is given of this; but it appears that she lived and died quietly in her own old neighbourhood, and the Bishop commemorated her as his sister to the end. Thus in coming over again, as he did in 1735 for the last time, he found in each of his three English homes-the home of his childhood near Burton, the home of his marriage at Warrington, and the home of his Church-work in the city of London among the societies-a familiar face wanting, and a new grave to be visited. On the other hand, he found a newborn grandson at Newington: and how much he thought of that blessing he has unconsciously expressed in one little word of Sacra Privata. As, twenty and thirty years before, when it pleased God to take his own children, he entered them thus in his calendar, "My pretty Alice," "My pretty daughter Molly;" so now it is "My pretty grandson, T. W., died " such a day. He was born March 18, and his father's journal gives touching evidence how very precious he was, and how deeply regretted. He does not seem however to have been ever a very healthy child, and at the beginning of March was in danger from inflammation in the chest; but the alarm went off, and on the 18th his father was able to write, "This is my dear little boy's birthday. God send him many of them, to His glory and the good of his own soul. Father Patten" (now a widower) "dined with us." But three days after, March 21, the journal is interrupted and continues a blank until June 21; an interval filled with very severe trials. First Mr. Wilson himself was seized with XXVII. CHAP small-pox, and it could not be very far from the crisis of the complaint, when they heard of the death of a favourite cousin, Wilson's trusted correspondent, Hugh Patten of Liverpool, who had died April 16; through whom it seems the Wilsons were accustomed to receive regular information of Lancashire matters; and in one instance the son writes to him to enquire about the Bishop's health, "having not heard from him of a long time." This Hugh was the second son of William and Rachel Patten, of Warrington, which William was brother to Thomas, the Bishop's father-in-law. Hugh was therefore first cousin to the Bishop's wife. It was a loss which would have seemed very heavy had it come in a time of less overwhelming anxiety nearer home. However, in less than a fortnight the small-pox took a favourable turn: and he writes, "April 28, 1736, By a letter from my daughter-in-law, I have an account of my son's recovery from the small-pox, for which I cannot be sufficiently thankful.” But-Tĥμa xai xapà—on the 7th of May the tender “little lad," as his father's journal styles him, was taken; nor was his place ever supplied in the family. Mary Hayward was indeed the mother of a boy and a girl by her former marriage, but it does not distinctly appear that they lived regularly in the house with Dr. and Mrs. Wilson. And there is no record of any issue born to them afterwards. Letters in behalf of his son. His journal however, when he resumes it in June, shews that the blight on his family hopes had not abated his impression of the duty of seeking preferment. Incidentally, during this process, he comes across facts more or less worth recording. June 21, Bishop Chandler recommends him to go to Court once in three weeks or a month. In his dutiful way, he seems to have overdone the matter; for, Oct. 30, "The Master of the Rolls advised me not to go so often to Court. I suppose that Dr. Butler had told him that the chaplains perhaps were jealous of my coming so much there. Alas! their leavings would satisfy me." He had depended a good deal on Bishop Gibson, and sometimes doubted his being really earnest in the cause, but now learns that the Bishop "is in disgrace for saying the clergy are the fittest persons to recommend to bishoprics.'" June 26, Bishop Gibson tells him of a mis |