APPENDIX IV. A. NOTES ON THE LIFE OF DR. JOHN WALKER, FROM WILLIAM COLE'S MS. COLLECTIONS, VOL. XXXII (B.M. ADD. 5833 PLUT. CLXXXI F. FOL. 115 B AND 116). [In the original most of the substantives are underlined.] Dr. Walker married one of the natural daughters of Sheffeild, Duke of Buckingham', another of them Professor Hunt of Oxford, and a 3d Mr. Cox of Berkshire. Mrs. Walker was of a violent and turbulent temper; she lived some time at Bedford and now at Yarmouth [Oct. 26, 1762], and has one son a supercargo or in office in the East India trade, another a fellow of a College in Cambridge, a third an officer in Germany, who is married and has children; and a fourth a student in the Temple, but has lately taken orders and preferred by my Lord Maynard. Mrs. Walker had £6000 for her fortune 3, and after the Death of the Doctor she remarried to one Mr. Griffiths of Wales, and a Counseller of Law, with whom she soon quarrelled and left him; but desided at Bedford to go by the name of Walker, whom she professed much to esteem. She has a daughter well-educated and a fine young woman. 4 When Dr. Bentley published his proposals about 1716 for printing an edition of the New Testament, he tells the Public in his Proposals that the 1 More correctly Sheffield, Duke of the county of Buckingham or of Buckinghamshire, the poet, soldier, and statesman, whose remarkable epitaph, written by himself, ending Ens entium miserere mei,' is in Henry VIIths Chapel in Westminster Abbey. He died Feb. 24, 1720. See Stanley's Memorials of Westminster pp. 227-231, ed. 1882. 2 My brother tells me that this must be Henry Walker of King's, B.A. 1757, M.A. 1760. 3 From his will (at Somerset House) dated May 29, 1741, and proved at London Nov. 21 of same year, in which his widow is left executrix, and the Hon. Charles Maynard and Charles Sheffield executors, this appears to be substantially correct. The main object of this will is to provide £1500 apiece to his children. No mention is made of the Greek Testament papers, which were probably sent before his death to Dr. Bentley. The papers mentioned are collections for an edition of Arnobius, left to Dr. Ri. Mead, see p. 66 note, and matters relating to the Deanery of Bocking, St. Mary Aldermary and the Chancellorship of St. David's. His letter to Archbishop Wake was dated April 1716. His proposals were not published till 1720. overseer and corrector of the Press will be the learned Mr. John Walker of Trinity College in Cambridge, who with great accurateness has collated many MSS. at Paris for the present edition, and the issue of it, whether gain or loss, is equally to fall on him and the author.'-Biogr. Brit. Bentley. Dr. John Walker's Epitaph'. The following Epitaph was given me with many other loose papers, wrote in the hand of my worthy friend Dr. Zachary Grey, Rector of Houghton Conquest in Bedfordshire, and Vicar of St. Peter's and St. Giles' Churches in Cambridge, by the said Dr. Grey, who has added this under it, I believe this is a very just Character. He was Fellow of Trinity College, a favourite of Dr. Bentley's, and distinguished by the name of Clarissimus Walker.' An Epitaph drawn up by Mrs. Walker for her husband Dr. Walker. UNDER THIS STONE LIES THE BODY OF JOHN WALKER, D.D., ARCHDEACON OF HEREFORD, CHANCELLOR OF TO HIS MAJESTY. WHOSE UNCOMMON LEARNING AND SWEETNESS THE DELIGHT AND ORNAMENT OF MANKIND. DIED NOVEMBER 9, 1741, Aged 48, UNIVERSALLY REGRETTED BY THE INGENIOUS, THE HE MARRIED MRS. CHARLOTTE SHEFFEILD BY WHOM HE HAD SIX SONS AND FOUR DAUGHTERS; SIX OF THEM TWO OF HIS DAUGHTERS, HARRIOT AND CHARLOTTE, LIE Dr. Walker was installed Archdeacon of Hereford Feb. 20, 1728. This epitaph is in the Chancel of Bocking Church in Essex, as I learn by the kindness of the present Dean. The arms on the seal attached to Dr. Walker's will are as follows:-gules, a chevron azure between three crescents, impaling argent, a chevron gules between three garbs within a bordure compony azure and of the first. The latter are the arms of Sheffield with a slight difference. K B. AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF JOHN WALKER'S TO ABP. WAKE, NOW AT CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD (ARCH. WAKE, EPIST. VOL. 22). BRUSSELLS, Nov. 24, 1721. My Lord, I have taken the Liberty of enclosing to your Grace the Contents of a large MS. Volume of Tracts relating to University and Ecclesiastical Affairs; several of which have not, that I can find, ever been published; which I have met with in a Parcel of MSS. that I lately purchas'd. If your Grace meets with any thing that you like in That or the other Volume which relates to the Bishoprick of Liege I will take the first Opportunity of sending them over; and shall be extremely glad if I can in anything serve Your Grace more successfully, than I have been able to do thus far, in my Enquirys after Medals. The Continuance and even spreading of the Plague in France has prevented my Ld. Preston from spending this winter at Paris, and determined him to this place; and I have begun for some time to make use of the opportunity to examine into the Librarys of this Country. They contain very few Greek or Classical MSS.; but as many, and as good ones of the Latin Fathers, as I have seen anywhere. I have bought lately 15 or 16 MS. Volumes, most of them old ones, amongst which there is a Latin Copy of the Gospels, and a Comment upon some of St. Paul's Epistles, each of them above 800 years old. But the greatest Curiosity that I have met with in this way is a very old MS. of Arnobius and Minucius Felix; of which Authors especially of the latter, Learned Men have allways thought that there was only one MS. in the world', which is lodged in the 1 Any second MS. of these authors was unknown to C. Halm when he edited Minucius in 1867. But a Brussels MS. (see Hänel Cat. des MSS. p. 764, 1830, who assigns it to the 12th cent.; Mr. H. C. G. Moule, in the Dict. of Chr. Biography, says it is now at Dijon, No. D. 6851; but this seems improbable) is mentioned by A. Reifferscheid in his Arnobius of 1881 and J. J. Cornelissen in his recent edition of Minucius Felix, p. iii, Lugd. Bat. 1882, who speak of it as of no critical value, being only a copy of the Paris MS (Lat. 1661). This is probably the one here mentioned, which was then at Antwerp in the Jesuit College. It may be identified by a note on the first page, given by Walker: 'Johannes Livineius Cathedralis Antwerp. Cancus et Cantor, aliquot pagellis perturbatum Codicem in ordinem componebat M.D.XCVIII.' It is clear that Walker had made large collections for an edition of Arnobius, which should be searched for. In his will he says, 'Also I give and bequeath to Dr. Richard Mead [the eminent physician who died 1754] all my editions of Arnobius with the two quarto paper books of my notes upon that author and such loose papers as belong to them.' I have not come across any of these except the copy belonging to Prof. J. E. B. Mayor, mentioned on p. xxvi, note. Besides collations of the Antwerp MS., which he calls a, and the Paris Reg. 3975, now Lat. 1661, which he calls 8, this volume contains many corrections and conjectural emendations, collected Library of the King of France, and which I have often seen and examin'd there. Dr. Davies gives this Account in his Preface, and Rigaltius in his Notes. I have with some difficulty got the Liberty of Collating this MS. which I doubt not will contribute something towards the illustrating those two Writers. I have at last found a good part of the MSS. that were us'd by Lucas Brugensis; two of them of the Epistles are so old, that I design to Collate them for Dr. Bentley's Edition of the New Testament; which I hope will soon be ready to be sent to the Press. My Ld. Preston has received great Benefit by the Spa waters the last Season, tho' it was but an indifferent one; He desires me to present his services and to beg your Graces Blessing. I beg that your Grace wou'd accept my Thanks for the Honor you have done me and the Goodness you express for me in your Letter, and give me leave to subscribe myself, with the greatest Respect, Your Graces Most obedient and most humble Servant, J. WALKER. I desire that your Grace wou'd direct to me, Chez Ruminy, proche l'Eglise St. Jean à Bruxelles. and original. The latter show him an apt pupil of Bentley, and are well worth attention. Some anticipate modern corrections, accepted by Reifferscheid, but others are still new and often felicitous. I will mention two. In iii. 19, in talking of God, Arnobius says, according to the MSS, quis enim deum dixerit fortem constantem frugi sapientem? quis probum, quis sobrium, quis immo aliquis nosse, quis intellegere, etc.?' Reifferscheid follows Sabaeus in reading immo aliquid, but Walker suggests the omission of the words immo aliquis, as the marginal gloss of an objector, who thought that some people might well say 'deum nosse.' In vii. 44 ad fin. he reads it reptans, which seems to be more like the MS. than the simple reptans accepted by Reifferscheid. The collation of the Paris MS. was made after the Antwerp one, and he then saw that the latter was only a copy of the former ('8 notat MS. Cod. Membr. in 4° Bibliothecae Regiae Paris. Num. 3975. 800 ann. ex quo ille alter descriptus est'). He judged the Antwerp MS. however to be of the tenth or eleventh century (habet, ut mihi uidetur, ultra 700 ann.). |