Memoirs of William Hickey (1749-1775)

Alfred Spencer

Description

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 16 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528760188
• Langue: English

Extrait

MEMOIRS OF WILLIAM HICKEY
MEMOIRS OF WILLIAM HICKEY
EDITED BY
ALFRED SPENCER
V OL . 1
(1749-1775)
SEVENTH EDITION
(DN).
LONDON
HURST BLACKETT, LTD,
PATERNOSTER HOUSE, E.C.
Made in Great Britain and printed at The Mayflower Press, Plymouth. William Brendon Son, Ltd.
EDITOR S NOTE
THE original MS. of these Memoirs covers many hundreds of closely written folio pages, yet only two or three corrections have been made in it, and it has the appearance of being a clean copy, most laboriously made by Hickey himself from a rough draft. The author apparently did not contemplate its publication, though his introductory remarks give one the impression that he expected it to interest his friends. The present volume forms but a part of the Memoirs, which are of such length that one or two further volumes will be necessary to complete them.
In its original form the MS. runs on almost without a break. For easier reading it has been divided into chapters and freely paragraphed. Parts of the MS. have been eliminated, but where any considerable portion has been omitted, the reason for the omission will be found in a footnote. Otherwise the narrative is given in the author s own words.
Hickey, as will be seen, has something to say of many well-known men of the time with whom he was brought into contact, and perhaps not the least interesting feature of his Memoirs is the fact that his father, of whom we hear so much was a friend of Edmund Burke, and one of the group of public men characterized by Goldsmith in his famous Retaliation.
Efforts have been made to obtain copies of the portraits painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds of the author s father and sister, referred to on page 309. Unfortunately these portraits cannot be procured at the moment, but it is hoped that both of them may find a place in a future volume.
CONTENTS
E DITOR S N OTE
I NTRODUCTION
I. B IRTH AND P ARENTAGE
II. E ARLY S CHOOL D AYS
III. B OYHOOD
IV. T HE R EMOVAL FROM W ESTMINSTER S CHOOL
V. S CHOOL D AYS AT S TREATHAM
VI. I N T RAINING FOR THE L AW
VII. B AD H ABITS
VIII. L IFE IN L ONDON AND A Y ACHTING E XCURSION
IX. D ISGRACED
X. T HE L AST S TRAW
XI. T O THE E AST AS A C ADET
XII. O N B OARD THE P LASSEY
XIII. I NCIDENTS OF THE V OYAGE TO M ADRAS
XIV. M ADRAS
XV. T HE V OYAGE TO C HINA
XVI. C ANTON
XVII. L IFE IN C ANTON
XVIII. L IFE IN C ANTON ( continued )
XIX. T HE R ETURN TO E NGLAND
XX. I N L ONDON A GAIN
XXI. T HE F ORRESTS
XXII. A CQUAINTANCES IN T OWN
XXIII. S OME D UELS AND S OME S AILING
XXIV. M ORE OF L IFE IN L ONDON
XXV. D RIVEN FROM H OME
XXVI. O FF TO J AMAICA
I NDEX
INTRODUCTION
RETURNING from a very busy and laborious life, in India, to comparatively absolute idleness, in England, and having fixed my abode in a country village, with a very limited society, I there experienced the truth of an observation I had frequently heard,-viz. that want of employment is one of the greatest miseries that can be attached to a mind not altogether inactive.
Feeling the full force of this remark, my thoughts turned to the strange and varied life I had passed, and the extraordinary scenes I had gone through in different quarters of the world; in contemplating which it occurred to me that I might in some measure fill up a painful vacuum, and beguile a few hours on those days when confined to the house cither from bad weather, or indisposition, by committing to writing the different events that had happened to me during a period of nearly sixty years.
True it is I had few documents to guide me, and scarcely any memorandum whatever to assist in the execution of such a plan, at least for the early and greater part of my life, yet, trusting to memory alone, I felt convinced I could trace back the most material circumstances that had happened respecting myself; and I can safely aver, there is not a single fact recorded in the following sheets, that is not, to the best of my knowledge and belief, most truly and correctly stated. Equally true it is, and I am perfectly aware of it, that such a production cannot be in any way interesting to those unacquainted with me, and indeed, not very much so even to my most attached friends. Should, however, these pages at any time fall into the hands of strangers, be it remembered, that I retraced the following circumstances of my life, solely for my own amusement, and to fill up some tedious hours that would otherwise have hung heavy upon my hands.
MEMOIRS OF WILLIAM HICKEY
CHAPTER I
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE
I WAS born in St. Albans Street, 1 Pall Mall, in the Parish of St. James, Westminster, on the 30th of June, in the year 1749, being the seventh 2 child my parents had. My father was the youngest son of a numerous family, all Irish, sprung from a very ancient and honourable stock, being of Milesian descent; the original name was O Hickey, but at what period the O was dropt I never heard, nor is it of any importance.
My mother, whose maiden name was Boulton, was of a very old and highly respectable family, who for several centuries resided in Yorkshire, where they possessed considerable landed property. My father and mother s was a love match, against the consent of her relations, as he ran away from his friends in Ireland at the early ago of seventeen, in consequence of throwing a leaden inkstand at his master s head, the said master having, as my father conceived, wantonly and grossly insulted him. He was not overburthened with cash at the time he reached the capital of Great Britain, but he had received the best of education, having been brought up in the University of Dublin, where he had the reputation of being an uncommonly good classical scholar. The gentleman he had been articled to was an eminent attorney practising in the City of Cashell, the town in which my father was born.
Upon his arrival in London my father applied to, and was most kindly received by a Mr. Bourke, then residing at Plaistow, in Essex, where he carried on business as an attorney and solicitor, with much credit and advantage to himself. This respectable gentleman was the father of Mr. William Burke, an intimate friend of my family s, who subsequently made a conspicuous figure in public life. With Mr. Bourke, of Plaistow, who chose to retain the o in his name, as being the original way of spelling it, my father served a regular clerkship, and at the expiration of his five years was admitted as an Attorney of the Court of King s Bench, and a Solicitor of the Court of Chancery.
My father s abilities and respectable connection soon procured him abundant business, but being naturally of a convivial and expensive turn, he was sometimes hard pressed in pecuniary matters, and I have often heard him say that when he married, which took place after but a short courtship, he had no more than five guineas in his possession, and was obliged to furnish a house, and procure all the requisite establishment of a family man, upon credit; of course he felt all the inconveniences and embarrassments arising from such a situation, but never lost his spirits, nor was he ever, even at that early period, nor through the whole course of a very long life, driven to commit a dishonourable or ungentleman-like action.
When married only a few months, my father dined with a large party at the King s Arms tavern in Pall Mall, where, after the whole party had drank freely, it was, at a late hour proposed to adjourn to the Ridotto, at the Opera house, where it was then the custom to have public hazard tables. When the going to the Ridotto was first mentioned, my father observed to his friend Colonel Mathews, of the Guards, who sat next to him, that he could not be of the party, as after paying his proportion of the dinner bill, he should have only a few shillings left, whereupon Colonel Mathews took out his purse, and counted the amount therein, which was twenty-four guineas; of these he gave twelve to my father saying, they would play in partnership, and if fortune was kind, whatever both, or either won should be deemed joint stock, and be equally divided between them. Upon these terms they proceeded to the Opera house, where my father having in a few minutes lost his twelve guineas, went and stood at the back of Colonel Mathews s chair, who threw so successfully that by four o clock in the morning he had collected nearly the whole amount of cash at the table, upon which they adjourned to my father s house in Gerard Street, Soho, and there actually divided upwards of three thousand two hundred guineas, each having sixteen hundred and odd to his share. This sum laid the foundation of my father s fortune. He immediately paid every one to whom he was indebted, and after having so done a surplus of several hundred pounds remained.
Soon after this circumstance had occurred, my eldest sister, Mary, was born, being the first child. In due time another came forth who died in early infancy. Next my brother Joseph, who in eleven months was followed by a boy that lived only a few hours, next, my brother Henry, and within the two next years, two others, who both died young. Then I made my appearance, that is to say, on the 30th of June 1749.
My god-fathers were the above named Colonel Mathews and Mr. Ryan, proprietor of the King s Arms tavern in Pall Mall, then a very fashionable house, in which he (Ryan) acquired a very large fortune. I was soon pronounced a most lovely child. My mother had suckled the first three infants herself, but this being deemed prejudicial to her health, she was forbid continuing it, and I was therefore sent to be nursed at Hampstead, at a clean and neat cottage, the property of a respectabl