Viewing page 75 of 285

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

96 ANNUAL REGISTER

28th. The Counts Struensee and Brandt were executed on a scaffold opposite the eastern gate of Copenhagen; since which the princess dowager and the council of enquiry have never appeared abroad without a strong military guard.

By the last general state of the receipts and payments of the Foundling Hospital, it appears that from March 25, 1741, to Dec. 31, 1771, 16,694 children have been received into that hospital.

30th. The trial of Jonathan Biritain, who pretended to be concerned in setting fire to his majesty's dock-yard at Portsmouth, came on at the assizes for Bristol, for forgery, when he refused to plead, because, he said, his pardon was published in the London Gazette, subsequent to the alleged forgery. The Recorder Dunning, who tried him, used all possible lenity towards him, and adjourned his trial till the new act of parliament, which was sent for by express, arrived; by which act the old savage practice of torture is abolished, and the more humane method of finding the felon, who refuses to plead, guilty of the crime for which he is arraigned, is substituted in its room. When Britain was informed of this, he desired to take his trial, which was granted, and he was found guilty upon the clearest evidence, and sentence of death passed upon him; after which all his wonted courage failed him, and as he had been an abandoned villain, he became a seemingly devout penitent.

At the anniversary feast of the governors of the Lying-in charity for delivering poor married women at the own habitations, the collection at church and at the hall amounted to 3861.

Rome, April 4. A few days ago the Duke of Gloucester went to see the rarities of the capitol, and from thence to examine the curious monuments which are in the hotel of the conservators, and in the museum of the capitol. The Abbe Visconti, commissary of antiquities, whom the Pope had sent as an interpreter, had an opportunity of conversing a long time with the duke, and communicated to him many of his discoveries, which no person had ever made before him: among others, he demonstrated to him that the figure placed in the Vestibule of the Museum, hitherto known under the denomination of the god Pan, does not represent that heathen divinity, but the Cyclops Poliphemus, who killed some of Ulysses's companions. His single eye being covered, to this day, with modern Stucko[[stucco]], prevented its being known whose representation it is.

Gottingen, March 24. A beggar, who had a very voracious appetite, and who accustomed himself to swallow after his victuals flints, felts, and other things, died not long since suddenly at Ihlefeld. The judge of the place being desirous to know the effects of this very singular case, ordered the body to be opened in the presence of several of the faculty. The stomach was very spacious, and capable of containing ten pounds of water, and they found pieces of meat undigested, and several flint-stones and other things in his inside. This man used to eat 13 pounds of beef, and drink 12 measures of wine, without being disordered.

Mr. Philip Mason, at Usk, in Mon-

For the YEAR 1772 97

Monmouthshire, a remarkable large man; he measure round the wrist 11 inches; at his arm, near the shoulder, 21 inches; round the breast, 5 feet; body, 6 feet 1 inch; thigh, 3 feet 1 inch; calf of the leg, 2 feet 1 inch; and small ditto, 1 foot 7 inches; and notwithstanding his bulk, was extremely active.

At Dunkirk, Capt. Robert Creed, aged 110; he commanded a man of war in the reign of George I.

At Corney, in Cumberland, John Noble, aged 114 years; what is very remarkable, he never experienced what sickness was.

Madam Grandchamp, aged 107, a Religious of the Priory of Chanchanoux, in the diocese of Autun in France.

Elizabeth Page, at Streatham, aged 108, reputed a female physician, but found to be a man.

In Rotherhithe workhouse, John Whalley, aged 121.

At Bordeaux, James Gay, Esq; aged 101; he had been married sixteen times, but had no child.

Mrs. Hinks, of Budge-street, aged 118. She has left 1100l. to ten parishes.

Mrs. Jane Shirley, at Eton, in Berks, aged 102.

MAY
1st. Sir John Peshal, Bart. accompanied by the mayor of Oxford and the guardians of the poor for the eleven parishes of that city, united by the virtue of a late act of parliament, laid the foundation of their house of industry. It is seated on a spot of ground at a small distance from the Radcliffe Infirmary, formerly distinguished by the name of Bellus Mons, or Beau Mont, and is part of the site and environs of the palace built by King Henry I. where King Richard I. surnamed Coeur de Lion, was born, and which was inhabited by succeeding monarchs till after Edward II. On a brass plate affixed to the foundation stone is the following inscription: "MAII PRIMO, M.DCC.LXXII. JOH. PESHALL, BAR. GUB. & GUARDIANI P."

Rome, April 11. The Pope, by way of compliment to his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, has caused the three Miserere, which are sung at St. Peter's church three days in Passion-week, to be copied and richly bound, and made them a present to that prince.

Dantzick, March 16. A divorce between the Duke Peter of Courland and the Princess Caroline Louisa of Waldeck has just been declared and an annual pension of 6000 ducats has been settled on the lady.

4th. This day a chapter of the most noble order of the garter was to be held at St James's, at which the Right Hon. Lord North was to be invested with the ensigns of that order, vacant by the death of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha.

5th. One Judith Whalin, who had been some days in prison for the murder of a shoemaker, found means to hang herself in Newgate, with the fillet that bound her hair. The only provocation the deceased gave her was, that he refused to mend her shoes, on which she snatched up a knife, and stabbed him to the heart.

The claim of William Sinclair, Esq; of Ratfer, to the title of Earl of Caithness, was heard before the [H] House