Viewing page 91 of 285

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

128] ANNUAL REGISTER For the YEAR 1772.

carried out the late Mr. Eyre, who was convicted at the Old-Bailey for stealing paper at Guildhall, has deposited in the bank 2100 guineas he found sewed in the lining of his coat and breeches after he was dead. Quere, to whom doth it belong?

17th.
This day the sessions ended at the Old-Bailey. At this sessions sixteen prisoners were capitally convicted, four to be transported for fourteen years, forty-two for seven years, and four branded. This sessions lasted eight days, a thing hardly to be remembered.

John White, was one of those capitally convicted, for feloniously and traiterously coining and counterfeiting the current coin of this realm called shillings, in an upper room in Bartlet's-court, Holborn, where were found upwards of 1400 counterfeit shillings, and several not finished, and a great number of implements proper for that pernicious business. The intrinsic value of each piece appeared to be about four-pence-halfpenny, they being composed of half silver and half metal, but considerably short of weight, so as to resemble worn money.

The ceremony of baptizing the Hereditary Prince of Orange and Nassau, who is named William Frederic, was this day performed at t he Hague, with great solemnity. 

The marriage of the Duke of Gloucester with Lady Waldegrave, was declared at court.

23d.
At Portsmouth they had the most violent storm of wind and rain ever remembered. The wind blew off the roofs of several houses, threw down chimnies, especially those of the marine barracks, where a whole stack fell at once on the roof. Providentially no person was hurt, nor much damage done among the shipping. This storm, though pretty general along the sea-cost, has been attended with less damage than others on former occasions, that were less violent.

The prince Stadtholder of the United Provinces, has abolishes one species of luxury practiced in Holland, and that was, the extravagant entertainments given at the interment of the dead, which are now prohibited under penalties.

The foundation stone for improving the harbour of Ayr in Scotland was laid. At which were present the Earl of Dumfries, grand-maker mason, and 500 of the brothers. 

A new coach is finished in an elegant manner, and is to be put on board a vessel next Monday for Petersburgh, as a present from the Russia merchants to the empress; it cost 1500l. The body of the coach is supported by dolphins and mermaids; on the pannel of one door is curiously painted the empress fitting in a triumphal car, surrounded with trophies of war, &c. on the pannel of the other, is a Turk in a supplicating posture, surrendering to the empress the implements of war; and on the quarter pannels, are painted coronets and crowns of laurel, and several other devices; the naves are gilt in such a manner, that they appear like solid silver, and the spokes are carved and gilt.

25th.
Last night and this morning, there was a most dreadful hurricane, beyond any thing we have known for some years; and great damage was done among the shipping in the river, and to the houses in the city and suburbs that were

[129
most exposed; some were stript of their tyling, some had their chimnies blown down, and some old houses, that were unable to resist the fury of the tempest, fell to the ground; many trees were torn up by the roots, in the neighbourhood of London, and one old tree in the park was broke off in the middle; some lives were lost by the fall of bricks from the chimnies, and, in short, the damage is incredible.

Whitehall, Sept 16, 1772. Letters have been received from Sir Ralph Payne, K. B. his majesty's governor-general of the Leeward Island, containing advice, that, on the 13th of July last, he received an account from Anguilla, that a Spanish man of war of 70 guns, called The Royal Council, and another Spanish ship of 40 guns, called The Royal Prussian, were wrecked on the east end of that island; that a great part of their cargoes, which were said to be of great value, were saved; that, by the assistance of one of his majesty's ships of war, sent thither by Rear-Admiral Mann, and by a timely supply of provisions sent by Sir Ralph Payne, the crews of those ships had been relieved from the distress they must otherwise have been exposed to; and that five hundred of them had been accommodated with a passage to Porto Rico, and the rest were to follow as opportunity offered.

29th. The price of milk was this day raised in London, from two-pence-halfpenny to three-pence the quart.

There are three Russians arrived here in the Queen Indiaman, who travelled on foot from Moscow to Canton in China, through the
Vol. XV.
deserts of Persia, which is upwards of 5000 miles. They were three years on their journey, and endured incredible hardships. By order of her imperial majesty the empress queen, a stone pillar, about an hundred feet high, has been erected on the outward works of the fortification nearest to the west side of the entrance into the port of Ostend. On the top of the pillar, a coal-fire, large enough to be seen a great distance at sea, is to be kept burning every night throughout the year, commencing on the 15th day of next month, in order to direct vessels into the harbour. There will also constantly lie in that road, both day and night, a boat, with a sufficient number of able pilots, acquainted with the coast, to be ready to give all necessary assistance to vessels arriving there, either in anchoring or otherwise.

Died lately, Lewis Davis, at Llalhyndrid, Flintshire, remarkable for his memory and other natural powers. He could repeat (after a second reading) two or three hundred lines, either of prose or verse, and could converse agreeably on almost every subject of science, though he never had a liberal education.

Mr. William Acres, famous for his skill in the Irish, Erse, and Welch tongues.

Mrs. Redrick, aged 105, at Shrewsbury.

John Symmonds, aged 105. He acquired 2000l. by vermin-killing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

OCTOBER.

On Wednesday evening, a German, who had been drinking
[K]