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54
Annual Register

of Caffils [[?]]. His marriage being discovered in Scotland, he fled with his wife to England, and joined with the party opposite to that of the Duke of York, of which the Hamiltons were the chief support in Scotland. The enmity of that house pursued him to England, where he exerted himself to the utmost to acquire a name in the antiroyal party. Being compelled to leave England, he traversed France, Italy, and Germany, from whence he went to the Prince of Orange, at the Hague, whose fortunes he followed, and whom he served with all the ardour of a ringleader of a party; the prince shewed his gratitude, by procuring for the doctor, at the death of his first wife, (who, not chusing [[choosing]] to follow her husband in his peregrinations, stayed behind him in England) a Dutch heiress in marriage; by this lady he had seven children, five of whom survived their father. Upon the death of his second wife, he married a rich widow of the name of Berkeley.
It was not his fault that his patron and benefactor, who was looked upon by some as conqueror of England, did not seize upon all the prerogatives which flow from the right of conquest, and which had been so fatal to the nation under William the Bastard. With a view of promoting this design of the Prince of Orange, Burnet published a pastoral letter, which was condemned to the flames by the House of Commons. His last work was a virulent invective against the peace of Utrecht and the Pretender, from whose resentment he would have had every thing to fear in case Queen Anne had called the exiled family to the throne. 
The chancel of St. James's church Clerkenwell, where he was buried in 1715, is adorned with a long Latin epitaph, which praises him as Libertatis, patriae [[?]], veraeque [[?]], religionis strenuum semperque indefessium propugnatorem, tyrannidi & superstitioni perpetuo infensum. "The strenuous and unwearied defender of liberty, his country, and true religion, and the eternal enemy of tyranny and superstition."
Whilst I was in London, died a son of Bishop Burnet: I had been informed that he was just come from Paris, where, in quality of commissioner of Court of Seffion [[?]] at Edinburgh, he had just finished a judicial enquiry, which was to be made use of in the cause depending some years between the families of Douglas and Hamilton.
In collecting these particulars of Dr. Burnet, I have followed the fame method which I have observed with regard to other celebrated writers. These anecdotes throw a light upon their works, and contribute to render them interesting to their readers when they would not have been so of themselves. To peruse them with this assistance, is as different from reading them without it, as the conversation of an acquaintance differs from that of a man we have no knowledge of. 

Anecdotes of the notorious James Bolland.

James Bolland was born in the Borough of Southwark. His father followed the profession of a butcher, and brought his son up to the same trade. After the death of his father, he married a young woman possessed of about three 

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For the Year 1772

three hundred pounds, and set up for himself in the Borough, where for some time he lived in reputation; but his natural propensity to pleasure and dissipation led him into such extravagancies as soon brought his affiars into a very embarrassed state, and he was obliged to have recourse to many expedients to support his credit. Amongst others, fame has been pretty industrious in propagating, that being butcher to St. Thomas's Hospital, he defrauded that charity of a very considerable sum, by having a wooden weight, which in appearance resembled a leaden one of 56lb. though it weighed no more than 7lb. His journeyman observing this and similar deceptions, thought he might retaliate upon his master, by defrauding him of cash; which being discovered by his nephew, who was his apprentice, B. upbraided his man, who, to be revenged of the informer, took an opportunity of seizing the boy in his sleep, and hanging him to a staple, in which situation he was found dead one morning. Bolland was generally thought to have been an acccessary to this murder; but he declared to the ordinary, just before he was turned off, on being questioned relative to this affair, "that to sereen [[?]] his servant, who had been privy to his own acts of injustice, he had a coroner's jury to fit upon the body of the boy, who, from the circumstances that were laid before them, brought in their verdict lunacy, and he had the body privately buried; that he blamed himself for conniving at the affair, but was no way privy or concerned in it." The difficulties that surrounded him, and his ill usage, so affected his wife that she fell a sacrifice to grief and despair.
Upon the death of his first wife her place was presently supplied by a female friend, with whom he had a connection for some time, and which his wife having discovered, greatly increased her misfortunes. His present help-mate did not lay any great claim to that rigid virtue which constitutes the brightest ornament of the sex: she had several admirers, and amongst the rest an honest tar, who at this period returning from a long voyage, with his pockets well lined, he was a welcome visitor, even in the eyes of Bolland; who, however, not chusing he should be too long a guest, induced his sultana to persuade Jack to make another voyage, which he did, leaving his cash in her hands. As long as the money lasted he treated his dulcinea tolerably well; but at the end of this period, she becoming troublesome, he got an associate to swear a debt against her, and lodged her in the Fleet, where she died a short time after. Her maritime lover returned, and finding what had happened, was almost distracted, and is said to be now reduced to the miserable station of a dog-skinner.
He now commenced a sheriff's officer for the county of Surry; but judging that the same station in Middlesex would be more to his advantage, he entered upon that office on this side of the water. It was in this capacity that he played so many pranks as have made his name conspicuous in the annals of infamy. Amongst others, having in his custody an eminent trader, whose affairs were much embarrassed, and finding that his person had

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