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His lordship is better known as an enterprising and successful agriculturist than as an antiquary. In this pursuit he conferred no inconsiderable benefit on his country, by his attention to the breeding of stock, as was evinced by the high prices produced at the sale of his animals, consequent upon his decease. He was President of the Royal Agricultural Society, and most highly esteemed by that body. He was much beloved by his friends and his tenantry, and has been succeeded in his honours by his son Henry John, now carl of Ducie, who has honoured the Association by permitting his name to be enrolled as an Associate, and as the successor of his father.

SIR FRANCIS MYERS, K.C.S., was originally bred to the law, but had long ceased to practise. He joined the Association as a life member in 1845, and occasionally attended the meetings. He contributed a very interesting deed to the Society in 1846. It was one executed between King Henry VIII, and the Lord Admiral Howard, which preceded the expedition in which that nobleman lost his life in the year 1512. He died in May last at the age of sixty-four.

THOMAS BLOWEN, esq., of Southwark, was almost unknown to us as a member, he dying a few months after his admission. I am given to understand that he took great interest in antiquarian researches, and that had he survived, we should have derived much advantage from the information he possessed.

SAMUEL HOLEHOUSE, esq., was a member of the Association from its commencement, and made a donation to its funds prior to the adoption of a regular subscription. Those who took part in the visit paid by the Association to the City of London in January 1852, at which examination was made of the hall of the Company of Barbers in Monkwell-street, St. James-in-the-wall, and that neighbourhood, will recollect the interest. he took in our researches, and the assistance he afforded us on this occasion, he being at the time one of the wardens of the Barbers Company. I was personally under great obligations to him for obtaining for me access to the charters and other documents relating to this ancient fraternity, the result of which has been printed in my account of the Barber Surgeons, to be found in the eighth volume of the Journal. (pp. 93-130).

JAMES DODSLEY CUFF, esq., F.S.A., of Prescott Lodge, Clapham New Park, was likewise one of our earliest Associates, and was anxious to render us assistance. So late as the Congress held at Newark in 1852, under the presidency of His Grace the duke of Newcastle, the state of his health not permitting his attendance at the meeting, he entrusted to his old and highly esteemed friend, our excellent Associate, W. D.

Haggard, esq., F.S.A., a series of Newark pieces, the coinage of Charles I, struck at that place, from the plate contributed by the neighbouring nobility and gentry for the use of their king. To Mr. Haggard, who equally with Mr. Cuff is distinguished by his knowledge of numismatics, we are indebted for an excellent paper on this subject printed in the Journal (vol. viii, pp. 257-260).

Mr. Cuff for some time previous to his decease, which occurred on the 28th of September 1853, in the seventy-third year of his age, laboured under severe illness, by which he was prevented from giving personal attendance either at the Association, the Society of Antiquaries, or the Numismatic Society. To the latter institution his contributions were numerous, that body having for its especial object the consideration of coins and medals, in the knowledge of which Mr. Cuff peculiarly excelled. Mr. Cuff was attached to the Bullion office of the Bank of England, and was on duty there during forty-eight years, most highly esteemed. He made a very fine collection of coins, well-known to all numismatists as embracing specimens of extraordinary value and rarity. An excellent judge in this matter, speaking of his collection', says that of Saxon, it is supposed to be one of the most choice and extensive in the kingdom, containing some that are believed to be unique specimens, as are some of the ancient British. The coins from the Conquest are reported to be of the first order; so also as to the Scotch and Irish. Among the more rare and valuable pieces in the collection may be specified that given by Charles I, to bishop Juxon, when on the scaffold, the celebrated petition and Reddite crowns, the crown of Henry VIII, etc. This collection will be dispersed in June next, by a sale at Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson's, to extend over seventeen days, three of which are entirely devoted to the Anglo-Saxon coins, and we may venture to express our hope that many important specimens may be secured to the British Museum.

It may not be uninteresting to add, that Mr. Cuff derived the name of Dodsley from the connexion of his mother with the family of the celebrated bookseller of the last century, so well known to all literary men. She was the daughter of Isaac Dodsley, who was a schoolmaster at Mansfield, Notts; a man distinguished not only by his classical attainments, but also by his taste and information, and by his designs of, and application to, the very tasteful plantations which distinguished Prior Park, the residence of Allen, the friend of Pope and Warburton.

HENRY BROWN, esq., was connected with the bank at Chester, attended the congress held in that ancient city in 1849, at which time he joined the Association, and continued a member until his decease, much interested in its Journal and proceedings.

1 See Gentleman's Magazine for Nov. 1853, p. 533.

In SETII WILLIAM STEVENSON, esq., F.S.A., we have to deplore the loss of one of our earliest associates. He joined us in 1845. To those who are familiar with Bentham's History of Ely, the labours of his father will be well known, and to the second edition of this excellent work, our late member devoted much time and attention, enriching it with considerable additions of great interest and value. The pursuits of both father and son were literary; they were the proprietors and editors of an excellent provincial paper, the Norfolk Chronicle, in which, upon the decease of our associate, an elegant and well deserved compliment was paid to his memory, he having been engaged in its interests for the space of forty-five years. "We lose," say his coadjutors, "his clear, comprehensive, and directing mind—his vigorous intellect, and comprehensive taste the ready pen of the accomplished scholar-the needed advice in difficulty and emergency of such a matured age—and the high privilege of habitual intercourse with a noble-hearted English gentleman and christian. A rare concentration of qualities bestowed by providence in a position of life especially needing them, and ever used by their possessor for the worthiest and holiest of purposes." The limited acquaintance I had with Mr. Stevenson, makes me feel the justice of this eulogy. If any confirmation of it be necessary, it will be found in the respect and attachment of those with whom he constantly lived, by whose suffrages he was, although of manners retiring and most gentle, elected to the office of sheriff of the city of Norwich, in 1828, afterwards raised to the position of alderman, and in 1832 filled the office of mayor, to the great satisfaction of the corporation and the people of Norwich. Connected thus with municipal affairs, and having the conduction of an old established periodical requiring almost hourly attention, Mr. S. could have enjoyed but little leisure time, for the prosecution of those objects to which his taste would naturally lead him. He, however, by a judicious arrangement and order, which often exceeds in value even the higher possession of genius, was enabled to devote some portion of his attention to the pursuit of literary objects, apart from public and political considerations; and partaking of the general excitement felt at the termination of the war, by the glorious events on the plains of Waterloo, he contrived to visit that spot in company with captain Money, one well able to illustrate to him the circumstances connected with that proud and glorious military triumph. The result, as might be expected, was the publication of a volume, printed with the title of Journal of a Tour through part of France, Flanders, and Holland, including a visit to Paris, and a walk over the field of Waterloo, in the summer of 1816. This production he dedicated to a body, bearing the denomination of the Society of Friars of Norwich, a literary body of which he was almost the last surviving member. Norwich has ever been remarkable for the number and greatness of the literary men she has either given birth to, or who have domiciled

on her land, and in this society Mr. S. became in his time a distinguished member. The excitement of the excursion to Waterloo, in 1816, created the desire for another in 1828, which produced another work, published in 2 vols., 8vo., entitled A Tour in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands, which was favourably received, and noticed with commendation. But Mr. Stevenson's literary labours did not cease with this publication; he was for many years, at all moments of leisure, engaged in composing a complete Dictionary of Roman Coins. Mr. Fairholt has been for some time past engaged in making drawings illustrative of this series, and I am informed that a portion of the work has already been printed, and that the MS. of the remainder is in such a state of preparation, as to warrant the expectation of seeing the work complete at no very distant period.

Mr. Stevenson paid particular attention to numismatics, and made several communications to the Numismatic Society. To our Association he exhibited a remarkably fine ivory casket belonging to the commencement of the fourteenth century, richly carved with legendary subjects. This casket has been justly regarded as one of the most interesting works of its kind, and has been beautifully engraved in the fifth volume of our Journal, with an illustrative paper from the pen of Mr. Thos. Wright.

In the summer of last year Mr. Stevenson became indisposed, and symptoms of general and premature decay speedily manifested themselves. He quitted Norwich to visit his son-in-law, Mr. John Deighton, of Cambridge, surgeon, and at his house expired on the 22nd of December, at the age of sixty-eight years.

Deeply as we must deplore the loss of associates such as I have just enumerated, it yet remains to me to complete the list of the past year's obituary by the mention of one to whom I was intimately known for more than a quarter of a century—one who had from the commencement of our Association taken an active part in our researches-contributed to our Journal-attended our congresses-sat at our council board-officiated as Vice-President in this room-and gained the regard and admiration of all-need I name the late Ulster King of Arms of all Ireland, sir Wм. BETHAM, knt. To those who have witnessed the manner in which he associated with us it is unnecessary for me to expatiate upon his unaffected manners, his good-humour, his extent of information, and the zeal with which he espoused any opinions he might entertain. The vivacity and occasional eccentricity, if I may use that term, in which he indulged, may perhaps be attributed in some measure to his long abode in the sister island, whose inhabitants are remarkable for their ready wit and humour; but sir W. Betham was not a native of Ireland, but born at Stradbroke, in Suffolk, May 22, 1779. From a pedigree recorded in the archives of the office of Ulster King of Arms, in the year 1817, I find the family of Betham traced from Ralph or Radulph de Betham, lord

of the manor of Betham, in Westmoreland, witness to the foundation charter of Cockersand Abbey, also to a deed of Alan de Penington, and gave a saltwork and two patella to the abbey of Furness, in Lancashire, tempore Henry II. Sir W. Betham was therefore descended from an ancient family, settled ever since the conquest at Betham, in Westmoreland, and subsequently at Strickland, in the same county. They were originally Montgomerics, but a younger son, who obtained a grant of the manor and estate of Betham, as was the fashion of that day, took the name De Betham from his estate, which afterwards went off through a female to the family of Middleton, and is now in the possession of Mr. Wilson, of Dallam Tower, Westmoreland.

The father of sir Wm. Betham was the rev. Wm. Betham, sometime of Stonham Aspul, in Suffolk, and afterwards rector of Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire, author of Genealogical Tables of the Sovereigns of the World, 1795, fol., and of a Baronetage of England, 1805, five volumes, quarto. In 1805 our late associate went to Ireland on business connected with the bringing out of this work, and called on sir Chichester Fortescue, who was then Ulster King of Arms. The office of arms was then held in a house in Eustace-street, Dublin, and was only open for one day in the week for two hours. Sir William at once saw what might be made of it, and offered to take all trouble off sir Chichester's hands, who was a rear-admiral in the navy, and knew little, if anything, of heraldic matters. Sir Chichester appointed him Deputy-Ulster, and Athlone Pursuivant, which offices he held with the approbation and friendship of every Lord-lieutenant from that time to his decease. Notwithstanding the manner in which the office appears to have been filled, it was yet one of considerable antiquity, and was originally styled "Ireland King of Arms"; but on occasion of the plantation of Ulster, out of compliment to that province, the name was changed to "Ulster King of Arms". It was formerly productive of considerable emolument, which continued down to the union, when the House of Lords, of which Ulster was an officer, being abolished, a great part of the duties, together with the emoluments, ceased, and sir Chichester Fortescue received a large pension as a compensation for his losses.

In 1806 sir W. Betham married Elizabeth, daughter of the rev. Cecil Burleigh Crampton, rector of Headport, county of Galway. Sir William's first appointment bears date in the year 1807. In 1812, he was appointed genealogist attendant upon the order of St. Patrick, and on July 15th, he received the honour of knighthood from the duke of Richmond, then lord lieutenant. In 1819 he attended as deputy ulster at the fourth installation of the knights of St. Patrick, in St. Patrick's cathedral, which was very magnificently conducted, principally under his direction. He had also previously been appointed deputy keeper of the records of the late Birmingham (Wardrobe) tower in Dublin castle. In

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