William Albert Samuel Hewins

“ He endeavoured, however, to bring his views to the notice of the commissioners, and he wrote to the king on ‘the depth of the mystery of trade.’ In 1640, when it was proposed to supply the king's financial necessities by debasing the currency, Maddison wrote to him (7 July) , pointing out the evils which would result from such a measure. ‘A man of good affections to the parliament’ (Tanner MSS. lvi. 54) , he advanced money to it during the civil war. ”

“ Until the revolution of 1688 he ‘had experience abroad and at home in matters of general trade and revenues’ (Paterson's ‘Memorial to George I,’ dated 8 March 1714–15 quoted by Bannister) , going for several years ‘in person’ to the West Indies, where his reputation was so great that at the time of the Darien expedition it was said that ‘wherever he should be settled, thither the people would throng from all the plantations to join him.’ He also formed connections with New England. ”

“ He went to Scotland in 1706, and remained there until the end of the negotiations, waiting upon ministers, explaining the treaty, and smoothing away difficulties. One of the last acts of the Scottish parliament (25 March 1707) was to recommend him to Queen Anne ‘for his good service’ (Defoe, History of the Union, p. 525) . Though the people of Dumfries had suffered much from the failure of the Darien scheme, and had been violently opposed to the union, they returned Paterson, with William Johnstoun, to the first united parliament. ”

“ Paterson is the hero of Eliot Warburton's novel Darien, or the Merchant Prince, an historical romance, London, 1852; and to Paterson is dedicated Paul Coq's treatise La Monnaie de Banque ou l'espèce et le portefeuille, Paris, 1863, to which is prefixed a memoir, in which full justice is done to Paterson's supreme business talents. ”

“ In 1695 he went to Scotland, where Andrew Fletcher [q. v.] of Saltoun introduced him to members of the administration, and his scheme was eagerly taken up. Paterson himself framed the first draft of the act establishing the Scottish Africa and India Company (26 June 1695) . He raised 300,000l., the maximum fixed for any one subscription in England, and 400,000l. in Scotland, besides obtaining subscriptions from abroad; he himself subscribed 3,000l. But pressure by Spain, France, and Holland compelled the English government to publicly withdraw their support ”

“ In his seventeenth year he obtained employment as a farm labourer. 'I ate and drank,' he says, 'at the same table as my master and mistress, for I was the only servant or labourer they kept' (Hints and Observations on the Improvement of Agriculture, 1794) . His wages were 23s. 4d. for the half-year. After suffering many hardships as a farm labourer in Scotland, he migrated to England and became in January 1785 gardener to Lord Hawkesbury (afterwards second earl of Liverpool) , at Addiscombe Place, near Croydon, where he remained twenty years. ”

“ MACKENZIE, Sir GEORGE STEUART (1780–1848) , mineralogist, only son of Major-general Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Coul, by his wife Katharine, daughter of Robert Ramsay of Camno, was born on 22 June 1780. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1796. He first became known to the scientific world in 1800, when he obtained a 'decisive proof of the identity of diamond with carbon' by a series of experiments on the formation of steel by the combination of diamonds with iron (Nicholson, Journal of Natural Philosophy, iv. 103–10) . ”

“ In 1703 he proposed, if indeed he did not actually establish, a public library of commerce and finance, for ‘to this necessary and it's hoped now rising study of trade there is requisite not only as complete a collection as possible of all books, pamphlets, and schemes relating to trade ... ancient or modern, but likewise of the best histories, voyages, and accounts of the states, laws, and customs of countries, that from them it may be more clearly ... understood how ... wars, conquests ... plenty, want, good or bad management, or influence of government ... ”

“ The leading men in the large towns countenanced them. ‘Were these greate people,’ Lucy wrote to Archbishop Sheldon (ib. cxlvi. 113) , ‘wch maintaine these preachers and scholes, forced to pay such summes to ye amendment of poore vicarages in market townes, I durst say I would make this a happy diocese free from such scandalous schismes.’ Lucy completely failed to check the progress of dissent. During the last five years of his life he was unable to leave his house. He died on 4 Oct. 1677, and was buried in the collegiate church of Brecon. A son, Robert, became registrar of St. David's ”

“ In these experiments he is said to have made free use of his mother's jewels (Mrs. Gordon, Some Life of Sir David Brewster, p. 215) . A few years later he became fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and ultimately president of the physical class of the latter. ”

“ PENKETHMAN, JOHN (fl. 1638) , accountant, professed, in addition to his ordinary business, ‘to translate old manuscripts or bookes in any kind of Latin (according to the qualitie of the subject) into English, Prose or Verse.’ In 1638 he published ‘Artachthos ”

“ But ‘upon second thoughts, and perhaps a desire of a sedate and academical life’ (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss) , iii. 1127) , he entered Caius College, Cambridge, as a fellow-commoner on 12 June 1615, and proceeding M.A. in the following year, lived at Cambridge until 1619, when he became rector of Burghclere, Hampshire. ”

“ Cal. State Papers, Dom. (Jac. I) , xliii. 20, cxxxi. 106, ib. (Car. I) , xiv. 18, 19, ccccxxxi. 26, ccccclxi. 74, ib. 1649–50, ii. 12, iii. 113; Cal. Committee for Advance of Money, pt. i. p. 173; Burke's Landed Gentry, ii. ”