The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-31 00:00:00

THE SOW, LONDON, THI7RSDAY EVENING, MARCH 31, 1564.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Holroyd.)
IN RE JAMES BALDWIN.

This bankrupt was described of Buckland, Surrey, farmer,
and to-day came up to apply for ar, order of discharge.
Mr. Linklater appeared for the assignees and did not
oppose.
Mr. Lawrence, for the bankrupt, said that this was a very
exceptional case to those which were generally brought
before the Court, inasmuch as the estate would pay 20s. in
the pound, and £3,400 had already been realised. The
bankruptcy had been occasioned by unavoidable circum-
stances, and the bankrupt at once placed his affairs before
his creditors, and it had been decided to bring the matter
into Court. He (Mr. Lawranco) considered it was one of
those cases under which the bankrupt would, under the old
act, have been awarded a first-class certificate.
Mr. Linklater concurred that the bankrupt's conduct had
been meritorious.
His Honour granted the order of discharge.
The debts are abaut £l,OOO.
RE RAYNER.

This bankrupt was a bill broker in Bucklerabury, and
this was a meeting for last examination, but no accounts
had been filed.
Mr. Chidley, for the assignees, said this was the third
default on the part of the bankrupt to file his accounts.
The case was ultimately adjourned till the 29th of
November.
This is a second bankruptcy, and the debts were stated at
£1,000; assets nil.

MARKETS—This Day.

MARK-LANE.

IMPERIAL WEEKLY AVERAGES.—Wheat, 39s lld ;
barley, 30s 10d ; oats, 19s Od; rye, 28s Od ; beaus, 32s 8d;
and peas, 33s 3d.
THE Sl3t WEEKS' AVERAGES• Wheat, 40s 3d ;
barley, 31s 6d; oats, 19s Od; rye, 28s Od; beans, 32s Ild ;
peas, 32s 10d.
ENGLISH GRAIN SOLD LAST WEEK.—Wheat, 85,776 ;
barley, 47,655; oats, 13,033,; rye, 29; beans, 5,039; peas,
850 quarters.

Whittington and his Cat,

Everybody knows the story of Dick 'Whittington and his
Cat—how the little fellow, at the age of 86N-en, ran away
from a homo where there was nothing to make him happy,
was a beggar boy for some years, and then, hearing that the
streets of London were paved with gold and silver, worked
his way thither to be saved from starvation by the good
nature of a merchant of Leadenhall-street named Fitzwar-
ren—how he was for a long time scullion in the merchant's
house, much favoured by Mistress Alice, the merchant's
daughter, but much persecuted by the vile jade of a cook,
whose bidding ho had to follow—how at length his master,
sending a shipfull of merchandise to Barbary, permitted
each one of his servants to venture something, and poor
Whittington had nothing to venture save a cat which he
had bought for a penny, and set to destroy the rats and mioe
thcet infested his garret—how, while the ship was on its
voyage, the cook maid's tyranny so troubled him that he
ran away, and had gone as far as Bunhill-fields, when the
bells of Bow Church seemed to call to him—
" Turn again, Whittington,
Thrice Lord Mayor of London,"

and how when, in obedience to this warning, he went back
to Leadenhall-street, it was to learn that his cat had been
bought by the King of Barbary for treasures worth £lOO,OOO,
so that he was all at once almost the richest commoner in.
England, fit to marry good Mistress Alice, his patron's
daughter, to become a famous merchant, and, as Bow bells
had promised, thrice Lord Mayor of London, and to live in
the City's history as one of the greatest benefactors, But
that tale is too full of anachronisms and improbabilities for
any part of it, not confirmed by authentic records, to be
believed in; and the authentic records are so few that we
can get but a slight knowledge of Whittington's real
history.
That a cat had something to do with the making of his
fortune is not easily to be denied. The legend is traced
beck to within a generation of his lifetime, and to authorities
that could hardly have been either ignorant or untruthful.
It is probable, moreover, that ho owed something to the in-
fluence and assistance of Fitzwarren, whose daughter he ,
did really marry. But that he began life as a beggar-boy
and scullion is certainly a fable. He was the youngest eon
of Sir William Whittington, a descendant of an ancient
Warwickshire family, and proprietor of the manors of
Pauntley, in Gloucestershire, and Solers Hope, in Hereford,
who died in 1360, The family possessions passed to William,
the first-born, and, on his early death, to Robert, the second
son, High Sheriff of Gloucester in 1102, and again in 1407,
and ancestor of the Whittingtons of Hamworth, existing to
this day. This Robert must have been a wealthy man.
On one occasion he was riding with his son Guy in the
neighbourhood of Hereford, when about thirty followers of
one Richard Oldcastle, who had doubtless been aggrieved
at some of the High Sheriff's proceedings, waylaid and took
them prisoners, only to be released on their entering into a
bond to pay £6OO by way of ransom, and to take no proceed-
ings against Oldcastle for his lawless conduct. In 1416,
however, Robert Whittington obtained authority from
Parliament to consider this forced engagement as null and
void ; and it is likely that he got back his money and pro-
cured the punishment of his enemy.
Richard Whittington seems to have been only a few years
old at the time of his father's death, and he was not yet a
man in 1373, when he lost his mother. Being a younger
son, he followed the common practice of younger sons in
times when there were few other professions to choose
from, and became a merchant. Of his early life
nothing is recorded. We first hear of him in the year 1393,
when he must have been nearly 40—but as he was then a
member of the Mercer's Company, and alderman and
sheriff of the City of London, we have good ground for
assuming that he had been a prosperous merchant during
many previous years. Perhaps, as the story-books assert,
he ran away to London, and then became rich through the
accidental value of his cat—but in that case the wealth thus
derived can only have been a trifling sum, to be used well
and greatly augmented by his industry. It is more pro-
bable, however—and we do him the greater honour in
making this assumption—that he rose solely through his
own talent and application. He must have had some slight
patrimony of his own, and much more must have come to
him by his marriage with Alice, the daughter of Sir Hugh
Fitzwarren, of Torrington, owner of much property in
Devonshire, Gloucestershire, and other counties.—Front
the Merchant Princes of England," in London Society.