Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-06-09
Many Arrows In the CULVER.

Under the above title, q writer in All III,
Year Around has collected from Notes ana
Queries, and various other publications, an
amazing list OF cases answering to the ques-
ton, Are there any well-authenticated ex-
amples OF father or mother having had
two dozen children or more ?'' Beginning
with the lowest number mentioned in the
query, the writer cites six instances prov
ing the affirmative of the question. Among
the most curious of these is that of Col.
John Turner, which is recovered from a
volume OF celebrated trials. While the suit
was in progress in which this gentleman
was involved, he gave in the following casual
bit of testimony concerning his wife "She
sat down, being somewhat fat and weary,
poor heart have had twenty-seven chill
dren by her,-fifteen sons and twelve daugh-
terS. Another interesting example is that
OF publican's wife at Chester, who was
living twenty years ago and had borne
twenty-six children within sixteen years.
There were number of twins included in
these births. A third case notable is that
OF woman who, at the beginning of the
present century, resided at New Road, and
had been the mother of twenty-eight chill
ren, all whom had been single births and
had lived several months, although not more
than ten were surviving at any one time.
Passing on to a still higher number, nine
instances are recorded where thirty or more
children were born of the same parent. An
old copy Of the GenflemaH's Mdgd-me con-
talns the obituary notice of Mrs. Agnes
Melbourne, who died at the age of l06, and
had borne thirty children. A woman in
Essex Is mentioned who had fifteen boys in
succession, and then, to make the thing
! even, had fifteen girls in the same unbroken
| sequence. 1t IS stated that when Charles V.
entered Client in state as the Count Of
! Flanders, one Oliver Minian, whose wife
had brought him twenty-one boys and ten
| girls, presented himself before the Emperor
at the head Of his corps Of boys, all in uni
/ form. OF course the marvellous spectacle
secured a pension for the prosperous father.
But the final fate Of this numerous family
was most tragical. The whole thirty-one
children were DESTROYED by the Black-Death
which prevailed in 1926, and the bereft pa
rents followed their offspring to the grave
soon after. Ghent erected a memorial TO
this extraordinary family, which is still in
preservation.
Toward the close Of the last century
remarkable sight was witnessed at Kiston-
le-mOor in Cumberland, viz. procession
consisting Of 4 man and his wife and thirty
children marching to church to attend the
baptism Of the last and thirty-first voungster
added to the family group Ii is related
that, when the Emperor Henry II. was
once travelling through Germany, the Count
OF Abendshug gave over to his sovereign his
thirty-two children, as the most precious
jewels he could offer to the crown. In a
number OF the Gmleman's Mqga-lnc for
the year l75G. there occus this terse notice
under the head of Births a woman in
We're street, Of the thirty-ffth child by one
husband"
Advancing to yet higher figure, our
authority gives four examples of upwards
OF thirty-hye children of one and the same
mother. Early in the sixteenth century,
Thomas and Helen Urquhart, Of Cromary
Castle, were the proud parents of twenty-five
sons who grew up to manhood, and Of eleven
daughters who lived 10 be married and
many of them the mothers of large families.
Towards the close Of the seventeen century
Inomas Greenhill, a surgeon and author
Of a treatise on the Art Of Embalming, ad-
dressinga petition to the Duke of Norfolk,
then Earl Marshal of England in which be
prayed That, in consideration Of your
petitioner being the seventh son and thirty
ninth child Of one father and mother, your
Grace would be pleased to signalize by some
particular motto OF augmentation IN his
coat-Oi-armor, 10 transmit to posterity 80 I'M
common thing. The application was
granted, the addition TO the Greenhill coat
ot-arms being "a demi-griain, powdered
with thIrty-nine mullets.
one Of the most remarkable instances Of
fertility Is afforded by the Bathurst family.
The youngest brother of tho late Lord Bath
urst had twenty-five children by his first
wife. and fourteen by his second while
two brothers and 4 sister Of his had, during
their married lives, sixty-fOur children
making in all Just 100 as the progeny Of the
four couples.
Proceeding u the incredible number Of
forty children. there are five cases cited.
Pennant transcribes, in his Tour in Wales,
the following epitaph: "Ilere lyeth the
body Of Nicholas Hooker, of Conway, gent,
who was the forty-frst child of his father
William Hooker, by Alice his wife, and the
father of twenty-seyen children. 1887
An inscription on a tombstone in lleyd0n
churchyard. Yorkshire. states that " llliam
Stratton was buried in 1874 at the age Of
y7 and that he had had forty-fye children,
-twenty-eight by bis first wife and seven
teen by her Successors. 1t Is said that
Florentine noble, the Marchese Fescobaldi,
possesses the portrait OF an ancestress,
Dionora Salyiato on which is inscribed the
declaration that the lady had had iitty-two
children, never less than three at a birth,
and on one occasion six at birth. still
more marvellous story is taken from the
Colleetanea Topographica, in the Harlenn
collection. where 1t Is recorded that Scotch
weaver had by one wife sixty-two children,
all of whom lived to be baptized, and forty
six Of whom grew to manhood and four TO
womanhood
But we have borrowed as many cases from
the wondrous store of our informant as the
average reader will care to 90 over. The
original writer does not yOuch for the au-
thenticity Of all OF them, but simply repeats
them as they were given to him therefore,
those which most task the credulity may
well be taken with grain of allowance
Nevertheless, there are in the list we have
quoted a sufficient number Of unquestlon-
able examples Of remarkable fecundity to
create "our special wonder" As fitting
climax to the series ofastOnishing storles,we
copy verbatim the closing paragraph OF the
article from which the whole have been ex-
tracted Horace Walpole speaks of an an
cient lady whom he visited, one Mrs. God
frey; she had daughter who had
daughter (Lady Waldegraye), who
had a son (Lord Waldegraye) who had
daughter QLadY Harriet Beard,
who had daughter (Lady Cline), who had
an infant son Horace Walpole saw all the
eight generations at different periods of his
life. The secret here was-early marriages,
one after another