Welsh Journals

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SOME SALUSBURY MANUSCRIPTS. From time to time the National Library receives consignments of documents from the British Records Association. Generally, the parcels contain deeds and manorial records, but a recent consignment included two manuscript volumes of a more personal nature. The first clue to the identity of the compiler of these manuscripts is provided by the title which he gave to one of them. It is Thomas Salusbury's Book of Scraps and Diversities', and the volume is a scrap-book of more than ordinary interest, with obvious associations with North Wales, particularly Denbighshire, and some slight connections with Monmouthshire. It contains medical and culinary recipes, many of them attributed to North Wales physicians, notes on contemporary events during the Napoleonic Wars, press cuttings, anecdotes of George II and Lord Chatham, notes on sermons preached by the Rev. Mr. Edwards at Wrexham, 1787, Bishop Horsley, 1805, the Rev. Mr. Mason at Denbigh, 1807, and the Rev Mr. Philips to the general satisfaction of a crowded audience' at the same place, 1818, notes on notable members of the Salusbury family, genealogical extracts from the family Bible at Cotton Hall, and particulars of the birthdays of the compiler's relatives, friends, and acquaintances. The other volume is by the same hand and consists of extracts from the genealogical books of John Reynolds of Oswestry, with some additional material, particularly a pedigree of the writer's own Bach-y-Graig branch of the Salusbury family brought down to the year 1807. This branch of the great Salusbury family of Llewenni is not without its points of interest. Hester Lynch Salusbury, successively Mrs. Thrale and Mrs. Piozzi, is the most celebrated member of the branch. Her uncle Sir Thomas Salusbury (d. 1773), a judge of the High Court of Admiralty and, iure uxoris, squire of Offley St. Ledgers in Hertford- shire, also figures in this pedigree. With the manor of Offley went the patronage of the living which was held during much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by Salusburys of Bach-y-Graig. It was held by Sir Thomas's own cousin Thelwall Salusbury2 (d. 1803), by the latter's nephew, Lynch, who asumed the surname of Buroughs in 1804, and again by his nephew, another Thelwall Salusbury (d. 1880). Another member of the family, and the eldest brother of the compiler of the two volumes, was Sir Robert Salusbury (1756-1817), M.P. for Monmouthshire (1792-6) and Breconshire (1796-1812) who founded the baronetcy of Salusbury of Llanwern in Monmouthshire in 17953. Thomas Salusbury gives little prominence to his more famous relations, and his second cousin Hester Lynch Piozzi is dis- missed with these few words­f Hester, who married first a Thrale of London, by whom she had several Daughters4, and secondly an Italian of the name of Piozzi, and has no issue After Gabriel Piozzi's death, in 1809, Salusbury substituted' but had no issue by him' for the last phrase. He also found room for Mrs. Piozzi's poem, The Three Warnings,' in his scrap book. 1 Another descendant of these Salusburys who figures in the history of English liter- ature was Thomas Hughes, author of Tom Brown's Schooldays. 2 He was one of Hester Lynch's scorned suitors. See J. L. Clifford Hester Lynch Piozzi (Mrs. Thrale), 1941, p. 32. 3 This baronetcy became extinct in 1868. Llanwern later became the seat of David Alfred, Viscount Rhondda. 4 The words printed in italic were added later, presumably after Mr. Piozzi's death. The daughters were Hester Maria (d. 1857), wife of Viscount Keith, Susannah Arabella (d. 1858), Sophia (d. 1824), wife of Henry Merrick Hoare, and Cecilia Margaret (d. 1857), wife of John Meredydd Mostyn of Segrwyd.