he was not more than twenty-four years of age, and he had twice sailed with Lieutenant Bligh. His brother Edward became professor of law at Cambridge, Chief-justice of Ely, and well known as the editor of "Blackstone's Commentaries." The family was nearly connected with the Christian Curwens of Cumberland, and one of them was for many years member of Parliament for the county. The parents of George Stewart (another of the midshipmen) were descended from two different branches of the family of that name. His father's family dates back to 1400, and his mother's ancestors claimed their descent from the half-brother of Queen Mary Stuart, to whom she gave possession of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and whose successors were created earls by James VI. of Scotland. The following extract is from an interesting letter, dated the 1st of April, 1869, addressed to the authoress of this volume by Mrs. Barry, the aged sister of George Stewart, then in her ninety-second year. She was the widow of a clergyman, and resided in Edinburgh.*

"My father, living on his property in the island of Ronaldsay, Orkneys (where he was born, and where he was married), finding that his family could not enjoy the benefit of being sent to school, moved thence to the town of Stromness, where he built a house. The port was much frequented by shipping, having a very commodious har

* She died since, on the 20th of May, 1870, aged 92, and was one of the last contemporaries of the history of the Bounty. The following notice appeared in the "United Service Gazette," June 18th, 1870:

"There died recently in Edinburgh, at a very advanced age, Mrs. Barry, widow of the late Rev. J. Barry, formerly minister of Shapinshay, Orkney. This venerable lady was the sister of Midshipman Stewart, of the Bounty, who perished eighty years ago in the Pandora, when she was wrecked off the north-east coast of New Holland, on her way to England. To those who have read 'The Island' of Lord Byron, the character of the bold and daring young Arcadian (Midshipman Stewart) will be familiar."

bor, where homeward and outward bound vessels frequently ran in for shelter. Captain Cook, who was on a voyage of discovery, put into that harbor. My father became acquainted with him and some of his officers; among others with Bligh, who consequently knew my eldest brother. Bligh may possibly have understood that George was inclined to go to sea, and may have said that if he could be of any use in furthering his views he would do so; but whether or not the Bounty was the first ship George sailed in I do not know, but, poor fellow, it was his last.* His two brothers, who were fine handsome youths, went to the West Indies, where they managed estates, and after being several years there one died of fever. The youngest came home for a few months, but returned to lay his bones in Trinidad, where he had had the management of the estates of Lord Cochrane. My father did not live to see any of them again; he died in 1790. My mother only saw her youngest son before she died."

Peter Heywood, the youngest midshipman in the Bounty, belonged to one of those families whose ancestors came to England in the retinues of the great Norman barons. Piers Eywode, or Aiwode, obtained a grant of land in Lancashire, near the present town of Heywood. This grant was made by Adelm Fitzadelm, son-in-law of the Conqueror, and the Eywodes appear to have remained in uninterrupted succession on this estate until the sixteenth century. A branch of the family then followed the earl

* Mrs. Barry, being the youngest child of a numerous family, had little recollection of her eldest brother, George Stewart, who went to sea at sixteen years of age, and joined the Bounty when twenty-one. In his narrative, Lieutenant Bligh speaks of Stewart as follows: "Stewart was a young man of creditable parents in the Orkneys, at which place, on the return of the Resolution from the South Seas in 1780, we received so many civilities, that on that account only I would gladly have taken him with me, but independent of this recommendation, he was a seaman, and had always borne a good character."

of Derby to the Isle of Man, where an Eywode became governor of the island, and several of his descendants held important offices. They came into possession of the Nunnery Estate through their connection with the old family of the Caldecotes. A Captain Caldecote married Margaret Goodman, last prioress of the nunnery near Douglas, who considered herself released from her vows by the dissolution of religious houses at the Reformation. She obtained a grant of the convent and estate of the nunnery, and the last descendant of that union being a female and the heiress, married Hugh Connell, Attorney-general, whose only daughter married the great-grandfather of the subject of this notice, and the nunnery thus passed into the Heywood family.

Notwithstanding a connection with the famous regicide, Colonel Fleetwood, the politics of the Heywoods seem to have been strictly loyal, and a brother of Mr. Heywood, of Heywood Hall, took an active part in the arrest of Guy Fawkes, and secured the conspirator's lantern. He presented it as a trophy to the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, where it is still to be seen, with a Latin inscription recording the event. The fate of this relative is described in an epitaph on a monument in the church of St. Anne and St. Agnes, in Aldersgate Street, beneath which are deposited the remains of a descendant, and probably his own:*

"Peter Heiwood, that deceased Nov. 22, 1701, youngest son of Peter Heiwood, one of the chancellors of Jamaica, by Grace, daughter of John Muddeford, Kt. and Bart., great-grandson of Peter Heiwood, County Palatine of Lancashire, who apprehended Guy Fawkes, with his dark lantern, and for his zealous prosecution of the papists, as Justice of the Peace, was stabbed in Westminster Hall, by John James, a Dominican friar, Anno Dom. 1640.

"Reader, if not a Papist bred,

Upon these ashes lightly tread."

* Houghton's "London," vol. iii., p. 93.

Peter John Heywood, a Deemster of the Isle of Man, married Elizabeth, only child by a first marriage of Mr. Spedding, of Summer Grove, near Whitehaven, Cumberland; and among the younger children of her numerous family was Peter, born at the Nunnery, June 6th, 1773. As the boy grew up, his intelligence and gentle disposition made him the idol of all the members of his family, especially of his sister Nessy, who was six years his senior, and became his early favorite and preceptress. He passed his first and happiest years at the Nunnery and at Douglas, and there first imbibed his predilection for maritime pursuits and studies. In his eleventh year Peter was sent to school at Nantwich, in Cheshire, and always spoke gratefully of the instruction he received from the Rev. Mr. Hunter, to whose care he was confided. When sufficiently advanced he was removed to St. Bees, where his career of study was very brief, in consequence of what was considered a favorable opportunity occurring to gratify the boy's ardent aspiration for the naval service. Lieutenant Bligh when in the Isle of Man visited at the Nunnery, and on being appointed to the command of the Bounty wrote to Deemster Heywood, offering to take his son. The appointment was secured at the Admiralty through the influence of a relative, Mr. Heywood, of Maristow, in Devonshire.

In the summer of the year 1787, just as he had completed his fourteenth year, Peter Heywood left the Isle of Man to join Lieutenant Bligh at Deptford. To his mother and sisters a voyage to the South Seas appeared most formidable; but the prospect of placing him under the care of a friend softened the pain of parting, as a proposal had been accepted to the effect that he should reside with Lieutenant and Mrs. Bligh until the Bounty sailed. His mother's last adieux and blessings were accompanied by

the gift of a Bible and Prayer-Book; the latter being the only solace destined to remain in his possession during many months of trial and adversity. Peter's father accompanied him from Douglas to Liverpool, where an arrangement was made that he should travel post with two friends of Mr. Heywood, who were going up to London; and as an illustration of the dangers of the road eightythree years since, it may be observed that these gentlemen were provided each with a pair of pistols duly primed and placed in the pocket of the chaise. The father and son then took what was to be a final leave of one another, as Mr. Heywood died before any intelligence of the Bounty reached England. His parting gift was his own watch, containing a portrait-in enamel set with brilliants-of Peter's mother, which (as Captain Heywood used in after years to say) was taken from him on his arrival at Deptford by "a very gentlemanly young man."