Mr. Martyn, in 1723 (as is stated in a preceding page), married Eulalia, youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr. John King, Rector of Chelsea, by whom he had three sons and five daughters, all of whom were born in Church Street, Chelsea, in the same house wherein their mother was born and died, and in which her father, Dr. King, lived and died. Mrs. Martyn died in 1749, from a cancer in her breast, occasioned by a violent blow given her as she was walking in London.
In 1750, Mr. Martyn married, secondly, a daughter of Claude Fonnereau, Esq., merchant of London, who bore him one son and survived him. Soon after this he retired to Streatham, Surrey. In 1761 he resigned his professorship of botany; and some time after presented to the University his library of botanical books, amounting to above 200 volumes.
Chelsea, notwithstanding the happiness he enjoyed at Streatham, seems after all to have been his favourite place of abode, as he removed back again to his former residence in Church Street, and at last, by the most gradual and gentle decay, died there in 1768.
Mr. Martyn’s benevolence was that of a Christian, diffusive and unconfined; he was considered as the father of the poor in the parish, and gave constant attention to the sick, both in and out of the workhouse. He was the author of many works, two of which we shall notice:—
“An Account of an Aurora Australis, seen at Chelsea, March 18, 1738–9.” This was the first account which had ever been given of that phenomenon.
“An Account of an Earthquake felt in London, February 8, 1749–50.”
The following extract from the latter account will no doubt interest the reader: “At 40 minutes after noon, all the houses were violently shaken, especially those nearest the river. A maid servant, passing from one under office to another, felt the ground, which was six feet below the surface, shake. Of those who were in the street, or on the river, some felt, others not. It was felt at Fulham, but not at Hounslow, Brentford, nor Richmond, nor farther westward than Kensington Turnpike; it seemed to terminate in the west, about two miles beyond Chelsea.”
Mr. Martyn was also engaged in a weekly paper, called “The Grub Street Journal,” which had a large sale, about the year 1736. It was one of the most curious of the periodical papers of that period. In a fine vein of irony it attacked the heroes of the Dunciad, and tells some secrets of their obscure quarrels. [85] The papers he contributed are distinguished by the signature “B.”
William Petyt, Esq., to whom we have already slightly referred, in the account of his gift to the parish of the School Room at the Old Church, resided in Church Street, and died there in 1707, aged 71 years. Of his progress through life there is no information, except that he enjoyed considerable reputation as a writer on the laws and constitution of England, which are preserved in the Inner Temple Library. There is a long Latin epitaph to his memory in the Temple Church. It was the year before his death that he built the schoolrooms and vestry.
The White Horse Inn in Church Street, which was burnt down some years since, and a new one substituted for it, was a very ancient house, built in the style which prevailed in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth. The disposition of the rooms, the ancient panelling, and the various grotesque ornaments and carving, especially of human figures in the form of brackets, were well worthy of inspection, and excited the attention of most strangers who visited the house.