M. A.
Prospect House, Clerkenwell.—Will any of your correspondents learned in old London topography inform me when the "Prospect House, or Dobney's Bowling Green," Clerkenwell, ceased to be a place of amusement; and where any account is to be found of one Wildman, who is said to have exhibited his bees there in 1772. (Vide Mirror, vol. xxxiv. p. 107.) And in what consisted this exhibition? Also, if any other plate of the Three Hats public-house, Islington, exists than that in the Gentleman's Magazine? Also, if there exists any portrait of Mrs. Sampson, said to have been the first female equestrian performer, and Life of Sampson, who used also to perform at the gardens behind the Three Hats?
J. W. G. G.
Ancient Family of Widderington.—In an old Prayer Book, now before me, I find this entry:—"Ralph Witherington was married to Mary Smith the 13th day of Nov. in the year of our Lord 1703, at seaven o'clock in the morning, Sunday." Then follow the dates of the births of a numerous progeny. Can any of your readers tell me who these parties were, or any particulars about them? The early hour of a winter morning seems strange. Some of the children settled in Dublin, and intermarried with good Irish families; but from the entry in another part of the volume, in an older hand, of "Ralph Witharington of Hauxley, in the parish of Warqurth, in the county of Northumberland," the family appear previously to have lived in England.
I have never been able to find the motto of the Widderingtons. Their arms are, of course, well known, viz., Quarterly, argent and gules, a bend sable; crest, a bull's head: but I have never seen their legend.
W. X.
P. S.—The marriage is not entered in the registers of Warkworth. It may be in some of the records (of the city) of Dublin. I have seen the motto "Veritas Victrix" appended to a coat of arms, in which the Widderington shield had a place; but it was believed to belong to the name of Mallet in one of the quarters.
Value of Money in the Seventeenth Century.—What are the data for comparing the value of money in the seventeenth century with its present value? What may 1000l. in 1640, in 1660, in 1680, be considered equivalent to now?
C. H.