Perth.
In Wanley's Wonders of the Little Moral World (London, 1806), vol. i. p. 76., will be found several instances of numerous families by one mother; in one case (No. 27.) fifty-seven children; and in another (No. 6.), no less than seventy-three! Your correspondent can refer to the authorities, which are also given. The authenticity of one of the cases mentioned (No. 23.) will probably be easily ascertained, as it is said to be the copy of an inscription in the churchyard of Heydon in Yorkshire, to the following effect:—
"Here lieth the body of William Strutton of Padrington, buried the 18th of May, 1734, aged ninety-seven, who had by his first wife twenty-eight children, and by a second wife seventeen; was father to forty-five, grandfather to eighty-six, great-grandfather to ninety-seven, and great-great-grandfather to twenty-three—in all 251."—Gent. Mag. Aug. 1731.
There appears to be some mistake in the reference, and I may mention that I have not been able to find the epitaph in Mr. Urban's pages with the assistance of the general index.[8]
E. N.
[8] [It occurs in the October number of 1734, p. 571.—ED.]
Reeve and Muggleton (Vol. v., pp. 80. 236.).
—One of the handsomest quartos of our day, both in typography and engravings, is, Two Systems of Astronomy: first, the Newtonian System ... second, the System in accordance with the Holy Scriptures ... by Isaac Frost, London, 4to., 1846 (Simpkin and Marshall). This work is Muggletonian, and contains some extracts from The Divine Looking-Glass of the Third Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Reeve and Muggleton. I request your readers to draw no inference from the letter with which I sign my communications.
M.