In Bristol, about forty years ago, there lived a respectable tradesman who was habitually known as Dr. Peter P——, with no better title to his degree than that he was the seventh son of a seventh son.
Those who have read Mr. Carleton's tragic tale, The Black Prophet, will remember that, in Ireland, the seventh son of the seventh son is supposed to be—
"Endued
With gifts and knowledge, per'lous shrewd!"
And in Keightley's Fairy Mythology (p. 411. note, ed. 1850) are given some tradition of that gifted Welsh family, the "Jones' of Muddfi," whose forefather had married the "Spirit of the Van Pool."
"She left her children behind her, who became famous as doctors. Jones was their name, and they lived at a place called Muddfi. In them was said to have originated the tradition of the seventh son, or Septimus, being born for the healing art; as for many generations seven sons were regularly born in each family, the seventh of whom became the doctor, and wonderful in his profession. It is said, even now, that the Jones' of Muddfi are, or were until very recently, clever doctors."
I have heard this tradition of the Jones' of Muddfi corroborated by a Welsh friend.
H. G. T.
Launceston.