(Vol. v., p. 126.)
Happening to have made notes from time to time of several such
instances, I beg to present them to the readers of "N. & Q.":--
_Sixty-two Children_:--
"A weaver in Scotland had by one woman 62 children, all living
till they were baptized, of w'ch ther wer but fower daughters
onely who lived till they were women, and 46 sonns, all attaining
to man's estate. During the time of this fruitfullnes in the
woman, the husband, at her importunity, absented himself from her
for the space of 5 years together, serving as a soldier under the
command of Captaine Selby in the Low Countries. After his return
home his wife was againe delivered of three children at a birth,
and so in due time continued in such births till, through bearing,
she became impotent. The certainty of this relation I had from
John Delavall of Northumb', Esq., who, ann. 1630, rid about 30
miles beyond Edenburrough to see this fruitfull couple, who were
both then living. Ther statures and features he described to me
then more fully. Ther was not any of the children then abiding
with ther parents. Sir John Bowes & 3 other men of qualitie have
taken at severall times ten of ther children apeece from them, and
brought them up. The rest wer disposed of by the other English &
Scottish gents, amongst w'ch 3 or 4 out of them are now alive &
abiding at Newcastle, 1630."
_Collectanea Topog. et Geneal._ vol. iv. p. 53. from MS. Harl.
980. f. 74.
_Thirty-nine Children_:--
"In the year 1698, when Thomas Greenhill, surgeon to Henry Duke of
Norfolk (son of William Greenhill of Greenhill in Middx. by
Elizabeth, daughter of John Jones of London) petitioned the Earl
Marshal as follows: 'That in consideration of your petitioner
being the 7th son & 39th child of one father & mother, your Grace
would be pleased to signalise it by some particular remark or
augmentation in his coat of Arms, to transmit to posterity so
uncommon a thing.' The confirmation of the arms contains no
reference to the fact."
_Collectanea Topogr. et Genealogica_, vol. iv. p. 53.
_Thirty-five Children_:--
"A woman in Vere Street of the 35th child by one
husband."
_Gentleman's Magazine_, 1736, p. 683.
_Thirty Children._--In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for Feb. 1743, is
recorded the death of Mrs. Agnes Milbourne, who was aged 106, and had
thirty children.
_Twenty-nine Children._--In that for 1738:--
"Nov. 15. Mr. Thomas Rogers, a 'Change-Broker, who had by his wife
29 children, born and christen'd."
_Twenty-seven Children._--Mr. Richetts, father of the present Earl St.
Vincent, was the twenty-third of twenty-seven children by the same
mother.