In the _London Medical Journal_, vol. x. for the year 1789, art. vi., "A
remarkable case of numerous births, with observations by Maxwell
Garthmore, M.D., F.R.S. & S.A.: in a Letter to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart.,
P.R.S.," Dr. G. mentions an account given formerly in the _Journal des
Sçavans_, by M. Seignette, physician at Rochelle, of a woman of
Saintonge who was at one birth delivered of nine well-formed children so
far advanced that their sexes could be discovered.
In the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lii. p. 376., is a curious legend of
a woman giving birth to 365 children at once: all the males were
baptised and named John, and all the females Elizabeth. The mother and
365 children died the same day.
In the _Morning Advertiser_ for Dec. 1, 1851, is an account of a woman
at Ballygunge, near Calcutta, being delivered of twenty-one children at
once, all boys.
Nov. 14th, 1736. A woman in Vere Street, of her thirty-fifth child, by
one husband. (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. vi. p. 683.)
July 31st, 1781. At Kirton-le-Moor, in Cumberland, a man and his wife,
and thirty children, the youngest of whom was between two and three
years old, lately walked to church to the christening of the
thirty-first child. (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. li. p. 388.)
Died at Grantham, Mrs. Lelly, a widow lady of that town. She was twice
mother of twenty-two children. (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lii. p.
309.)
Eighty-seven children by two wives: sixty-nine by first, eighteen by
second. (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. liii. p. 753.)
Seventy-two children by two wives, and a mother of thirty-two children.
(_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lix. pp. 733-4.) To which is appended the
following note by the editor:
"The following epitaph, commemorating an instance of remarkable
fecundity, is inserted by Mr. Pennant in his _Journey to Snowdon_:
'Here lyeth the body of Nicholas Hookes, of Conway, Gent., who was
the forty-first child of his father, William Hookes, Esq., by
Alice his wife, and the father of twenty-seven children, who died
the 20th day of March, 1637.'"