(Vol. viii., p 429.)
Your Correspondent PROF. DE MORGAN has so ingeniously analysed the facts,
which he already possesses, bearing on the connexion of Sir Isaac Newton's
niece with Lord Halifax, and her designation in the _Biographia
Britannica_, that I am tempted to furnish him with some additional
evidence. This question of Mrs. Catherine Barton's widowhood has often been
canvassed by that portion of her relatives who do not possess the custody
of Sir Isaac Newton's private letters.
The Montagues had a residence in the village of Bregstock in
Northamptonshire, where the Bartons lived. The Bartons were a family of
good descent, and had long been lessees of the crown with the Montagues for
lands near Braystock.
There were several Colonel Bartons, whose respective ages and relationship
can best be {544} exhibited by a short pedigree. Thomas Barton had two
sons, Thomas and Robert.
Robert (born in 1630, and who died in 1693) married Hannah Smith, Newton's
half-sister, by whom he had Hannah (born 1678), Catherine (born 1679, died
1739), Colonel Robert (born 1684).
Thomas (born in 1619, died in 1704) married Alice Palmer, by whom he had
Thomas, who married Mary Dale, by whom he had Thomas (d. s. p.), Colonel
Matthew (born 1672), Colonel Noel (born 1674, died 1714). Thomas had a
second son, Geoffrey, who married Elizabeth ----, by whom he had Charles
(born 1700), Cutts (born 1706), Catherine (born 1709), Montague (born
1717), and others.
In a family paper written by a granddaughter of Colonel Noel Barton, at her
mother's dictation, it is stated that Colonel Matthew married a relative of
Sir Isaac Newton, and was Comptroller of the Mint; but this paper is not
very correct in its other statements.
On the other hand, a connexion of the family who signs himself H. in an old
number of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, says of Newton:
"He had a half-sister, who had a daughter, to whom he gave the best of
educations, the famous witty Miss Barton, who married Mr. Conduit of
the Mint."
Mr. Conduit writes, that his wife lived twenty years before and after her
marriage with Sir Issac.
I had always thought that Catherine Barton's brother Robert had died too
early to attain the rank of Colonel. In the British Museum, in the
Register, there is an account of a sermon preached at the funeral of Robert
Barton in the year 1703. I could not find the sermon.
The famous Duchess of Marlborough thus satirises Mouse Montague:
"He was a frightful figure, and yet pretended to be a lover; and
followed several beauties, who laughed at him for it."
It is worth mentioning that Colonel Noel Barton died in London in 1714,
while in attendance on his patron Lord Gainsborough, soon after he had been
appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands. This was the year before Lord
Halifax's _Life_ was written, and possibly might have been the cause of the
designation "Widow" being applied to Catherine Barton by mistake. Whatever
the connexion of this lady with Lord Halifax may have been, it does not
seem to have given any offence to her relatives. You will observe that
Geoffrey Barton names his sons Charles and Montague, and his daughter
Catherine. Charles afterwards received the rectory of St. Andrew's Holborn
from the family of Montague; and Cutts was Dean of Bristol under Bishop
Montague. And Montague obtained preferment from Mr. Conduit. Neither the
family of Montague, nor that of Barton, seem to have thought the connexion
discreditable. Moreover, the births of these children of Geoffrey Barton, a
clergyman, occurred at the very period when the name of Catherine should
have been most distasteful, had the intimacy been dishonourable.
Mr. Conduit died in the year 1738, and Mrs. Conduit in the year 1739; and
Catherine Conduit did not become Lady Lymington till 1740. Probably both
Mr. and Mrs. Conduit made wills. Have they been examined at Doctors'
Commons?