Having mendoned the present state of our English College, it will GEORGE III. not appear foreign to the subject to say a little of those of Scotland and Ireland. Since the union of the British kingdoms there have presided these Lord Lions, heads of the Scotch College of Heralds : ALEXANDER ERSKINE, Esq. COCHERNE, Esq.-Appointed, May 5, 1726. ALEXANDER DRUMMOND, Esq.-He died June 14, 1729. Hon. ALEXANDER BRODIE, Esq.-He died March 9, 1754, and JOHN CAMPBELL Hook, Esq. a gentleman of great elegance of taste and respectability of character. After holding this office many years he was cut off by an extraordinary fate. He resided at Clarence-Place, Bristol. As he excelled in drawing, he was desirous, it was thought, of taking some of the charming views on the Avon, and St. Vincent'sRocks, near the Hot-Wells. For this purpose he left his home at ten o'clock on the morning of September 8, 1795, but not returning, it caused much anxiety. Two days afterwards his mangled corpse was discovered. It is supposed, that slipping, or the ground giving way, he fell from the precipice, and instantly perished. He left a family. His brother, Archibald Hooke, Esq. had a reversionary grant of his office, but dying before him, His Majesty gave it to The Right Honorable ROBERT-AURIOL HAY-DRUMMOND, LL.D. Earl of Kinnoul, Viscount Dupplin, and Baron Hay of Kinfauns, all in the county of Perth, in the kingdom of Scotland, Baron Hay of Bedwarden. in Herefordshire in England, and one of his Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council. His Lordship was appointed September 30, 1796. Lord Viscount Dupplin is put in remainder. The promotion of a Peer of both Scotland and England to this office throws a lustre upon the institution of the Herald's College, that neither kingdom ever before could boast. The more illustrious still for the virtues of the noble peer, and the ablities and integrity of this branch of the titled family of Hay, which, as heir general to William Drummond, Viscount Strathallan, has added to their surname that of Drummond. To them Scotland owes an incorruptible chancellor; England, a learned and most exemplary primate of York; and Britain, able ambassadors and negotiators. James Home, Esq. is Lion's deputy and principal clerk. The The Ulster Kings of Arms for Ireland having been given, in a former page, it will be sufficient here to observe, that upon the death of Gerard Fortescue, Esq., at Dublin, in November, 1786, His Majesty was pleased to nominate, for his successor, Sir Chichester Fortescue, Knight, the present Ulster, who, in 1800, was allowed a pension of £290: 19: 5, as a compensation for his losses, occasioned by the discontinuance of his emolument, in not attending the Parliament in Ireland, in consequence of the union of that kingdom with Britain. GARTER, PRINCIPAL KING AT ARMS. Geo. 11. STEPHEN-MARTIN LEAKE, Esq. F. R.S. Stephen Martin Leake, Esq. Garter principal King at Arms, descended from a family of the Martins, in the county of Devon, was son of Stephen Martin, an officer in the royal navy, in the reign of Queen Ann, and for some time senior captain, an elder brother of the Trinity House, in the commission of the peace for the counties of Middlesex, Essex, and Surrey, and a deputy-lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets. Captain Martin married Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Captain Richard Hill of Yarmouth in Norfolk, by Mary his wife. Christian, the other daughter and coheir of Captain Hill, married Sir John Leake, Knight, Rearadmiral of Great-Britain, Admiral and Commander in Chief of the Fleet, and one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty in the above reign. Sir John Leake and Captain Martin being united in the closest friendship by this matrimonial connexion, and still more by twenty years service together in the fleet, and Sir John having lost his lady and their issue, to evince his regard for his brother-in-law, adopted him his heir, who from attention and gratitude obtained His Majesty's sign manual, authorising him to assume the surname and bear the arms of Leake, in addition to his own. Captain Martin Leake, died January 19, 1735-6, in the seventieth year of his age, and Elizabeth, his wife, on September 14, 1723, aged fifty-seven: their remains were deposited in a vault in the cemetary of Stepney, in Middlesex, with those of Sir John Leake, and his family. Stephen Martin Leake, Esq. Garter, their only surviving son, born April 5, 1702, being educated at the school of Mr. Michael Maittaire, a man well known in the learned world, was admitted of the Middle-Temple in 173 and in the same year was sworn a younger brother in the Trinity-House. He was appointed, in 1724, a deputy lieutenant of the Tower r Tower-hamlets; in which station he afterwards distinguished himself by GEORGE III. his exertions during the rebellion in the year 1745. On the revival of Garter. the Order of the Bath in 1725, he was one of the Esquires of the Earl of Sussex, Deputy Earl Marshal. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, March 2, 1726-7. In the same year he was created Lancaster herald, in the room of Mr. Hesketh; in 1729 constituted Norroy; in 1741 Clarenceux; and by patent, dated December 19, 1754, appointed Garter. In all his situations in the College Mr. Leake was a constant advocate for the rights and privileges of the office. He obtained, after much solicitation, a letter in 1731, from the Duke of Norfolk to the Earl of Sussex, his Deputy Earl Marshal, requesting him to sign a warrant for Mr. Leake's obtaining a commission of visitation, which letter, however, was not attended with success. In the same year he promoted a prosecution against one Shiets, a painter, who pretended to keep an office of arms in Dean's Court. The Court of Chivalry was opened with great solemnity in the Painted Chamber, on March 3, 1731 2, in relation to which he had taken a principal part. In 1733, he appointed Francis Bassano, of Chester, his deputy, as Norroy, for Chester and North Wales; and about the same time asserted his right, as Norroy, to grant arms in North Wales, which right was claimed by Mr. Longville, who had been constituted Gloucester King at Arms " partium Wallie," annexed to that of Bath King at Arms, at the revival of that Order. He drew up a petition in January 1737-8, which was presented to the King in council, for a new charter, with the sole power of painting arms, &c. which petition was referred to the Attorney and Solicitor General; but they making their report favorable to the painters, it did not succeed. He printed, in 1744, "Reasons for granting Commissions to the Provincial Kings at Arms " for visiting their Provinces." Dr. Cromwell Mortimer having, in 1747, proposed to establish a Registry for Dissenters in the College of Arms, he had many meetings with the heads of the several denominations, and also of the Jews, and drew up articles of agreement, which were approved by all parties: proposals were printed and dispersed, a seal made to affix to certificates, and the registry was opened on February 20, 1747-8; but it did not succeed, owing to a misunderstanding between the ministers and the deputies of the congregations. A bill having been brought in by Mr. Potter, in the session of Parliament in the year 1763, for taking the number Ggg of |