pedigree of this family thus far:

The title engraved on the plate states that the first Richard Graves given above, was twice

married, and had six sons and thirteen daughters. It does not give the Christian names of any of the children, and leaves it uncertain whether the Richard Graves who died in 1731 was a child of the first or second marriage. This last-mentioned Richard was an antiquary of some note, and a correspondent of Hearne, who calls him "Gravesius noster."

Query 1. Is the full pedigree of this family anywhere to be had? 2. Is there a record of any of the six sons of the Richard who died in 1669 having settled in Ireland, as a soldier or otherwise, in the time of the Commonwealth? According to Mr. Editor's excellent arrangement, I transmit to him a stamped envelope, and shall feel much obliged to any correspondent of "N. & Q." who will give me the desired information. In the life of the Rev. Richard Graves, a younger son of Richard the antiquary (Public Characters, Dublin, 1800 p. 291.), it is stated that his collections for the History of the Vale of Gresham came, after his death, into the hands of James West, Esq., President of the Royal Society, at whose death they were purchased by the Earl of Shelburne, A.D. 1772. Query, Are they still in existence?

James Graves.

Kilkenny.

SEARSON'S POEMS.

The Query of G. C. (Vol. vi., p. 578.) relative to Mrs. Mackey's Poems, has induced me to trouble you with a similar one respecting the author of a volume in my possession. It is entitled Mount Vernon, a Poem, &c. &c., by John Searson, formerly of Philadelphia, Merchant; Philadelphia, printed for the author by Folwell. After the title-page (which is too long to be given in extenso) follows a dedication to General Washington, in which the author, after recording that he last returned to America from Ireland in 1796, and that having been established for several years at Philadelphia as a merchant, he had been subjected to unforeseen losses in trade and merchandize, proceeds as follows:

"Having a pretty good education in my youth, from an uncle, a clergyman of the Church of England, I published two poems in Ireland, was well received, and two publications since my last arrival in America, having disposed of the last copy of one thousand, Art of Contentment, and did myself the honour to visit your Excellency 15th May last [1799], so as to obtain an adequate idea of Mount Vernon, wishing to compose a poem on that beautiful seat, which I now most humbly dedicate to your Excellency, with your likeness," &c.

Next follows a "Preface to the readers of Mount Vernon, a Poem," in which he says:

"I published a rural, romantic, and descriptive poem of Down Hill, the seat of the Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Londonderry, in Ireland; for which the gentlemen of that country actually gave me a guinea per copy, and Sir George Hill, from Dublin, gave me five guineas in the city of Londonderry; more, I am assured, as feeling from my having seen better days, than from the intrinsic value of it."

Besides Mount Vernon, the book contains several other poems, &c., and extends to eighty-three pages, 8vo., with four pages subsequently inserted at the end. It is, I believe, a very scarce book in America, and the copy I possess is probably unique in this country. Like Mrs. Mackey's poems, it seems to have been written in earnest, and it is impossible within the limits of an article of this nature to give an adequate idea of the vein of self-complacency which pervades the book, or of the high estimation in which the author evidently held his own productions both in prose and verse.

A few quotations illustrative of his descriptive powers must suffice: