ii s. xii. OCT. 9, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
286-
for debt, when she published an account of
her career entitled " An Appeal to the
Public on the Conduct of Mrs. C4ooch, Wife
of William Gooch, Esqre. Written by
Herself," 4to (George Kearsley, March, 1788).
his sister Sarah being baptized Elizabeth-
Abraham had only one child, who married
William Thomas, the second son of Sir
Thomas Gooch, and was divorced by him
for misconduct in 1781. She had two sons,.
In November or December, 1792, she pub- j William and Henry Robert. There are no
lished "The Life of Mrs. Gooch. Written j descendants living of these two sons. I
by Herself. Dedicated to the Public,"
crown 8vo (George Kearsley). The British
Museum Catalogue contains a list of three
more of her works, i.e., ' Poems on Various
Subjects,' by Mrs. Gooch (J. Bell, 1793);
' Wanderings of the Imagination,' by Mrs.
Gooch, 2 vols. (B. Crosby, 1796) ; and a
Preface to Thomas Bellamy's' Beggar Boy'
in 1800, when she was living in Michael's
Place, Brompton. Her portrait is given in
The Bon Ton Magazine, ii. 105, and there
is a long account of her tempestuous life in
the same periodical, ii. 105, 137, 163, 212,
244, 299, 327, 370, 433, 456 ; iii. 72, 125,
180, 229, 243, 296. The last reference to
her that I have seen occurs in The Morning
Post on 5^ April, 1803, where it is stated that
she was " bringing out a new edition of her
life." For the divorce proceedings against
her see ' Journals of the House of Lords,'
xxxvi. 218, 219, 221-3, 224.
HORACE BLEACKLEY.
Elizabeth Sarah was the daughter of Abraham, a son of Jose da Costa Villa Real, who in 1726 escaped from Lisbon to avoid falling into the clutches of the Inquisition, and on arriving in London made public profession of Judaism. As a thanksgiving for his delivery he founded and endowed a school for twenty Jewish girls, which exists to the present day, and is known as the Villa Real School. He married Catherine, a daughter of Joseph da Costa of Totteridge, a nephew and son-in-law of Dr. Fernando Mendez, who was Physician in Ordinary to Charles II., and signed the death certificate on his demise. On the death of Jose da Costa Villa Real his widow agreed to become the wife of Jacob, a brother of Emanuel Mendez da Costa, the naturalist, son of her paternal aunt Esther Johanna ; but, declining to keep her word, wa$ sued for breach of promise in the Arches Court of Canterbury. The report of the proceedings, containing her portrait, was issued in book-form, and is to be seen in the British Museum Library. She ultimately married William Mellish of Blythe, Nottingham, by whom she had two sons, named Charles and Joseph. This line is, I believe, extinct. On her marriage she entered the Church, and her son, the aforesaid Abraham, was baptized William,
have her engraved portrait and her armorial
stencil book-plate,
Real," with motto
Elizabeth Sarah Villa-
Fide sed Vide," and
also that of her son, " Wm. Gooch, Esqr.,"
an armorial plate with the arms of " Villa
Real" on an escutcheon. Her paternal
aunt Sarah was the mother of the fourth
Viscount Galway, the great-grandfather of
the present holder of the dignity. The
fourth Viscount was also the maternal grand-
father of Lord Houghton, the poet, the-
father of the Marquess of Crewe. Mrs.
William Mellish's maternal uncle James
was the father of Moses Mendez, the poet,,
whose grandson in the male line, Sir Francis
Bond Head (Head was the maiden name of
the poet's wife), was at one time Governor-
General of Canada. His grandson Sir
Robert Garnet Head is the present holder of
the title.
ISRAEL SOLOMONS.
The following works are attributed to
" Elizabeth Sarah Villa Real, a native of
Nottinghamshire, and widow of William
G. Esq." : ' An Appeal to the Public ont
the Conduct of Mrs. Gooch,' 1788 ; her
own 'Life,' 3 vols., 1792; 'The Contrast/
a novel, 2 vols., 1795 ; ' The Wanderings
of the Imagination/ a novel, 2 vols., 1796 ;
' Truth and Fiction,' a novel, 4 vols., 1801 ;
' The Beggar Boy,' by the late Mr. Thomas
Bellamy, with particulars of his life, 3 vols.,
1801 ; ' Sherwood Forest, 1 a novel, 3 vols.,
1804 ; ' Can We Doubt It ? ' from the French,
a novel, 3 vols., 1804.
W. B. H.
This lady, Elizabeth Sara, was the
daughter and heiress of William Villa Real
of Edwinstow, Notts. She refers to herself
(' Life of Mrs. Gooch,' p. 9) as " the last
Villa Real." Her father died when she was
" scarcely three years old" ; and her mother,
" after four years' 'widowhood," married
Capt. Hutchinson of the Durham Militia.
(List of Marriages in the Year 1763, Gentle-
man's Magazine, xxxiii. 565: William Hut-
chinson of Egglestone, Durham, Esq., to
Mrs. Villa Real of Edwinstone [sic].) Miss
Villa Real married 13 May, 1775, William
Gooch, Esq., second son of Sir Thomas
Gooch, Bart., of Benacre Park, co. Suffolk
(Gentleman's Magazine, Iviii. 237). Her
own account of her " misfortunes and errors,'*
