9* S. IX. JAN. 25, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
63
JUNIUS. Two portraits of an Under-
secretary of State in the reign of George III.
being likely to be sold shortly at Christie's, it
may be well the public should know somewhat
more about their original than is generally
the case. He was Mr. Jackson, Secretary of
the Admiralty during the whole of the great
American war, and subsequently Judge-
Advocate of the Fleet. To him was imputed,
and not without good reason, the authorship
of the ' Letters of Junius,' but there are facts
that must have been quite unknown when
he was taken for Junius which bring the
probability of the ascription within reason-
able belief. Having entered the Civil Service
about 1743, he afterwards married, when
twenty-one, the only daughter of his uncle,
William Ward, by one of the Vincent family
of Stoke d'Abernon. This connected him
with the Clanricardes and Osborns of Chick-
sands, and soon brought him into good
society. But his intercourse with the Pitts
of Dorsetshire is the main consideration.
When he first became acquainted with that
family is not very certain, but there are two
electioneering badges, on blue silk, bearing
in gold and silver letters the words " Pitt and
Jackson." It does not appear by reference
to the Parliamentary returns for what con-
stituency these badges were used. It would
seem as though it were for the county of
Dorset ; nevertheless, although the name of
Pitt occurs frequently in boroughs in that
county, no name of Jackson appears con-
jointly with Pitt to satisfy his election on
that occasion. But Mr. Jackson was returned
M.P. for Wey mouth at an early date, and sub-
sequently stood twice for the borough of
Colchester, the first occasion being a con-
tested election, of great notoriety at the time,
which cost him a fabulous sum of money.
There are several letters between himself and
the Chatham family extant at Hayes, where
he was a constant visitor, Lady Chatham
writing to ask intelligence of her son Henry,
who was in the navy as to the whereabouts
of his ship, and so forth. This Henry, by-
the-by, was brother of the great statesman
William Pitt, and I have often failed to find
his name in any peerage. Whether the
supposed Junius set up by different persons
as the veritable Junius had all these advan-
tages of familiar intercourse with the Pitt
family I do not know, but Mr. Jackson had
that advantage.
The handwriting of the * Letters of Junius ' is certainly not that of Mr. Jackson, who wrote a large, good hand ; but it is not at all likely that a man who had been in office all his life would have allowed his identity
to be known by his handwriting. There is
every reason to believe that a gentleman
named Aust, who still lived in 1822, might
have been employed by Mr. Jackson for this
purpose. Mr. Jackson, who was created a
baronet in 1791, left three daughters by his
first wife and one son by his second wife, the
late Sir George Duckett, who was an original
member of the Pitt Club. Why the secrecy
of the authorship of the ' Letters of Junius '
should have been so strictly observed, or even
thought requisite, is now not easy to under-
stand. But as for controversies and those
who set up as authorities to solve them, I
know from experience that the wildest and
most absurd solutions are put forth to serve
a purpose, more especially in the present day;
but the object of this communication is
simply to put the saddle on a probable horse.
The secrecy in the matter is quite unex-
plainable, but " Omnia rnutantur, nos et
mutamur in illis." G. F. D.
" BARRACKED " = HOOTED. The Daily News of 18 December, 1901, contains the following note on the use of the word " barracked " :
"According to the telegrams, the disappointed spectators at Sydney ' barracked ' at the Australian cricketers for the feeble stand they were making against MacLaren's eleven. This is a comparatively new specimen of colonial slang. In the same way 'barracking' is only an elongated form of * barking.' It originated with the rowdy supporters of rival football teams, and has now spread to cricket and various other forms of sport. It has even forced its way into the political arena. People who vociferously cheer a particular public man are not infrequently referred to in Australian papers as his ' barrackers.' A colonial reporter would probably have remarked that Lord Rosebery had a regiment of ' barrackers' at Chesterfield."
While I am quite willing to admit that all
.-.ngation into "barracking. . ^
word is far more likely to have been formed from barreter or barrator, which Bailey (edition 1733) defines as "a wrangler, a stirrer-up, a rnaintainer of quarrels," and gives as a law term derived from the old French barratter.
G. YARROW BALDOCK. South Hackney.
- THE LAST OF THE DANDIES.' As, thanks
to the brilliant talents of Mr. Tree, there has of late been a revival of interest in the career of D'Orsay, I should like, trusting once again to the kindness of the Editor and the patience of the readers of ' N. & O.,' to recall (may I say rescue?) from oblivion the name of Thomas Henry Nicholson, who was (if I am not mis- taken) "foreman artist" at Gore House.
