AN OLD PARCHMENT

Colonist, Volume LVIII, Issue 14407, 18 May 1917, Page 3

AN OLD PARCHMENT

FAMILY RECORDS DATING BACK

'A'O J79SJ

It is not often that family' records of a country so 'branci-new' as New Zealand lead us back to 1799. But an echo of days long past speaks from this old parchment commission granted by ''George 111. by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland^ to his trusty and well-beloved lienjamin Walmesley, Gentleman, in this thirty-ninth year of our Reign, 1779. ' The man passes but the military tradition of the fanr-ly goes on, and here is the son of that young lieutenant in liis turn gaining his commission from "William IV. by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom'- of Great Britain and Ireland, King and Defender of the Faith 3 in- the year 1830, m the first year of our Reign." In 183S this- young lieutenant in.the reign of William IV. has won his right to a captaincy, and his commission is given under the seal of the young "Victoria Queen, Defender of the Faith, in the first year of our Reign." Then there are the commissions of a later <Jate, of a gallant officer- of that famous 65th. Regiment -which, foughtand Mcd in our New Zealand wars. Photographs, too, and a daguerreotype to supplement "the Gordon Collection. Tho Army commissions and the Masonic degrees are m some cases hardly decipherable, for they endured "ordeal by fire" at Motaeka many years ago, and are an object lesson on the wisdom of handing over archives to responsible keeping such as the "National,-Historical Collection" represents.—Exchange. " - f