BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 139
Penny-post as being a very lucrative business, bringing him in ready money
every hour of the day, and employing four men to distribute the letters at four
shillings and sixpence weekly each.
In his replies Williamson alleges that hi0 income was but trifling ; that his
Directory paid him very poorly j and that his wife robbed him of three-fourths
of the profit of the post. In corroboration of this state of his finances, he pursued
the divorce, as a litigant, on the poors’ roll.
It may be added that the opposing party hinted at Peter’s having acquired
tippling habits ; but it is impossible to attach any credit to a statement evidently
made for the purpose of creating a prejudice in the minds of the judges
against him.’
The following notice of his death occurs in a newspaper of the period, 19th
January 1799 :-
“ At Edinburgh, Mr. Peter Williamson, well known for his various adventures
through life. He was kidnapped when a boy at Aberdeen, and sent to
America, for which he afterwards recovered damages. He passed a considerable
time among the Cherokees, and on his return to Edinburgh amused the public
with a description of their manners and customs, and his adventures among
them, assuming the dress of one of their chiefs, imitating the war-whoop, etc.
He had the merit of first instituting a Penny-post in Edinburgh, for which, when
it was assumed by Government, he received a pension. He also was the fist
, who published a Directory, so essentially useful in a large city.”
From the intimation that he received a pension from Government, we should
hope the latter days of this very enterprising and singular person were not embittered
by penury.
b
No. LX.
C 0 URT S H I P.
THISP rint is probably a fancy piece, yet there are some circumstances connected
with it which might induce a different belief. Kay at the time was courting
his second wife, to whom he presented a copy of the caricature, which she
rejected with displeasure, although, as has been naively remarked, “ she afterwards
accepted a more valuable one” in the person of the limner himself. The
gentleman with the singularly open countenance does possess in a slight degree
the wntour of the artist ; but the ‘( charming creature,” with whom he seems so
much captivated, cannot be considered as approaching even to a caricature of the
late Mrs. Kay. A friend informs us that the female figure very strongly
resembles an old woman who lived at the head of the Canongate.
Williamson was very polite. A correapondent mentions “that when a letter waa taken to his
house to be delivered by his Penny-post runners, he dWap made a most obsequious bow, adding, ‘ Many thanks to you, Si.’ ”
