Thomas Dunckerley.

time , except at brief intervals , he was absent from England on foreign service . He returned to his nath r o country in January , 1760 , to find that his mother had died a feAV days before , and that on her death-bed she had made a solemn

declaration , accompanied by such details as left no possible doubt of its truth , that Thomas AA'as the illegitimate son of King George IL , born AAdiile he Avas Prince of Wales . The fact of the birth had , however , never been communicated by the mother to the Princeand George II . died Avithout

knoAV-, ing that he had such a son living . Dunckerley , in the account of the affair which he left among his posthumous papers , says : " This information gave mo great surprise and much uneasiness ; and as I AA'as obliged to return immediatelto

y my duty on board the Vanguard , I made it knoAvn to no person at that time but Captain S wanton . He said that those who did not know me could look on it to be nothing more than a gossip's story . We were then bound a second time to Quebec

; and Captain Swanton did promise me , that on our return to England he Avould endeavor to get me introduced to the King , ¦ and that he ivould give me a character : but when we came back to England the King Avas dead . "

Dunckerley had hoped that his case would have been laid before his royal father , and that the result would have been an appointment equal to his birth . But the frustration of these hopes by the death of the King seems to have discouraged

him , and no efforts appear for some time to have been made by him or his friends to communicate the facts to George III ., Avho had succeeded to the throne . In 1701 he again left England , as a gunner in Lord Anson's fleet , and did not

return until 1764 , at Avhich time , finding himself embarrassed with a heavy debt , incurred hi the expenses of his family , ( for he had married in early life , in the year 1744 , ) knoAving no person Aidio could authenticate the story of his birth , and

seeing no probability of gaining access to the ear of the King , he sailed in a merchant A essol for the Mediterranean . ^ He had been / previously granted superannuation in the Navy in consequence of his long services , and received a small pension , the principal part of Avhich he left for the support of Ms family during his absence .

But the romantic stray of his birth began to be publicly known and talked about , and in 1766 attracted the attention of soA'oral persons of distinction , AAdio endeavored , but Avithout success , to excite the interest of the Princess DoAvager of Wales in his behalf .

In 1767 , however , the declaration of his mother Avas laid before the King , Avho was George III , the grandson of his father . It made an impression on him , and inquiry into his previous character and conduct having proved satisfactory , on May 7 , 1767 ,

the King ordered Dmickerly to receive a pension of £ 100 , Avhich was subsequently increased to £ 800 , together with a suite of apartments in Hampton Court Palace . He also assumed , and Avas permitted to bearthe royal armswith the

distinguish-, , ing badge of the bend sinister , and adopted as his motto the appropriate words , " Fato non merito . " In his familiar correspondence ancl in his book-plates , he used the name of Fitz-George . " ' 5 s £ . ' In 1770 he became a student of laAV , ancl

in 1 / 74 Avas called to the bar ; but his fondness for an active life prevented him from ever making much progress in the legal profession . Dunckerley died at Portsmouth in the year 1795 , at the ripe age of seventy-one ; but his last years Avere embittered by the

misconduct of his son , Avhose extravagance and dissolute conduct necessarily afflicted the mind , Aidiile it straightened the means of the unhappy parent . Every effort to reclaim him proved utterly ineffectual ; and on the clrath of his fatherno provision

, being left for his support , he became a , vagrant , living for the most part on Masonic charity . At last he became a bricklayer ' s laborer , and Avas often seen ascending a ladder with a hod on his shoulders .

His misfortunes and his misconduct at length found an end , and the grandson of a King of England died a pauper in a cellar of St . GUes . The Masonic career of Dunckerley , if less remarkable than his domestic , ; life , is more interesting to the Freemason . ^ There

is no record of the exact time of his reception into the Order ; but it must have been not long before 1757 , as lie hi that year delivered an address , as Ave should IIOAV call it , before the Lodges of Plymouth , Avhich was published at the time under tho title of "The Light and Truth of