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Of the Fordyces, Bentham said on another occasion
“I think George Fordyce had twenty Uncles by the father’s side.
The head of the family had some great place under government.
He was too grand a personage to look at Dr George Fordyce. It
was an unfortunate time when I knew him first. His laboratory
took fire & he had nothing to exhibit with, but a small
portable furnace with a few vials and common things. He had
acquired a certain celebrity. He was a member of a Chess club with
C. J. Fox. He had no conversation. What he said he
said in a paradoxical shape, with a silly expression. There
was generally a good deal that was true with a little bit
that was false. He acquired about £10,000 got by books,
lecturing, and practice. He left it between his two daughters.
My brother got about that amount married one of them. (Who married the
other daughter?) Nobody! That’s a captious, interrupting
question! His plan was that the youngest should marry &
the eldest remain with him. But just the reverse took place.
His wife was a very queer creature. She kept the house when
he lodged in Holland, & his friends deemed the marriage a great
depradation. She had the talent of mischief making to such a degree
that she was excluded from all society. She was clever at all sorts
of handiworks, botany, &c. Latterly she amused herself by making
coverlets for beds. She made acres of them. He had one son whose
loss at the age of 14 made a deep impression on him. He had a
maxim that it was impossible for any woman toresist any man. He
got hold of a woman whom he had better have left alone. The wife of Ramsden.
He was a sad voice.
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Identifier: | JB/009/113/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 9.
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