RICHARD WARNER (1711-1775). 207
arms of John Warner, sheriff and alderman of London, who
seems to have had no connection with the Essex family, but to
have probably been the great-grandfather of our author. The
arms are, or, a chevron sable between three boars' heads ("trois
"testes de sanglier") sable, with tongues gules; and are the same
as those on Richard Warner's book-plate. To John Warner's
name is added, "His posterity dwelt at Highgate." He was
Sheriff in 1640 and Lord Mayor in 1648, when he was knighted.
A Francis Warner appears in the list of Sheriffs of London for
1660 who may have been a son of the above; but we have
no further knowledge of the family until we come to Richard's
father, another John Warner, who seems to have been born in
or about 1663, since there are two portraits of him at Idsworth,
one in crayon and one in oils, inscribed "oet. 57, 1720." This
John Warner was a goldsmith and banker, in business near
Temple Bar, was a friend of Bishop Burnet, and is mentioned
in Nichols' Literary Anecdotes (vol. iii., 1812, p. 74) as having
always worn black leather garters. Nichols compares him in
this respect with "the Upholsterer in the Tatler, No. 155, the
"original of Murphy's Quidnunc"; and this comparison, by a
commonly occurring series of blunders, is transformed, firstly
(in the Biographia Dramatica, 1812, vol. i., p. 737), into the state-
ment that John Warner himself "is somewhere mentioned by
"Addison or Steele," and secondly (in Lyson's Environs of Lon-
don, vol. iv., p. 283) into the more precise falsehood that he "is
"mentioned in the Spectator."
John Warner seems to have had three sons, John (b. 1698),
Robert and Richard. Burnet stood godfather to the eldest
son, who seems to have predeceased his father. At Idsworth
is a fine portrait of the Bishop, also a silver cup which he gave
"with other plate" to his godson, and a Bible, the. imprint of
which is 1701 and in which is the following in Burnet's hand-
writing:—
"This Bible was given by me to John Warner
''Junr, son to Mr. John Warner Goldsmith For whom
"I stood Godfather at his Baptisme. In hope that
''he will study and delight in those sacred writings and
"by so doing make good the Vow that I took in his
"name Imitating the vertues of his worthy Father
''with whom I have had a long friendship: for whom