Do you know the muffin man?

[akashiver]

I've cleared enough service-work off my plate to get back to research. I just came across an odd 18C obituary for "Peter Wilkins, the muffin man." Given that "Peter Wilkins" is also the name of a well-known fictional character, this is a little like reading about "Harry Potter, the muffin man,"  who was "hanged in America by order of Gen. Green, during the late war, but was immediately restored to life by a French surgeon. He had amassed 1300 l. the whole of which he left to his wife, a black woman." Apparently, Wilkins was so frugal that even on his deathbed he refused to pay for an apothecary.

Interracial marriage, near-death experiences at the hand of rampaging Americans, and muffins. Sound like quite a guy.

The record, fyi, is "Deaths," Scots Magazine, 53 (1791:Dec.) p.620