Part 2

Will MR. SINGER favour me with the information where the proposed emendation, referred to by him in "N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 436., in _All's Well that ends Well_, _infinite cunning_ for "insuite comming," of the folio 1623, is to be met with? If it be in the _Athenæum_ it has escaped my observation, although I have turned over the pages of that able periodical carefully to find it. I have a particular reason for wishing to trace the suggestion, if I can, to the source where it originated. Owing to an accident, which it is needless to explain, the number of "N. & Q." containing MR. SINGER'S communication did not meet my eye until this morning.

J. PAYNE COLLIER.

May 22. 1852.

* * * * *

SURNAMES.

I have to thank many of your readers who have favoured me with private letters on this subject since the printing of the prospectus of my _Dictionary of Surnames_ in your columns; and before troubling you with a string of Queries, I would briefly refer to two or three points in the kind communications under this head in "N. & Q." of May 1. E. H. Y. will find the question, _sur_name or _sir_name, slightly touched upon in my _English Surnames_ (3rd edit., vol. i. p. 13.), and argued at length in the _Literary Gazette_ for Nov. 1842, in a correspondence originating out of a notice of the first edition of my book. I think the balance of evidence is in favour of _sur_name; that is, a name superadded to the personal or baptismal appellation, which applies with equal propriety to the sobriquets given to monarchs and distinguished men, and to the hereditary designations of people of humble rank. Alexander _Mitchell_, your groom, is no other than Alexander the Great; and Bill _Rowse_, your errand-boy, is the namesake of the Red King who fell in the New Forest; the only difference being, that the plebeians inherit their second name from their ancestors, while the magnates enjoy theirs by exclusive right. I do not think, therefore, that the distinction contended for by E. H. Y. is either necessary or desirable: indeed I consider _sire_name as a mere play upon a mis-spelt word. In saying this, I would by no means disparage your excellent correspondent, whose communications I always read with pleasure I might add, that the distinction of "nomen patris additum proprio," _sire_name, and "nomen supra nomen additum," surname, is by no means new.

I cannot quite agree with E. S.'s suggestion as to the desirableness of omitting the names derived from Christian names, this being one of the most interesting branches of my inquiry. I have already shown that from ten to thirty family names are occasionally found to proceed from _one_ baptismal appellation; and at least half a dozen of the names to which E. S. calls my attention for explanation are so derived. To the termination _-cock_, occurring in so many names, I have already given attention, and the result may be seen in _Eng. Surn._, vol. i. pp. 160. to 165., both inclusive.

To the surnames derived from extinct or provincial words designating employments, I am paying considerable attention; but although I am tolerably well acquainted with our mediæval writers, and their glossarists, there are many names ending in _er_ (generally having in old records the prefix _le_), which have hitherto baffled my etymological skill.

W. L.'s remarks support the statements made in _Eng. Surn._, vol. i., p. 38. _et seq._, to show that family names have scarcely become hereditary, in some parts of England, even now, in the middle of the nineteenth century. Without occupying your valuable space unduly, I would now submit the following Queries:--

1. What book gives any rational account of the origin of the Scottish clans, and their distinctive or family names? I know Buchanan's work, but it gives very little information of the kind desired. _Any_ authentic particulars regarding Scottish names will be acceptable.

2. What is the real meaning of _worth_, which forms the final syllable of so many surnames? I have seen no less than six explanations of it, which cannot all be correct.

3. Are there any works (besides dictionaries) in the Dutch, German, and Scandinavian languages which would throw light upon the family names of this country?

4. What is the best compendious gazetteer or topographical dictionary of Normandy extant?

5. Is anything known of a collection of surnames made by Mr. Cole, the antiquary, in the last century? It is mentioned in Collet's _Relics of Literature_, 1823. {510}

6. Can any reader of "N. & Q." explain the following surnames, which are principally to be found so early as the reign of Edward I.?--Alfox, Colfox, Astor, Fricher, Grix, Biber, Bakepuz, Le Chalouner, Le Cayser, Le Cacherel, Trelfer, Metcalfe, Baird, Aird, Chagge, Le Carun, at Bight.

MARK ANTONY LOWER.

Lewes.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Owen, Bishop of St. Asaph._--To what family belonged John Owen, Bishop of St. Asaph, mentioned in Winkle's _Cathedrals_ with so much honour? His father Owen Owen was Archdeacon of Anglesea, rector of Burton Latymer. I cannot find either name in the printed pedigrees of the various families of Owen, nor in such of the Harl. MSS. as I had time to examine. Wanted, the bishop's arms and crest, and any reference to his pedigree. It is said by Winkle that his monument is under the episcopal throne in St. Asaph's cathedral. He died 1651, and his father 1592.

URSULA.

_St. Wilfrid's Needle in Yorkshire_,--"where they used to try maids, whether they were honest." (_Burton._) Does this stone exist? "Ancient writers do not mention," says Lingard, "Stonehenge, Abury, &c., as appendages to _places of worship_ among the Celtæ," therefore may it not be that these remains of antiquity were devoted to vain superstitions of the ignorant people, if not to gloomy rites of the officiating priests of the British Druids? The gigantic obelisks of single stones, called the "Devil's Arrows," near Boroughbridge, and the assemblage of rocks called Bramham Crags, a few miles north-west of Ripon, are considered to have been Druidical. Is St. Wilfrid's either of these? and can farther information about this rock be afforded?

B. B.

_Governor of St. Christopher in 1662._--Will any one be so kind as to inform me who was the governor of the island of St. Christopher in the year 1662? I have an original, but unsigned letter, from him to the contemporary Dutch governor of St. Martin's, demanding reparation for an outrage of most extraordinary nature. He complains that the Dutch had seized and _reduced to slavery_ the crew and passengers of an English ship during a time of peace. Is anything known of this affair, or is there any means of discovering the names of the colonial governors of that age? The letter is dated Sept. 1, 1662, and is endorsed, "A Coppie of my letter to the Gov. of St. Martin's."

URSULA.

_The Amber Witch._--I am anxious to learn whether this be a pure fiction or a genuine document dressed up. Its strongest appearance of authenticity arises from the tedious pedantry of the ancient Lutheran pastor, its supposed author, which not only renders the perusal heavy, but also lets in various things unsuited to the decorum of modern manners. If a pure forgery, my inquiry extends to _the motives_ of a fabrication, tedious to both reader and writer.

A. N.

_Coffins for General Use._--In the parish church of Easingwold, Yorkshire, there was within the last few years an old _oaken shell_ or _coffin_, asserted to have been used by the inhabitants for the interment of their dead. After the burial, the coffin was again deposited in the church. Are there any other well-authenticated instances of a similar usage? And do the words of the rubric in the Order for "the Burial of the Dead," "When they come to the grave, while the corpse is _made ready to be laid_ INTO _the earth_," render it probable that such a custom was generally prevalent in the Anglican church _since_ the Reformation?

I have met with one corroborative circumstance, in which numbers of bodies were disinterred in a piece of ground _supposed_ to have been consecrated, and not a vestige of a coffin was found.

INCOGNITUS.

_The Surname Bywater._--Can any of your correspondents furnish me with particulars relating to the surname "_Bywater_?"

The earliest period from which I can trace it _direct_ to the present day, and then only by family tradition, is about the close of the seventeenth century, or say 1680, about which time "---- Bywater" married Miss Witham, and resided at Towton Hall, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, a place celebrated as being the field of a battle fought between the York and Lancaster forces on Palm Sunday, 1461.

Stow mentions, in his _Survey_, that "_John Bywater_" was a Sheriff of London in 1424.

Perhaps some of your readers, in Yorkshire or elsewhere, can throw a light on the subject, or can refer me to a book or MS. where information may be obtained?

W. M. B.

_Robert Forbes._--I should be glad if any of your correspondents could furnish me with any particulars relative to this talented and eccentric individual. He was the author of _The Dominie Deposed_, in the Buchan dialect. On the title-page of that piece he is described as "Robert Forbes, A.M., Schoolmaster of Peterculter," near Aberdeen. On application, however, to the Session Clerk of Peterculter, that functionary states that no such person was ever schoolmaster of that parish. Be this as it may, Forbes was obliged to leave Scotland on account of an intrigue, which he has humorously described in his _Dominie Deposed_. He appears to have removed to London, where he commenced the business of a hosier, in a shop on Tower Hill, at the sign of the "Book." Here he composed that {511} celebrated travestie on the _Speech of Ajax to the Grecian Chiefs_, also in the Buchan dialect:

"The wight an' doughty captains a', Upo' their doups sat down; A rangel o' the commoun fouk In bourachs a' stood roun."

I think Forbes states that his place of business on Tower Hill was "hard by the shop of Robbie Mill." (See Chalmers' _Life of Ruddiman_.) Forbes is supposed to have died about the year 1750.

HYPADIDASCULUS.

_Gold Chair found in Jersey._--I find in Lowndes' _Bibliographer's Manual_ the following:

"The most wonderfull and strange Finding of a Chayre of Gold, neare the Isle of Iarsie, with the true Discourse of the Death of eight seuerall Men: and other most rare Accidents thereby proceeding. London, 1595, 4to. 14 pages, including not only the title-page, but a blank leaf before it, as was frequent about this time."

Can any one inform me where I can obtain a sight of this tract? I have searched the multivoluminous catalogue of the British Museum, that of the Bodleian, Grenville, Douce, and other collections, but in vain; and can find no trace of it anywhere.

R. P. M.

_Alteration in Oxford Edition of the Bible._--In the stereotype edition of the Bible, in 8vo., printed at Cambridge, for the British and Foreign Bible Society, I find the word _Judah_, 2 Chron. xxi. 2., substituted for _Israel_. This latter word is the reading of every copy of the authorized English version that I have been able to consult, including the 12mo. edition printed for the British and Foreign Bible Society at Oxford.

No doubt _Judah_ is the right word in this passage. The context requires it; and it is the reading of forty Hebrew MSS., and of all the ancient versions, except the Chaldee. It is also the reading of the old English version by Coverdale. But it has not been adopted by King James's translators. How has this deviation from their text crept into an edition emanating from a University press?

JEROME.

_When did Sir Gilbert Gerrard die?_--A warrant was issued on the 1st of July, 1594, to the Lord Treasurer and Sir John Fortescue (see Burghley's _Diary_) "to inquire what profits had been taken for the office of the Rolls _betwixt the time of the death of Sir Gilbert Gerrard and the entry of Sir Thomas Egerton_." Now Sir Thomas Egerton entered on the 10th of April, 1594, and I have reason to believe that the office had been vacant for about a year. But I can find no notice of Sir Gilbert's death. He was a member of Gray's Inn; admitted in 1537, barrister 1539, ancient 1547, reader 1554, serjeant 1558, attorney-general 1559, Master of the Rolls 1581; and during the interval between the death of Lord Chancellor Hatton (Nov. 22, 1591) and the appointment of Lord Keeper Puckering (May 28, 1592) one of the commissioners for hearing causes in chancery.

JAMES SPEDDING.

_Market Crosses._--Have these interesting crosses occupied the attention of any one? Is there any work exclusively upon them? When was the old Market Cross, at Bury St. Edmunds, taken down? Is there any view of it extant, and where is it to be seen? What is the meaning of the passage from Gage's valuable _History of Thingoe Hundred_, page 205.:

"Henry Gage, &c., _married at the Market Cross_, in the parish of St. James, St. Edmund's-bury, 11th February, 1655."

Was any religious edifice standing on this spot at that period?

C. G.

Paddington.

_Spy Wednesday._--I observed the other day, under the Spanish News in _The Times_ of Wednesday, the 14th April, 1852, the following paragraph:

"It being _Spy Wednesday_, the Bourse remained closed."

Can any correspondent inform me the meaning of "Spy Wednesday," it being a term I have never yet heard so applied?

JOHN NURSE CHADWICK.

King's Lyn.

PASSEMER'S "ANTIQUITIES OF DEVONSHIRE."--In Bagford's MS. Collections on Writing, Printing, &c., in the British Museum (_Ayscough's Cat._, No. 885.), at fo. 102., among writers on Devonshire appears the following:

"Id. Ye antiquitates of ye same countey is collected out of ye antient bookes belonging to ye Bishopprick of Exeter, by one Mr. George Passemer, vicar of Awliscombe, in ye said countey."

Can either of your correspondents state whether Mr. Passemer's work is known to be in existence?

J. D. S.

_Will O' Wisp._--Notwithstanding the steam-engine may be said to have done almost as much towards destroying the gaseous exhalations of our bog-lands by the means of drainage, as it has done towards the amelioration of the stagnant moors and intellectual morasses of society, it can hardly have dispelled every _Ignis Fatuus_ from every quagmire, any more than it has even yet chased the ignorance from every dull head. The object of this communication is to ask for the names of a few specific localities where that noted misleader of the benighted--_Will O' Wisp_--still continues to manifest his presence?

D.

_Mother of Richard Fitzjohn._--Can any of your readers inform me who was _the mother_ of Richard {512} Fitzjohn, Lord Fitzjohn, who was summoned to parliament in 23 Edward I., and died two years after in France? He was the son of John Fitzjohn Fitzgeoffrey, who died near Guildford in 1258, and who was the son and heir of John Fitzgeoffrey, Justiciary of Ireland in 1246. His mother's name is not mentioned in any authorities I have been able to consult, and I should feel particularly obliged by any one communicating to me _his mother's name_, and also his _maternal grandmother's name_, if they have ever been ascertained.

TEWARS.

_Quotations wanted._--Can any of your numerous correspondents oblige me with the information as to where the following may be found:

"The difficult passages they shun, And hold their farthing rushlight to the sun."

Again, this:

"And like unholy men Quote scripture for the deed."

Again, this: The entire epigram said to have been made by Porson on a Fellow of his college, who habitually pronounced Euphr_[)a]_tes (short) instead of Euphr[=a]tes. The only words I remember--it is now near thirty years since I heard it--are

"Et corripuit fluxeum;"

and Jekyll, the celebrated wit, rendered the epigram into English, and part of it thus:

"He abridged the river."

H. M.

_Sons of the Conqueror--William Rufus and Walter Tyrell._--Sir N. W. Wraxall (_Posthumous Memoirs_, vol. i., p. 425.) says of the Duke of Dorset:

"His only son perished at twenty-one in an Irish foxchase: a mode of dying not the most glorious or distinguished, though two sons of William the Conqueror, one of whom was a King of England, terminated their lives in a similar occupation."

Who are these _two_ sons? William Rufus would be one of them; but who is the other? And whilst I am on this subject, I would inquire, _on what authority_ does the commonly received story of William II.'s death by the hand of Sir Walter Tyrrell rest?

TEWARS.

_Brass of Lady Gore._--Moody, in his _Sketches of Hampshire_, states that there is a brass of an _Abbess_, 1434, Lady Gore by name, in the church of Nether Wallop. But in the _Oxford Manual_ it is stated (Introduction, p. xxxix.) that only two brasses of Abbesses are known, one at Elstow, Beds, to Elizabeth Hervey, and the other at Denham, Bucks, to Agnes Jordan, Abbess of Syon, both _c._ 1530. Which is correct of these two authorities?

UNICORN.

* * * * *

Minor Queries Answered.

_Smyth's MSS. relating to Gloucestershire._--In Rudder's _History of Gloucestershire_, title "Nibley," p. 575., is the following passage:

"John Smyth, of Nibley, ancestor to the present proprietor, was very eminent for his great assiduity in collecting every kind of information respecting this county and its inhabitants. He wrote the Genealogical History of the Berkeley Family, in three folio MSS., which Sir William Dugdale abridged and published in his _Baronage of England_. In three other folio MSS. he has registered with great exactness _the names of the lords of manors in the county in the year 1608_, _the number of men in each parish able to bear arms, with their names, age, stature, professions, armour, and weapons_. _The sums each landholder paid to subsidies granted in a certain year_ are set down in another MS. He likewise committed to writing a very particular account of the customs of the several manors in the hundred of Berkeley, and _the pedigrees of their respective lords_. These and some other MSS., which cost him forty years in compiling, are now (1779) in the possession of Nicholas Smyth, Esq., the fifth from him in lineal descent."

I shall feel much obliged to any of your readers who will inform me where these MSS., or any of them, may now be seen. Those that I particularly want to inspect are printed in Italics in the above quotation.

JULIUS PARTRIGE.

Birmingham.

[Atkyns, in his _Gloucestershire_, p. 579., states that Smythe's MSS. were at the time he wrote, A.D. 1712, in the custody of his great-grandson, Sir George Smith, who generously communicated them to all that desired a perusal of them. Fosbrooke, however, in the preface to his _History of Gloucestershire_, published in 1807, speaks of them as being in the possession of the Earl of Berkeley. He says, "Of the noblemen and gentlemen who honoured me with support and information, the Earl of Berkeley's permission to use Mr. Smythe's MSS. in every important extent has been of essential service." Fosbrooke subsequently published, in 1821, a quarto volume of _Abstracts and Extracts of Smythe's Lives of the Berkeleys_ from these manuscripts.]

_Origin of Terms in Change-ringing._--I shall be obliged by any one informing me as to the origin and derivation of the terms "plain bob," "grandsire bob," "single bob minor," "grandsire treble," "caters," "cinques," _et hoc genus omne_, so well known to campanologists.

ALFRED GATTY.

[Our correspondent may probably get some clue to the derivation of these terms in a work entitled _Campanologia Improved; or the Art of Ringing made Easy_, third edition, 12mo. 1733. We may also mention, that some Notes of Dedications of Churches and Bells in the Diocese of Gloucester will be found in the British Museum, Add. MSS. 5836. f. 189 b.]

_Keseph's Bible._--About the year 1828, there was issued a thin duodecimo pamphlet by some one who took the cognomen of Keseph, and who {513} proposed to publish an edition of the authorised version under the title of "Keseph's Bible," with the substitution of the Hebrew terms _Alehim_, _Aleh_, _Al_, _Adon_, _Adonai_, &c. &c. for our English ones _God_, _Lord_, &c. &c.

Can any of your readers inform me if this was ever published? and can they also favour me with the loan of the pamphlet for a month?

THE EDITOR OF THE "CHRONOLOGICAL NEW TESTAMENT."

36. Trinity Square, Southwark.

[This Bible was published in 1830, as far as chap. xix. of the Second Book of Kings, with the following title: _The Holy Bible, according to the Established Version: with the Exception of the Substitution of the Original Hebrew Names, in place of the English Words, Lord and God, and of a few corrections thereby rendered necessary. With Notes._ London: Westley and Davis, 4to. It contains a Preface of four pages, and a list of the Meaning or Signification of the Sacred Names substituted in this edition, of nine pages. A copy of it is in the British Museum, the press mark 1276 h.]

_Proclamations to prohibit the Use of Coal, as Fuel, in London._--Dr. Bachoffner, in the lecture which he is now delivering at the Royal Polytechnic Institution, mentions the fact that three separate proclamations were issued for this purpose, and that it was at last made a capital offence; and a man was actually accused, tried, condemned, and executed for burning coal within the metropolis. Now what I want to ascertain relative to the above facts, is: 1. The date of each; 2. Any particulars that you or any of your correspondents may be kind enough to furnish; 3. The name, and station, trade, or profession of the person so executed.

As Dr. Bachoffner has now often reiterated the above statement at the Polytechnic, and as it has always been received (at least when I have been there) with acclamations of surprise, I have no doubt that the particulars will interest many of your readers.

ARTHUR C. WILSON.