Part 4
An appropriate inscription is to be found on the bell of St. John's Cathedral in this colony, date London, 1845. It is in the words of St. Paul's mission, Acts xxii. 21.: "I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles."
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
Here is a modern achievement in this kind of literature. It exists on one of the eight bells belonging to the church tower of Pilton, Devon:
"Recast by John Taylor and Son, Who the best prize for church bells won At the Great Ex-hi-bi-ti-on In London, 1--8--5 and 1."
R. W. C.
I continue (from Vol. viii., p. 248.) my Notes of inscriptions on bells.
Mathon, Worcestershire. A peal of six bells:
1. "Peace and good neighbourhood."
2. "Glory to God."
3. "Fear God and honour the King."
4. "God preserve our Church and State."
5. "Prosperity to the town."
6. "The living to the church I call, And to the grave do summon all."
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. Ten bells; the inscriptions on two are as follows, the rest merely bearing the names of churchwardens, &c.:
5. "God prosper the parish. A. R. 1701."
10. "I to the church the living call, And to the grave do summon all. 1773."
The latter seems to be a favourite inscription. The REV. W. S. SIMPSON mentions it (Vol. viii., p. 448.) on a bell in one of the Oxfordshire churches.
Fotheringay, Northamptonshire. Four bells:
1. "Thomas Norris made me. 1634."
2. "Domini laudem, 1614, non verbo sed voce resonabo."
The two others respectively bear the dates 1609, 1595, with the initials of the rector and churchwarden, and (on the fourth bell) the words "Praise God." On a recent visit to this church I copied the following inscription from a bell, which, being cracked, is no longer used, and is now placed within the nave of the church. This bell is not mentioned by Archdeacon Bonney in his _Historic Notices of Fotheringay_, though he gives the inscriptions on the four others.
"Non clamor sed amor cantat in aure Dei. A. M. R. R. W. W. I. L. 1602."
The inscription is in Lombardic characters. MR. SIMPSON notes the same at Girton, Cambridgeshire (Vol. viii., p. 108.).
Godmanchester, Hunts. Eight bells:
1. "Thomas Osborn, Downham, _fecit_, 1794. Intactum sillo. Percute dulce cano."
4. "T. Osborn {Our voices shall with joyful sound} _fecit_. {Make hills and valleys echo round.} 1794."
8. "Rev. Castel Sherard, rector; Jno. Martin, Robert Waller, bailiffs; John Scott, Richard Mills, churchwardens; T. Osborn _fecit_. 1794."
Morborne, Hunts. Two bells:
1. "Cum voco ad ecclesiam, venite."
2. "Henry Penn _fusore_. 1712."
Stilton, Hunts. Two bells:
1. "Thomas Norris made me. 1689."
CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.
At Bedale, in Yorkshire, is a bell weighing by estimation twenty-six hundredweight, which is probably of the same date, or nearly so, as the Dyrham bell. It measures four feet two inches and a half across the lip, and has the following inscription round the crown:
"[+] IOU : EGO : CUM : FIAM : CRUCE : CUSTOS : LAUDO : MARIAM : DIGNA : DEI : LAUDE : MATER : DIGNISSIMA : GAUDE;"
the commencement of which I do not understand. There are five smaller bells belonging to the peal at Bedale, and a prayer bell. They bear inscriptions in the following order:
The prayer bell:
"Voco. Veni. Precare. 1713." S.S.
{594}
The first, or lightest of the peal:
"Gloria in excelsis Deo. 1755. Edw^d Place, rector; E. Seller, Ebor. Jn^o Pullein, churchwarden."
The second:
"Iesus be ovr speed. P. S., T. W., H. S., I. W., M. W. 1664."
The third:
"Deo Gloria pxa Hominibus. 1627."
The fourth:
"Jesus be our speed. 1625."
The fifth:
"Soli Deo Gloria Pax Hominibus. 1631."
The letters P. S., on the second bell, are the initials of Dr. Peter Samwaies, who died April 5, 1693, having been thirty-one years rector of Bedale.
On the fly-leaf of one of the later registers at Hornby, near Bedale, is written the following memorandum:
"Inscription on the third bell at Hornby:
'When I do ring, God's praises sing; When I do toll, Pray heart and soul.'
This bell was given to the parish church of Hornby by the Lord Conyers in the reign of Henry VII., but, being broken, was recast by William Lord D'Arcy and Conyers, the second of the name, 1656."
PATONCE.
Charwelton Church, Northants:
1. Broken to pieces: some fragments in the vestry. On one piece, "Ave Maria."
2. "Jesus Nazarenus rex Judeorum fili Dei miserere mei. 1630."
3. appears a collection of Saxon letters put together without connexion.
4. "Nunquam ad preces cupies ire, Cum sono si non vis venire. 1630."
Heyford Church, Northants:
1. "God saue the King. 1638."
2. "Cum cum Praie. 1601."
3. "Henry Penn made me. 1704. John Paine, Thmoas [_sic_] Middleton, churchwardens."
4. "Thomas Morgan, Esquier, gave me To the Church of Heford, frank and free. 1601."
With coat of arms of the Morgans on the side.
Floore Church, Northants:
1. "Russell of Wooton, near Bedford, made me. 1743. James Phillips, Thomas Clark, churchwardens."
2. "Cantate Domino cantum novum. 1679."
3. "Henry Bagley made mee. 1679."
4. "Matthew Bagley made mee. 1679."
5. "John Phillips and Robert Bullocke, churchwardens. 1679."
6. "To the church the living call, And to the grave do summonds [_sic_] all. Russell of Wooton made me, In seventeen hundred and forty-three."
Three coins inserted round the top.
Slapton Church, Northants:
1. [The Sancte bell] "Richard de Wambis me fesit" [_sic_].
2. "Xpe audi nos."
3. "Ultima sum trina campana vocor Katerina."
All in Saxon letters. No dates.
Inscription cut on the frame of Slapton bells:
"BE . IT . KNO WEN . UN TO . ALL . TH IS . SAME . TH AT . THOMAS COWPER . OF WOODEND . MADE . THIS . FRAME. 1634."
Hellidon Church, Northants:
1. "God save the King. 1635."
2. "IHS Nazarenus rex Judæorum fili Dei miserere mei. 1635."
3. "Celorum Christe platiat [_sic_] tibi rex sonus iste. 1615."
4. Same as 2.
Dodford Church, Northants:
1. "Matthew Bagley made me. 1679."
2. "Campana gravida peperit filias. 1674."
3. "IHS Nazarenus [&c., as before]. 1632."
4. "Ex Dono Johannis Wyrley Armiger. 1614."
And five coins round the lip.
5. Inscription same as 3. Date 1626.
6. Ditto ditto Date 1624.
Wappenham Church, Northants:
1. "Henry Bagley made me. 1664."
2. "R. T. 1518. [+]"
3. "Praise the Lord. 1599."
4. "GOD SAVE KING JAMES. R. A. 1610."
Three coins on lip and bell-founder's arms.
The Sancte bell was recast in 1842, and hangs now in the north window of belfry. {595}
Brackley, St. Peter's Church, Northants:
1. "Jesus Nazarenus [&c., as before]. 1628."
2. "God save the King. 1628."
3. Same as 1.
4. "Celorum Christe platiat [_sic_] tibi rex sonus iste. 1628."
5. "Cum sono si non vis venire, } Nunquam ad preces cupies ire } 1628."
Dunton Church, Leicestershire:
1. "IHS Nazarenus [&c., as before]. 1619."
2. "Be it knone to all that doth me see, That Clay of Leicester made me. Nick. Harald and John More, churchwardens. 1711."
3. Same as 1. Date 1621.
Leire Church, Leicestershire:
1. "Jesus be oure good speed. 1654."
2. "Henricus Bagley _fecit_. 1675."
3. "Recast A.D. 1755, John Sleath, C.W.; Tho^s Eyre de Kettering _fecit_."
Frolesworth Church, Leicestershire:
1. "Jesus Nazarenus [&c., as before]. 1635."
2. In Old English characters (no date):
"Dum Rosa precata mundi Maria vocata."
3. Same as 1.
J. R. M., M.A.
The legend noted from a bell at Sidmouth (Vol. ix., p. 109.), namely,--
"Est michi collatum Ihc istud nomen amatum,"
is not an unusual inscription on mediæval black-letter bells, if I may use the expression. The characters are small. It is on two bells at Teignmouth, and is on one of the bells in this tower:
1. "[+] Voce mea viva depello cuncta nociva."
2. "[+] Est michi collatum Ihc istud nomen amatum."
3. "Embrace trew museck."
A correspondent, MR. W. S. SIMPSON (Vol. viii., p. 448.), asks the date of the earliest known examples of bells.
Dates on mediæval bells are, I believe, very rare in England. I have but few notes of any. My impression is that such bells are as old as the towers which contain them, judging from the character of the letter, the wear and tear of the iron work, aye, of the bell itself. Many old bells have been recast, and on _such_ there is often a record of the date of its prototype. For instance, at St. Peter's, Exeter:
"Ex dono Petri Courtenay," &c., "1484;" "renovat," &c., "1676."
At Chester-le-Street:
"Thomas Langley dedit," &c., "1409;" "refounded," &c., "1665."
I will add two or three with dates.
Bruton, Somerset:
"Est Stephanus primus lapidatus gracia plenus. 1528."
At St. Alkmond's, Derby:
"Ut tuba sic resono, ad templa venite pii. 1586."
At Lympey Stoke, Somerset:
"W. P., I. A. F. 1596."
Hexham. Old bells taken down 1742:
1. "Ad primos cantus pulsat nos Rex gloriosus."
2. "Et cantare ... faciet nos vox Nicholai."
3. "Est nobis digna Katerine vox benigna."
4. "Omnibus in Annis est vox Deo grata Johannis. A.D. MCCCCIIII."
5. "Andrea mi care Johanne consociare. A.D. MCCCCIIII."
6. "Est mea vox orata dum sim Maria vocata. A.D. MCCCCIIII."
Any earlier dates would be acceptable.
On the Continent bells are usually dated. I will extract, from Roccha _De Campanis_, those at St. Peter's at Rome.
The great bell:
"In nomine Domini, Matris, Petriq., Pauliq. Accipe devotum, parvum licet, accipe munus, Quod tibi Christe dat[=u] Petri, Pauliq. tri[=u]phum, Explicat, et nostram petit, populiq. salutem Ipsorum pietate dari, meritisq. refundi Et verbum caro factum est. Anno milleno trecento cum quinquageno Additis et tribus Septembris mense colatur; Ponderat et millia decies septiesq. librarum."
2. "In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Am[=e]. Ad honorem Dei, et Beatæ Mariæ Virginis, Et Beatorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, Verbum Caro factum est, Solve jubente Deo terrar[=u] Petre cathenas, qui facis, Ut pateant coelestia Regna beatis, M Hæc campana cum alia majore ponderante --- XVI. Post consumptionem ignito fulgure, anno precedente imminente, fusa est, anno Domini MCCCLIII. Mense Junii, et ponderat hæc MX et centena librarum. Amen."
3. "Nomine Dominico Patris, prolisq. spirati Ordine tertiam Petri primæ succedere noscant. Per dies paucos quotquot sub nomine dicto Sanctam Ecclesiam colunt in agmine trino. Amen."
4. "Anno Domini MCCLXXXVIIII. ad honorem Dei, et Beatæ Mariæ Virginis, et Sancti Thomæ Apostoli Tempore Fratris Joannis de Leodio Ministri, factum fuit hoc opus de legato quondam Domini {596} Rikardi Domini Papæ Notarii. Guidottus Pisanus me fecit."
On a small bell:
"Mentem Sanctam Spontaneam, honorem Deo, Et Patris liberationem. Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum; Benedicta tu in mulieribus Et benedictus fructus ventris tui."
In the Church of St. John Lateran was a bell with a mutilated inscription; but the date is plain, 1389. The name of Boniface IX. is on it, who was Sum. Pont. in that year.
In the Church of St. Mariæ Majoris were two bells dated anno Dom. 1285; and another 1291.
In the Church of the Jesuits was a bell with this inscription, brought from England:
"Facta fuit A. Dom. 1400, Die vi M[=e]sis Sept[=e]bris. Sancta Barbara, ora pro nobis."
Roccha, who published his _Commentary_ 1612, says:
"In multis Campanis _fit mentio de Anno, in quo facta est Campana_, necnon de ipsius Ecclesiæ Rectore, vel optime merito, et Campanæ artifice, _ut ego ipse vidi Romæ_, ubi præcipuarum Ecclesiarum, et Basilicarum inscriptiones Campanis incisas perlegi."--P. 55.
So that it would appear that the practice of inscribing dates on bells was usual on the Continent, though for some reason or other it did not generally obtain in England till after the Reformation. I have a Note of another foreign bell or two with an early date.
At Strasburg:
"[+] O Rex gloriæ Christe, veni cum pace! MCCCLXXV. tertio Nonas Augusti."
On another:
"Vox ego sum vitæ, voco vos, orate, venite. 1461."
On a bell called St. D'Esprit:
"Anno Dom. MCCCCXXVII mense Julio fusa sum, per Magistrum Joannem Gremp de Argentina. Nuncio festa, metum, nova quædam flebile lethum."
A bell called the Magistrates:
"Als man zahlt 1475 Jahr War Kaiser Friedrick hier offenbar: Da hat mich Meister Thomas Jost gegossen Dem Rath zu laüten ohnverdrossen."
On another:
"Nomen Domini sit benedictum. 1806."
I would beg to add a Note of one more early and interesting bell which was at Upsala:
"[+] Anno . Domini . MDXIIII . fusa . est . ista . Campana . in . honorem . Sancti . Erici . Regis . et . Martiris . Rex . erat . Ericus . humilis . devotus . honestus . prudens . V."
What V. means is rather a puzzle.
I fear I have already extended this reply to a length beyond all fair limit. I may at some future time (if desirable) send you a long roll of legends on mediæval bells without dates, and others of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some of a devotional character, and others of the style of unseemly and godless epitaphs. But it is to be hoped that in these, as in other like matters, a better taste is beginning to predominate; and it must be a subject of congratulation that
"Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto."
H. T. ELLACOMBE.
Rectory, Clyst St. George.
In the steeple of Foulden Church, South Greenhoe Hd., Norfolk, are six bells with inscriptions as under:
1. "Thos. Osborn _fecit_. 1802. Peace and good neighbourhood."
2. "The laws to praise, my voice I raise."
3. "Thos. Osborn _fecit_, Downham, Norfolk."
4. "Our voices shall with joyful sound Make hill and valley echo round."
5. "I to the church the living call, And to the grave I summon all."
6. "Long live King George the Third. Thomas Osborn _fecit_, 1802."
GODDARD JOHNSON.
* * * * *
DE BEAUVOIR PEDIGREE.
(Vol. ix., p. 349.)
Your correspondent MR. THOMAS RUSSELL POTTER inquires whether any descendants of the De Beauvoirs of Guernsey are still existing. The family was, at one time, so numerous in that island that there are few of the gentry who cannot claim a De Beauvoir among their ancestors; but the name itself became extinct there by the death of Osmond de Beauvoir, Esq., in 1810. Some few years later, the last of a branch of the family settled in England died, leaving a very large property, which was inherited by a Mr. Benyon, who assumed the name of De Beauvoir.
The name is also to be found in the Irish baronetcy; a baronet of the name of Brown having married the daughter and heiress of the Rev. Peter de Beauvoir, the widow I believe of an Admiral McDougal, and thereupon taking up his wife's maiden name.
With respect to the pedigree which MR. POTTER quotes, and of which many copies exist in this island, it is without doubt one of the most impudent forgeries in that way ever perpetrated. From internal evidence, it was drawn up at the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, or at the beginning {597} of the reign of James I., as the compiler speaks of Roger, Earl of Rutland, as being living. This nobleman succeeded to the title in 1588, and died in 1612. The pedigree ends in the Guernsey line with Henry de Beauvoir; whom we may therefore presume to have been still alive, or but recently deceased; and whose great-grandfather, according to the pedigree, was the first of the name in the island. Allowing three generations to a century, this would throw back the arrival of the first of the De Beauvoirs to some part of the sixteenth century; but we have proof that they were settled here long before that time. In an authentic document, preserved among the records of the island, the extent of the crown revenues drawn up by order of Edward III. in 1331, the names of Pierre and Guillaume de Beauvoir are found. Another Pierre de Beauvoir, apparently the great-grandson of the above-mentioned Pierre, was Bailiff of Guernsey from 1470 to 1480. As for the family of Harryes, no such I believe ever existed in Guernsey; but a gentleman of the name of Peter Henry, belonging to a family of very ancient standing in the island, bought property in Salisbury in the year 1551, where the name seems to have been Anglicised to Harrys or Harris; as the name of his son Andrew, who was a jurat of the Royal Court of Guernsey, appears as often on the records of the island in the one form as in the other. One of Peter Henry's or Harris's daughters was married at Salisbury to a Henry de Beauvoir; and I have no doubt this is the marriage with which the pedigree ends. If I am right, the Harryes' pedigree has no more claim to authenticity than the De Beauvoir. If MR. POTTER wishes for farther information, and will communicate with me, I shall be happy to answer his inquiries as far as I am able.
The pedigree itself, however, suggests two or three Queries which I should like to see answered.
The heading is signed Hamlet Sankye or Saukye. Is anything known of such a person?
The pedigree speaks of Sir Robert de Beauveir of Tarwell, Knt., _now living_. Was there ever a family of the name of De Beauveir, De Beauvoir, or Beaver, of Tarwell, in Nottinghamshire? And if there was, what arms did they bear?
If there was such a family, was it in any way connected with any of the early proprietors of Belvoir Castle?
Is anything known of a family of the name of Harryes or Harris of Orton, and what were their arms?
EDGAR MACCULLOCH.
Guernsey.
* * * * *
RIGHT OF REFUGE IN THE CHURCH PORCH.
(Vol. ix., p. 325.)
The following entry appears in a Corporation Book of this city, under the year 1662:
"Thomas Corbold, who hath a loathesome disease, have, with his wife and two children, layne in the Porch of St. Peters per Mountegate above one year; it is now ordered by the Court that he be put into some place in the Pest-houses during the pleasure of the Court, untill the Lazar-houses be repaired."
How they were supported during the year does not appear, or if he belonged to the parish; nor is it said that it was considered he gained settlement on the parish by continuing in the porch one year.
I have heard of similar instances under an idea that any person may lodge in a church porch, and are not removable; but I believe it is an erroneous idea.
GODDARD JOHNSON.
In proof of the idea being current among the lower orders, that the church porch is a place of refuge for any houseless parishioners, I beg to state that a poor woman of the adjoining parish of Langford, came the other day to ask whether I, as a magistrate, could render her any assistance, as, in consequence of her husband's father and mother having gone to America, she and her family had become houseless, and were obliged to take up their abode in the church porch.
A. S.
West Tofts Rectory, Brandon, Norfolk.
I know an instance where a person found a temporary, but at the same time an involuntary, home in a church porch. There was a dispute between the parishes of Frodingham and Broughton, co. Lincoln, some twelve months ago, as to the settlement of an old woman. She had been living for some time in, and had become chargeable to the latter parish, but was said to belong to the former. By some means or other the woman's son was induced to convey his mother to the parish of Frodingham, which he did; and as he knew quite well that the overseer of the parish would not receive her at his hands, he adopted the somewhat strange course of leaving her in the church porch, where she remained until evening, when the overseer of Frodingham took her away, fearing that her life might be in danger from exposure to the cold, she being far advanced in years. Until I saw CHEVERELLS' Query, I thought the depository of the old woman in the church porch was, so far as the _place_ of deposit was concerned, more accidental than designed; but after all it may be the remnant of some such custom as that of which he speaks, and I, for one, should be glad to see farther inquiry made into it. To which of J. H. Parker's _Parochial Tales_ does CHEVERELLS allude?
W. E. HOWLETT.
Kirton-in-Lindsey.
{598}
* * * * *
FERDINAND CHARLES III., DUKE OF PARMA.
(Vol. ix., p. 417.)
The late Duke of Parma was not the first lineal representative of the Stuarts, as stated by E. S. S. W. Victor Emanuel, King of Sardinia, who succeeded in 1802, left by his wife Maria Theresa of Austria four daughters. The eldest of these four, Beatrix, born in 1792, married, in 1812, Francis IV., Duke of Modena, and by him (who died on the 21st of January, 1846) had issue two sons and two daughters. The eldest of these sons, Francis V., the present reigning Duke of Modena, is therefore the person who would be now sitting on the English throne had the Stuarts kept the succession. He has no children, I believe, by his wife Adelgonda of Bavaria; and the next person in succession would therefore be Dorothea, the infant daughter of his deceased brother Victor.
Victor Emanuel's _second_ daughter was Maria Theresa, who married Charles Duke of Parma, as stated by E. S. S. W.
The present Countess of Chambord is Maria Theresa Beatrice-Gaëtana, the eldest of the two sisters of Francis V., Duke of Modena. She is therefore wife of the representative of the House of Bourbon, and sister to the representative of the House of Stuart.
S. L. P.
Oxford and Cambridge Club.
Allow me to correct the statement made by your correspondent, that the Duke of Parma represented the Royal House of Stuart. The mother of the late Duke of Parma had an elder sister, Maria Beatrice, who married Francis IV., late Duke of Modena, and upon her death, in 1840, the _representation_ devolved upon her son, Francis V., the present Duke of Modena, who was born in 1819.
P. V.
Allow me to remark on the article of E. S. S. W. (Vol. ix., p. 417.) respecting the House of Stuart, that he is in error in assigning that honour to the late Duke of Parma, and, as a consequence, to his infant son and successor, Robert, now Duke of Parma. The late Duke was undoubtedly a descendant of Charles I. through his mother; but his mother had an _elder_ sister, Beatrice, late Duchess of Modena, whose son, Francis V., now Duke of Modena, born 1st June, 1819, is the unquestionable heir to the House of Stuart, and, as a Jacobite would say, if any such curiosity there be in existence, legitimate King of Great Britain and Ireland.
J. REYNELL WREFORD.
Bristol.
* * * * *
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.