Part 4
At the end of the assizes the crown-bar judge and the clerk of assize sit down quietly together, and go over the sentences of the prisoners, after which they are classed, and a fair copy signed by the clerk of the assize--not the judge--is delivered to the undersheriff, which is his only authority for carrying the different sentences into execution. If a man is to be hung, opposite his name is written, "Let him be hanged by the neck," and an asterisk is added to draw the undersheriff's attention. Should the man afterwards be respited, the judge, or the clerk of assize, writes to the undersheriff, and also (_ex abundanti cautelâ_) to the gaoler, to say so. Should the undersheriff hear nothing further, he hangs the man at the end of the respite, as a matter of course. A reprieve comes from the secretary of state's office. At the end of the shrievalty this list of sentences is sent to the Court of Exchequer, as forming part of what is called the Bill of Cravings, and in which the sheriff is allowed a certain sum towards the expenses of the execution. What may be the practice in _London_ I do not know, but the above would be the practice at Winchester.
P. J.
Exeter, Sept. 15. 1851.
COCKNEY.
(Vol. iv., p. 237.)
Halliwell illustrates this word by a quotation from Nash's _Pierce Penilesse_, 1592:
"A young heyre or _cockney_, that is his mother's darling, if hee playde the waste-good at the innes of the court, or about London, falles in a quarrelling humor with his fortune, because she made him not king of the Indies."
Richardson gives the following quotation from Fuller's _Worthies_:
"I meet with a double sense of this word _cockeney_.... 1st, One coaks'd or cockered, made a wanton or nestle-cock of.... 2nd, One utterly ignorant of husbandry and housewifery, such as is practised in the country...."
Webster gives the following derivation, &c.:
"COCKNEY, _n._ [Most probably from L. _coquina_, a kitchin, or _coquino_, to cook; Fr. _coquin_, idle; Fr. _cocagne_, It. _cuccagna_, an imaginary country of idleness and luxury.... Hence, a citizen who leads an idle life, or never leaves the city.]
"1. A native of London, by way of contempt. _Watts. Shak._
"'And yet I say by my soul I have no salt bacon Ne no _cokeney_ by Christe coloppes to make.'
"'At that feast were they served in rich array; Every five and five had a _cokeney_.'"
Chaucer, in the above lines quoted by Webster, probably refers to any substantial dish of fresh meat, which might be cut in collops; possibly, however, to young roasted pigs, which, as every one knows, are continually running about, all over the land of cockaigne, with knives and forks stuck into them, crying, "Come eat me, come eat me."
Whether the word cockney be derived from the the land of cockaigne, or the legend of cockaigne arise from cockney, it appears probable that both words have their origin in the same root with the verb _to cook_, and that the epithet originally conveyed the imputation to citizens, of a superfluous consumption of cooked meat; inasmuch as the inhabitants of large cities generally consider the daily use of fresh meat almost as a necessary of life, while the provincial population is content to exist on less nutritious food.
Whatever may be the original import of the epithet, the modern application of it is, I believe, confined to the natives of the metropolis, and it corresponds in use and signification with the terms _rustic_ and _chaw-bacon_, which distinguish the natives of the provinces; the latter term being exclusively appropriated to agriculturalists. Epithets, apparently of similar origin, exist in the seaman's _land-lubber_, the landsman's _jack-tar_, the Englishman's _froggy_, and the Frenchman's _ros-bif_.
Londoners themselves appear to have a theoretical notion that the inhabitants of Belgravia, and other enlightened metropolitan districts, are strictly entitled to the designation _cockney_, in virtue of their birth and residence within the sound of Bow-bells; but practically limit its application to those members of the lower, and more ignorant classes of the community, who traditionally retain some of the obsolete idioms, and other peculiarities of speech, of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers.
A LONDONER.
SIR EDMUND PLOWDEN OR PLOYDEN.
(Vol. iv., p. 58.)
For the information of your correspondent A TRANSATLANTIC READER, I beg to inform him that Sir Edmund Plowden or Ployden was 2nd son of Francis Plowden of Plowden, Salop, and Shiplake in Berks: a family which can claim its descent from the Saxon kings of England; and by a Saxon charter, granting lands in Salop to the family, that the family had large estates in that remote period. The Saxon derivation of the name (from the Saxon _Plean deen_, or kill the Dane) alone shows the great antiquity of the family; and there are few, if any, families in England who have retained their ancestral property so direct in the male line as this family. It is also connected with some of the oldest and noblest families in England--the Howards and Staffords are allied to this family by intermarriages. In the reign of Richard I. Sir Roger de Plowden was a crusader; and for his heroic conduct at the siege of Acre, was knighted, and also permitted by the king to bear on his shield the royal arms, the _fleur de lis_, which is retained to this day. In 9 Edward II., John de Plowden was by parliamentary writ, signed at Clopstow 5th March, called to parliament as one of the lords of the township of Plowden, Salop. Edmund Plowden, the great lawyer in Edw. VI. and Elizabeth's reigns, who was in those times called the oracle of the law, was enrolled among Fuller's _Worthies of England_, with Camden's Latin verses on him: "Vitæ integritati inter homines suæ professionis nulli secundus."
He was offered by Elizabeth, whose autograph letter was until recently in the possession of the family, the Lord Chancellorship of England, with a peerage, if he would give up his creed as Catholic and turn Protestant; which he declined, preferring to abide by his moral convictions of the truthfulness of what he deemed his faith to worldly honour and aggrandisement. Sir Edmund died at Wanstead, county of Southampton, in 1659; and in possession of large estates in eleven parishes in England, besides his American province of New Albion. To each of these parishes he leaves by his will of 1655 a sum of money to be paid "eight days after his demise, and directs to be buried in the chapel of the Plowdens at Lydbury, in Salop; a stone monument, with an inscription in brass bearing the names of his children, and another with his _correct pedigree_ as drawn out at his house in Wanstead." He appears to have gone to America about the year 1620, and remained there, in Virginia and New England, till about 1630. While there, his sister Ann was married to Sir Arthur Lake, son of Sir Thomas Lake, then Secretary of State to James I.; and through whose influence, we presume, on his return to England he was introduced to the great Lord Strafford, with whom it is believed he proceeded to Ireland; for in the Heralds' Visitation of Salop, 1632, (_vide_ Sims' _H. Vist._, Brit. Mus.), he is entered in the Plowden pedigree as being then in Ireland. By the Strafford State Papers it appears that in this year he made petition to Charles I. through Lord Strafford, then Lieut. and Capt.-General of Ireland, for the colonising of New Albion:--
"Near the continent of Virginia, sixty leagues N. from James City, without the Bay of Chesapeake, there is a habitable and fruitful island, named Isle Plowden, otherwise Long Isle, with other small isles between 30° and 40° of lat., about sixty leagues from the main, near De la Warre Bay, where Your Majesty, nor any of your Progenitors, were ever possessed of any estate, &c ... to enable the petitioners, their heirs and assigns, for ever to enjoy the said Isle, and forty leagues square of the adjoining continent, as in the nature of a County Palatine or Body Politick, by the name of New Albion, to be held of your Majesty's Crown of Ireland, exempt from all appeal to the Governor of Virginia, and with such other additions, privileges, and dignities therein, to be given to Sir Edmund Plowden, like has been heretofore granted to Sir George Calvert, Knight, late Lord Calvert, in Newfoundland, together with the usual grants and privileges that other Colonies have for governing, &c., and we agree to settle with 500 inhabitants."
The king's warrant was given at Oatlands 24th July, 1632, granting the whole asked for, under the Great Seal of Ireland, signed by John Coke. Between this period and 1634, Sir Edmund was engaged in fulfilling the conditions of the warrant by carrying out the colonisation by indentures, which were executed and enrolled in Dublin, and St. Mary's in Maryland in America. In Dublin the parties were Viscount Musherry, 100 planters; Lord Monson, 100 planters; Sir Thomas Denby, 100 planters; Captain Clayborne (of American notoriety) 50; Captain Balls; and amounting in all to 540 colonisers, beside others in Maryland, Virginia, and New England. The parties who joined in the petition were Sir John Lawrence, Knight and Baronet, who died in America; Sir Bowyer Worstley, Knight, and Charles Barrett, Esq.,--both died there in 1634; George Noble, Gent., Thomas Ribread, Roger Packe, William Inwood, and John Trustler. Having completed the conditions he was granted a charter, bearing date Oatlands, 21st June, 1634; and enrolled in Dublin in 17 pages folio; and confirmed 24th July, 1634, in the eighth year of the reign of Charles I., running thus:
"And according to the tenour and effect of certain of our letters, signed with our proper hand, and sealed with our seal now enrolled in the Rolls of our Chancery of the said Kingdom of Ireland, We have given, granted, and confirmed, and by this our present Charter, for Us, our heirs, and successors, do give, grant, and confirm such the before said Sir Edmund Plowden, Knight, his heirs and assigns, for ever, all that entire island near the continent of Terra Firma of North Virginia, called the Island of Plowden, or Long Island, and lying near and between the 39° and 40° of N. lat.; together with part of the continent or Terra Firma aforesaid near adjoining, described to begin from the point of an angle of a certain promontory called Cape Cod, from thence to the westward for the space of 40°, running by the river Delaware, closely following its course by the N. lat. into a certain rivulet there arising from a spring of Lord Baltimore in the lands of Maryland, and the summit aforesaid to the south, where it touches, joins, and determines in all its breadth, from thence takes its course into a square leading to the north by a right line for the space of 40° to the river and port of Reachu Cod, and descends to a savannah, touching and including the top of Sand Bay, where it determines, and from thence towards the south by a square, stretching to a savannah which passes by and washes the shores of the Plowden aforesaid to the point of the promontory of Cape May above mentioned, and determines where it begins." And p. 4. continues: "Therefore We, for Us, our heirs, and successors, do give unto the aforesaid Sir Edmund Plowden, and his heirs and assigns, free and full power graciously to confer favours and honours upon the well-deserving citizens and inhabitants within the _province aforesaid with whatever titles and dignities_ he shall choose to decorate them with (in such a manner as they may but now be usurped in England), and to cut and stamp different pieces of gold such as shall be lawful, current, and acceptable to all the inhabitants; and We command all, and enjoin other things to be done in the premises which to him or them shall be seen to be proper, in as free and ample a manner and form as by the Society of Newfoundland and East Indies, Island of Bermuda, Bishop of Durham within the Bishoprick or County Palatine of Durham; or Lord Baltimore within his lands and premises of Maryland and Glastonbury; or James Earl of Carlisle within the island of St. Christopher and Barbadoes; or any other Governor or Founder of a Colony."
In fact, the powers granted were never exceeded by any former charter of the Crown: they were all but regal. Under this charter a lease, enrolled in Dublin, was granted by Lord Plowden in 1634 to Sir Thomas Danby for 10,000 acres, and a release, dated 20th Dec. 1634, sealed and signed at St. Mary's, Maryland, and witnessed by Vall Havord and Richard Benham, by R. Packe for 200 acres; T. Ribread, 100; W. Inwood, 100; and John Trustler, 100; segregating 500 acres in trust for the "Earl of Albion, when they deliver up their claims or trusts in consideration for this grant of land; and confirmed unto Lord Francis Plowden, son and heir of Sir Edmund Plowden, Earl Palatine, and George and Thomas Plowden, two of the sons of the said Sir Edmund, Earl Palatine." Sir Edmund Plowden resided with his wife and family as Governor of New Albion six years; his eldest son, Francis, and Lady Plowden, returned to England to look after his father's estates in his absence: but Francis so abused the confidence reposed in him, as to oblige the Governor to return to England (leaving his sons George and Thomas as his _locum tenens_). On his arrival he was incarcerated in the Fleet Prison on a base charge emanating from his son, from which he was released by order of the _Peers Committee_, House of Lords; and likewise involved in a lawsuit to recover certain estates sold by his son, which cost him 15,000_l._ before he was clear. This unnatural and illegal conduct induced him to disinherit his son Francis; for, in the 15th of Charles I., 1st June, 1646, Sir Edmund obtained license from the Crown to alienate from his son the manors of Wanstead, Southwick, and many others in the county of Southampton, as is enrolled in the Rolls Chapel. By his will, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, London, Sir Wm. Mason was in trust for Sir Edmund's second son and heir, Thomas Plowden; and also for the New Albion colony. And the will proceeds:
"And I think it fit that my English lands and estates shall be settled and united to my Honor, County Palatine, and Province of New Albion, for the maintenance of the same; and again, that all my lease lands in England be sold with all convenient speed by my executors and overseers herein named, and with the money arising therefrom to buy good freehold, to be settled and entailed as the rest of my lands are settled on my second son Thomas Plowden, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, or to be begotten; also my County Palatine of New Albion, and Peerage as a Peer of Ireland, as aforesaid, unto Thomas Plowden my son during his natural life, and after his decease, to the heirs male of my son Thomas, begotten or to be begotten; and again, I do enter and will that my son Thomas Plowden, and, after his decease _his eldest heir_ in male, and, if he be under age, then his guardian, with all speed after my decease do employ by consent of Sir William Mason of Gray's Inn, Knight, whom I make a trustee of this my plantation of New Albion; and if my son Thomas shall by fail, defence, loose, agree, give, or alien any part of my estates, lands, or rents in England to Francis my son, or his issue, then my son shall forfeit and lose to _his eldest_ son all lands and estates and rents in England herein settled, entailed, or given him, and to be forfeited during his life."
George either died, or was killed, in the massacres by the Indians; as was also Francis, third son of Thomas, along with his wife and family, as alluded to in his father's will, dated 1698.
These attacks on the infant colony were instigated by the Dutch and Swedes of the New Netherlands, as they called New Albion, and who did all they could to obstruct and thwart the Earl Palatine's plans, as is alluded to in _The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain_: Speed and Basset, 1676, dedicated to James I.; and recommended as a most authentic work by Sir Richard St. George, Norroy King of Arms.
"Moreover these proceedings, upon complaint made to his late Majesty, and by whom represented to the State of Holland, were absolutely disowned by them, and wholly laid upon the East India Company of Amsterdam. The most northerly part towards New England was by his Majesty granted by patent to Sir Edmund Plowden, by the name of New Albion. The most southerly towards Virginia to Sir George Calvert, now Lord Baltimore, by the name of Maryland. The Dutch, upon some consideration agreed on, were forthwith to have quitted the place; yet, for all this, as the custom of this people is never to let go any opportunity that serves their turn, whether by right or wrong, they took advantage of the unhappy dissentions and cruel wars that soon after happened within this nation: they not only stood upon higher demands than was at first agreed on, but also contrived to stir up the natives against the English, that they might have the better opportunity of fixing themselves. In this state things remained till his present Majesty, after his restoration, resolved to send three ships of war."
Charles II. most tyrannically, privately, without sanction from Parliament, and without even alluding to his father's charter to Sir Edmund Plowden, gave a charter of the Province to his brother James, at the same time creating him Duke of Albany. Before James was duly clothed with the powers of Governor, he sold a large portion of it to Lord Berkely for 65,000_l._ For years afterwards, the Duke of York's title was disputed, and many disturbances arose, and Chancery suits, as entered in the American chancery suits of that period. Lord Sutherland, as the colonial officer, disputed the validity of the Duke's claim. A greater act of injustice could hardly be perpetrated than this virtual abrogation of the original charter, after so many years of labour had been expended, charges incurred, loss of estates and relations, and the other evils attending planting this colony which absence from England gave rise to. Sir Edmund Plowden was not inferior to any of his co-governors in ability, fortune, position, or family. Though he made a greater sacrifice than any, he never received the slightest compensation like the other early colonisers. We conclude that family dissentions connected with the disinheritance of Francis Plowden, must have tended to facilitate Charles II.'s illegal conduct; for, in Thomas Plowden's Will, 1698, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, he alludes to his son-in-law, Walter Hall, illegally and forcibly retaining papers connected with the estates: Province of New Albion Charter, the Patent for the Peerage of Ireland. The first cousin of the disinherited son was a Col. Plowden of the Life Guards, who followed James II.'s fortunes, and accompanied him on his leaving England, and died as his chamberlain at St. Germains in France. These documents may have come into his hands, and have been lost in France. It is quite clear that the only estate which came to Thomas's eldest son James of Ewhurst was Lassam in Southampton, and his son James also held it; he was married to Sarah Chichely, daughter of Sir John Chichely, son of Sir Henry Chichely, formerly Governor of Virginia, the lineal descendant of Thomas, Lord Mayor of London, and brother of Archbishop Chichely, founder of All Souls, Oxford. This family is now extinct in the male, but still exist in the female line in the Plowden family, which is the nearest of kin of any family, and consequently has a stronger claim to the Fellowships of that college as founder's kin. There can be no question but that the family have a legal claim against the government for the unjust alienation of that province to James II.; but the loss of the charter, and the ignorance of the family that it was enrolled in Ireland (now found), prevented the heir and representative of Sir Edmund from claiming compensation. Nothing but an act of parliament can nullify the sacred rights of a charter; if it were not so, no public or private right would be safe a day. As to his peerage, it was litigated at the time, and decided in his favour; but the Commonwealth did not favour the restoration of titles granted by Charles I., and on the Restoration, Sir Edmund's papers were lost to those to whom they would have been useful. Notwithstanding the sarcastic and bad spirit in which Beauchamp Plantagenet's _New Albion_ of 1648 was reviewed by Mr. Pennington of Philadelphia, I trust that the Americans will treat the early pioneer of one of the best portions of America in a more liberal spirit, and do justice to his memory. We have now no new worlds to discover; and the present race of men can hardly appreciate the labours, dangers, and hardships our first colonisers had to endure--but they however know the value of their exertions. They have secured for America one of the finest countries in the world, which may one day be an empire of vast power. Its separation from the mother country was the greatest national calamity that ever befell her. How fatal has it been to France; first for abetting clandestinely the Americans against England, and at last throwing away the mask, openly assisting her with her arms. Since then, what calamities have befallen her, and may even yet befall her. Had we then, as Macaulay says, had a Clive at the head of our armies, and a Hastings in council, that separation might either have been deferred, or we might have parted friendly, instead of in enmity. Had I time to glean it, I have no doubt I could furnish much important matter connected with New Albion, derived from sources within my reach.
ALBION.
P.S. There are two seals attached to Sir Edmund Plowden's Will; his private seal of the Plowdens, and his Earl's with supporters, signed "Albion:" the same as is given in Beauchamp Plantagenet's _New Albion_, 1648 (King's Lib. B. Mus.).
GENERAL JAMES WOLFE.
(Vol. iv., p. 271.)
He was born in a house now inhabited by the vicar, at Westerham, Kent, on the 2d of January, 1727, and not, as the various notices of his life state, the 15th of January, 1726 (see _Penny Cyclopædia_ and other works). His mother's Christian name was Henrietta, and she, I believe, came from or near Deptford, to which place in the latter years of her life, she again went to reside. Wolfe was an only child; the name is still to be found in the neighbourhood of Westerham. Shortly after his birth, his parents removed to a house at the extreme end of the town,--a picturesque mansion it is, and is named after him Quebec House. Under this roof Wolfe's happiest hours were spent.
Sir Jeffrey Amherst (a native of the same valley, Holmsdale), patronised him, but where first engaged I never could discover. His body was brought to England, and interred at Greenwich; monuments were erected to him in Westminster Abbey, Squerries Park, Westerham, and Westerham Church. The inscription on the marble tablet, erected in the latter, I subjoin:--
JAMES, Son of Colonel Edward Wolfe, and Henrietta his Wife, Was born in this parish, January 2d, MDCCXXVII. And died in America, Sept. 19th, MDCCLIX. Conqueror of Quebec!
"Whilst George in sorrow bows his laurelled head, And bids the artist grace the soldier dead; We raise no sculptured trophy to thy name, Brave youth! the fairest in the list of fame. Proud of thy birth, we boast th' auspicious year, Struck with thy fall, we shed a general tear, With humble grief, inscribe one artless stone, And from thy matchless honours date our own."