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
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
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 Euphrătes (short) instead of Euphrātes. 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.