Minor Queries with Answers.
Bridget Cromwell and Fleetwood.—Can you inform me whether Bridget, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, who was first married in 1651 to Ireton, Lord Deputy of Ireland (and had by him a large family), and secondly, to General Fleetwood, had any family by the latter?
And, if so, what were the Christian names of the children (Fleetwood)?
A New Subscriber of 1854.
[Noble, in his Memoirs of the House of Cromwell, vol. ii. p. 369., says, "It is most probable that Fleetwood had issue by his second wife Bridget, especially as he mentions that she was in an increasing way in several of his letters, written in 1654 and 1655. It is highly probable Mr. Charles Fleetwood, who was buried at Stoke Newington, May 14, 1676, was his son by the Protector's daughter, as perhaps was Ellen Fleetwood, buried in the same place in a velvet coffin, July 25, 1731; if so, she must have been, at the time of her death, upwards of seventy years of age.">[
Culet.—In my bills from Christ Church, Oxford, there is a charge of sixpence every term for culet. What is this?
B. R. I.
[In old time there was a collection made every year for the doctors, masters, and beadles, and this was called collecta or culet: the latter word is now used for a customary fee paid to the beadles. "I suppose," says Hearne, "that when this was gathered for the doctors and masters it was only for such doctors and masters as taught and read to scholars, of Which sort there was a vast number in old time, and such a collection was therefore made, that they might proceed with the more alacrity, and that their dignity might be better supported."—Appendix to Hist. Rob. de Avesbury.]