Minor Queries with Answers.
Postmaster at Merton College.—Can you tell me whether there is any known derivation for the term "Postmaster," as applied to part of the members on the Foundation of Merton College, Oxford? Also, What connexion there is between this word and the Latin for it, which is seen on the college plate, in the words "In usum Portionistarum?"
J. G. T.
Ch. Ch.
[It seems probable that these postmasters formerly occupied one of the postern gates of the college. Hence we find Anthony à Wood, in his Life, August 1, 1635, says, "A fine of 30li. was set by the warden and fellowes of Merton College. When his father renewed his lease of the old stone-house, wherein his son A. Wood was borne (called antiently Portionists' or Postmasters' Hall), for forty yeares," &c. Again, April 13, 1664: "A meeting of the warden and fellowes of Merton College, where the renewing of the leases belonging to the family, concerning the housing (Portionists' Hall and its appurtenances) against Merton College, was by them proposed." Fuller, in his Church Hist., book III. cent. xiii. sect. 8., has given the origin of postmasters. "There is," says he, "a by-foundation in Merton College, a kind of college in the college, and this tradition goeth of their original:—Anciently there was, over against Merton College, a small unendowed hall, whose scholars had so run in arrears, that their opposite neighbours, out of charity, took them into their college (then but nine in number) to wait on the fellows. But since, they are freed from any attendance, and endowed with plentiful maintenance.... Bishop Jewel was a postmaster, before removed hence to be fellow of Corpus Christi." Consult also Oxoniana, vol. ii. pp. 15-22. The Portionistæ, or Postmasters, did not reside in the college till the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but in a hall opposite to it, which had been provided for the use of the college by Peter de Habinton, or Habendon, the first warden. It afterwards became the property of the father of Anthony à Wood, and beneath its roof that distinguished antiquary was born, December 17, 1632. The second brother of Anthony became one of the postmasters of Merton College.]
"Lyra Apostolica."—Can you inform me who were the writers in the Lyra Apostolica who assumed the letters α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ?
Tyro.
[We have heard the initials attributed to the following writers:—α, Bowden; β, R. H. Froude; γ, John Keble; δ, J. H. Newman; ε, Isaac Williams; ζ, Wilberforce.]
East Dereham Manor.—Is it true that "the manor of East Dereham of the Queen" was wrested from the See of Ely by Queen Elizabeth's celebrated threat of "unfrocking?"
S. Z. Z. S.
[The memorable unique epistle from the maiden Majesty of England only deprived Dr. Cox, at that time, of his town-house and fair gardens, called Ely
Place, on Holborn Hill, reserving to himself and his successors free access, through the gate-house, of walking in the garden, and leave to gather twenty bushels of roses yearly therein! During the life of Dr. Cox an attempt was made by Elizabeth on some of the best manors belonging to the See of Ely; but it was not till that of his successor, Dr. Martin Heton, that Dereham Grange, with other manors, were alienated to the Crown. See Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. i. p. 466.]
Quakers executed in North America.—Were there not several Quakers hanged in North America on account of their religious opinions? And can you inform me where an account of the circumstances attending this persecution (if there ever was such an one) can be found?
Alfred Conder.
[Three Quakers were executed at Boston in 1659, viz. William Robinson, merchant of London; Marmaduke Stevenson of Yorkshire; and Mary Dyar. An account of the cruelties inflicted upon them is given in Sewell's History of the Quakers, edit. 1725, pp. 219-227.; also in a pamphlet entitled A Declaration of the sad and great Persecution and Martyrdom of the People of God, called Quakers, in New England, for the Worshipping of God: London, printed for Robert Wilson, in Martin's-le-Grand, 1661. It will be found among the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum.]
Inscription in Fulham Church.—I should esteem it a favour if any one of your numerous correspondents would furnish me with a correct copy of the inscription to the memory of the son of Colonel Wm. Carlos, who so nobly defended Charles II. at the battle of Worcester.
J. B. Whitborne.
["Here lieth William Carlos of Stafford, who departed this life, in the twenty-fifth yeare of his age, the 19th day of May, 1668.
'Tis not bare names that noble fathers give
To worthy sonnes: though dead, in them they live;
For in his progeny, 'tis Heaven's decree,
Man only can on earth immortall bee;
But Heaven gives soules wh grace doth sometymes bend
Early to God their rice and Soveraigne end.
Thus, whilst that earth, concern'd, did hope to see
Thy noble father living still in thee,
Careless of earth, to heaven thou didst aspire,
And we on earth, Carlos in thee desire."
Arms: an oak on a fesse, three regal crowns.]
Hero of the "Spanish Lady's Love."—Was Sir John Bolle, of Thorpe Hall, near Louth, the hero of the Spanish Lady's Love? The Bolle pedigree is in Illingworth's History of Scampton.
S. Z. Z. S.
[According to Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. iii. p. 333., Sir Urian Legh, of Adlington, disputes the fact of being the hero of that romantic affair. "Sir Urian Legh was knighted by the Earl of Essex at the siege of Cadiz, and during that expedition is traditionally said to have been engaged in an adventure which gave rise to the well-known ballad of 'The Spanish Lady's Love.' A fine original portrait of Sir Urian, in a Spanish dress, is preserved at Bramall, which has been copied for the family at Adlington." So that between these two chivalrous knights it is difficult to decide which is the famed gallant. From the care exercised by Mr. Illingworth in collecting all the anecdotes and notices of the Bolle family, the presumptive evidence seems to favour his hero.]
"Bothy."—In the March Number of Blackwood's Magazine, 1854, the word "bothy" is frequently used in an article called "News from the Farm." Will some one of your numerous correspondents give me a little account of "the bothy system?"
F. M. Middleton.
[A bothy is a cottage or hut where labouring servants are lodged, and is sometimes built of wood, as we read in the Jacobite Relics, ii. 189.:
"Fare thee well, my native cot,
Bothy of the birken tree!
Sair the heart, and hard the lot,
O' the lad that parts wi' thee."
Bothies, or detached houses, in which the unmarried farm-servants sleep and prepare their victuals, and of which there is a considerable number in Perthshire, though convenient and beneficial in some respects, have not, certainly, contributed to the formation of virtuous habits. These servants are often migratory, removing frequently at the expiration of the year, according as humour or caprice may dictate, and, like birds of passage, taking their departure to other lands.]
"Children in the Wood."—Was Weyland Wood in Norfolk the scene of the "Children in the Wood?"
S. Z. Z. S.
[The following account of this tradition is given in Beauties of England and Wales, vol. xi. p. 269., Norfolk:—"Near the town of Watton is Weyland Wood, vulgarly called Wailing Wood, from a tradition that two infants were basely murdered in it by their uncle; and which furnished the story of a beautifully pathetic and well-known ancient ballad, entitled "The Children in the Wood, or the Norfolk Gentleman's Last Will and Testament," preserved in Percy's Reliques.]