Minor Queries Answered.
"Salusbury Welsh Pedigree Book."
—Having sometimes occasion to investigate the lineage of Irish families derived from Wales, I am very anxious to learn, through your valuable oracle, where may now be that genealogical collection. According to the notes I have of it, it contained "the pedigrees of all the gentlemen in North Wales, and of some adjacent counties, with their arms finely illuminated;" and took its name from the compiler, John Salusbury, Esq., of Erbistock, who lived about the middle of the seventeenth century, and is reported as having executed the labour with great accuracy. Does its actual scope justify the above description, and where is it now? About the year 1780 it was in the possession of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, the very surname on which I am at present engaged.
JOHN DALTON.
48. Summer Hill, Dublin.
[In all probability, the present Sir W. W. Wynn could give some information upon the subject if applied to.]
The Earl of Erroll.
—I have somewhere seen it stated, that in virtue of his distinguished office as Great Constable of Scotland, which was granted to his ancestry by King Robert Bruce, in 1312, his lordship is by birth the first subject in Scotland; and in right of this privilege, on all state occasions, where the sovereign is present, appears at his or her right hand, and takes precedence of the entire peerage of Scotland. Is it so?
PETROPROMONTORIENSIS.
[His Lordship cannot be by birth entitled to precede the whole peerage of Scotland, though as Lord High Constable, when attending the sovereign, he may have that precedence.]
Heraldic.
—A friend has sent me the following Note "from a local paper:"
"In the hall, Fawsley, Northamptonshire, is an escutcheon, containing no less than 334 quarterings."
Can any of your correspondents verify this statement, or refer me to any other example of so full a blazonry?
W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.
[The shield is probably that of Knightley, whose quarterings are very numerous. We do not know where to refer our querist to an emblazoned shield, but there are other families whose quarterings would be as numerous, viz. Howard Percy, and Brydges Chandos, Duke of Buckingham, &c.]
Family of Grey.
—Thomas, second Marquess of Dorset, had four sons; Henry, Thomas, Leonard, and John. Henry was created Duke of Suffolk, and was with his two brothers, Thomas and Leonard, beheaded in 1555, for taking part in Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion. John was ancestor of the Earl of Stamford. The Queries I wish to make are, were Thomas and Leonard, or either of them, married? If they were, what were the names of their wives, and did they leave issue? And most particularly did Thomas?
C. DE D.
[Thomas, the second brother of the Marquess of Dorset, married and left a daughter and heir, Margaret, wife of John Ashley, Esq., Master of the Jewels to Queen Elizabeth, and she left issue. Edward, the third son, died s.p. Some pedigrees call Edward Leonard, but upon what authority does not appear.]
Coinage of Richard III.
—Is the mint mark of the cross to be found on any of the coins of Richard III. struck at London? I am aware that it is to be found on pieces from the country mints; but on metropolitan coins his heraldic cognizance (the boar's head) is the more usual, if not the only mark impressed.
RICHARD F. LITTLEDALE.
Dublin.
[We are not aware that the cross occurs as a mint mark on the coins of Richard III., either of the London or provincial mints. If our correspondent has a coin of Richard III., with the plain cross on the reverse for M. M., the probability is that it is struck from the die of a reverse of Edward IV., on whose coins it does occur.]
Edward Bagshaw.
—Can any of your correspondents inform me whether Sir Edward Bagshaw, of Finglas, near Dublin, who settled in Ireland about the commencement of the seventeenth century, left other children besides two daughters; one of whom married William, eldest son of Sir William Ryves, and by him had issue Bagshaw, William, Thomas, and Francis Ryves, together with a daughter married to a Captain Burrowes? I also wish to ascertain whether Castle Bagshaw, co. Cavan, the seat of the late Sir William Burroughs, derives its name from this branch of the family of Bagshaw. Any information, genealogical or historical, concerning the above Sir Edward Bagshaw, would be acceptable.
W. B.
Cambridge.
[This statement does not appear quite correct. Thomas Ryves, the second son of William, is said to have married Jane, daughter of Captain Burrows. See Hutchins's Dorset, vol. iii. p. 366., ped. of Ryves.]
Couched, to couch.
—What is the earliest example of the use of this word in the sense of "to embody," thus: "he couched his thoughts in excellent language?" Johnson cites Dryden and Atterbury as authorities for the word, which, me judice, ought to be banished from the English dictionary, since we have several older and more expressive terms of synonymous import.
MARK ANTONY LOWER.
[In Baret's Alvearie (1580) we find the meanings of the word couch, "The knitting and couching of wordes in talke—Sermonis compositio.—Quintil. To joine and couch—componere et coagmentare verba.—Cic." In Cotgrave, "mettre par escrit" is explained, to "couch in writing:" and in Phillips' World of Words, couch is defined "to comprehend, or comprise." These are somewhat analogous uses of the word.]
Marriage of Mrs. Claypole.
—What was the date of the marriage of Oliver Cromwell's daughter with Mr. Claypole? Any one giving a Note in reply to this Query, will much oblige
B. N.
[Noble, vol. ii. p. 375., says that Claypole "in 1645-6 was married to Mary, the second and most favoured daughter of Oliver Cromwell, then of Ely in Cambridgeshire, Esquire.">[